Intel stock HSF minireview

[mwmorph]

I'm not sure if anyone has this, but I received a Intel Pentium E5200(45nm) yesterday.

I was expecting a RCBFH like the one reviewed here:
http://www.frostytech.com/arti...iew.cfm?articleID=2335
but alas, it seems as if Intel has cut some corners.

Firstly, lets take a look at the overall package. You can see that the E5200 heatsink is different off the bat. It still uses the 85mmx85mmx25mm 0.6Amp fan from the previous unit, but there is now about half as much aluminum as before. The total height of the entire heatsink/fan is only about 45mm now instead of 63mm.

Now onto the heatsink itself. As you could see from the previous review, the fins come off of an aluminum slug at the center as an heat spreading core. The new E5200 heatink no longer has it, the heatsink now has just an hollow aluminum core that the fins seem machined from.

Flipping it over, we can see the thermal paste and aluminum base. One again, the base on the previous review is machined to a smooth finish. On the other hand, the E5200 heatsink has an obviously unfinished bottom. It compares to the stock HSF of the AMD Athlon 64 S939 heatsinks. The texture is about as close to brushed aluminum as you can get. Furthermore, the thermal paste is difficult to spread, with incredibly high viscosity.

Now onto temperature numbers. I installed the heatsink in a Tuniq 3 case with 3 120mm fans at 1200rpm(1 intake, 1 exhaust, 1 in side panel, blowing on cpu), and a Radeon 4870. Room temperature is 22*C ambient in case idle temps stay around 36*C. At idle, the results look acceptable. The idle temp is 46*C, but at load, the temperature shoots up to 69*C at stock vcore and frequencies. These temperatures were recorded with the fan locked at 100% RPM(2000rpm +-75)

I didn't believe the results at first so I removed the heatsink and reinstalled it 3 times with the same results. A mild vcore bump(in bios) from 1.1625 to 1.225(1.13-1.19 after vdroop) and frequency bump from 2500mhz to 3000mhz raised load temps to 81*C.

So my conclusion is this; If you are buying a retail low end intel processor, do not count on the stock HSF even at stock. Make sure you get an aftermarket heatsink because imo, the intel heatsink isn't to be trusted with anything over a Pentium II.

 

[daw123]

I can understand the logic behind Intel changing the quality of the HSF.

They can't really improve on the cost of manufacturing the chip (unless they change the fab, which wouldn't be worth it on the low-end CPUs, not using the latest socket).

So their options for maximising profitability for each unit is either increasing the cost of the unit (not desirable for obvious reasons), cheaper packaging or cheaper HSF. They wouldn't reduce the (perceived) quality of the packaging, for marketing reasons, so the only thing left is the HSF.

It would be interesting if there are benchmarks for the same CPU in the same rig using the old and new style HSF to see how different the HSFs are in performance.

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
I'm not sure if anyone has this, but I received a Intel Pentium E5200(45nm) yesterday.


Flipping it over, we can see the thermal paste and aluminum base. One again, the base on the previous review is machined to a smooth finish. On the other hand, the E5200 heatsink has an obviously unfinished bottom. It compares to the stock HSF of the AMD Athlon 64 S939 heatsinks. The texture is about as close to brushed aluminum as you can get. Furthermore, the thermal paste is difficult to spread, with incredibly high viscosity.

Now onto temperature numbers. I installed the heatsink in a Tuniq 3 case with 3 120mm fans at 1200rpm(1 intake, 1 exhaust, 1 in side panel, blowing on cpu), and a Radeon 4870. Room temperature is 22*C ambient in case idle temps stay around 36*C. At idle, the results look acceptable. The idle temp is 46*C, but at load, the temperature shoots up to 69*C at stock vcore and frequencies. These temperatures were recorded with the fan locked at 100% RPM(2000rpm +-75)

I didn't believe the results at first so I removed the heatsink and reinstalled it 3 times with the same results. A mild vcore bump(in bios) from 1.1625 to 1.225(1.13-1.19 after vdroop) and frequency bump from 2500mhz to 3000mhz raised load temps to 81*C.

So my conclusion is this; If you are buying a retail low end intel processor, do not count on the stock HSF even at stock. Make sure you get an aftermarket heatsink because imo, the intel heatsink isn't to be trusted with anything over a Pentium II.

The thermal paste on the bottom of intel coolers is supposed to be like that. When you mount for the first time, the "pressure" of the push-pins and the heat of the processor spreads it out evenly. If you tried to spread it before mounting it, I would recommend peeling it off, cleaning it with 91& isopropyl alcohol, and reapplying your TIM of choice following that TIM's directions.

Also, the stock intel cooler is meant for that. stock. not overclocking.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: PCTC2

Originally posted by: mwmorph
I'm not sure if anyone has this, but I received a Intel Pentium E5200(45nm) yesterday.


Flipping it over, we can see the thermal paste and aluminum base. One again, the base on the previous review is machined to a smooth finish. On the other hand, the E5200 heatsink has an obviously unfinished bottom. It compares to the stock HSF of the AMD Athlon 64 S939 heatsinks. The texture is about as close to brushed aluminum as you can get. Furthermore, the thermal paste is difficult to spread, with incredibly high viscosity.

Now onto temperature numbers. I installed the heatsink in a Tuniq 3 case with 3 120mm fans at 1200rpm(1 intake, 1 exhaust, 1 in side panel, blowing on cpu), and a Radeon 4870. Room temperature is 22*C ambient in case idle temps stay around 36*C. At idle, the results look acceptable. The idle temp is 46*C, but at load, the temperature shoots up to 69*C at stock vcore and frequencies. These temperatures were recorded with the fan locked at 100% RPM(2000rpm +-75)

I didn't believe the results at first so I removed the heatsink and reinstalled it 3 times with the same results. A mild vcore bump(in bios) from 1.1625 to 1.225(1.13-1.19 after vdroop) and frequency bump from 2500mhz to 3000mhz raised load temps to 81*C.

So my conclusion is this; If you are buying a retail low end intel processor, do not count on the stock HSF even at stock. Make sure you get an aftermarket heatsink because imo, the intel heatsink isn't to be trusted with anything over a Pentium II.

The thermal paste on the bottom of intel coolers is supposed to be like that. When you mount for the first time, the "pressure" of the push-pins and the heat of the processor spreads it out evenly. If you tried to spread it before mounting it, I would recommend peeling it off, cleaning it with 91& isopropyl alcohol, and reapplying your TIM of choice following that TIM's directions.

Also, the stock intel cooler is meant for that. stock. not overclocking.

I didn't try spreading it until my 4th remount since I kept assuming I mounted it wrong. The temperatures represented are stock. I have since upgeaded to a Thermaltake V1 and temperatures in idle are 23/26*C(35*ambient [no idea where ambient reading came from, probably psu or NB]) at stock clocks.

Considering the max long term allowable temp for a E500 is something like 74.1*C, 69 load is simply unacceptable. It's absolutely rediculous. It'd be better to cut the price and not include a HSF if you're going to include one of such poor quality.

Originally posted by: daw123
I can understand the logic behind Intel changing the quality of the HSF.

They can't really improve on the cost of manufacturing the chip (unless they change the fab, which wouldn't be worth it on the low-end CPUs, not using the latest socket).

So their options for maximising profitability for each unit is either increasing the cost of the unit (not desirable for obvious reasons), cheaper packaging or cheaper HSF. They wouldn't reduce the (perceived) quality of the packaging, for marketing reasons, so the only thing left is the HSF.

It would be interesting if there are benchmarks for the same CPU in the same rig using the old and new style HSF to see how different the HSFs are in performance.

I'm running ORTHOS max CPU stress right now, instead of 69*, its running at 51* with the fan set on minimum speed on a Thermaltake V1. I know the V1 isn't the best cooler, but I cant wait for shipping so I just went out to best buy and bought the best one they had.

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: PCTC2

Originally posted by: mwmorph
I'm not sure if anyone has this, but I received a Intel Pentium E5200(45nm) yesterday.


Flipping it over, we can see the thermal paste and aluminum base. One again, the base on the previous review is machined to a smooth finish. On the other hand, the E5200 heatsink has an obviously unfinished bottom. It compares to the stock HSF of the AMD Athlon 64 S939 heatsinks. The texture is about as close to brushed aluminum as you can get. Furthermore, the thermal paste is difficult to spread, with incredibly high viscosity.

Now onto temperature numbers. I installed the heatsink in a Tuniq 3 case with 3 120mm fans at 1200rpm(1 intake, 1 exhaust, 1 in side panel, blowing on cpu), and a Radeon 4870. Room temperature is 22*C ambient in case idle temps stay around 36*C. At idle, the results look acceptable. The idle temp is 46*C, but at load, the temperature shoots up to 69*C at stock vcore and frequencies. These temperatures were recorded with the fan locked at 100% RPM(2000rpm +-75)

I didn't believe the results at first so I removed the heatsink and reinstalled it 3 times with the same results. A mild vcore bump(in bios) from 1.1625 to 1.225(1.13-1.19 after vdroop) and frequency bump from 2500mhz to 3000mhz raised load temps to 81*C.

So my conclusion is this; If you are buying a retail low end intel processor, do not count on the stock HSF even at stock. Make sure you get an aftermarket heatsink because imo, the intel heatsink isn't to be trusted with anything over a Pentium II.

The thermal paste on the bottom of intel coolers is supposed to be like that. When you mount for the first time, the "pressure" of the push-pins and the heat of the processor spreads it out evenly. If you tried to spread it before mounting it, I would recommend peeling it off, cleaning it with 91& isopropyl alcohol, and reapplying your TIM of choice following that TIM's directions.

Also, the stock intel cooler is meant for that. stock. not overclocking.

I didn't try spreading it until my 4th remount since I kept assuming I mounted it wrong. The temperatures represented are stock. I have since upgeaded to a Thermaltake V1 and temperatures in idle are 23/26*C(35*ambient [no idea where ambient reading came from, probably psu or NB]) at stock clocks.

Considering the max long term allowable temp for a E500 is something like 74.1*C, 69 load is simply unacceptable. It's absolutely rediculous. It'd be better to cut the price and not include a HSF if you're going to include one of such poor quality.

There's 1 problem right there. Each time you remount, you need to clean both the CPU and the HSF and replace the TIM.

 

[Thraxen]

Anything with push pins is flat out terrible. That's all that really needs to be said.

 

[Zap]

YMMV

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: Zap
YMMV

Wow. Maybe you can post some pics of the HS?
Could you have bad airflow in your case?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: coolVariable

Originally posted by: Zap
YMMV

Wow. Maybe you can post some pics of the HS?
Could you have bad airflow in your case?

http://img125.imageshack.us/my...?image=image225pg7.jpg
http://img519.imageshack.us/my...?image=image226qa6.jpg
http://img264.imageshack.us/my...?image=image227ym6.jpg
http://img264.imageshack.us/my...?image=image228lv3.jpg
http://img264.imageshack.us/my...?image=image229ad5.jpg
http://img264.imageshack.us/my...?image=image230py4.jpg

Sorry for the low quality cellphone pics. For reference, the fan is 85x25mm, the aluminum base seems to be ~90x20mm.

I've since replaced it with a Thermaltake V1 and I'm running 3.83ghz(11.5*333) 5:8 memory 1.36/1.376vcore that never goes above 61*C.

The airflow in my case is very good. Ambient goes up to maybe 33*C under Prime95 or Orthos.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'd like to say that you did something wrong.

Check out my thread in the CPU forum, here

I got 44C load temps, running Prime95 25.6 on both threads, on an E5200 at stock speeds, using the stock cooler, in an Antec 300 case with two front tricool fans on low, and the rear and top tricool fans also on low. CPU smart fan was enabled, so it was running at around 1200RPM, rather than the max of 2000 RPM.

If you were getting 69C load temps, I would check your mounting.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: PCTC2

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: PCTC2

Originally posted by: mwmorph
I'm not sure if anyone has this, but I received a Intel Pentium E5200(45nm) yesterday.


Flipping it over, we can see the thermal paste and aluminum base. One again, the base on the previous review is machined to a smooth finish. On the other hand, the E5200 heatsink has an obviously unfinished bottom. It compares to the stock HSF of the AMD Athlon 64 S939 heatsinks. The texture is about as close to brushed aluminum as you can get. Furthermore, the thermal paste is difficult to spread, with incredibly high viscosity.

Now onto temperature numbers. I installed the heatsink in a Tuniq 3 case with 3 120mm fans at 1200rpm(1 intake, 1 exhaust, 1 in side panel, blowing on cpu), and a Radeon 4870. Room temperature is 22*C ambient in case idle temps stay around 36*C. At idle, the results look acceptable. The idle temp is 46*C, but at load, the temperature shoots up to 69*C at stock vcore and frequencies. These temperatures were recorded with the fan locked at 100% RPM(2000rpm +-75)

I didn't believe the results at first so I removed the heatsink and reinstalled it 3 times with the same results. A mild vcore bump(in bios) from 1.1625 to 1.225(1.13-1.19 after vdroop) and frequency bump from 2500mhz to 3000mhz raised load temps to 81*C.

So my conclusion is this; If you are buying a retail low end intel processor, do not count on the stock HSF even at stock. Make sure you get an aftermarket heatsink because imo, the intel heatsink isn't to be trusted with anything over a Pentium II.

The thermal paste on the bottom of intel coolers is supposed to be like that. When you mount for the first time, the "pressure" of the push-pins and the heat of the processor spreads it out evenly. If you tried to spread it before mounting it, I would recommend peeling it off, cleaning it with 91& isopropyl alcohol, and reapplying your TIM of choice following that TIM's directions.

Also, the stock intel cooler is meant for that. stock. not overclocking.

I didn't try spreading it until my 4th remount since I kept assuming I mounted it wrong. The temperatures represented are stock. I have since upgeaded to a Thermaltake V1 and temperatures in idle are 23/26*C(35*ambient [no idea where ambient reading came from, probably psu or NB]) at stock clocks.

Considering the max long term allowable temp for a E500 is something like 74.1*C, 69 load is simply unacceptable. It's absolutely rediculous. It'd be better to cut the price and not include a HSF if you're going to include one of such poor quality.

There's 1 problem right there. Each time you remount, you need to clean both the CPU and the HSF and replace the TIM.

not entirely true.....

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: jyjjy777
I've got an e5200 running at 3.3 ghz on stock cooling. Just upped the voltage to 1.26, the FSB to 266 and a 2/3 fsb/ram divider runs the ram at its normal speed (ddr2-800)
Doesn't go over 50 degrees C even when gaming. I'm sure it could go higher but I figured if I'm going to push it I should get a better fan/heatsink and I haven't bothered yet.

 

[TidusZ]

Funny enough, my q9550 came with one of the skinny stock hsf's as well. When I saw it I was like wtf?? I would never let it touch my q9550 though, kinda out of its league. It's still in its box.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: TidusZ
Funny enough, my q9550 came with one of the skinny stock hsf's as well. When I saw it I was like wtf?? I would never let it touch my q9550 though, kinda out of its league. It's still in its box.

Yeah those remind me of the cheap Celeron coolers. Definitely skimpy for sure!

 

[scruffypup]

Personally I have more suspicions about the results you obtained than the intel HSF,... if the spec for the chip is 72.4, I highly doubt that Intel would skimp so much to put it at that edge first of all at stock as you say,.. it just wouldn't be worth it to intel.

Second, I have personally overclocked a few of the chips to 3.2 on stock cooling without issues or worries,....

I have seen better reviews that show the stock hsf does provide adequate cooling at stock speeds; as well as, moderate overclocks,....