Silverstone and Scythe Katana (1 Viewer)

[doskabouter]

I'm looking for a new CPU cooler (for my AMD Athlon X2 4850e), as my old one (stock) started to make some noises.
I did have a Zalman cnps700C lying around, and although much less annoying as an old stock cooler, still a bit too loud at times.

I could use a http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=189&area=usa which is absolutely quiet, but I'm not 100% sure if this will cool enough...
Specs say if can work fanless for CPU's of up to 65W, but that's probably only accomplished under ideal circumstances.

I've also found the scythe katana 3 and 4, but I'm not sure if they will fit in my case (Silverstone LC16b). According to the dimensions (14.3mm height) it could fit, but then again, it could be just a bit too big...

So, has anyone tried putting a Scythe Katana 3 or 4 in a Silverstone LC16B case?

 

[mr viggo]

I've got the NT01 Evo on a 4850e CPU. Without air circulation you're looking at a fried system. I use it together with a 120mm noctua at lowest speed. My fan is mounted with stripes nearby and gives some circulation in my whole case. Cooling both CPU and my passive GPU. Temps are ~50C.

I wouldn't recommend the cooler.

ed: Also have 2x80mm noctua as airvents out of my case, at lowest speed. Whole case is completely inaudible

 

[doskabouter]

Not recommend as in: low cooling power, or something else?

I only have one casefan (80mm nexus) but then again, I don't have an extra graphics card in it

 

[mr viggo]

Yes. It has low cooling power. They are selling it as a passive model but without a fan blowing at it it's totally crap.

 

[Tony Stewart]

Surface finish of heatsinks need to get like that of HDD platters for optimal low Rth. This is not easy, that means coplanarity error and surface roughness. Of course any hard specks of solids in the paste will ruin the Rth. Ideally the silver grease needs to only fill the gap. Smaller gaps mean better Rth.

Typical is 20'C rise per 50 Watts for core to heatsink interface
or Rth = 0.4'C/W, ( of heatsink compund interface )
Better is 10'C per 75W
or Rth= 0.13'C/W
and awesome is Rth< 0.05'C/W.

This gives you the headroom to OC and OV the system and not get too hot and makes passive cooling possible but not easy.
OC= overclock, OV = overvoltage to switch CMOS faster. OC is not recommended unless you know how test for margin. No margin means ....{ random BSOD or random shutdown or freezes or CPU runs >60C if CPU > 70'C fix it..) If CPU runs @ 40'C all the time, you are lucky or good. ( keep in mind heat reduction methods are used in mobile CPU's when near idle e.g underclock FSB to get CPU/2 etc and undervoltage -10, -15%)

The grease thermal resistance degrades the performance of most heatsinks due to these factors, ( excess thickness, poor grade, excess coplanarity & surface roughness and debris on surface. Since most people cannot measure the heatsink temperature accurately or the grease thermal resistance a rule of thumb, is, if there is a no fan and the heatsink feels just warm while the Speedfan or everest.exe or equiv reports the CPU is burning hot ( > 60'C) then your grease, surface mating job is poor. Lapping a heatsink is not recommended unless you are a skill machinist, but is recommded if you are better than the OEM who mass produced the heatsink.

A thick low RPM fan will move the air velocity enough to optimize the heat sink resistance Rth, high RPM fans just generate more noise with high eddy current noise. Then construct a plenum to remove the heat directly out of the case rather than circulate the warm air which just raises the internal amibient temp and then the CPU adds to that...

In the end. for a 23'C room temp, Mobo temp ought to be < 10'C rise and CPU < 10'C rise above mobo or 43'C If MOBO is too high you are not removing the heat directly from the CPU. Make it a plenum like most GFX cards using any thermal insulating materials you can find. ( plastic etc)

Just my two cents worth.. but the copper pipe system ought to perform well, but not as well as liquid heat exchangers with moving air..

You can use the same heatsinks for 10W~100W LED arrays using similar principles.

 

[doskabouter]

Wow, nice story!.

One of my thoughts was that I was reasonably safe with the NT01 because it claims to fanlessly cool cpu's up to 65W, and mine is only 45W.

And: Still curious about fitting a Scythe Katana in the case

 

[kiwijunglist]

Don't buy an expensive cooler for such an old cpu.

If it has started making noise just replace the fan and keep the stock heatsink

Advantage is
1. Easy install - don't have to clean the old cpu thermal grease with alcohol and then regrease for the new heat sink
2. Cheaper
3. You can reuse the fan when you upgrade (a cpu cooler for that old socket less likely to be reusable)

 

[Tony Stewart]

you can also extend the life of the old fan with some synthetic oil in an syringe thru the metallic decal that covers the sleeve or roller bearing race. re-ink kits have a syringe that works.

 

[doskabouter]

Thanks for all your constructive remarks, but does anyone tried fitting that Katana?
I think I'm reasonably safe with that (or the Nt01) concerning upgrades. Those also support AM3 and a couple of other sockets, and besides that, my 4850e does exactly what it supposed to do without complaining, so I don't foresee any cpu upgrades anyway

 

[mr viggo]

It looks like you have some space in your case judging by the pictures that i get when looking the lc16 up. I'm using Silverstones GD02 case which the NT01 was designed for. I couldn't fit another cooler in my case at that time besides small noisy ones. If I put tuner cards and a couple of disks in my case this cooler would be insufficient.

If I were you I would try to measure how big cooler you can have and go for the katana if it fits .