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Premium Socket 939 Heatsink Round-Up
Introduction
AM2 has revitalized AMD's K8 architecture. Core 2 has spurred the competition fiercely. Socket 939 has lost its leg up. Or has it? From the early nForce3 and K8T800 chipsets to the awesome nForce 4 SLI x16, this champion of microprocessors has been paired with motherboards that have defined and re-defined out-of-box high-performance features, like early adoption of gigabit ethernet, RAID, PCI-Express, automatic and extreme overclocking systems, CPU throttling, hardware firewalls, and ridiculously comprehensive BIOS-level control, all of which are now standards of the industry. So what of the gains made by AMD and Intel's new offerings? We're seeing the streamers of change, but the real-world performance differences are still decidedly marginal. No one is about to set fire to his or her rig because some upstart hardware has shown up, trying to unseat solid computing. It's time to roll up your sleeves and show some steel, crank up the volts, and overclock. As we near the sunset of their legacy, Socket 939 boards are flush with features. With a little after-market assistance, your Venices and Manchesters will bare their teeth and devour these "margins". Your processor isn't the only hardware with limitations. Your motherboard plays a significant role in stability, just as much as your power supply and heatsink. One of the least expensive upgrades you can make, a good aftermarket heatsink is one of the easiest hardware changes with arguably the most impact on performance for the cost, not to mention that each of these coolers is designed to out-perform stock equipment while producing less noise and vibration. This article is going to define your cooling options. When you run your computer at 110%, you're going to need something a little more competent than the stock heatsink or a cheap tin slab passing itself for a cooling solution. Since Socket 939 has been around for about two years, manufacturers have put out hundreds of aftermarket heatsinks, but recent trends towards bigger, practically Titan coolers heavy with copper and heatpipes, have left just a few models standing in this competition. These heatsinks included in this round-up are the apex of air cooling. Which of them is going to pull ahead and give you the greatest advantage? For those of you who just want the goods on the coolers, go ahead and skip the next page. But if you are less familiar with the process of overclocking, read on.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: An Overclocking Primer Page 3: The Contenders & Testing Methodology Page 4: Zalman CNPS9500 Page 5: Zalman CNPS9500AM2 Page 6: Scythe Ninja Plus+ Page 7: Scythe Mine Page 8: Noctua NH-U12 Page 9: Thermaltake Sonic Tower Page 10: Thermaltake Mini Typhoon Page 11: Overclocking & Temperatures Page 12: Conclusions & Final Recommendations Add Comment
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