9NPAJ + Opteron 146: XP-90 or Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro?

[jnansley]

[Favu]

From what I hear the Arctic Cooling HSF is a very good piece of kit. I don't know much about the XP-90, though.

[zetachi]

I have the XP90C on a Opty 144 9NDA3J and my idle CPU is @ 40C and max is @ 47C but I need to re-assess my case fans and It's damn hot in the room.

[jnansley]

Thanks all. I will be installing the CPU in a bit, then we will see if it needs additional cooling other than my 3200+ retail HSF (which will probably need to be sold with the 3200+... hence the dilemma.)

[ansible]

I have the XP-120 (I know, not the XP-90) and it's a damn fine piece of kit. Greatest benefit for me over the stock HSF (with a Clawhammer 3500+) is that it is both quieter and keeps things cooler than the stock HSF. (I would actually recommend the XP-120 over the XP-90 due to the lower noise generally from 120mm fans compared to 90mm...)

[jnansley]

I went with the Freezer Pro.

There's way too much noise in this room (18 fans in three PC's are running right now) to tell much difference between it and the retail HSF, but if I stick my head up close to the case I can certainly vouch that it is quiet.

CPU temperature is up 4C, but ambient temperature is also up 4C, and in my hurry I only used the poorly pre-applied thermal compound (which I assumed was half decent, after all, it is Arctic Cooling.)

I saved $60 by going with OEM over retail. I spent $30 on the HSF. It's a quality piece of equipment and I'm happy.

However, I would recommend that price and noise considerations not withstanding, most people would probably be best off either getting the retail package or going straight to water. And going straight to water might not lead to a significant return on investment, I hit diminishing returns hard at 1.6V / 40C.

[jnansley]

Oh, and you could have significant difficulties mounting this in anything other than a full-sized Chieftec/Antec/Chenming case, and even then if you use the top HDD cage.

With the 9NPAJ's PCI-E slot being four slots below the traditional AGP slot (my side fan is useless) and the Freezer pulling (HDD-heated) air from the front, my case airflow is completely different now and I probably should look into it.

[r3sil3]

I LOVE my Freezer!!! Idle temps @ 27C Load @ 38-39

Sempron @ 2.4Ghz 1.45V