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im plannin on gettin a p4 1.6A northwood and hopefully overclock it to the 2.4 range , but i dont really know what cooler to get. ive read that thermaltake is a respectable brand for cooling so i decided to go with the p4 dragon orb. the only problem is that in the one place where ive read sumtin about them, they were said to be loud and obnoxious. is this true? and if it is, just how loud is it, and does the fan perform well? any links to reviews or just personal experiences would help a bunch.

I've heard those dragon orbs were noisy and this review confirms it.

First thing I'd like to comment on is the excessive noise the P4 Dragon 478 emits. Its very obtrusive and something I personally cannot put up with.

As you can also see from that review the performance isn't that great either.

I've only tested newer coolers for AMD cpu's but one I've tested comes with an adapter to fit a p4, the Volcano 7+ . It cools amd cpu's very well and has a 3-speed controlled fan. It's only quiet on low setting though. On high speed get ready for all the dogs in your neighnorhood to start howling.

As for any other p4 cpu coolers wvjohn and Daman will have some more reviews up on some soon here. Till then here's a review on the Zalman Flower Cooler. The all-copper version is probably even better.

thanks blade, im sad to hear that such a great looking fan slacks off in performance and noise . mabye ill start thinkin about that volcano 7+.... have you ever tried painting a hsf? i dont know if its a really bad idea or not, but i think that if its doable with no performance hit, i think ill give it a shot.

The Volcano 7+ is a good cooler, as is the AVC Sunflower and the Swifttech.

Best bet to cool the p4's is eithor the Alpha or the taisol. both are sold at KDC. I would sugest those heatsinks.

Greg

I have a P4 1.6A Northwood running at 2.24 GHz (140 FSB) using the stock Intel heatsink and fan. MBM5 shows a CPU temp of 36 C (96 F). It will climb to the low 40's after a few games of Quake 3 though. The only thing I did different is remove the thermal pad that originally came with the CPU and used Artic Silver.

MAC

thanks guys this helps a bunch, im still trying to get over the fact that the dragon orb is such a pretty cooler but performs so horribly... . i think ill go with the volcano 7+, but its a litle pricy for me, 50 bucks? but anyways i think it'll do.

$50 is way too much for the v7+, or about any cpu cooler for that matter.

Here is one for $25 that will cool very well. We have several reviews up on our front page on the Dr Thermal heatsinks w/copper core and they do very well and are underrated and quiet.

But to get 2.4 the v7+ might be a better solution. It will cool better thanks mostly to the higher speed of the fan, but it is very loud at that high speed. wvjohn will be trying for that soon with some various p4 coolers, if you can wait a bit.

thanks, ill be lookin forward to that review, i think i need it . i read a ton of reviews on the volcano 7+ and on its slowest speed setting it cooled quite well and only makes 24dba of noise.