[Brood_Star]

I recently bought a new system. It's an i5-750 with a 5850 all wrapped up in an Antec Three Hundred. It comes with the standard 2 fans. My question is, if I'm planning on doing some modest overclocking, would I need additional cooling?

I've been looking online and the lingo confuses me. Is there a difference between a CPU Fan and a Case Fan? Or do they both work as long as they are the correct dimensions (in my case, 120mm). Should I be investing in a fan controller? Thermal paste + CPU Heatsink? VGA Cooler/Fan?

[Jolly-Swagman]

For optimum cooling yes you will have to change the Stock HSF to an Aftermarket one, there are numerous posts here on the Forum that show different Coolers used

[burebista]

Yep, if you want some OC it's good to change your box cooling.
If they're both 120 mm a case fan is good for a CPU fan, but you must look at static pressure. Some case fans are low on static pressure and onto a heatsink you need a fan with good static pressure.
If you want silence, a fan controller is good but I use SpeedFan for controlling all my fans.

[Kuroimaho]

Intel's recent stock heatsinks are very small compared to aftermarket coolers.

For example my cu ninja can cool the 550BE at 3.5G without any fan and that's not even the best cooler out there.

There are cheap but good enough coolers, artic cooling coolers for example, scythe ninja also cheap around 40$, the thermalright's cheap brand the cocage has coolers with almost identical performance as the thermalright 120ex.

The megahalem is a top performance cooler for 60$ another good choice.

[JackNSally]

Don't forget the is the xigmatech's hdt-s1283, sunbeam core contact, scythe mugen 2, thermalright ultra 120(and the extreme version).

[trents]

There is no difference between a case fan and a cpu heatsink fan, really. The design is no different. They are interchangeable. As others have said, a high static pressure fan is best for the cpu heatsink, especially if the heatsink is one that has the cooling plates packed close together. A high static pressure fan helps force the air from the fan between the plates. Usually, the high static pressure fans are the ticker ones, i.e., 38mm instead of 25mm from front to back. I have the Antec 300 case and to add two fans in the front may help move more air through the case but the main benefit is to cool the hardisk(s). Adding a side panel fan will help cool the video card and chipset and motherboard components. Good case ventilation is critical to success in overclocking. If you aren't taking the heat out of the case it will offset the benefit of a high end cpu cooler. The heat build up will result in the cpu heatsink fan picking up hot air from inside the case and blowing it onto the heatsink.

[Brood_Star]

Alright, with those questions out of the way, say I have $80-100. What should I be looking to buy? One fan for the side and one for the CPU? Anything in specific? I was looking at some Yate Loons for the case because they're cheap. I'll probably do a bit more research for the heatsink since I'll need those for sure

Also no one mentioned paste... would buying both paste and a new heatsink to overclock a 750 to ~3.6Ghz be overkill?

[Conumdrum]

There is better TPaste out there. One on the better performing and not stoopid price is MX-2. Link:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=232141

For a Air HS you can do pretty well under $50. All I can do is give you links. The TRUE would be my choice, the Core Contact Freezer is good for the money. LinkSSSSSS:
http://www.frostytech.com/
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coo...oundup_18.html

Yate Loons are great fans for the money. Only Petras has the ones that are proven best. The other Yates have smaller motors etc. Yates have a sleeve bearing, so they last best (longgg time) in blowing the air horizontally, not up/down, like mounted at the top of the case. The VERY top fan right now is the Gentle Typhoons. Good luck in finding any in stock.

I buy the Yates at Petras in 4's, very good deal. The mediums are usually plenty enough for most uses. They have enough pressure for my radiators, so plenty for a air HS, and are great for case fans. I have a cheapo fan controller to turn them down when not gaming. Even the highs undervolt to a low db rating.

http://www.jab-tech.com/Sunbeam-5-1-...K-pr-2530.html

Petras carries this but they are out of stock. Great peeps at Petras, but not a great selection. Jab Tech has Typhoons in stock NOW ACK OUT OF STOCK! bastids!, and the fan controller. 1850 RPM and a fan controller would be awesome.

[muddocktor]

I will say either a TRUE or a Megahelams would be a great choice for your system, looking at your budget. I've been doing some testing recently and out of the box, the Megahelams performs superbly with no mods, whereas my experience with the TRUE shows that you will have to lap it for best results. The mounting mechanism for the Megahelams is also much superior to the TRUE also.

As for case fans and fans to use with a Megahelams or TRUE, it's hard to talk bad about the Yate Loon medium fans. A great combination of performance and price and not too noisy. And you do see slight performance gain with either a TRUE or Megahelams by running 2 fans in a push-pull arrangement on either heatsink.

[billb]

Originally Posted by Brood_Star

Thermal paste

80 Thermal Pastes Tested

[trents]

Originally Posted by muddocktor

. . . The mounting mechanism for the Megahelams is also much superior to the TRUE also . . .

That might be true for the intel socket mount but for the AMD socket the TRUE mounting system is superb, in my opinion. I'm not familiar with the Megahelams mount but I can't see how you could improve on the TRUE's for the AMD unless you put a washer under it.

[Conumdrum]

Originally Posted by trents

That might be true for the intel socket mount but for the AMD socket the TRUE mounting system is superb, in my opinion. I'm not familiar with the Megahelams mount but I can't see how you could improve on the TRUE's for the AMD unless you put a washer under it.

Well the thread was started by the OP needing an Intel mount. He needs an Intel mount, not AMD. So a moot.

You can't see till you try it. If your not familiar with the Meg mount and can't give at least one solid supporting link.........

Moot........

Not trying to start an AMD/Intel war. It's just a mount question.................

[Bobnova]

To the original question:

It really depends on your temps, and how far you want to OC.
With an OEM HSF you're guaranteed to be heat limited, but if you only want a 10-20% OC (10-15?) you'll probably be ok with the stock HSF.
If you want more then that, you will almost certainly need something better.

[Brainwasher]

Megahelams all the way

[ciku]

Originally Posted by Brainwasher

Megahelams all the way

+1 On Megahalems, satisfied customer here

EDIT: Btw I dunno if it's just a typo for them but its MegahAlem not MegahElam

[EarthDog]

Originally Posted by Bobnova

To the original question:

It really depends on your temps, and how far you want to OC.
With an OEM HSF you're guaranteed to be heat limited, but if you only want a 10-20% OC (10-15?) you'll probably be ok with the stock HSF.
If you want more then that, you will almost certainly need something better.

Finally......

See what you can do with the stock cooler. It wont be much, but it depends on your specific overclocking goal which Im not sure was mentioned or asked (I just saw "modest"). The i5 doesnt have HT so its not like an i7 that almost requires an aftermarket cooler when o/c with HT enabled. I would be willing to bet you can see a 200-400Mhz overclock and not even have to go above stock volts.

If temps are around 80C in Large FFT testing, then you are A O K for normal use at those clocks!

Of course, a better cooler would undoubtedly help reach higher overclocking goals.

[Brood_Star]

I'm planning on overclocking to about 3.2-3.6GHz. Since the 5850 will also be overclocked, from what I gather, I need better cooling

Since I am Canadian, I have a few options to shop.

Retail: www.pccyber.com www.shoprbc.com
Online: www.ncix.com

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...re=Yate%20Loon

These aren't the Petras, but are they still decent? Or would THESE GELIDS be better? Otherwise, the better fans are all around $20. (Noctua/Scythe)

The Megahalems are also all out of stock as well as the TRUEs. Are there any other 1156 Heatsinks?

Sorry to be a bother as well, but no one really answered whether a better thermal paste is needed. The MX-2 and the Arctic Silver 5 are cheap and well within my grasp, but I don't really know how to apply them and I don't want to pay shipping fees for a $5 paste so are they necessary?

[Bobnova]

Go to newegg.ca and buy a xigmatek hdt-1283. It'll do 3.6ghz without an issue and is nice and cheap.
Be a good idea to check that they have i5 mounts though.

[Brood_Star]

You mean that I buy a 1156 mounting kit in addition?

I think I might just buy a Megahalem from US and Ship if that's the case - would be around the same price

[vgta88]

Originally Posted by Brood_Star

You mean that I buy a 1156 mounting kit in addition?

I think I might just buy a Megahalem from US and Ship if that's the case - would be around the same price

just saying, http://www.canadacomputers.com/index...howCart&cmd=aq they ship for 6.99 flatrate but they don't have alot of selection and are a bit overpriced. not what you are looking for.

[muddocktor]

Originally Posted by Brood_Star

You mean that I buy a 1156 mounting kit in addition?

I think I might just buy a Megahalem from US and Ship if that's the case - would be around the same price

Yeah, that is always a choice you can make. I mknow that both Sidewinder Computers and Jab-tech do international orders and both show the Megahalems in stock.