Advice on AMD FX8120 stock heatsink and fan

O

OptiEng

New Member
Hi all, I am looking to build a PC (my first time building). I have detailed my proposed specs below. My questions in this particular forum is:

1) Would I be ok with the stock AMD FX 8120 CPU heatsink and fan. I do not plan to overclock (no for now anyway). Therefore, if I am not overclocking would the stock fan and heatsink be sufficient for cooler. Please not that, I do plan to run computational analysis that will max out CPU cores to 90-100% for long periods of time, perhaps even days on end...

2) Is the FX8120 worth purchasing over an Intel if I do not overclock it?

Proposed specs - subject to change...
PSU - Corsair Memory 600W Builder Series CX V2 ATX PSU
Case - Antec 300 Three Hundred Case
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 AMD 970A (Socket AM3+) DDR3 PCI-Express ATX Motherboard GA-970A-DS3
CPU - AMD Bulldozer FX8120 3.1 Ghz 8 Core (Would I really a cooler if I am not overclocking?)
Memory - Kingston16Gb DDR3 RAM 1333Mhz (4 x 4GB RAM)
Optical - LG DVD R - Used from my current PC
GPU - Sapphire HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
HDD - 160 GB 5400rpm - Used from my current PC
Crucial M4 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (Main OS, games and analysis will be run from here)
 
For the price of a 8120 being unlocked, right now 160 bucks its hard to beat. A 8120 will run fine on the stock cooler. If you have a good air flow case you can clock up to 4ghz. with no problem. Any thing over that you need a decent after market cooler.

I would change the motherboard to a GA 970A UD3. Has a 8+2 power phase and a cooler on the mosfets.
 
jonnyp11 said:
but it still would be smart to leave HWMonitor running to make sure the temps don't get too high
Click to expand...

At stock it will be fine. If you clock it to 4ghz. I would check it out under load a few times and make sure its ok. But no point in leaving a temp program running all the time.
 
StrangleHold said:
At stock it will be fine. If you clock it to 4ghz. I would check it out under load a few times and make sure its ok. But no point in leaving a temp program running all the time.
Click to expand...

I disagree, I always have HWMonitor open, among other utilities. Saves time when you actually need them and they don't use a whole lot of resources.
 
linkin said:
I disagree, I always have HWMonitor open, among other utilities. Saves time when you actually need them and they don't use a whole lot of resources.
Click to expand...

Disagree or not. Of course anybody can leave it open if they want to. But running stock its not going to overheat. Overclocked to 4ghz. on a stock cooler, just make sure its not over heating, then your fine. Like I said, there is no need to. But sure you can leave it open and your other (utilities) if you wish. But technically after the above is done, there is no need too.
 
Thanks all for your help and input, so I would be ok to start with the stock cooler, and if I plan to overclock then I can change the cooler?
 
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