Need a cheap decent cooler.

HalfBakedJake · 24 Aug 2015 at 13:26

Hi Guys,

So I will be getting my Dell u3415w next week and have decided to get myself a GTX 980 Direct CU Strix to power it.

The only problem I have is that my current rig is quite old

Phenom II x6 1090t Black
M4a78td evo
2x4gb 1333mhz ram
Corsair CX450 PSU

I have been advised that the 980 will be slightly bottlednecked by the CPU and I was wondering if anyone knew of a good CPU cooler for the Phenom so i can slightly overclock it to get better framrates until I upgrade the cpu/etc at christmas?

Is it work bothering with this or should I keep it as is for the moment until I get my new rig (most likely november?)

Danny75 · 24 Aug 2015 at 13:51

Hi Jake,

Is it a CX 430 or a CX 500? Or you might mean the 450M.

As for cooler, an idea of budget would help.

HalfBakedJake · 24 Aug 2015 at 13:57

CX430 i believe. There is a 4 in it buts its about 4 years old.

Well I was looking for around £30, I already have an artic cooler freezer 7 pro but the cpu fan has bitten the dust.

Danny75 · 24 Aug 2015 at 14:02

HalfBakedJake said:
CX430 i believe. These a 4 in it buts its about 4 years old.

Well I was looking for around £30, I already have an artic cooler freezer 7 pro but the cpu fan has bitten the dust.

For £30 I like the idea of a Raijintek Ereboss Core with a fan of your choice (can get a cheap fan to stick to £30 total or stretch a little more to get a nicer fan).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Raijintek Ereboss Core CPU Cooler £26.99
Total : £26.99 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).

Have to consider size (distance to case side-panel) and RAM height for it, though.

If the PSU is a CX 430 I'd be very careful about (a) using a 980 with it and (b) doing any overclocking. Even if it was a CX 450M I'd be a little wary. The CX 430 only provides 336W on the 12v rail/s amongst other things. The newer versions provide 384W.

Deathjester · 24 Aug 2015 at 14:07

I'd be concerned that your PSU is not up to powering an overclocked Phenom & the 980.

At a base it's going to be using around 370W of power before overclocking your CPU.

HalfBakedJake · 24 Aug 2015 at 14:13

So should I say with what I have now. Standard clock and bolt a fan onto my cpu cooler? I have a spare 120mm fan lying about for the time being. As I said before this is literally for the next 1/2 months before i go Skylake/haswell-e

Deathjester · 24 Aug 2015 at 14:27

Yeah, deal with the bottleneck for a few weeks; if you start getting drop outs / blue screen etc. it's likely because your PSU isn't providing enough power on the 12v rail.
if this is the case I would get a new PSU, PSU tech isn't going to change much between now and then, so just reuse the PSU in your new build!

HalfBakedJake · 24 Aug 2015 at 15:48

Yeah that sounds idea, do you think a 980 is powerful enough for 3440x1440?

I will be doing Pascal in the future once the HBM2 memory is available so didnt want to go full hog on a £600 980ti

Deathjester · 24 Aug 2015 at 16:15

HalfBakedJake said:
Yeah that sounds idea, do you think a 980 is powerful enough for 3440x1440?

I will be doing Pascal in the future once the HBM2 memory is available so didnt want to go full hog on a £600 980ti

It should be fine for now; you might need to dial back a few of the settings, but you'd probably need to do that on a single Ti as well.