The best cooler you have chosen, is that the best for a Desktop case or tower case or is there no difference in mobo orientation (Horiz/Vert) ??

Delta T - Degrees C/W ?

I've heard reports of people claiming that these larger heatsink wil. l eventually bend your mobo resulting in your 1st dimm to lose contact. you can reseat the ram and support the cooler im sure. any comment?

I can't find a difference between the Zalman Flex and Performa, aside from looks and the Performa comes with a fan, which doesn't make sense considering the Flex costs more. Can you tell me what the differences are and why the Flex is more expensive, and if you would expect them to perform equally or not?

I'm trying to decide between the Prolimatech, Scythe, and Zalmans. I like the Prolimatech for the best performance and the Scythe for almost equal performance but much cheaper. The Zalman's are nice because they're in the middle for cost, although they perform worse yet cost more than the Scythe (unless the Flex performs better than the Performa). My main concern with the Scythe is you mentioned a "giant hassle for installation." Can you elaborate on that or point me to a link where it's discussed?

For an i7-920/930 build with intent to OC to the 3.8-4.0 range, which of these four would you suggest, or do you think they would all be up to the task?

the Cogage Arrow heatsink will support 3x120mm fans. it will likely drop them temp a degree or two.

I would order and i did, should be here tomorrow, Prolimatech megahelms. I am waiting to see what they give me for a fan (it comes with one now) before i order Noctua NF-P12-1300 120MM fans. From what i can tell they have the best static pressure available, exactly what you need to blow through that rad.

promlimatech / noctua fans. my 2 cents

It sounds like the Scythe Mugen-2 would be your best choice; and installation means removing the socket hardware and using theirs.

How can you hook up 2 CPU fans if the motherboard only has 1 CPU fan connector. Should I use a case fan slot for the second one? The case fans in my Cooler Master 932 HAF all can connect to the PSU cables, so that would be possible.

I would suggest you read the thread at ##silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55996 as well as maybe doing some more searching on your own. Based on what is said there, and the fact the splitters exist in the first place, I would suggest it's more than likely perfectly fine to do it. If you have doubt and really want to set it up that way, or you are just curious, I recommend you figure out the current draw of whatever fans you plan to use and either do some searching to see if you can find out what success others have had with fans with similar draw running in parallel off a single header or contact ASUS and ask them what the CPU_Fan header is rated at. If you do find out, or if you try it and it works, try to follow up and report your findings, as while I'm fairly certain it will work, I'd like to know for sure.

My previous comments were deleted, so I'll try one more time.

On the AMD X4-965 Stock Cooling Fan page the writer listed the NH-D14 with two 140mm fans. The NH-D14 comes with a 120mm and 140mm fan (NF-P12 and NF-P14), not two 140mm fans.

On the Intel 980x Stock Cooling Fan page it's also listed with "2x 140".

On the AMD X4-965 High-Output Fan page the NH-D14 is again for some strange reason listed with "stock 140mm fans" as opposed to having the Yate Loon 88 CFM fans mounted on it like every other cooler on the page.

On the Intel 980x High-Output Fan page the writer mentioned that the NH-D14 had two Xigmatek 140x140x25mm XLF-F1453 fans (63.5 CFM) mounted instead of the Yate Loon (88 CFM) fans mounted on every other cooler except the Prolimatech Armageddon, which also had the Xigmatek fans mounted.

I thought it was supposed to have the Yate Loon fans installed as per the test methodology?

Excellent review, and much still for me to reflect on but have you any details on the size of the Thubans? I'm curious if the Scythe Mugen-2 would have great surface to surface contact on these upcoming processors. Also I couldn't help but notice that you are not a fan of certain high CFM fan's on the market. How about this Delta with PWM? It's 35 bucks and may cool enough for great OC'n for a Thuban/Scythe Mugen-2 combo. #search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=603-1164-ND

I only ask because in the Q1 review you did not test the AMD Phenom-II X4-965 BE or Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition with the 'showdown' between the Yate Loon fan on these CPU's vs... another fan.

There is a lot of info and obviously one size does not fit all. I am still trying to figure out which cooler for the heat signature of the gulftown chip on an asus P6x58D board so I can still use all of the memory and pci slots. Does not have to be the absolute coolest, but decent and easy to install.

RL

And it's very large. It's 346mm². I am unaware of any Air Cooler that has a contact base even close to that size -that's also AMD compatible.

##hardware-specs.net/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=details&tableid=2&fabrik=2&rowid=2203

I'll have to use the stock cooler until I find another option.

I read through pages and pages and pages, at the end, no charts :(
where are the #ing charts?

Excellent. Well executed and written article on the top preforming coolers. One tip I'll take advantage of is reorienting my Noctual NH-D14 so the exhaust blows up and not toward the back. You explanation makes sense and I've got a larger fan pointing out on the top of my Coolmaster HAF 932.

here i thought i could find out, what my next heatcooler would look like!!!

but, but.. it seems like this test purpurce it overclockers, because, nothing about noise lvl. at least i could not find it!!!

when i am looking for coolers, i always look for, what temperature, can it hold the cpu, at lowest rpm, and the cpu working. ( with supported fan )

a lot of ppl hates noice more than been able to overclock. there for the lowest rpm combined with the cpu working, is a good indication, on what coolers can do the work and wich one, only are for high rpm cooling.

so the noice lvl, is at least as important as temperature. and it should be about 50celcius or lower, by normal use.
( still at lowest rpm. )
my zalmon copper cooler, can still do the job, at lowest rpm with my old cpu ( i almost cant hear it )

so remember: measure noice lvl every time, so we dont have to guess !!! ( with stock cooler )

Helo every one .I have AMD Phenom X4 965BE processor along with Coolermaster Hyper n620 & I get CPU temp : 34 to 45 Degree Celcius.
is it normal without overclocking.
My CPU fan in rpm is 1510rpm chasis 1 :700rpm,chasis 2 is : 637rpm.

please please please please advice me my e-mail id is : pallab_deadboy@yahoo .co.in.
thanks 4 reading it

Your CPU temps are fine only in the sense that AMD Phenom CPU's are spec'd at 60.degrees or so for the 'high' limit.

However, I think your cooler should be getting lower temps. Your chassis fans look as to be set for 'quiet' performance but your CPU fan is 'cranking' on the fast side. I would think you would be getting below 30.degrees easily without any OC'n as you mentioned.

I'd try a new TIM, or completely clean and re-apply your Thermal(TIM) paste. I use Artic Silver or Tuniq. My Spire Thermax Eclipse II keeps my Thuban at 21.degrees when I had it at stock config.