CPU cooler advice for Phenom II X6 1090T

[kaosturtle]

Hi im new to aftermarket CPU coolers completely, I have only ever used the stock cooler on my AMD Pheom II X6 1090T but im finding the stock performance abit lacking. I was hoping to overclock it but i wanted to keep the temperatures down. Im looking for advice on a new CPU cooler that will let me get a good performance overclock on it and be stable and with manageable temps. A guy I know is replacing his Coolermaster V8 soon and said hed sell it to me for 25 bucks. Is it a decent cooler? he says it is but i looked at a hardware canucks review and it wasn't so good.
Some info on my system is
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition CPU
Asus 4A78T-E Mobo
Mushkin silverline DDR3 1333mhz 2x2g Ram
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2gb OC Edition VGA
Coolermaster V3 black edition mid tower.
Ultra LSP650 Powersupply

Thanks in advance!
Also sidenote im not looking to spend a ton of money looking for advice on a decent midrange i guess CPU cooler.
Also is the Corsair HT-40 any good?

 

[Harvey]

Before you invest in a new heatsink and fan, the stock cooler that came with your CPU may be adequate, especially if you invest in a tube of a good thermal compound like Arctic Silver 5 or one of the other known good ones.

Start by checking the temps you're getting, now. You may find that simply cleaning off the original thermal compound and replacing it with a better compound will reduce your temps. If so, you can try OC'ing while monitoring your temps as you increase your clock speed. If it works, you'll save some money. If not, you'd want to use the better compound with your new cooler so you've lost nothing for trying.

Thermal compound is intended to fill microscopic gaps between the surface of the heatsink and the chip so you want to apply the thinnest possible coat to the cooling area. Anything more will impede thermal contact, not improve it. I usually put a small BB size drop on the mating surface of the chip and use my finger to spread it evenly.

Windex removes it from fingers, too.

 

[kaosturtle]

partially why I was also thinking of upgrading CPU coolers is because of noise aswell, my stock cpu cooler is pretty noisy when I put my computer into performance mode(high speed on all fans) When my computer is on power saver mode and nice and quiet the cpu temp is around the low 50's and the core temp is high 30's(38 right now) on performance the CPU has dropped to 46 and the core at 34(the temps are slowly dropping)Edit after running for a little while with the fans going it got down to 44 CPU and still 34 at the core. What are good temps for OCing? Lower the better for me as my room is small and tends to heat up if my computer is running hot. Ill definitely pick up some of the thermal paste u mentioned from canadacomputers(only 8 bucks)

 

[poohbear]

They need a poweful heatsink cause 6 cores together produce A LOT of heat! My old Big Typoon heatsink was significantly bigger than the stock heatsink, but even that failed at overclocking. My advice is drop the cash on the best heatsink you can afford, it'll last you years and continue into your next upgrade. Thermalright's "SilverArrow SB-E" is currently the king of the hill, & i'd go that root of i were u! It's also dead silent, so u get the best of both worlds.

 

[lehtv]

Cooler Master V8 is decent cooler for $25.

I wouldn't go overclocking on an Ultra LSP650 though. Despite its 650W label, it's only rated for 38A = 456W of +12V. That makes it a 500W unit in terms of continous output, but I have no idea if it's even capable of maxing out the +12V output without going out of spec with voltage regulation, ripple or noise.

 

[kaosturtle]

What would your recommendations on a alternative psu be? and am i understanding you correctly that you don't think it will give the processor its fair share of needed power to OC?

 

[lehtv]

I can't say with any certainty that it'll fail if you OC, but I wouldn't trust an Ultra PSU with a "maybe". The PSU is the heart of your rig and arguably the most important component, make sure it's good.

I don't know where you're located so I can't recommend a specific PSU, but anything from the following brands is high quality (not a conclusive list but hopefully sufficient): Antec, Corsair, NZXT, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic, XFX.