Which is better, heat pipe or heat sinks/fan CPU cooling solution. ?

I'm looking to purchase a heat sink and fan for the AMD Athlon 64 3500+
(Winchester) core.socket 939. There are new heat pipe technology heat sinks
out there these days and I need to know If heat pipe technology is superior
to the standard copper or aluminum heat sink/fans that I have been using for
years. and what brand and model would recommend for either technology.
Please give me you opinions on this matter.

 

Thermalright XP-120 is very good. Check their website for mb compatibility.
XP-90 also works well and has better compatibility.
http://www.bestbyteinc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=HSK-TRI-XP12

For some reason, Newegg ahs terrible prices on the Thermalright, so buy
elsewhere.

 

http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htm

 

http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htmThat article is a bit dated, and does not test the Thermalright heatpipes
(XP-120 and XP-90).

 

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=heatpipes.shtml

 

I'd suggest not considering costly cooling solutions for a CPU well known
not to challenge conventional solutions. A Winchester CPU simply does not
require a high tech/high cost HSF. My 3200+ (using the retail aluminum HSF),
running at 2.5 GHz, is at 33C with a case temp of 24C and room temp = 21C.
Highest recorded temp under stress testing was 45C. I don't have a
recommendation for an inexpensive 3rd party HSF, but if Wes Newell sees this
thread, he may well have some good suggestions.

 

That depends on how quiet you want your PC to be. If you want a very quiet
PC, then you need a HS that can run cool with a fan running about 1000 RPM
(preferably 120mm). This can be accomplished by buying a Nexus 120mm fan and
running it at 12V or another low speed fan and lowering voltage until it
spins about 1000 RPM.

 

I very recently purchased an XP-90 for use on a socket-754 mobo. Bad,
bad news!

The XP-90 (and 120) are P4 HSFs. They hook onto the 4 hooks provided
by the P4 "retainer" bracket. So Thermalright ships a replacement
bracket for AMD use, which replaces the AMD bracket with a P4 variant
that screws into the two holes provided for mounting the AMD bracket.
The two brackets fit the same space. No problems so far, right?

But I screwed the P4 replacement onto a Biostar K8VGAM mobo. And,
very nicely blocking one of the 4ea P4 mounting holes is a big
capacitor! Although there's plenty of room even in a mini-tower case
and on a uATX mobo for the XP-90, this capacitor put a permanent end
to my attempt to mount my new XP-90 to this board.

I also have an Asus K8S-MX uATX socket-754 board, which is running my
main computer now. A preliminary look-see suggests that the XP-90
will fit on this board. But as I've discovered, don't count on
problems not jumping up and biting you in a sensitive location when
doing this AMD - P4 mixology.

Finally, I want to agree with the person who suggested to you that
90nm AMD parts don't need major cooling. If you want to spend $20 and
you like Newegg, buy the TR2-M6 by Thermaltake. It's $6.99, quiet,
and will keep your new AMD chip running fine if the noise of the
standard AMD HSF bothers you. Send the rest of the money to me so you
can say you spent $20. ;-) ;-)

[I bought the XP-90 because I thought I'd better get some experience
with heat-pipes. That's after I read an article stating that a new
dual-core chip dissipated 199 watts!]

 

There are two versions of the XP-120/90, one for the P4 and one for AMD. You
obviously bought the one for P4. Mine came with 939 MB retainer ring
included. Some more recent models may have both retainers included. This is
not any different than other HS's.

The Thermalright website has detailed information about compatibility of
MB's with the XP series HS's. If your MB is not listed, then you should ask
around before purchasing.

 

I love my Thermaltake CL-P0025. It has a solid copper base with 6 copper
heatpipes with aluminum fins. It keeps my cpu very cool

under 30c idle and 36 load.

 

My 2p worth: I tried all sorts of coolers for my P4 Prescott 3.2 slightly
o/c to 3.6:
The heat pipe cooler I tried was the Coolermaster Hyper6- a Kg of copper.
I ended up sending it back as it performed worse than the stock Intel
hs/fan.
Ended up using a Thermaltake Volcano with the fan speed controlled by the
mobo/heat sensor.
It is noisier than I'd like but without getting into water cooling, it'll
have to do.
hth
Neil

 

Something wasn't quite right then because the Hyper6 is capable of better
cooling than that.

 

XP-120 with the Recomended Panaflow fan. Excellent combination - this keeps
a well O/C Celeron D out of the stratosphere temp wise. 100% CPU load doing
folding at home 38-39C. And was stated - they do come with both brackets
for the AMD and the Intel.

 

From all I read and as someone who runs a TR SLK800 and an SLK900, I get the
impression that pipes don't make much difference.
What you're comparing ultimately, is the difference in transfer efficiency
between pipe-to-fin and base/fin-to-fin.
I can only imagine that's gunna be anything appreciable for VERY large
heatsinks (I mean MUCH larger than your typical 92mm sink).
An upgrade wouldn't be worth it - but for a new unit where the cost
differential is inconsequential, you may as well go for the pipe option.

 

the xp 120/90 kind of work like a condenser in a refrigeration or a/c
system. The base plate "boils" the coolant in and it transfers the heat to
the fins (condenser) where it is cooled and returns to a "liquid" state. if
you had a compressor, then it would really be an active cooling system!

 

All heat pipes work in essentially this way. They usually have to be
custom-designed and optimized for a specific environment, but once this
is done they can move a staggering amount of heat, compared to more
passive methods.

 

Using Akasa AK913 Evo33 on my 3200+ Venice (@2.7Ghz), idles about 30c, max
38c under stress testing (Prime95 etc). I'm well chuffed with it. Looks
cool too.


Tony.

 

The xp120 got some of the "mad scientists" in our shop thinking about a more
economical way to cool with refrigeration than what is currently out there.

 

Whilst avoiding condensing water from the atmosphere.......

 

Heatpipes use (refrigerant) convection, not refrigeration (which has a
compression phase in the cycle).