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Replaced zalman 9700 with noctua C14, huge improvement!

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I have been looking for a good low profile cooler for my qx9650 for a long time. I used to use the zalman 9700 with a Q6600. The 9700 cant even cool the q6600 at stock speed. So with some research and some suggestions from here I get the Noctua NH C14. My case has a limited height for heatsinks(<150mm) so this noctua fits in perfectly.

The cooling is way better than the old zalman 9700. With my qx9650 OCed to 4.4G I get 14C idle and 45 under Prime95! Back when i was using zalman 9700 I got idle at 19C and load over 70C in prime95, and that was only 3.6G QX9650. I am not sure if this is the case with all Zalman products---look cool, performance horrible.

Another perk is the reduction of noise level. To keep my cpu cool I had to use 9700 at max rpm which was pretty noisy. The noctua c14's dual 14'' fan are perfectly quiet even they are at max rpm!

So thanks to all who helped me in choosing a heatsink! I got to say I am happy!:p
 
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stargazer7

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you're comparing a 2006 cooler to a fairly high end modern day cooler. that zalman was a strong cooler for dual cores of its time, but the design doesnt live up to the high tdp situations of today. its common sense
 
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you're comparing a 2006 cooler to a fairly high end modern day cooler. that zalman was a strong cooler for dual cores of its time, but the design doesnt live up to the high tdp situations of today. its common sense

I bought it in 2007 to cool my q6600 at stock speed and it did no better than the intel stock cooler.:(
 
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must have a heck of an A/C unit

yea i felt the 9700 to be under performing as well back when i built a rig for a friend of mine in '07 and that was with a Pentium D... we ended up just using stock cooling lol. I think it has something to do with the way the base of the 9700 contacts with the cpu... the one i used seemed to be curved out toward the cpu a bit and not as flat as it should have been.
 
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How are you getting 14C?? Is you PC in a fridge?? :wtf::confused:

That is what I was wondering, too...:confused:

14c is like 57.2f... What are your ambient temps where your system is at?

here ya go. Here in Eugene it is pretty cold. My room temp is 6C. I dont use heater that much since my PC along can keep me warm. lol


 
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must have a heck of an A/C unit

yea i felt the 9700 to be under performing as well back when i built a rig for a friend of mine in '07 and that was with a Pentium D... we ended up just using stock cooling lol. I think it has something to do with the way the base of the 9700 contacts with the cpu... the one i used seemed to be curved out toward the cpu a bit and not as flat as it should have been.

could be. But from all the reviews i read after I bought that heatsink, it seems it is quite a "all show no go" cooler.

From my experience, it's just not capable of cooling any quad core cpu. It will work OK on a stock duo core though.
 
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Those are insanely low temps for an air cooler. And Eugene, Oregon is not the north pole, by a long shot.

I don't know about the 9700, but my 9900NT does a good job cooling my quad phenom II. Then again, a C2Q runs hotter.

But what's the point in living in 6C temperatures, indoors, when you can turn the heat on... it's not worth it for 400-500Mhz...that's insane, man.
 
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Those are insanely low temps for an air cooler. And Eugene, Oregon is not the north pole, by a long shot.

I don't know about the 9700, but my 9900NT does a good job cooling my quad phenom II. Then again, a C2Q runs hotter.

But what's the point in living in 6C temperatures, indoors, when you can turn the heat on... it's not worth it for 400-500Mhz...that's insane, man.

I prefer colder temp.:laugh:
 
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I installed a 9700 one time and its a beast. Seam to work well though. It was a P4 3.4 Eugene is only 60 min from me :)
 
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I installed a 9700 one time and its a beast. Seam to work well though. It was a P4 3.4 Eugene is only 60 min from me :)

Yeah, 9700 should only be used on single/duo core processors. :laugh:
 
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here ya go. Here in Eugene it is pretty cold. My room temp is 6C. I dont use heater that much since my PC along can keep me warm. lol


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc42/xkm1948/Untitled-1.png

AHHA that's awesome man nice to see another person not bothered by the cold. I live in the great white north and in a place where snow fall can reach 5f each year. We have snow now :p It's 1C here right now, I'm tempted to open my window and put my pc right next to it. I have a VERY small room and my 40" Sony LCD tv and my PC heats it up immensely.

My dam Athlon II X3 does unlock to X4 but I can only get it oced to 3.6Ghz stable, Ive had 3.8Ghz with 1.6V :( not worth it plus with the fan noise. Ide like to see what it can really do. :) I bet you get a runny nose while you're on you PC. If I didn't struggle to keep my feet and hads warm I would have my room in the single digits.. :D
 
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AHHA that's awesome man nice to see another person not bothered by the cold. I live in the great white north and in a place where snow fall can reach 5f each year. We have snow now :p It's 1C here right now, I'm tempted to open my window and put my pc right next to it. I have a VERY small room and my 40" Sony LCD tv and my PC heats it up immensely.

My dam Athlon II X3 does unlock to X4 but I can only get it oced to 3.6Ghz stable, Ive had 3.8Ghz with 1.6V :( not worth it plus with the fan noise. Ide like to see what it can really do. :) I bet you get a runny nose while you're on you PC. If I didn't struggle to keep my feet and hads warm I would have my room in the single digits.. :D

cold is good. heater will makes me sleepy.:D
 
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