Which fan/heatsink will be the best for a Socket A (AthlonXP 3000+ 333MHZ FSB) ?


I know water cooling is best but I really don't want to mess with that due to some reviews on some that have leaks... but all suggestions are welcomed... I need the best since I'm making this the fastest PC in the house right now and maxing out the mobo.

zalman makes some fine products, i reccomend thier all copper models

I agree. I especially like the Zalman 92mm Cooper Heatsink for my AMD Athlon 64 computer. Keeps the temperature ideling at around 25-30c and about 40c under full load. This may not be able to fit your Socket A but it may (I know it can work with most of today's socket models).

Here's a review article, but note the date, so these might be out of production now.
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cooling/HSR2_1.html

zalman makes a huge variuety of coolers. their famous radial all-copper 7700cu model keeps anything cool, and in silence. i have used them on many builds for customers and they rock. but for all sockets except mpga478 a backplate needs to be installed, requiring you to take out the motherboard and line up the screw-holes. you need to check that your board/case will not be blocking parts of the heatsink, it's a big one. and it weighs almost one kilogram.

Barton CPUs don't get as hot as the older socket A cores and they have a max operating temp of 95c... and since most houses in FL have the AC blasting all day and night, your ambient temps should be low enough for the stock heatsink/fan to keep it cool enough (assuming you have a couple case fans to keep the air moving through the case).

The XP3000+ is one of the fastest and latest release AthlonXP you can get, which means that it's already at the high end of it's core's max, meaning you won't get a big overclock out of it, so I really dont think that temps will be an issue for you.

I would suggest simply cleaning the HSF and apply some Arctic Silver 5 and reseat it. I think you'll be fine with the stock cooler.

Oh, I almost forgot my favorite topic.... water cooing

I recommend assembling a water cooling setup yourself. If you buy a pre-built kit, you still have to assemble it yourself anyways.

i would never recommend any pre made water cooling kits, the "affordable" ones are cheaply made and use "quick connectors" that I would never trust to keep the water from leaking. the ones that I would trust not to leak are not worth the money that they cost. always use metal hose clamps to seal the tubes to the barbs, I wouldn't trust anything else.

but you don't have to worry about leaks anyways. you never use plain water in a water cooling setup, you use distilled water, deionized water, or other non-conductive liquid to cool it... so if there ever was a leak it wouldn't damage anything

... just some food for thought

Well, reason for me asking is since the current HSF I'm using on the 2100+ that is installed didn't cool down the 3000+ (even though it stated that it could cool down a 3200+) The motherboard is setup to shutdown when reaching 85C and it kept shutting off. So I did buy a kingwin HSF during the weekend since no one was answering lol, but I'll keep zalman under consideration for future builds along with water cooling which I'd need to read up more on that.

the zalman all-copper 7700 could cool that...i've used it for overclocked p4 540's

Temperatures
Motherboard 35 °C (95 °F)
CPU 47 °C (117 °F)
GPU 43 °C (109 °F)
GPU Ambient 42 °C (108 °F)
WDC WD1600JB-00EVA0 35 °C (95 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 4219 RPM

This is right now with the house at 81 °F and outside being 88 °F

I've got the Zalman 7000B and it keeps my AMD64 3500+ OCed from 2.2 to 2.45GHz at 35C idle and 48C under heavyload.




Zep you're right these things are a tad heavy.

But they're good.