Cooling: AX7 and 37 cfm fan

[Brandon]

Is a 37 cfm fan good enough in conjunction with a Thermalright AX7 to cool my AXP 1600 that's running at 1752?? I'm considering the Aluminum fan from pcmods.com. or should I look else where for a better more powerful fan?


Brandon

[JBELL]

I would look for a 68cfm delta...

[Hardass]

Brandon, I would atleast try to get in the 50cfm range with that chip and oc.:)

[Brandon]

Hmm, so do any of you guys use the AX7 with a lower speed fan? what kinda temps could I expect?


B!

[Hardass]

Brandon.
I am running 2 of these with 1600,s in the high 1700MHz area. Both run in the low to mid 40,s. This is with 68 to 80cfm Delta,s so you can see if you run a 38cfm fan you will be well up in the 50,s temp wise. Unless your computer is sitting in a cooler that is.:D

[Brandon]

hmm intersting.. my current cooler a all copper Kingwin that i got free keeps my chip idling at 44-47 degrees C and hardly breaks 51 at load with about 2 hours of RCTW. I just feel like my Kw cooler is just a tad light in the pants and the heavier AX7 may pull more heat.


B!

[Hardass]

I would not change unless you plan on increasing Vcore.

[Tweaked!]

Brandon, you could take that Kingwin hsf and perform what is called lapping on it. By that, I mean taking it and sanding it to a mirror finnish by starting off with a 200 -400 grit sandpaper, sand it till all the pits are gone. Then move up to a 800 grit wet/dry and buffing it to the mirror finnish. You could even go more with even finer sandpaper if desired. It's a preference thing. Then reinstall it using a good silver bearing thermal compound (as3 or antec reference). I'm willing to bet you can get better performance out of that hsf with these recommendations. :)

Btw, Welcome to Xtreme!!!
Have you considered joining our folding team, we'd enjoy having you. But definitely solve that heat issue first! ;)

[Tweaked!]

And something I forgot to mention about lapping, make sure you do this on a completely flat surface while sanding

[Brandon]

Okay say I get one of these monster Sunon or Vantec tornado fans, what can any of you reccomend for a rheostat to tone it down when the cpu isn't at full OC. Noise is a big issue to me I don't want a hair dryer running 18 hrs a day..

B!

[JBELL]

why not go water cooled??

[Brandon]

One little phrase




"I Do"



I'm getting married soon, so I don't want to spend large amounts of money just for the hell of it.

[JBELL]

what is your ceiling for expenses??

[Brandon]

Well, I got my AX-7 and tried to install it on my KX7 333 and well that fool thing died. for the life of me I don't know that I did but the board is dead. thank goodness I stil had my KK266 laying around.


AXIA 1.2 @ 1.48/w AX-7 load temps 38degrees C

[seversphere]

curious - when installing the AX7 on the KX7 did you knock around the capacitors too much?

Also just try a 92mm fan on the AX7 - little more cfm at same noise level. Turn the fan 45 degrees and just find some way of attaching it. I did this (http://www.geocities.com/seversphere/92ax7.html)

[Brandon]

"curious - when installing the AX7 on the KX7 did you knock around the capacitors too much?"


Damnit I never considered that at all.. Yeah I did bump the middle one 4 or 5 times, I shake sometimes and I think thats where I messed up. Thanks for bringing my bone headed move to my attention.


:toast:

Brandon

[Brandon]

Its back from the ashes just before I started to pack up my KX7 333 I thought what the hell and tried it one last time.. and it booted right up seems a piece of protective plastic was touching the metal in the case, well it was..

and the temps are great its @ 1785 its running about ~41 to 42 at idle

[seversphere]

glad to see you didn't knock em around too much :D

as for your topic: the aluminum fins of the AX7 will help to maintain decent cooling with lower speed fans cause aluminum needs less cfm to disapate the heat where as copper needs the high cfm to give up the heat. (cfm/turbulence)

Look at the silent pc review (http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=47&page=1) on the main page. Interesting info all around. I specifically am intrigued by the internal diode readings but wondered why the reviewer didn't explain why the AX7 did better with the lowest speed fan. He made it seem like it was a big surprise when it's just obvious as per what I said above.

[DZRhino]

You don't need a screamer fan to get great results with the AX-7. I run my fan at 3000 rpm standard which means it is nice and quiet and my max temps are well below the 50C range even at 100% CPU utilization. Right now surfing I am at 22C room temp, 26C mobo, 30C CPU temp. To get an idea of what a great HS you have and the performance with various fans, read this review: Thermalright Comparison (http://w3.one.net/~robotech/Thermalright.htm) :D

I highly recommend the YS Tech variable speed fan for the AX-7. Comes with a real rheostat with a knob on a 26" wire so you can bring it out the front of your case easily. Check out the pictures of it on www.kdcomputers.com.

[KnightElite]

Originally posted by seversphere
glad to see you didn't knock em around too much :D

as for your topic: the aluminum fins of the AX7 will help to maintain decent cooling with lower speed fans cause aluminum needs less cfm to disapate the heat where as copper needs the high cfm to give up the heat. (cfm/turbulence)

Look at the silent pc review (http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=47&page=1) on the main page. Interesting info all around. I specifically am intrigued by the internal diode readings but wondered why the reviewer didn't explain why the AX7 did better with the lowest speed fan. He made it seem like it was a big surprise when it's just obvious as per what I said above.

Actaully, seversphere, what you are saying makes no sense. Aluminium is better at radiating heat than copper, but that only makes much of a difference in a vacuum. In terms of losing heat by convection, copper is still superior.

[seversphere]

I wasn't being exact with the terms "give up the heat" and "disapate" (spelling?)

I kept rereading and it sounds like I'm saying aluminum can give up the same amount of heat with less cfm than copper which isn't what I meant and wrong of course.

If you could correctly state it - I think you know what I was trying to say in regards to his topic.

[KnightElite]

Actually, there are four reasons why Aluminium is used instead of copper in heatsinks:
It's cheaper
It's easier to work with (easier to mill)
It weighs less
The heat sink is "good enough" without being made of copper


In the AX-7's case, because of it's design, it would be extremely heavy if it were made all out of copper, and the torque it would exert on the socket, due to ThermalRight's choice of mounting systems would rip the socket right off the board. It would also be more expensive, and would be up in the SLK-800's price range.

I'm actually not entirely sure what you were trying to say.... perhaps I did say it above?

[seversphere]

Originally posted by KnightElite
Aluminium is better at radiating heat than copper. In terms of losing heat by convection, copper is still superior.

radiate and convection - just clarify the definitions for me. :)

[KnightElite]

Originally posted by seversphere
radiate and convection - just clarify the definitions for me. :)

Radiation: Loss of heat through electromagnetic waves, for low temperature objects, this peaks in the infra-red zone. As temperature increases, the light emitted becomes visible (like the sun) due to higher energy output (therefore higher frequency EM waves)

Convection: Loss of heat through contact with fluid (gas or liquid) molecules. Fluid molecules bump into a heated solid, or a heated fluid, and there is a transfer of kinetic energy (energy of motion) from the hotter (faster moving/vibrating) molecules to the slower moving ones, which translates into a transfer of heat, and lowers the temperature of the hot object while increasing the temperature of the cold object. Surface area is key in this case.

In our application, a heatsink (or in fact a waterblock) functions better with more surface area because it allows more gas/water molecules to hit the hot surface and carry away the heat. Increasing surface area can be accomplished by having more surface area of the metal, or increasing coolant flow (more air hitting the heatsink, ie. faster fan).

Conduction: Transfer of heat from one solid to another. For metals, this is caused by electrons in the hotter area being accelerated (gaining energy) and moving through the material to the colder area, where they hit cooler atoms and transfter over their heat. For non metals, this is accomplished through vibration of atoms. Diamond is the best conductor of heat, ~ 1.5X to 12.5X better than copper.

[shray]

Here's a great recomendation dood... get a vantec tornado... they're amazing and extremely quiet on the decibel meter scale...
I'm telling you order 1. Its extremely quiet but pushes 84.1 cfm
Thats why they call it a tornado...;)

I guarentee it.

[DZRhino]

Originally posted by shray
Here's a great recomendation dood... get a vantec tornado... they're amazing and extremely quiet on the decibel meter scale...
I'm telling you order 1. Its extremely quiet but pushes 84.1 cfm
Thats why they call it a tornado...;)

I guarentee it.

You better guarentee it, because no one selling the Tornado will. The exact quote at one retailer is ".....
Noise 55.2dBA
THESE FANS ARE NOT RETURNABLE BECAUSE OF LOUDNESS!!"

55 dBA is at the level of pain and is far from quiet. Quiet is something below 35dBA.

There is no need for 84 CFM in a properly built system.

[shray]

hee just kiddin....

wanted to see if he wanted to own a hair dryer....

[Brandon]

No need for a hair dryer I opted for the Thermal Take Smart Fan II it's running around 3900 rpm and keeps my AXP 1600 @ 1840 around 37 degrees idle and around 43 at load maxed. I'm quite pleased.