3-IN-1 Review!

By jaffa
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Grand Master

jaffa

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3-in-1 Review!

Well after seeing lot?s of ppl post in here, I decided to write this review.

I?m going to review the Thermalright SP-97 heatsink, IMO the best heatsink available for socket A motherboards. The next thing would be a good watercooling setup, cause this thing cools better then most low-end watercooling set;)s ;).

I got this heatsink because I needed something that could handle my high overclocks. Rather than buying expensive watercooling (being a poor stud:pt :p), I decided to get the best air-cooling solution. After some reviews I came to the conclusion that this was what I was looking for.

The next step was to find a good fan. I want as much airflow as possible, but I didn?t want to get deaf either.. So the Delta Fan was out of the question. When you have one of these thermalrights, and it supports an 92mm fan, go for it. The bigger the fan, the more air it can push at lower dB?s. After some research I found the Enermax UC-9FAB. It?s a 92mm fan that can push 64.15CFM @ 2800RPM @ 34.3dB. Now this is some :pod sh*t :p.

And last but not least, I wanted to get rid of the northbridge heatsink, cause mine made some strange noises sometimes. I decided to go fanless this time. So I got the Zalman ZM-NB47J passive northbridge cooler. Now on to the review!

First I got rid of my old northbridge cooler + cpu HSF. I was using a pretty old Vantec cooler, full copper design, but still I was getting +50 Celsius temps. The main problem was that it was a pretty small cooler. The biggest fan you could fit on it was a 60mm fan. I had a small delta on it and it drove:se crazy :s.

review_pic1.jpg

So before installing the Zalman NB cooler, I decided to clean the northbridge and lap it a bit. Not too much, but just to make it flat enough so that the Zalman would have full contact with the NB.

So I lapped it, cleaned it, put on some of the white stuff that came with the Zalman.

review_pic2.jpg

I must say it was very easy to install. The instructions are clear and it?s done in only a few steps. When it was finished it :)oked good :) . Then I realized that it was pretty big and might actually get in the way of the SP-97! So I got the SP-97, put it on the socket, and found out that it would just fit.. pretty close!

Now on to the hard part. Installing the heatsink.

I never owned a heatsink that required removing the motherboard to install. Most heatsinks I had where just those clip-on things. The SP-97 requires you to remove the motherboard completely from your case, because you have to install a back plate. It?s a pretty heavy and big HSF, so to support it you MUST put the back plate.

I almost forgot to mention the exact specs:

? All copper design for maximum performance

? Soldered fins to base to ensure effective contact

? 92mm stock fan for more cooling capability

? Screws through motherboard mounting for LAN party

Technical Spec.:

Dimension:

L99 x W59 x H50 (mm) Top, without fan

L75 x W55 x H50 (mm) Bottom,585gn

Weight:

585g (bare sink only)

Nearly 600 grams! That?s pretty heavy for a HSF. And you can feel it to!

So the first step was installing the back plate on the back of the motherboard. This step was pretty easy. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT forget to put the plastic between the back plate and the mobo. The back plate is made of steel and it will short circuit the:soard if you forget it :s.

review_pic3.jpg

After that was installed, you needed to install the standoffs. (once again, don?t forget to use the plastic washers). Now it was time to put some thermal grease on the core of the cpu. I applied a thin layer of AS5 (Artic Silver 5). The heatsink comes with some thermal greas:p(that cheap white stuff :p ), but we all know that AS5 is wayyy better.

review_pic4.jpg

So the next step was placing the HSF on the socket. Be sure to place it porperly (align the holes!). Now you need to screw the spring-loaded screws :pon?t forget the washers :p).

I must say that it was a real pain in the arse to put those washers! I have pretty big hands, and as you can see in the following pic, the 2 upper screws are between the heat pipes, and the right lower o:s is between those mosfets :s. But after a few minutes I finally got them in, and now it?s time to tighten those screws. Try to tighten them in an X pattern! This way you apply equal pressure on all the 4 screws and then you won?t break the cpu core if you applied too much pressure. And that?s another thing: DON?T APPLY TO MUCH PRESSURE! If you do there is a big chance that you WILL break the cpu core!

So after that was done, you can see that it was a pretty tight fit! Another thing you should be aware of is that if you have a small case, and you socket is placed like mine (Abit NF7 series), sometimes the heatsink will not fit. It?s big.. and as you can see, it was another tight fit (this pic was taken using my old no name case).

review_pic5.jpg

Ok. Now place the fanclips in the proper holes (depends on what kind of fan you are using like an 80mm or 92mm fan). Put the mobo back inside and now install the fan. Just align the fan properly and pull the clips over the fan. Make sure the fan is blowing over the heatsink for best results. Mine looked like this:

review_pic6.jpg

:po.. if you made it all the way here :p, you can see that it actually took a lot of time. Usually it takes abou:p10 min (or depends how good you are :p) to change a heatsink and thermalpaste. This ti:s, it took me about 30 to 40 minutes :s. You need to work carefully. If you know that you don?t have the patience to do it, then don?t! Because you are working on the mobo, near the mosfets and on the cpu. It?s :s easy to break one of those components ?. :s

If you don?t know how to do this and you don?t want to take a risk, take your pc at your local pc show and let them do it for you:devil:way, if something breaks, they have to pay :devil:

And now the conclusion:

First lets begin with the Zalman NB cooler:

It?s a passive cooler, but when used for overclocking, I thing you really need to get some airflow on it. Mine was getting pretty hot without it.

Pros:

-pretty cheap

-easy to install

-cools great (if you just run @ stock settings)

Cons:

-actually I have no cons, but if you are using this on an ove;)locked mobo, make sure you get some airflow on it ;)

The SP-97 + Enermax Fan:

Before, when I was using this my all copper Vantec heatsink, I would get +50 Celsius temps on a cpu clocked @ 2.2Ghz. After I got the SP-97, I would get <40 Celsius temps @ Load. My cpu would idle @ <30 degrees (depends on room temp!). Nowadays I run another cpu in it (a mobile.. Actually I already used 3 cpu?s with this SP-97!). Both my XP1700+ and Mobile2400+ @ 2.5GHz would run @ about 40 degrees Celsius. This is the load temp. They can both idle @ mid 30?ish temps. These days, im hitting some hire temps ( 40?ish). Especially when gaming. The main proble:Dis that it?s getting hotter here (summer is coming! :D) and my room temp is increasing. This usually happens when using cpu intensive apps (like games). But other than that.. I haven?t experienced strange things with this SP-97. I must say that I?ve never seen one of my cpu?s hit 50 degrees or higher! When I was oc?ing my mobile cpu, I wanted to hit 2.6Ghz. My psu is pretty crappy, so I really needed a lot of voltage. At 2.2V I finally reached 2:pGhz. And still, my cpu temp was 49!. Never passed the 50 mark :p.

As for the fan: it?s pretty quiet and really pushes a lot of air. I wish I could get a fan that p:no:s more CFM, but doesn?t produce a lot of noise like those Delta?s :no:.

Still haven?t found one:devil:??m still using this one. If I could just get a 120mm fan to fit on it :devil: :p

As for the pros and cons:

Pros SP-97:

- Great Cooling

- Great cooling

- Did I mention great cooling :p?

Cons:

-Takes some time and patience to install

-Pretty expensive

Pros Enermax fan:

-Good performance

-Low noise

-Cheap and it?s pretty good looking :happy:

Cons:

-None

I hope you guys enjoyed this review! Mind the small grammar errors, but English is not my primary language?. And here are some more pics!

review_pic7.jpg

review_pic8.jpg

review_pic9.jpg

For more info about the products reviewed, visit:

http://www.thermalright.com/

http://www.enermax.com.tw/products_per2.ph...0&Gid=1&Gid2=22

http://zalman.co.kr/

Big thnx to jhSellars for hosting the pics :yes:

Edited by jaffa
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Grand Master

jaffa

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Wow, you certainly have no lack of cooling there :p Your computer must sound like a tornado hehe

well.. actually it isn't that loud..

as you can see, i have one 92mm on the cpu, 2 92mm on the bracket, 1 80mm outtake, 1 80mm above, 2x 80mm intake..

that's 7 total. oh yeah in my last pci slot i also have a blower.. and my psu hase 2 80mm fans :wacko:

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Grand Master

AJerman

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well.. actually it isn't that loud..

as you can see, i have one 92mm on the cpu, 2 92mm on the bracket, 1 80mm outtake, 1 80mm above, 2x 80mm intake..

that's 7 total. oh yeah in my last pci slot i also have a blower.. and my psu hase 2 80mm fans&nbsp:wacko:o:

Yep, thats the talk of someone who has never had a silent compute:laugh:h:. I was in your position at one time. I thought I didn't mind the loud, and it never bothered me. Then I got a new fan set from Thermaltake for review and it made my computer so quiet. That completely changed my opinio;);)

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Grand Master

jaffa

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Yep, thats the talk of someone who has never had a silent computer LOL. I was in your position at one time. I thought I didn't mind the loud, and it never bothered me. Then I got a new fan set from Thermaltake for review and it made my computer so quiet. That completely changed my opinion ;)

im going to change all those 80mm for papst fans.. and im getting a new psu too.. one that doens't make a lot of noise :wacko:

and i may get rid of those 92mm and replace them with some 120mm.. silent fans :p

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Grand Master

jaffa

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I do :D

But a con for the SP-97 you forgot in the conclusion: It doesn't fit on all mobo's :no:

Good review and good pics btw. :)

glad you liked it..

about the "not fitting on all mobo's".. i think the main problem is that some mobo manufacturers don't include the 4 holes around the socket.. not all.. but a lot tend to forget that. I mean if the DFI Lanparty revB doesn't have those :no:

But then again.. if you go to thermalright.com and check out the compatability list.. it's pretty big! I mean.. it fit's on some mobo's that overclock like **** lol.. why would you use it one such a mobo :p

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Grand Master

jaffa

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The one thing I noticed was your Qtec power supply.

Have you ever tried to run any very large hard disks using this?

GJ

i got 200GB. only 2 hdd's though .. one thing i can say: it's NOT good for overclocking.. voltages are always fluctuating on it :no:

but im still going to hold on to this until i get a new videocard :devil:

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