Notes on the XP-90

[G19]

I have the aluminum model. Nice unit, but the hs seems a bit rough on the chip. First of all clamping down on the a64 with the hooks seems like you are going to crack the motherboard. The amount of force just seemd unecessary. I did it by the instructions, but it had me worried there. I never used half of that much force with my alpha pal unit. Secondly, clamping an 80mm tornado to the unit was fairly easy, howver even with the vibration damper, I think the fan noise just screams even louder than it did with the alpha pal. Moving from a metal rod unit to a metal fin unit is probably creating some reed effect. I'll probably have to get a larger 90mm fan for this one, although I'm almost used to the noise now.

[r'aggro]

Cool, I'd like to pick one up. I just need to make 100% sure it will fit on the board I'm buying, then it's mine. Definitely find a 92mm fan, your ears will thank you.

[G19]

My ears. They physically hurt man. It was like an entity. It just went away after a while. But that was expected from dead quiet to tornado. For extra noise consideration the xp-120 is probably the best idea, although it has fitting issues with some boards. Link I posted in article feedback.

[PriMaTe]

a tornado will be loud no matter what. grab a 90mm fan and a fan controller, or get an enermax adjustable. There's no reason to put up with the noise of a tornado for an extra 100mhz oc or whatever it gets you

[Harbinger]

Go with the SI-120. It's a version of the XP-120 they just came out with that fits every mb they have tested. THe XP-120 would require bending capacitors on my mobo but I got the SI-120 and it fits fine. Put a stealth 120mm on there and it's quiet and kicking ***.

[G19]

SI-120 sounds like a nice investment. I tend to partially black out while buying upgrades on line so I didn't get to pat down the hs list like I should have.

Afa the fan controller goes, tornado 84cfm is picky but my lower 68cfm delta works with the one I have. I can crank it down if I can justify the output. I guess I had dreams of heatpipe tech and high concentrate cfm 80mm combinations going. Plus I didn't have to buy a new fan.


edited-

[Jove1512]

The Thermaltake SilentCat 92mm fan works great on the XP-90.

[G19]

The Thermaltake SilentCat 92mm fan works great on the XP-90.

Thats it. Thats the one I bought with a bunch of other mod sups (low speed led fans, bga ram sinks etc). I hope it allows me to crank out (at least) the 2.5+ oc I currently have with the tornado @41C load. It will be interesting to see how much further the tornado will support the venice and how much the cat may need to bring it back.