bthacker

Can anyone recomend a decent Heatsink/fan. I plan to OC my E8400 and i want to upgrade my stock heatsink/fan so i can keep the temps at a safe temperature. I’m trying to find one where I don’t have take out my motherboard to have to install a back plate. Just cause I’m worried that I might screw something up in the process. so i kinda want something that just clicks into place like a stock Heatsink, but if i have to take out the mobo then i will.

Can anyone recommend a good Heatsink/fan for an E8400 proc?

And should a person add some more case fans to help with cooling? I already have 2 case fans that keep it cool but I can also add two more if I wanted too. Just to help with bringing in more air since I plan to do some OC. My case is a NZXT alpha, and my temps for my E8400 are 26oc on idle and around 36oc on a load.

Any help would be much appreciated

Deviousmind

To be honest m8 you should be fine with the stock cooler unless that is you seriously want to overclock other wise the artic cooling freezer 7 pro is a good choice

bthacker

I want to try and get around 4.0ghz. Some people say you can do it with stock cooler but I just wanted to be safe and have an after market cooler just to keep the temps down. I was actually looking at the artic cooling freezer 7 but I didn’t know how well it would perform. I’ll give it try then. And should a person apply better thermal compound on the heatsink rather than use the stuff that comes pre-applied to it already?

royalmarine

artic silver 5.

the stock cooler with the 8400 is actually nearly as good as most aftermarket cooler's.

Deviousmind

Agree with royalmarine, just ensure that the artic is installed correctly i.e. blowing out towards the back of the case, and have heard of people seriously o/c ths cpu with the aid of a 5.25 fan mounted in the drive bay instead of a dvd.rw drive

bthacker

I was actually thinking of putting one of those in my case. One of those Thermaltake iCage
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=16034

But i didn’t know how much of an increase of air flow/cooling it would do. But i was looking for some drive bay covers with holes so I can conceal it and still let air through kinda like the ones on the Antec 900 and Coolermaster Cosmos S cases, but I couldn’t find any.

And really the stock cooler is that good. Well I’m sitting at 26c on idle and only 36c on a load, is that pretty good? I upgraded from an athlon Barton 2800+ proc so I don’t know how good my temps are to do any comparing

So if the stock cooler is that good could I just invest in anther case fan like the thermaltake iCage? And hopefully that will keep my proc cool when I OC?

ThatGuy16

If you want to OC, then i would definitely not recommend the stock cooler. Its tiny, half the size of the heatsinks shipped with the 65nm chips.

For a budget heatsink, the freezer 7 is a good choice. If you have a big enough case, then the Tuniq tower or Thermalright 120 ultra extreme is great. Also, if you have a smaller case, the Zalman 9700 is great, but can cost $60.

I'm not sure about the larger heatsinks in the alpha. when i was on air, i used a Zalman because of my case size.

__________________
CPU: C2D E8400 @ 4Ghz 1.24v
HSF: Apogee GTX
MB: Gigabyte X38-DS4
Ram: 2x2GB G. Skill DDR2-1068
HDD: 320GB Seagate
PSU: OCZ GameXStream 700w
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit
GFX: 2x HD4850 Crossfire
LCD: LG 22" L226WTQ
3DMark06: 20826

bthacker

could i put a better fan on Freezer pro? for better cooling