"Sydtech" wrote in message
...
Today I installed a Zalman 7000A copper cooler in my P4 2.8ghz machine
w/Antec Sonata case. The idea was to replace the noisy stock Intel heat
sink
and fan with something quieter and - hopefully - cooler (unfortunately no
place that was open today had a Zalman Northbridge heatsink, or I would've
gotten one of those as well). The system has an Abit IC7-G motherboard and
a
Leadtek FX5200 graphics card (until my 9800 Pro arrives). I'm not doing
any
overclocking at all (yet).

So far I'm not sure that I'm thrilled with the Zalman, and I'm wondering
if
I installed it poorly, or I just was expecting too much...

With the stock Intel heat sink and fan installed, at idle, I was getting
49-50 degrees celsius on the CPU.

With the Zalman hsf installed and the case on, at CPU idle, I'm getting
around 47degrees with the fan running at the full 2400rpm, and at 50 with
the fan at the lowest setting.

I "torture tested" the setup by running prime95 and ripping some random
CDs
with iTunes to max the CPU out. This pushed the CPU temp up to about 64
degrees (with the Zalman fan on max) and a scary 68 degrees (with the fan
on
the minimum setting). These numbers seem kind of high to me.

As far as I can tell, I've installed this properly:


- I removed the stock hsf, and thoroughly cleaned the existing thermal
compound off the top of the CPU with 91% rubbing alcohol.

- I installed the brackets on the motherboard.

- I then followed the instructions on the Arctic Silver website (rather
than Zalman's) and applied a small dollop of Arctic Silver in the center
of
the CPU.

- I then did my best at installing the (huge and heavy) Zalman HSF on top
of
the chip. I think I did OK, although it did slide around a little bit as I
got it situated.

- Getting the screws lined up with the aluminum brackets was a bit of a
bitchkitty. I got one of them in OK, but I managed to drop the other one
down next to the CPU, forcing me to remove the Zalman so I could fish it
out. When I did, I noticed that the Arctic Silver had spread into a nice
rough shape on top of the CPU, but that it was off-center to the right.
Before I put the Zalman back on top, I added another very tiny drop of AS
on
the center of the chip.


As far as I can tell at this point, I've got the thing installed properly,
but there's no easy way to check and see if the Arctic Silver is evenly
centered without actually uninstalling the Zalman, which I'd like to avoid
doing unless it's absolutely necessary.

So...did I botch the install, or were my expectations simply too high?

Conclusion is in fact that the stock Intel cooler is not so bad !
There is a lot of marketing and advertising about all kind of esoteric
coolers, but best of them will not decrease the cpu temp by more than 3 to
5°C compared to the original boxed Intel. And it's always a trade off: you
have to make a choice between noise or cooling (with all steps between). I
believe the best solution for air cooling is a huge Cu cooler (like
Thermalright), if possible with heat pipes, an a large, low speed rotating
fan (Papst 120 mm) fitted on the cooler via a diameter adaptor. This
combines excellent cooling with low noise.
Be also aware that sometimes a slower but overclocked cpu dissipates less
heat than a faster cpu at the same speed. I experienced that a P4C 2.4 Ghz
overclocked at 3.0 GHz runs 3°C cooler than a 2.8 overclocked at 3.0 GHz,
with the same cooler !!!