Intel Stock Cooler - Other options?

Spike560 · 22 Oct 2007 at 13:43

Hi,

I have an Intel stock cooler and I used the bit of thermal paste that came on the bottom. I have a feeling that I will be better off with another CPU heatsink / better thermal paste in terms of temperatures. Will a different fan reduce the noise though?

It seems to be the only source of real noise from my case and this is what I want to reduce. I have a QX6850, any suggestions? Don't really want to spend more that £15.

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 13:53

TBH, for £15 your not going to get such a great cooler and if you need some thermal paste on top of that then your bidget is a little low.

See here, the Arctic Freezer 7 is short of £18 ex delivery, i cant remember whether that came with paste or not. I think it may have.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17793657

And if you plan on overclocking your QX6850, it might get a little hot unless you spend a little more.

Matt.

Spike560 · 22 Oct 2007 at 13:56

Thanks for the fast response!

Is the arctic freezer any quieter than the stock cooler? Would it be a case of noise reduction through the fan needing to spin at a lower speed due to better cooling technology?

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 14:33

Indeed, the fan does spin that bit slower but is virtually silent. The heatsink has 6 heatpipes coming from the base up though the fins, where the heat dissapates and is cooled by the fan. I dont have the fan that came with it on atm as i had a different fan to fit which ive always used. With just the cooler i am getting these temps:

This is with my Q6600 at stock and fan off. Mind you i have lapped the CPU, but thats giving a rough idea of what your looking at. I can strongly reccomend it.

Heres a bit more info on it: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/cpu2.php?idx=79

The fan is held on by rubber attatchments which reduces vibration greatly and adds to the silentness of it.

Matt.

Kobrakai · 22 Oct 2007 at 14:48

I’m not sure why people spend so much money on coolers and thermal paste. I’ve always found that the stock cooler gets decent temps:

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 14:50

Flip me over! That your Q6600 with stock cooling?

Edit: Also what case have you got and other cooling?

thefishdude · 22 Oct 2007 at 14:59

i think the artic pro is the best cooler for the price the big boy coolers ae just way over topprice wise. the arctic pro 7 cooler when the fan is at full speed is not that quiet how ever providing you can slow it down it becomes virtually silent at 50%and under . i run my fan at 40% speed and temps are great and cant hear it

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:02

thefishdude said:
i think the artic pro is the best cooler for the price the big boy coolers ae just way over topprice wise. the arctic pro 7 cooler when the fan is at full speed is not that quiet how ever providing you can slow it down it becomes virtually silent at 50%and under . i run my fan at 40% speed and temps are great and cant hear it

Agreed, a program such as speedfan would do, or if like me you have a fan controller, hook it up and when under heavy load notch the speed up a bit.
And it is VERY quiet. Cant hear it over my other fans anyway.

Matt.

Kobrakai · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:02

Matt2889 said:
Flip me over! That your Q6600 with stock cooling?

Edit: Also what case have you got and other cooling?

Lian Li PC-A10A with 4x120mm case fans.

The Gigabyte P35 DQ6 comes with copper plating under the CPU socket so that might help by extracting heat from the CPU.

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:05

Kobrakai said:
Lian Li PC-A10A with 4x120mm case fans.

The Gigabyte P35 DQ6 comes with copper plating under the CPU socket so that might help by extracting heat from the CPU.

Almost the same as me, i have the P35 DQ6, 4x120mm and a single 200mm. Case is the Antec 900, what stepping is your Q6600 and is that at stock speeds?

Matt.

Kobrakai · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:09

Matt2889 said:
Almost the same as me, i have the P35 DQ6, 4x120mm and a single 200mm. Case is the Antec 900, what stepping is your Q6600 and is that at stock speeds?

Matt.

Its the Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition at stock speeds.

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:12

Ah right i see, i presume that runs slightly cooler than my G0 anyway then?

Matt.

Duke · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:23

Kobrakai said:
I’m not sure why people spend so much money on coolers and thermal paste. I’ve always found that the stock cooler gets decent temps:

What are the temps like on full load? Is it overclocked?

Matt2889 said:
Ah right i see, i presume that runs slightly cooler than my G0 anyway then?

It's the same thing

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:30

Duke said:
What are the temps like on full load? Is it overclocked?

It's the same thing

Oh right then.

Does the energy efficient one have different power usages to mine then? As i didnt get the "Enery Efficient" version.

Kobrakai said:
Its the Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition at stock speeds.

Yeh, he has got them at stock. I would also be intrigued to see what temps you get on full load/overclocked?

Matt.

Kobrakai · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:44

Matt2889 said:
Yeh, he has got them at stock. I would also be intrigued to see what temps you get on full load/overclocked?

Full load temps after 15 mins of Everest stress test:

As for overclocked, unfortunately I cant overclock it at all and cant figure out why. Even RMA'd motherboard with no luck.

More info here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17788608

Kirth Gersen · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:52

Kobrakai said:
I’m not sure why people spend so much money on coolers and thermal paste. I’ve always found that the stock cooler gets decent temps:

As for overclocked, unfortunately I cant overclock it at all and cant figure out why. Even RMA'd motherboard with no luck.

Which explains the mystery of the low temps

The reason why people spend money on coolers and paste is so that they can overclock!! If I didn't, I would stick with the stock cooler too. With the Tuniq I have achieved a 67% overclock with temps about 60C Orthos load. Before the Tuniq I was getting a lower overclock and temps were in the 70s... too toasty.

Kobrakai · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:53

Kirth Gersen said:
Which explains the mystery of the low temps The reason why people spend money on coolers and paste is so that they can overclock!! If I didn't, I would stick with the stock cooler too. With the Tuniq I have achieved a 67% overclock with temps about 60C Orthos load. Before the Tuniq I was getting a lower overclock and temps were in the 70s... too toasty.

The person I was comparing temps to wasn’t overclocking either.

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 15:58

Kobrakai said:
Full load temps after 15 mins of Everest stress test:

As for overclocked, unfortunately I cant overclock it at all and cant figure out why. Even RMA'd motherboard with no luck.

More info here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17788608

Mine does exactly the same mate, i think its something like AMD's cool n' qiuet. When Oc'd to 3.4 the multiplier drops to 6x instead of 9x (showing in CPU-Z) and then when on full load it uses all 3.4ghz. I wouldnt worry too much about that, i think it could be something Gigabyte integrated into the board.

But you can overclock it in the BIOS etc with no hastle? Is the only problem that it drops once oc'd?

Matt.

Kobrakai · 22 Oct 2007 at 16:03

Matt2889 said:
Mine does exactly the same mate, i think its something like AMD's cool n' qiuet. When Oc'd to 3.4 the multiplier drops to 6x instead of 9x (showing in CPU-Z) and then when on full load it uses all 3.4ghz. I wouldnt worry too much about that, i think it could be something Gigabyte integrated into the board.

Thats is caused by BIOS features called EIST and C1E which I have disabled.

If you look at the link in my previous post, any change I make to the FSB (higher or lower) it wont even boot.

Matt2889 · 22 Oct 2007 at 16:05

Oh right cool, didnt know what the feature was called. When i OC the PC turns off, turns back on then runs staright away, if i do somethig it doesnt like, it will restart a few times then set everything to default.