How good are the stock coolers on P4s

[Zanfib]

Just wondering, if I'm not overclocking will the stock coolers in the boxed P4s be good enough to keep my system running cool? The case will have one inward fan in the front, one inward on the side (right over the CPU and chipset), one outward on the back and a dual-fan PS. All the fans are 80mm and fairly slow rpms.

Should I go and buy a heatsink? I'm kinda worried about adding the thermal grease as I've never done it before.

Thanks.

 

[Budman]

You will be fine,the stock cooler is very capable.

 

[HardWired]

Yes, w/ no o'cing it works well. It'll do fine even with some mild o'cing.

 

[Krk3561]

The stock cooler also has a thermal pad on it so you dont need to use thermal grease. Using the pad is fine if you're no OCing.

 

[lenjack]

Stock cooler is very, very good and will allow a good amount of overclocking

 

[Antoneo]

Like the others, stock cooler is very good: Quiet with decent temps. It can easily handle a little overclocking, just remember to use thermal grease or Artic Silver instead of the thermal pad.

 

[shootinyou]

Stock HSF is quite capable IMO, my 2.4b C1 @ 170fsb sports 3074.32mhz
temps are 32c idle and 52c was the high in 2 hours of Prime95 using AS3.

 

[Zanfib]

Originally posted by: Antoneo
Like the others, stock cooler is very good: Quiet with decent temps. It can easily handle a little overclocking, just remember to use thermal grease or Artic Silver instead of the thermal pad.

So should I use thermal grease even if I'm going to run it at stock speeds? Also I'm operating on the assumption the packaged coolers for the prescott will be similar in capabilities to the current P4 coolers, and since prescott will be at 90 nm it will likely run equal or better than current p4s with intel coolers, right?

Thanks.

 

[canadianpsycho]

With P4's the heat typically comes from the voltage as opposed to the OC. If you can stick to the default voltage, you'll be able to OC nicely. But with a higher end HS, you could be able to top out a few MHz more FSB.

As a general rule of thumb, grease is better then the pad. Especially if using a good name brand like Arctic Silver or whatever.

Not sure about the Prescott.

 

[Egrimm]

Originally posted by: Zanfib
should I use thermal grease even if I'm going to run it at stock speeds? Also I'm operating on the assumption the packaged coolers for the prescott will be similar in capabilities to the current P4 coolers, and since prescott will be at 90 nm it will likely run equal or better than current p4s with intel coolers, right? Thanks.

The thermal pad is good enough even for oc'ing, put high performance grease like AS give you a bit lower temps. It isn't need by far though, the pad transfers the heat nicely. Had a 1.6A @ 2.64 with stock cooler and pad because I couldn't wait for my AS to arrive

Who knows about the Prescott, it is still half a year into the future (or so, no exact dates yet I'm pretty sure) so no point in guessing as what we know now isn't enough to get a good idea on how it'll be.

 

[lenjack]

At stock speeds, by all means use the pad.

 

[lookin4dlz]

I'm at 150 fsb on a P4 1.8a, stock hs & thermal pad w/ decently cool temps. Was too anxious to get up & runng when I bought it a few months ago, & since it's running fine, too lazy to put AS2 on it.