Just wanted to say thanks.....

[SN97Stang]

Normally on these forums I read only alot about what goes wrong, so I thought my first actual post should be about something that actually works better than I had hoped. :laughing:

 

I recently upgraded my aging E8400 to a QX9650 Core 2 Extreme. Now my old ******** TMG i-1 was handling the E8400 at 3.8Ghz and 1.35V just fine with temps never going above 59-60C under the heaviest load, and idling about 33-35C. Throw in the QX9650, and even at only 3.6Ghz and 1.225V, the temps were topping 70C under load.

 

I needed this thing running fast and REALLY didn't want to wait 2 days for a better cooler to push this thing, so I went out to my local Best Buy, and thats where I found the beast A70 cooler, on sale for 44.99 even. I picked it up hoping that it would at least let me do 3.67Ghz and keep the temps in the 58-65C range at 1.225V.

 

It wasn't until I got it out of the box that I realized what a monster this thing is...lol. My ******** 900 case is not the largest of cases, and add to that the fact I have a Spitfire VGA cooler on the HD4890 and I was starting to have some doubts about getting this thing in the case.

 

I finally figured out if I mounted the cooler horizontally so the fans are on the top and bottom of the cooler, and left off the bottom fan, using just the top one which sits directly under the HUGE fan in the top of the 900 case, everything fit with a little room to spare. I applied the AS 5, tightened it down as per the instructions and crossed my fingers.

 

I first set it 11 x 333 @ 3.67 1.250V and powered on. Loaded Win7, opened up prime 95 and coretemp, set Prime 95 for Large FFT and let er rip. I was simply amazed at the result. With only one fan on the cooler exhausting in to the huge fan in the top of the case, the core temp never topped 54C after 30 minutes of prime 95. I really was not expecting a result quite that good, so I upped the ante a little and went for 4Ghz. Oddly enough I found that 12 x 333 and 1.280V was stable at 4ghz, but 10 x 400 was not stable at any voltage and would error out.

 

Hoping for 3.67 and 58-63C temps, I was rewarded with 4Ghz and 56C max temp with the A70. Thank you for the awesome product at a great price!

 

James