Intel i5 10500 + Cooler Master 212

Heinz57 · 29 Jun 2021 at 16:38

A family member's motherboard died, so we've taken the opportunity to upgrade the system. Went for a cheap i5 10500 as getting an AMD CPU with an iGPU isn't easy.

The old system had an i5 3570 with a Cooler Master 212 (plus, I think) which looks ancient, but is there any reason I can't reuse it for the 10500? I believe the socket mounting is the same and presumably it's better than the stock cooler?

Thanks in advance.

Gray2233 · 29 Jun 2021 at 17:01

Just give it a good clean and reuse it, it's still a decent cooler.

Heinz57 · 29 Jun 2021 at 17:43

Thanks, yes, it certainly needs a good clean! Must have been in there 8-9 years...

doyll · 29 Jun 2021 at 18:09

As said, 212 will be fine. Can wash it in hot dishwater, rinse well with hot water and dry quickly (hair drier works fin) and it's good to go.

Tetras · 30 Jun 2021 at 15:43

212 is miles better than the stock cooler.

Heinz57 · 2 Jul 2021 at 12:46

Thanks all, it works fine and temps look good. Fan ramps up quite a bit under load, but I imagine it's still much quieter than the stock cooler!

Tetras · 2 Jul 2021 at 13:47

Heinz57 said:
Thanks all, it works fine and temps look good. Fan ramps up quite a bit under load, but I imagine it's still much quieter than the stock cooler!

If it's only being used for basic desktop stuff you could disable turbo in the bios. It's a lazy fix I've used before.

Heinz57 · 2 Jul 2021 at 16:33

The owner of the PC doesn't seem to care, so I'll just leave it - temps are good anyway. In fairness the PC in its previous form did sound like a hairdryer (from where it had probably never been cleaned out), so it's technically an improvement!

Alan McFall · 2 Jul 2021 at 22:19

Good cooler.

doyll · 3 Jul 2021 at 14:02

If you decide it might be nice if it was quieter, you might be able to adjust cooer fan speed to CPU temp curve to lower rpm until CPU reaches higher temp, like maybe 60-65c if it's now at 50-55c. This will run fan slower until temps get higher, and 60-65c is plenty safe as 10500 is rated up to 100c. I would set fan to full speed at about 75-80c.

Heinz57 · 4 Jul 2021 at 17:20

doyll said:
If you decide it might be nice if it was quieter, you might be able to adjust cooer fan speed to CPU temp curve to lower rpm until CPU reaches higher temp, like maybe 60-65c if it's now at 50-55c. This will run fan slower until temps get higher, and 60-65c is plenty safe as 10500 is rated up to 100c. I would set fan to full speed at about 75-80c.

Thanks, fan curves can be adjusted in the bios, it does look set to quite aggressively keeps temps down by default.