Heatsink's and copper, help with purchace!

[Adam Warren]

I have decided to purchac a some sort of cooling tool for my tower, due to the fact that it is geting quite warm. I was just wondoring should i consider a heatsink? and what is a heatsink? is it better t o have a copper one? and if so why? Or should i just buy another couple fans? and whats the deal with the different sockets? how do i know if my computer had these sockets?
Just one more quwstion . Can i tell what the temp is if my internal parts like my cpu etc? and if not, should i purchace a thermal controll?

 

[Praetor]

Copper = able to take heat away really fast but cant "store" as much heat before it gets "full"

Aluminum = cant take heat away as fast as copper but has almost twice the heat "storage" capacity than copper

The idea is that for copper, you'll get a fancy fan to get the heat off the heatsink ASAP, with aluminum you dont neccesarily have to use a fan (hence quieter) but soemtimes youll have to worry if the aluminum can take the heat off the device fast enough. A good balance is to have a copper core and aluminum fins. Of course this doesnt include specialty fans and such which usually are all-copper.

 

[Adam Warren]

ahhhhhh

So what is it that you think i should do, i have no idea what to do with the situation, i have never encountered such a problem! Should i get fans or a heatsink? And aluminum or copper?

 

[Praetor]

Should I get fans or a heatsink?

Get both.

And aluminum or copper?

Depends on your pickiness for noise. Me i like loud so i pack a solid copper setup with a 50db fan. If thats a S775 Prescott or S478 Northwood there you should be ok with the stock HSF though.