best cooler/heatsink/fan?

[ChinamanatNCSU]

now I'm a complete newb when it comes to these things, but its the fan that sits atop the cpu, whatever the correct term for it is. Anyways, i'm looking for a quality one that will cool my cpu the best, b/c it seems the ones I have been getting are POS and don't work very well. oh and being quiet would also be a plus. I have an athlon 1 gig tbird and a msi k7t turbo. No overclocking or anything. I'm looking for suggestions of a nice brand/model, and the price I should expect to pay for one. Thanks in advance!

oh and I apologize for posting this in OT b/c it is better suited for another forum, but I know OT always has a crowd

 

[zayened]

www.thermalright.com

 

[yakko]

Heatsink? What are those for?

 

[ChinamanatNCSU]

Heatsink? What are those for?

lol, I have not a clue. which ones are they?

 

[Nitemare]

I've got two of these and love them..

Vantec

They can be noisy in a thin case though..
This site is where I purchased them from as well, only I paid alot more for them. They have alot of HSF's as well. For quietness I think the Taisol made a good one

 

[Electrode]

I'm using Thermaltake Volcano 6 Cu+ HSFs in my dualie AMD rig. They're not the best, but for $10 a piece they are pretty damn good.

And for those who really do not know: an HSF (HeatSink/Fan) is a device used to cool things like CPUs, 3D cards, northbridges, and sometimes even RAM. It consists of a heatsink (an aluminum or copper block with fins or pins to add surface area and thus increase heat dissipation) and a fan mounted on top of it to curculate air through it. Without one, your CPU will not work very well. A P4 will slow to a crawl, a P3 will lock up, and an Athlon will melt!

A cheap one will work fine if you are not overclocking, but if you are, you will need a more powerful cooler.


I hope my little writeup has been informative.

 

[dude]

If you are going to overclock, think about how much the heatsink will cost, and your cpu costs. Then, see if you can get a quieter and less expensive fan if you buy a more expensive cpu.

I've seen all too many $40-50 tornado sounding heatsinks on $60-100 cpus. That just is silly, in my opinion.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Keep in mind how HEAVY the heatsink is too.

I have replaced WAY TOO MANY CPU's because people use heavy heatsinks that only clamp on to the MIDDLE mounting tab on the socket.

What happens is if the mounting tab for the heatsink is in the 6 and 12 o'clock position (as you look at the board in a tower case), instead of 3 and 9 o'clock, the weight of the heatsink actually ROCKS THE HEATSINK BACK OFF OF THE CPU! This, of course, fries the CPU if you do not catch it in time and literally "push" the heatsink back onto the CPU.

If you use a big, heavy, copper heatsink use one that grabs onto ALL THREE tabs on either side of the socket or one that uses the four holes in the motherboard to mount the heatsink.

I'm not kiddng.

 

[SpecialEd]

go to that thermalright link in the first post.. they make awesome HSF for AMDs... the SK6 and the AX7 rock.