Sempron Cpu Cooling

[07mavribea]

I have a 2600+ sempron and over clock. I currently have stock cpu cooling and was wondering how much cooler would an aftermarket cpu cooler, like the Thermaltake Volcano 10+ (AU$35), run at? Please help as i have never used aftermarket cpu cooling. :thumbsup:

[07mavribea]

Or how would the thermaltake beetle go?

[Tex]

Are you gaming or folding at home etc? How hot are you now?

Did you use the yucky pink tape on the stock cooler or better paste? Good paste is often worth 2 to 3 degrees alone.

How much will you gain with the Volcano? Probably a couple degrees. 3 to 4 maybe. When you run the fan on high speed and thus increased noise. I have installed a couple in other customers box's. Wasnt real impressed. When the fan is dialed down to a reasonable speed its not much better. At full blast it cools a little better but sounds like a dentist drill after awhile. Boring a hole into your frontal lobe.

If your gonna replace it with a $35 cooler spend another five and get a big zalman. Cools about the same but is much quieter.

If your serious about your OC then the bigger more expensive HSF's are needed. If your trying to OC hard on air you need a serious HSF and the volcano just isnt in that class.

Tex

[07mavribea]

I am only using the tacky thermal mat on the stock so i wouldn't void warranty. I am running at 40 degrees idle. Is paste like Arctic Silver really worth a couple degrees?

[Tex]

yes. AC5 properly applied is worth a couple degrees.

And the paste won't void the warranty. If the cpu croaks... you read them the label on top of the factory HSF to make sure you were running a acceptable HSF. (keep the old one if you replace it) and you only ship the cpu back to AMD. Just clean it good with alcohol and a cotton swab. They just care that you run some kind of paste. The gummy pink stuff is marginal. I mean it's OK but...

You didnt mention your full load temps but 40 degrees at idle is a nice temp. As long as you stay under 52 to 55 at load or so I woudlnt waste more money on it unless your really excited about pushing the OC higher and already have high end memory and stuff in place.

Tex