Q8300 Cooling help.

[mrshanks]

Hi,

Could anyone recommend a cooling solution for my intel Q8300. I used setfsb and have managed 3ghz. 3.2 just crashed on me, 3.1 and the CPU fan sounded like it was working way to hard, although no crashes. I settled for the 3ghz and ran Prime95 for 2 hours with no problems or errors.

Temps are in pics...

And CPUz...

Both taken at the end of my Prime95 run. I know nothing about O/C'ing (mostly why I used setfsb), but from what I have read, the temps don't look so bad and the fan certainly didn't sound like it was working to hard at all.

I was going to remove the fan and clean the heatsink anyway, as there is a fair amount of dust and stuff in there, so thought I may aswell change it out and see if I cant lower those temps abit as a plus.

I have a stock Dell Studio, so my case is not large at all. I reckon I have 120mm of clear space to install a new cooling unit, even then it will be close to the case cover. It is a 4 pin connection to the existing unit and I dont really want to remove the Mboard to fit a back plate etc. Any Ideas for me??? Preferably something stocked at this site and easy to fit. Might be nice to have a new and better case fan too, thats 92mm and has 3pin connection.

If I clocked in another way, would I see a better figure than 3ghz??? but like I said, I wouldn't know where to start.

Thanks for any help.

 

[RJC]

Does the standard heatsink use the standard push fit connectors, as I remember a while go (few years back) that the holes did not line up with a std Intel Push fit coolers.
Measured from a spare board I had whilst helping someone with a similar problem to yourself.

 

[mrshanks]

Does the standard heatsink use the standard push fit connectors, as I remember a while go (few years back) that the holes did not line up with a std Intel Push fit coolers.
Measured from a spare board I had whilst helping someone with a similar problem to yourself.

The heatsink screws onto or through the Mboard, at least all I can see is screw heads. The stock fan then screws onto the heatsink at an offest angle.

 

[mrshanks]

I've seen a few screw fit items,, for an example,

Spire Starflow Intel Core2 Quad cooler, socket 775, screw type

I'm guessing that if my existing unit is allready using screws, then I must have a backplate allready??? wonder if I could just screw a new heatsink unit straight in the backplate that must be there. I really don't want to have to remove the Mboard.

Maybe i'll just stay with the stock item, clean it up a little and watch the temps. I don't use my system under full load (Flight Sim X) for more than an hour at a time and not even everyday.

Thanks for the help.