Is all that cooling necessary?

[Kaadg]

Everyone knows that it?s good to keep the processor as cool as possible. With all these PC cases that have 4 or 5 case fans and special fans or water coolers on the processors; I wonder how much of that is overkill.

I know people who own Dells and have them loaded with graphic cards, second hard drives, etc. stashed in little boxes with one fan in the back and the OEM fan on the processor; these computers last for years with no problems. When you consider that most people buy a new computer every three years anyway, why bother?

The extra cooling may enable you to get a little bump in speed when overclocking, but will it really help the CPU last longer? I guess the real question is: if your getting rid of it in a few years anyway, do you really Need it to last longer?

I?m wondering how many of you out there are overclocking with the OEM cpu fan and a few case fans and have been doing that for a few years now without any problems?

Kaad_g

 

[Dough1397]

resale value?

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: Kaadg
Everyone knows that it?s good to keep the processor as cool as possible. With all these PC cases that have 4 or 5 case fans and special fans or water coolers on the processors; I wonder how much of that is overkill.

I know people who own Dells and have them loaded with graphic cards, second hard drives, etc. stashed in little boxes with one fan in the back and the OEM fan on the processor; these computers last for years with no problems. When you consider that most people buy a new computer every three years anyway, why bother?

The extra cooling may enable you to get a little bump in speed when overclocking, but will it really help the CPU last longer? I guess the real question is: if your getting rid of it in a few years anyway, do you really Need it to last longer?

I?m wondering how many of you out there are overclocking with the OEM cpu fan and a few case fans and have been doing that for a few years now without any problems?

Kaad_g

anyone who buys a dell has minimal need for a fast computer, anything they buy now will be enoguh for their needs 5 years from now. One theory is that computers have become a commodity, similar to a car, which although its value decreases with age, is still very valuable many yewar after it manufacture. If you have an 1ghz machine, you can still get a decent about of money if you sell it.

 

[CraigRT]

I do it almost solely for aesthetics... aftermarket coolers look better. stock coolers work just fine most of the time, and since i want quiet anyways, hardcore OCing is not an issue. I buy a HSF and then base my OCing on what I already have. but that's just me. as long as it cools at least equal to my stock HSF, while looking nice, and being quiet, I am happy. (my whole system is at that point right now) :thumbsup:

 

[Mrvile]

I'd have to say bragging rights.

"OMG liquid nitrogen Vapochill on teh FX55zors I OC my CPU to 4.35ghz and teh temps stay -50C OMG top that bitch"

 

[THUGSROOK]

id rather have a quiet PC myself.
the real tweak is getting the low speed / quiet stuff to be as efficiant as possible

 

[canadageek]

i've never much understood the "6 fans" way of thinking...i've got one intake, one exhaust and one slot cooler...my 2500+@2.2 hasn't gone over 35 celsius yet(then agian, it IS winter in canada)

 

[caz67]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
id rather have a quiet PC myself.
the real tweak is getting the low speed / quiet stuff to be as efficiant as possible

Exactly..!!

 

[Zebo]

It's only a waste if you don't mind your setup sounding like a dustbuster or worse.

There is only one way to be silent and run high performance parts. Watercooling. You transfer heat from a waterblock to a radiator which is much more effcient than any HS due to surface area. Some are so effcient you don't even need any fans such as the Zalman resevior or Innovatek passive rads.

I've seen some guys run with only a PSU fan for case cooling. You get a 120mm or 140 mm cooled PSu your system will be silent this way. Course you also need to spend $60 for each hardrive too by putting them in a Smartdrive 2002 and running slower seagates. PATA preferred as they have noise control enabled. Then your only souce of noise is CDroms but thier not always on. (megagames is your freind)

 

[Ariste]

Yeah, the major reason that I went with water cooling over good air cooling is because my system is almost dead silent. I leave it on 24/7 and it's in my room right near my bed... I don't want to try to sleep over a jet plane taking off. Of course, it does also keep my system very cool, but I'm confident that I could get close to the same overclocking results with air-cooling as well. Temperatures aren't really my problem, my CPU just won't go any farther.

 

[imported_whatever]

I went with water because that is the only way I am comfortable running my XP-M at 2.2v for anything, and because I CAN oc better with it, and it wasn't that much more expensive.

 

[Kaadg]

Interesting answers; seems the various cooling methods aren't always about the processor, but is also about personal preference and noise.

Kaadg

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Kaadg
The extra cooling may enable you to get a little bump in speed when overclocking, but will it really help the CPU last longer? I guess the real question is: if your getting rid of it in a few years anyway, do you really Need it to last longer?

Many pay attention to cooling of the CPU because they want to get every MHz that they can out of the CPU. If you overclock, you know that you even disable spread spectrum of the CPU clock in the BIOS. This provides very small amount of increase in overclock, much less than what good cooling provides.

So, I think people who pay attention to CPU cooling do it to increase their overclock, not their CPU lifetime.