[geeks] Gigabyte MB question

[nate at portents.com]

> As for cooling, I have a Zalman 9700 in mine, and it's overkill by a
> long shot.  I'm swapping it to a Zalman 7700 with red LEDs (my new
> case has a side window) since I find the 9700's blue LEDs annoying
> (and they don't match :-).  Any decent cooler should work fine, though
> if you want something quiet, go with a 120mm fan.  Zalman's all have
> the hardware to use on both Intel and AMD sockets (whatever the equiv
> of the 775 is on the AMD side) and have a very nice two piece mounting
> plate for the mobo.

I'm not fond of heatsinks that have proprietary fans (Intel OEM or third
party like Zalman), so my most recent purchase was a Xigmatek Nepartak:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233026

At $33 with free shipping, it's quite affordable, and the best thing about
it (in my mind) is the silicone nubs that you attach to the 92mm fan allow
you to use a fan of any depth, so I've never used the fan it came with
because I had a 38mm deep PWM fan with a low dB and high CFM, works
wonders.  I ever run my Q6600 at 3.6Ghz instead of 2.4Ghz with only a mild
increase in core voltage (well within spec) and the CPU fan barely spins
fast enough that I hear it.  The exposed heatpipe tower CPU coolers have
certainly demonstrated their effectiveness - I would just avoid the 120mm
variety, they are overkill and can be difficult to fit into a lot of
cases/motherboards depending on obstructions.  And while the Nepartak
doesn't come with a backing plate (instead using standard Intel-style
pushpins), Xigmatek sells a backing plate kit if you want to go that
route.

- Nate