STS100A vs. STS100C heatsink

[idata]

I am looking for a cooling solution for Xeon E5520 processors. I was originally wanting to get my hands on Akasa CC055 heatsinks, but I can't find any store selling them in my country, so I am back to the standard Intel solutions, namely STS100A and STS100C. The E5520 has a 80W TDP, so the STS100A should be enough. However, I am wondering if there could be an interest for me to still go for the more expensive STS100C in the hope that it will make my system quiter? It seems to include copper when the STS100A is made of aluminium only, so I would hope that the thermal dissipation is better and this lets the fan spin slower. However, it could also be that the STS100C's fan spins faster by default to ensure proper thermal dissipation for 135W TDP processors. Does anyone know?

More generally, I was unable to find any technical data about either the STS100A or STS100C. I would be interested in data such as weight, fan dimension, fan speed and noise level, if anyone can provide these. Thanks!

[Salem_W_Intel1]

Hi,

Both, the Intel® Thermal Solution STS100C and Intel® Thermal Solution STS100A, are for Intel® Xeon® processors in server/workstation systems featuring 2 LGA1366 sockets. Thus, any of these could work with the Intel® Xeon® Processor E5520, fine. You need to check on the type of chassis as while the STS100C is a passive/active combination heat sink, with removable fan, the STS100A is active heat sink, with fixed fan; see the following URL:

http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/409846.htm?iid=SEARCH

As for "weight, fan dimension, fan speed and noise level", etc., I'd recommend contacting any of the Thermal Solutions Suppliers found here:

http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/409852.htm

[idata]

Suppliers don't provide technical data about products beyond what the vendors document. This isn't their job. When I asked for detailed information, they replied: "Ask Intel"

So I ended up buying a STS100C, and wrote a full review on it, so that the technical data is finally available to the public. This review is available on my home site at:

http://khali.linux-fr.org/articles/sts100/ http://khali.linux-fr.org/articles/sts100/

Hopefully the information provided there will be useful to others.

[Edward_Z_Intel]

See if section 8 of http://www.intel.com/Assets/en_US/PDF/datasheet/321321.pdf Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 Series Datasheet Volume 1 is helpful.

[idata]

This was a valuable pointer and a good read, thank you. However, it still misses some technical data about the STS100 products, for example the actual weight, height and current draw (instead of the maximum), the noise level, the fan speed, etc.