Thermalright Xp120

jesus_thats_gre

Just got this bad boy this morning..

Gonna install it tonight and I will tell ye all how I got on..

Its not as big as I thought though, it is still massive though. Its very light too!!

BadCharlie

I saw pics of this heatsink and it looked HUGE!!!. Was thinking to my self how on earth is that ment to fit into my machine..

jesus_thats_gre

Could ye move this to HW/Tweaking please?


I installed the thing this evening.. The thermalrite heatsink I had on my processor previous was gammy (i.e. I put it on wrong ) and I was getting temps of near 65 degrees when my processor was under load while clocked at 3.3 Ghz.. This was not a good situation to be in

Since moving to this new heatsink and upgrading to a 120 mm fan, my temps have dropped to 34 idle and 41 under load. This is with a FSB at 240mhz giving me a clockspeed of 3.36GHz..

A nice difference really. Regarding installation, its was not too bad but I would recommend removing your motherboard from the case first.. Thermalrite claim that it can be done without doing this but it would be a nightmare..

RuggieBear

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

I installed the thing this evening.. .............

A nice difference really. Regarding installation, its was not too bad but I would recommend removing your motherboard from the case first.. Thermalrite claim that it can be done without doing this but it would be a nightmare..

You wouldn't have a picture of it in your machine by any chance? Looks fantastic....

unklerosco

What P4 have u got??? How loud is it??

jesus_thats_gre

I have a 2.8 Prescott..

Its not too loud, I am gonna get a fan controller to kill the noise completely.. The fan I got was the YS Tech one with the highest CFM so I expected noise..

The results are quite impressive though..

I took a pic with my new Nikon 5.0 megapixel camera but the file size is over 1 meg.. Shrinking em down now so should have something soon..

jesus_thats_gre

Believe it or not, I only got pics of it installed..

jesus_thats_gre

Second pic

unklerosco

Where's ur mobo??? HA!!! The p4c800 tis a good board, mine died on me the other day but I was able to get my 2.8p4 northwood to boot into windows @ 3.85ghz... Ran stable @3.6. Nice boards... God knows why mine died.

RuggieBear

looks impressive enough....

jesus_thats_gre

Regarding overclocking it. I cannot reach 260mhz FSB for some reason. Windows actually boots but when I login, its crashes out. I have even left it at the welcome screen for 5 minutes and it does not crash..

What settings did you use Unklerosco in the Bios to get such results?

BloodBath

You should be able to get at least 3.6-3.8ghz with that heatsink. What v-core are you using? Your safe up to 1.525 running voltage. The prescotts usually run at a lower voltage than what's set in the bios though so go by what it says in windows, not by what what you set it to.

What ram are you using? Maybe that's holding you back?

Another thing I have seen with this heatsink is that if you set it to suck rather than blow (yes yes I know) you should get near to the same cpu temp but your mobo temps will drop. I've seen tests doing this and it worked so give it a go. It's easy to flip the fans around on the thermalrights.


BloodBath

jesus_thats_gre

Regarding RAM, I am using OCZ PC4000 gold stuff, cannot remember the exact model off hand..

V-Core wise, I am keeping it at around 1.525 alright and it will boot at justy below 3.6Ghz..

Temps remain below 40degrees the while time too..

BloodBath

What happens when you try to go higher? Does the system power off or do you get a blue screen or just a reboot?

What voltage are you giving the ocz?

Did you set it to 1.525 in the bios or is it actually running at 1.525. Normally when you set it to 1.525 it only actually runs at about 1.45-1.475.

I presume you have the C0 stepping and not the D0 but you should still be able to do better than that.


BloodBath

unklerosco

I used the auto overclock feature... Try 20% n then 30%. If it runs stable at 20%, note the overclock u get n then just up the FSB to match n take it higher. I cant remember the exact settings tho.

OfflerCrocGod

Are you sure the fan is turned around the right way? I'm practically certain that the sticker denotes the flow of air....so you have your fan sucking air out from the heatsink. I think the best cooling is gained by having the air flowing into the heatsink.

Col_Loki

I was always under the impression the fan should be sucking air from the heatsink ....... thats the way i always set it up anyway .

Am overclocking a prescott myself at the min (about 2-3hours so far), stupid motherboard doesent allow voltage changes when it detects the chip so im limited to 1.34 actual voltage. Its been roughly stable at just over 3.7ghz (prime for an hour)

jesus_thats_gre

Hmm I thought the air should be blowing at it, i.e. the heatsink slowly drags the heat from the CPU to the top of the fins while the fan cools the heatsink.. I am nearly 100% its correct, and the temps I am getting make sense?? I think

jesus_thats_gre

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Are you sure the fan is turned around the right way? I'm practically certain that the sticker denotes the flow of air....so you have your fan sucking air out from the heatsink. I think the best cooling is gained by having the air flowing into the heatsink.

I would agree with this.. I have held my hand over the fan and there is not much air coming from it.. When I put it below the fan level I can feel far more air flow..

OfflerCrocGod

If I remember were I read this piece of advice correctly......it was in the instructions of either a Thermalright heatsink or a Zalman one. Think about it sucking air away from the heatsink means you create a vacuum right over the core of the chip, vacuums are not good at dissipating heat I'm practically certain, but if you blow cool air over the hot core and heatsink...it should cool it down. Probably makes no difference :rolleyes:

OfflerCrocGod

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

I would agree with this.. I have held my hand over the fan and there is not much air coming from it.. When I put it below the fan level I can feel far more air flow..

Maybe ( checks picture ) YS Tech feel the need to be special and decided to change the normal order of air flow

jesus_thats_gre

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Maybe ( checks picture ) YS Tech feel the need to be special and decided to change the normal order of air flow

Maybe



Anyway, she is sitting at 3.55 Ghz at the moment..


FSB - 253

DRAM Freq - 266

CPU VCore - 1.568 in asus pc probe

DDR Voltage - 2.75

Max temp while running prime for 10 mins - 45C

Col_Loki

I tried the fan both ways round and the sucking air away made more of an impact on temps in my case.

If I remember were I read this piece of advice correctly......it was in the instructions of either a Thermalright heatsink or a Zalman one. Think about it sucking air away from the heatsink means you create a vacuum right over the core of the chip, vacuums are not good at dissipating heat I'm practically certain,

Yea vacuums are bad but dont they occur on all fans wheather sucking or blowing? The whole not having fins in the centre...... Was reading about it when looking at Dual CPU cooling with 92mm fans (they dont cool the core as much as 80mm ones aparently..... ).

Ehh anyway i dont have to worry about it much with WC , but would still like to know what works best!!

PS great temps with a prescott and that high voltage........

jesus_thats_gre

I am going to maintain that the air needs to be pushed into it to cool the heatsink..

Anyway, the noise was bugging me a bit so I replaced the fan with a slimmer, slower and quieter 120mm fan.. There is some difference in depth of these two.

Also posted a pic of the exposed heatsink.

jesus_thats_gre

Since putting in the new fan, my temps have increased to 41C when idle.. not too bad for piece and quiet..

jesus_thats_gre

Hi Lads..

I cannot get my front side bus to go beyond 252Mhz.. I am at my wits end on how to improve this. Anyone know what the most likely cause is?

When I go beyond this speed, XP actually boots to the welcome screen. But when I log in, the computer will restart.

Col_Loki

You have an Asus board right? I take it youve increased the voltage to the ram already....

On abit boards you can increase chipset voltage (dont think you can on asus ones).
What about cooling the NB better, would gain a few MHZ?

U sure its not the chip holding you back?

jesus_thats_gre

Yeah have upped the RAM to 2.85 out of curiousity and it made no difference..

I am not sure whats holding it back, could be the chip I suppose but its hard to know.. The heatsink is actually over haging about 0.5cm above the NB heatshink so that must be providing some benefit. I have read about the NB heatsink and its meant to be quite good unless you are doing extreme OC'ing.

The RAM is OCZ Pc4000 Gold edition stuff so when I am at 250Mhz I am working at 1:1. Tried lowering this and it made no difference..

StRiKeR

overclocking is vary from one chip to another anyway, some get higher some get lower! its just by luck! but then again I haven't been in the oc world for ages, dont take mine for answer! do some research!

BloodBath

Ok with the xp-120 in particular from tests I have seen it worked better having the air sucked from the heatsink ather than blowing into it. I don't have the link any more but test it yourself. The cpu temp stayed the same but the mobo temp dropped by about 5c.

What stepping Prescott do you have Jesus? A D0 or a C0?

My C0 doesn't want to go above 3.6 stable so I guess I'll have to stick with it until I can get my hands on a cheap D0.

Btw you really shouldn't run a Prescott higher than 1.525v running voltage unless you want to fry it. I've seen people do permanent damage at 1.55.

My only guess is that you have a C0 stepping. These can be a right pain to get above 3.6ghz. Most of the D0's will reach near 4ghz on air.


BloodBath

OfflerCrocGod

Col_Loki wrote:

I tried the fan both ways round and the sucking air away made more of an impact on temps in my case.

I've finally figured out where that advice from I got on a Zalman Flower Cooler. It would be madness to blow air away from the HS since the fan is so far away from it - that's probably why they include those instructions with the HS. As the flower cooler is not a normal cooler then I suppose advice for it's best performance may not carry to other normal HS and fan combinations.