Is any cooler better than stock?

FixupSellon

FixupSellon

FixupSellon

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While I am trying to sell it, I have been playing around with a old computer I built for general use and my movies at the time.

Asus board I think(socket 754)
Amd sempron 3000+ 1.8ghz with stock cooler
2gb ddr ram
GeForce 310 512mb
500w cit psu(brough cit case and of course psu included)

I have always tried a little overclock but this time I thought I will try it out a bit more proper. Crysis was my test game as probably best of what I got to push and while it ran on stock it was awful, then I upped the bus to achieve 2.0ghz and pushing the 310 upwards of 50mz on clock and memory(only 2 options available) in different stages it played better but not great, all settings were on low with the odd medium.

Now after a couple blue screens and some stability issues going to 2.25ghz I upped all the vcore 1 click to make it stable, don't know if I needed to do all, but did anyways, after couple issues with slow boots and graphic issues(probably pushed GPu too much or a driver thing) it all seems to working better and boots more normal, gpu is like 700mhz and 600mhz, nearly at max and crysis works on both low and medium settings with lag, but playable..

3dmark also does the ice storm test At like 35-55fps until physics and maybe odd section of test 2, and that's with 6100 onboard graphics as 310 has driver issue with the programme, but being a dx10 system it can't do the other tests.


Now if I don't end up selling it I will do further testing as its quite interesting and fun, but will go with the cpu cooling first maybe as I don't know what the psu can push(gt 430 maybe), but with so much choice from £5 I don't know what would be improvements over the stock cooler..
 
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While I am asking for this computer than is very old hat, so of no real interest to you all, I am still interested to know the question in a general prospective if anyways can shed a little like??
 
Yes, imho the stock coolers are pretty poor in general. I found even a cheap arctic freezer pro to be a much better investment. I've owned quite a few Intel gpu's over the years and thankfully I've only had to use a stock cooler on a few occasions. I found with the chip in sig at stock, it barely coped even with very light loads.
 
Vast majority of coolers are better than stock. Some super discrete ones with the same performance but much quieter.

Why not spend a lil more and grab a decent one for £20-30 and use it in any future builds?
 
What would be the best cheapo cooler to buy for like £10 to £15 quid to use as a backup? I need to send my AIO back and I cant find my stock cooler to use whilst i wait for a replacement.
 
Thanks for replies..

I thought as much the aftermarket coolers would be better than stock, but also read even the lowest priced ones offered hardly much of a difference, granted they weren't really old processors like mine lol, but still wouldn't want to waste too much money.. As for the price itself, going by oc site, the cheapest cooler for 754 is £10, so guess that be the minimum, but I suppose if the cooler fits newer amd boards aswell (am2 etc) then I will pay a reasonable amount more..
 
Actually might have a change of mind, depends if I can be bothered..

My missus computer I'm prepping for sale is an Athlon 64 3500+(Orleans) meaning it's am2, now I didn't think much of this at the time, but I'm now thinking of swapping setup with 754 and buy a new board as the am2 is a Packard bell board and so no overclocking what so ever and the Athlon being 2.2ghz stock I could overclock it higher especially with its 1000mhz HT..
 
brought an akasa lo noise ak-860 i believe it is, was on a clearance in local store at £13, its for am2/754/939/940 so hopefully this 'any is better than stock' is true as i can carry it over to other sockets in future :D
 
FixupSellon said:
brought an akasa lo noise ak-860 i believe it is, was on a clearance in local store at £13, its for am2/754/939/940 so hopefully this 'any is better than stock' is true as i can carry it over to other sockets in future :D
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It will do the job for now, but don't expect much improvement. 754 is so old there's not much available for them now, and £13 is not a deal considering it's obsolete.
 
Compared to what I've seen on this site and others it's not a bad price, good thing is its not limited to 754 and for the build I wouldn't need beyond am2, no point aiming for a build better than my main computer ha :p


But no I don't expect great things from the sempron, its only a project for testing :)

figured this is better than all the better CPUs I've had over the months that cost a lot more in case things go wrong :D
 
It's just an aluminum heatsink with a small fan. No heatpipes, copper base, etc. Many new CPU stock coolers use heatpipes. I'm not sure how many as I always use aftermarket coolers. It will do the job and as I said, it's hard to even find a 754 mount.anymore.

FYI, here is a chart of CPU mount pattern and spacing.
CPU%20mount%20meas._zps8a7lwclw.png
 
thinks shampoo means how much do i make, because i fix up old computers and have mainly seld on the many i had for myself over the year as its a hobby, i just do it for little extra cash and to clear the space(mainly to please the missus)


anyways i did have a little issue with the new cooler as while its the same, the actual mounting bracket(clip)is smaller and a little more loose to fit first off, but it works and as for temps, they wasnt exactly high in the first place, i just wanted to overclock as much as i can which im having issues with lol
 
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update:

think i have come to an end with this, my knowledge of overclocking is vague, but im either pushing it too much in bios that i have to keep resetting the Cmos or not balanced or it wont accept much higher than 2.25..

i got a 2.28 upping the frequency to 255mhz and upping one of the volts, but if i go 260 or 270mhz with volts upped i either get a part load then crash or blank screen...


sorry when i mean 'upped' i mean changed from default, not to confuse anyone..


i never got as far as trying out a prime test, just check cpu-z then load a game lol


unless someone can suggest some settings i think ill just find a cheap psu and sell it on and start something else. :)
 
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i use a xigmatek thors hammer that i got 2nd hand on my 939 chips. it would fit 754 and you should be able to get one for under £20
 
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