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Athlon 64 - retail box heatsink/fan vs. Arctic Silver 5

M

MDesigner

Platinum Member
I'm upgrading to Athlon64 soon. I have two options:

1) Buy the retail box, stick the heatsink/fan onto the CPU and just use the thermal pad they supply.
2) Buy the OEM CPU, buy a heatsink & fan, buy Arctic Silver 5, and apply it to the CPU.

I know a lot of people recommend Arctic Silver, but hey.. surely whatever the retail box supplies should be sufficient, right? AMD wouldn't give you something that would cause the CPU to overheat.

So which route should I take?

PS: Important bit of info: I have no plans on overclocking, ever.
 
I would get whatver is the best price....

I got the oem but borrowed a stock cooler form a friend with one he wasn't using and ran my 300+ at 2.6ghz fine....that was with stock hsf and thermal pad......I only got a aftermarket fan so I could give it back....In hindsight for the 30 bucks I spent my idle temps only drop 2c and 4c-5c lload though I was in no danger with the temps on the stock hsf....

I didn't use AS5 on this setup...I find it hard to apply. I used some white paste that came with the aftermarket hsf and gp better temps then the AS5 atempts I made....

Your call...

If the retail is only 20-25 bucks more get it. The extra 20-25 is worth the hsf and the 3 year warranty...
 
I use the stock cooler with the pink TIM pad on my 3400+ and I am thoroughly pleased. And I am a long time user of high performance aftermarket coolers, too. In my case, I can't justify buying another cooler for this chip.

And I just saw your comment regarding not overclocking, ever. Don't waste your time and money getting an aftermarket cooler. The stock cooler from AMD is perfect for you. And me. 🙂
 
I agree.. I saw the ocing comment but felt the response was the same regardless....the fact is the hsf really works well and obviously has headroom...Not designed on the thermal edge....worth the added cost if it is within the 20-25 bucks more...
 
Originally posted by: pickle965
Is the thermal pad pre-applied on the retail AMD package heatsink?
Click to expand...
Yes, and it is either Shin-etsu G751 for the copper base model or their 7783D pad on the all aluminum model so it is excellent stuff and I would not remove it in favor of messy silver crap.

 
Thanks for the info, I'm definitely getting the retail box and sticking with the AMD supplied heatsink and fan.
 
Originally posted by: MDesigner
Thanks for the info, I'm definitely getting the retail box and sticking with the AMD supplied heatsink and fan.
Click to expand...

Well, I can't complain about the cooling of the stock Athlon64 socket 939 fan, BUT it is freakin LOUD!! By far the loudest fan in my case.

If anyone has any recommendations for a quieter fan that will cool just as well, please let me know.

Thanks.
 
Hm, my skt 754 stock fan is surprisingly quiet compared to the Athlon XP one I had.

Arctic silver is said to be capacitive, very theoretically damaging the CPU.
 
Originally posted by: MartinCracauer
Hm, my skt 754 stock fan is surprisingly quiet compared to the Athlon XP one I had.

Arctic silver is said to be capacitive, very theoretically damaging the CPU.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter with A64' since the bridges and what not are protected by the intgrated heatspreader.....I here more ppl recommending AS ceramique nowadays...

 
did i do something wrong? because i got a retail 3000+ and i added arctic silver to it w/out ripping off a pad of some sorts
 
Originally posted by: BBock7271
did i do something wrong? because i got a retail 3000+ and i added arctic silver to it w/out ripping off a pad of some sorts
Click to expand...

Yep...remove the TIM pad if you are going to use AS....Probably not making good thermal contact...by the way what are the temps???
 
I've been using the stock cooler with the pad and it's been working great. I've noticed a lot of people are getting some pretty nice overclocks with it too. Nice to see that AMD is including quality coolers with the A64.
 
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