Cooling system provided w/AMD boxed processors any good?

[deyab]

I am planning to buy an Athlon XP 1500+ (maybe 1600+ or 1700+, depending on how greedy I feel when I place the order). I probably wouldn't overclock, but might. I am willing to pay a little extra over OEM to get the cooling element along with the processor. For example, www.pricescan.com lists XP1500+ OEM @ $116, and boxed @ $127. So theoretically a little over 10 bucks gets me the cooling and, more important, a 3 year warranty from AMD. But exactly what kind of cooling do I get? Is this any good? Can it handle a little bit of overclocking? Are these fans noisy? Which model/make of fan etc. is being used?

Any input would be gratly appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[SWScorch]

the heatsinks that come with retail chips are just barely adequate. They are meant to work in OEM systems with fairly good cooling and no overclocking. I doubt they could handle much overclocking, maybe 10% at the most. I think they are very quiet, but then again I think Deltas are "kinda loud I guess...."

I'm not positive on this, so dont quote me, but I think the retail HSF is either a coolermaster or a Taisol unit.

Anyway, if you think you might want to overclock, I'd go for another heatsink, and then even inadequate case ventilation wont make such an impact (its still very important though! never forget about case airflow!) I'd recommend a ThermalRight SK-6, ot a SVC Gladiator, GoldenGate: they are solid copper coolers, and can be mounted with different fans for different levels of cooling/noise. I've heard good things about Speeze coolers as well, as one of their units uses an 80mm fan but still fits on most motherboards and uses the standard cleats for attaching heatsinks.

 

[TSGrayson]

Refuse stock! There a number of much better cooling solutions out there...it all depends on how much you are wiling to spend.

 

[MrThompson]

Stock HSFs and thermal pads are designed to limit overclocking. Both the Glaciator and Akura with the 70mm fan are cheap, quiet and will provide much better cooling.

 

[alisajid]

I bought the stock XP 1600. The stock HSF is bad: inadequate cooling effectiveness coupled with noisiness do not make for a good HSF. I was routinely seeing temperatures in the range of 45-50C with little or no load. With an Alpha 8045 I have to say I didn't have to sacrifice cooling or my hearing.