do retail processors come with good enough cooling?

[Walleye]

see title. i intend to build a system without too much money, so i decided on a retail processor, hoping it comes with good enough cooling. i dont intend on overclocking it, and the case itself will have 4 fans.

also, do i need another fan for a hard disk, and another for the mobo?

 

[mechBgon]

You should be fine. I have lots of systems at work using the retail heatsinks that come with AthlonXP's. If you want to keep the hard drive's temperature steady, a case that has an intake fan blowing at the hard drive is just the ticket (the popular Chieftech/Antec cases have a HDD cage with an 80mm cooling fan holder right inside, is that what you're getting?).

The mobo itself... probably not going to need a separate fan for it.

What kind of system are you building? One thing to steer clear of is cheesy low-quality power supplies. Here's a quality case/PSU for $48 plus about $25 shipping (bad price on shipping, good price on case/PSU): Antec SLK3700AMB at Techstore.com with Antec SL350PSU and a 120mm exhaust fan, 3-year warranty. Pics of this case can be seen here. It would probably look its best with black drives. The PSU is a quality unit with two ball-bearing fans.

 

[lenjack]

Agreed...as long as your case cooling is decent and you don't overclock, the retail heatsink/fan is more than adequate.

 

[Walleye]

oh, with the hard drive, there's 1 intake at the bottom, 1 port in back, 1 in side, and 2 in front.

i dont know where the hard drive will sit. i've only price spec'ed this thing, i havent tried building it yet.