Best push-pin 1155 cooler for i5-2500K?

UKFX

UKFX

UKFX

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I've had a Alpenfohn Matterhorn Pure CPU cooler for 3 years now and for a couple months I've added another fan for a push pull config. Results? Pretty crap tbh. At 4.4GHz, in a 24°c room, temps will peak to about 65°c on CPU intensive games. In summer when the room is mega hot, that's not going to do any good.

At 4.2GHz (24°c), I'll reach 58°c running CPU heavy games, which is perfectly reasonable. However I'm losing potential and it keeps bugging me that I'm wasting 300-400MHz.

I don't really want to venture into an all-in-one watercooling solution because some of the ones I've seen have horrid right angle pipes which run incredibly close to the RAM slots and knowing my luck, it'll not fit well enough for me and be a complete ass to install. I don't want that hassle.

I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for some great push pin 1155 coolers that will do a better job than my current heatsink and fans. I'm using MX4 TIM and I know I've not under or overdone it. So any suggestions for something that will allow me to comfortably run 4.5GHz? It will have to be able to fit a Zalman Z9 Plus Mid Tower case.

Thanks to all those that can help.
 
Push pin arnt a good way for attaching coolers,esp high end,they can bend warp the board and the force needed to press down on them is too much IMO

Get one with a backplate
 
I think that with a £30 cooler and a £40 case your temps are pretty good with that overclock, 4.4ghz at 65c.

I had that cooler and its brilliant for the money i went with an aio just cause it was on offer otherwise i would have stuck with the materhorn.
 
Last edited:
Disco_P said:
In summer is it gonna get to 44C in your room and thus push your CPU temps to 85C?
Click to expand...


44c in summer your room in London/greenhouse phew , sometimes its just the silicone lottery try droping the voltage on your overclock.

If you really feel cheated for a few hundred mhz gota think its not worth the cost.
 
wazza300 said:
Push pin arnt a good way for attaching coolers,esp high end,they can bend warp the board and the force needed to press down on them is too much IMO

Get one with a backplate
Click to expand...

Only if there is a good deal of difference at 4.5. Fortunately I can remove the right side panel behind the motherboard so I won't have to take the mobo out.

Lol at the person who said 85c.

And the 40 quid case is not at all an issue micky. And this helps explain why: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/02/10/the-big-cooling-investigation/1
 
Not quite sure what the issue is here? 65°c is perfectly acceptable for that CPU. A cheap watercooler all in one unit wouldn't do much better than that.

You're certainly not going to get a better push pin cooler that surpasses what you already have.
 
UKFX said:
Lol at the person who said 85c.
Click to expand...

You were worried about overheating in the summer. You are 20C underneath "overheating" therefore ambient temps need to increase 20C for you to reach them at current settings.

No lol here.
 
Yes Lol. The room will never be 44... they'll never even be 40c. 85 is absurd and obviously couldn't reach that point anyway before the PC shut off, as I'm sure everyone is aware lol. At my current settings, 4.2GHz is okay in Summer, 4.4Ghz isn't so much (I think... this Summer wasn't particularly hot).

Looks like I'll have to use a CPU cooler with a back plate. I imagine this goes over the existing metal base that is already on the rear of the motherboard for the CPU block to sit against? Or does that metal square with X-like protrusions come off as well? Daft question, but I've never actually fitted a CPU Cooler with a back plate and I can't remember entirely how the board looks without all the stuff attached.

Any good ideas for a solid backplate cooler? The better, I'll be pleased, but width is tight. I have a few mm left with my Alpenfohn Matterhorn Pure before the side of the case... that's including the little pipe protrusions.

Also, Alt + 0176 is ° also lol... it's what I use :P.
 
Intel sandy bridge CPUs don't shutdown until 105C I believe - at least mine has never been hotter than that :D

Backplates normally fit over the bracket mounting on the back of the board. The only exception I know of is the EK supreme LTX waterblock.

If the matterhorn already uses up all the space you have then you aren't going to get much better performance without a case upgrade.

I would not have any issue just leaving what you have for now at 4.4GHz. You could try and pull the voltage down if you haven't already.
 
How many case fans do you have ? Take the side panel off and see what temps you get that should give a good indication if you have good air flow.
 
I have one front. One rear. One side and one top but sort of located behind the CPU cooler so as not to ruin air intake to the CPU cooler itself. It's an efficient setup I'd imagine.

Maybe I'll just run 4.4 anyway? If there isn't going to be a decent difference. Max tcase is 72.6c for the 2500K and although I know the cores can get hotter and be fine the CPU package temp (is that the same as tcase? Lol) is usually either the same or not far behind.

Z9 is fairly open with very large grills on the side.

I'll probably end up sticking with what I have and just running 4.4GHz. Lol if it cuts out next summer I'll have to see to it then lol. :P

Forgot to mention, running stock voltages. :)

I imagine what doesn't help is my R9 290, but in all fairness the ASUS DCII 290 exhausts quite well out the rear and the max temp never goes above 70 at the most. The side intake fan aligns with the GPU nicely.

Perhaps a can of compressed air for a deep clean? Lol the amount of dust I pull from my 290 alone is bananas.
 
Tcase is not a temperature that is relevant to end users. Tjmax is the one you need to look at which is much higher (around 100C)

My personal limit is 90C under OCCT AVX load and my CPU still works fine without any signs of degradation after 3 years.
 
85c is fine for stress testing,it shouldn't get anywhere near that hot day to day use/gaming ect,maybe mid 60's on a summer day

are you running a fixed cpu voltage? using offset will help with idle temps
 
after reading this thread, i have concluded that the op's pc is fine as is. the matterhorn is a great cooler and the temps at 65c under load are great too.
 
What confused me was a while back (probably years now), I went to the Intel page and saw Tj something lol and it was 72. If I'm running 65 in a very warm room and that's okay, I'm quite happy to put it back on 4.4 :)

Just to note, I use OpenHardwareMonitor. I don't know what this one is referring to? :|

All voltages are stock btw. :)
 
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