Which HSF & thermal paste to replace stock i7 930? Need advice!

[Xpred]

Current setup:
i7 930 @ 2.8 (stock)
ASUS P6T SE mobo
6GB G.SKILL PI (rated at DDR3-1600 1.5v, but running at DDR3-1066 1.5v)
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 (@ 775/1125)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Antec TruePower 650W
Antec 900 case (semi-modded for cable management)

Hi everyone. I'm looking for recommendations and advice on upgrading to an aftermarket cooler plus better thermal paste. It is my first time upgrading any CPU of any kind, but it's definitely time.

Currently, I am running my i7 930 at stock speeds with the stock HSF + stock thermal paste. My idling temperatures are around 34-38 while loads at about 80-90% are 61-65. I have decent airflow with my case, and currently have my HD5850 OC'ed at it's max without voltage control (775/1125).

Because I wanted to leave everything at stock, my RAM is also running at DDR3-1066 at 1.5V, despite it being rated for a higher speed. I had originally tried running the RAM at DDR3-1600, however, my temps go up a tad bit, thus I wanted to stay stock and relatively cool.

My overall goal is to O/C my processor to around 3.4-3.6 GHz without temp changes in idling or load... or even better, the temperatures would actually be cooler! (if possible). I would also up my RAM back to its rated speed at DDR3-1600, and hopefully this would not change too much temps again. Hopefully, all this achieved with a better HSF and better thermal paste. My questions are as follows:

1) Which CPU HSF/cooler and thermal paste would you recommend for my setup and system? Keep in mind that I would like a HSF that is very easy to install (similar to the stock HSF maybe?) because I haven't installed an aftermarket HSF ever before. I understand that my G.SKILL PI RAM is very tall as well, and that may limit some of the better cpu coolers--oh well.

2) Also, am I also able to still enable SpeedStep (or any optimizations) after O/C'ing? I would like my processor to idle and remain as cool as possible at the minimum needed clocks when not in full use. I guess I would want the O/Ced speed to really kick when I need it to go that high. Is this possible?

I'd figure if I use better cooling components, I would get more performance (more bang for the buck) and still not change the lifespan of my components. Thank you!

 

[adamantinepiggy]

At the low OC range you want, you aren't going to affect the life of the CPU or any other component to any noticeable degree whether it runs another +10-15 deg C or not... Chances are stock voltages will get you to 3.6 without issue, and while it won't be exactly cool running, the stock heat sink should get you that far with the low OC and stock voltage. Some good case fans for good airflow with the stock heatsink and compound is plenty good for a < 3.6Ghz OC @ stock voltage with good case airflow.

Worrying about the life of the CPU with such a low overclock and stock or barely over stock voltage is pointless unless you plan on running 100&#37; load 24/7 for years. If you are really paranoid, then drop on a cheap Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 or similar, which is plenty for a low OC..

 

[Rifter]

Corsair H50's can be had pretty cheap onsale nowdays. Not a bad option.

Or any midrange aircooler will be good for that low of a OC. I went with the Noctura NH-D14 because i was shooting for 4Ghz+ and wanted one of the best, and its great and comes with nice fans but the price is steep.

 

[bryanW1995]

+1 for the noctua nh-d14. prolimatech megahalems is the only one that compares, but you must buy fans to go with it separately.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Actually, you can do very well with the:

NH-d14
CoGage Arrow
Venomous X
Megahalems

Those would be the top ones on my list anyway, in general order of preference.

As far as TIM goes, if you want something that's really good "conventional" paste, then get some Shit Etsu x23-7783D.

Anything better than that and you're getting into exotics that have . . . issues.

 

[Ben90]

At the low OC range you want, you aren't going to affect the life of the CPU or any other component to any noticeable degree whether it runs another +10-15 deg C or not... Chances are stock voltages will get you to 3.6 without issue, and while it won't be exactly cool running, the stock heat sink should get you that far with the low OC and stock voltage. Some good case fans for good airflow with the stock heatsink and compound is plenty good for a < 3.6Ghz OC @ stock voltage with good case airflow.

Worrying about the life of the CPU with such a low overclock and stock or barely over stock voltage is pointless unless you plan on running 100% load 24/7 for years. If you are really paranoid, then drop on a cheap Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 or similar, which is plenty for a low OC..

I 100% agree. If the OP can get to 3.6 without any voltage bump, I would check loads again and most likely just stick with the stock cooler.

 

[alfa147x]

Actually, you can do very well with the:

NH-d14
CoGage Arrow
Venomous X
Megahalems

Those would be the top ones on my list anyway, in general order of preference.

As far as TIM goes, if you want something that's really good "conventional" paste, then get some Shit Etsu x23-7783D.

Anything better than that and you're getting into exotics that have . . . issues.

Any good guide on how to apply the Shit Etsu x23-7783D?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Not much to it. I always used the "grain of rice" method, though for my applications, I applied to a lapped surface (600 grit), so it was more of a "half a grain of rice". It has been observed that the good old credit card method is slightly better, but I think once you get to the point that you are using a lapped surface to strive for smaller and thinner applications of the paste, the method of application becomes less relevant.

But, for the most part, you can apply it as though it were AS5 and it will do pretty well. Cure time is about 4 hours.

 

[P4man]

I have the antec 300 which is similar to your case but smaller. There are some pitfalls with this case you might want to keep in mind. Have a look at this picture:
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5822/airflow.jpg

As you can see, I have a scythe mugen CPU cooler, which is a pretty damn good cooler BUT:
I can not mount the cpu fan on the "right" side (in the pic) because as you pointed out, RAM modules with big heatsinks get in the way.

Mounting it at the top or left didnt make any sense to me as the would be just a few cm from the 120 and 140 case fans and the fans would fight each other.

Mounting it at the bottom might work but is so close to my videocard and therefore too turbulent which means: noisy. My solution? Dont use a cpu fan at all. Rely on the case fans which are close enough and huge.

My CPU temps are great (despite 60&#37; overclock of my C2D E6400 from 2.1 to 3.2 GHz), believe it or not, they are better than they were with the CPU fan in my previous case. But my motherboard temps are rather high. Thats because of the chipset heatpipe/cooler blocks mounted around the CPU socket which are clearly designed for a regular downward blowing CPU fan. As it is now, they are not getting much airflow and my chipset is almost hotter than my CPU (and probably limiting my overclock).

Anyway, all that to say I wouldnt use a CPU cooler with a horizontal fan in this case, at least not if your motherboard has heatpipes laid out like mine.

As for thermal paste; thermal paste is overrated . The differences are so minor it really doesnt matter what you get unless you are trying to break world records. Use whatever comes with the cooler.

 

[petrusbroder]

Just to add one more aspect: as long as the thermal paste is of reasonable quality (AS5 or similar) the contact between the HSF and CPU is of very big importance. There should be sufficient pressure between those and it should be really even.

Please see this thread, posts 93 forward. Also some of the last posts ...
Here are some more pics of pressure measurments.

My own experience: When adjusting (increasing) the pressure between my Noctua HSF with one quarter turn (it seems I did not do it right the first time ... ) the temps dropped with 4 degrees C when running 100&#37; CPU utilisation (Prime96) for 1 hour.

 

[adamantinepiggy]

Talk about messed up perspectives... The OP want's to OC to a "max" of 3.6 on a CPU that will likely do that at stock voltages. Everyone is recommending $75+ dollar heatsinks and $10 Thermal compunds...

Great recomendations. ..

If he actually needs to keep his temp down, although his reasoning is flawed, a much cheaper heatsink will do that job at a measly 3.6 OC.

That's like telling someone to get a supercharger and nitrous because they want to cruise at 75mph instead of 65mph..

 

[petrusbroder]

In one way I agree, but it depends on what OP will be doing. If it is gaming, well that does usually not tax the CPU overly much, if he wants some database work done that may be more. If he does video-editing, image processing, distributed computing the matter may be different: those apps tax the CPU much more and may be more error sensitive.
I have my i7-860 OC to 3.4GHz (could probably do 3.6 GHz or more) but I run it 24/7 at 100&#37; utilization doing distributed computing - and that is sufficient to drive the temps quite high.
The interest is not only speed but also sufficient accuracy in calculating: if the OC or temperature is too high now and then a work unit is discarded with errors. That means that the computer may have crunched 2 - 96 hours for nothing. Ususally this happens with the long or important work units ...

 

[petrusbroder]

... parts cut away...
As for thermal paste; thermal paste is overrated . The differences are so minor it really doesnt matter what you get unless you are trying to break world records. Use whatever comes with the cooler.

As long as it is thermal paste - thermal pads are much worse, and the compound Intel is using on their coolers is not good at all if you load your CPU a lot.
In my exsperience the difference between the compound Intel is using and a good quality thermal paste (Arctic Silver or NH-1) is 6 - 8 ºC lower temperature, OTOH I run my CPUs at 100% utilisation in distributed computing. This is not world record breaking, this is tens of thousands crunchers using their CPUs to the max: You may want to check that here ...

 

[adamantinepiggy]

In one way I agree, but it depends on what OP will be doing. If it is gaming, well that does usually not tax the CPU overly much, if he wants some database work done that may be more. If he does video-editing, image processing, distributed computing the matter may be different: those apps tax the CPU much more and may be more error sensitive.
I have my i7-860 OC to 3.4GHz (could probably do 3.6 GHz or more) but I run it 24/7 at 100&#37; utilization doing distributed computing - and that is sufficient to drive the temps quite high.

Well I can understand wanting to keep cool under a 100% load 24/7, but in this particular case, it seems the OP is putting forth the notion that the concern is component longevity versus requiring bulletproof high-load/high-precision operation. As a stock voltage OC to a mild number, even at a higher temp, is going to have a negligeable affect on the useable lifetime of his CPU, spending an extra $80 + couple hours of labor for a few degrees is pointless as the life of his CPU will still be far longer than its actual usefullness past 2-4 years. Now if he were talking 4+Ghz and large bumps in voltage, than sure, pour on the cooling money, but $80+ in cooling is overkill if it's only to make his CPU last longer.

As to your crunching high-precision numbers (and I'm not trying to be an ass here, just curious because you make it sound like your "job or interest" requires lots of high-precision calculation work), if errors are an issue, how come your not running a Xeon and some ECC RAM (assuming you just have to have a socket 1366 and x58 chipset)? It would seem that flipped bits would be just as large if not larger a hazard in long-term high precision as CPU calculation errors since conservative estimates put flipped bits occuring at least once per day with only 4GB RAM and high loads and are more likely to cascade compounding errors.

I REALLy wish my 980X supported ECC RAM. I actually have 3 x 8 GB ECC sticks sitting in front of me with no home :-(.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Talk about messed up perspectives... The OP want's to OC to a "max" of 3.6 on a CPU that will likely do that at stock voltages. Everyone is recommending $75+ dollar heatsinks and $10 Thermal compunds...

The Arrow is around $60-$65, the Megahalems $50-$60, and x23-7783D is not all that expensive. Fry's has it for, what, $8? That stuff will last forever since you don't really need to use much. Or, at least, I didn't. If you want expensive TIM, there's always IX which is around $20 for two applications, or Liquid Metal Ultra.

On the HSF front, he can get a Baram for $40 (plus cost of fan/fans), or a Mugen 2 for around $38 shipped, if he wants to pay less. There are still deals on the 212+ around too, I'm sure.

Part of the joy of some of the "elite" coolers is that they can either be used for truly aggressive cooling, or for superior cooling at relatively low noise levels. I wouldn't necessarily recommend any of the coolers I mentioned for fanless operation (for that, the Orochi works well), but the nh-d14 makes practically zero noise with the stock fans, unless you're extremely sensitive to noise. Similarly-silent setups can be had with the Venomous X, Arrow, or Megahalems. I don't think the stock fan with the Megahalems is even that noisy.

Great recomendations. ..

Why not? Besides, 3.6 today is 4 ghz tomorrow, etc. We have no idea what future software developments will do to his hardware needs, and it's always nice to have a little something extra on tap.

That's like telling someone to get a supercharger and nitrous because they want to cruise at 75mph instead of 65mph..

Boo on car analogies.

 

[Xpred]

The NH-D14 looked something like I was interested in at first, but checking the RAM compatibility on Noctua's website, my RAM was not compatible being it has tall heatsink spreaders.

Just researching more, I just looked into the Corsair H50, and it didn't seem like a traditional water cooling. I originally thought the cooler required maintenance and such. It also looks very small compared to the CM 212+.

So I'm re-evaluating and thinking of either going with the CM Hyper 212+ or Corsair H50. I guess since I've never installed a cooler other than stock on my CPU, I believe installation-wise (not price) would be the determining factor here. There are a few potential questions I can think of with either one I choose:

1) Anyone know if I would have to modify my Antec 900 case to accommodate either one? From searching the threads, it appears that the Antec 900 side case plastic "fan holder" (that sticks out) may interfere with the CM 212+? Anyone know would I have to remove that?

2) Another question pertains to the H50 being compatible with my case as well. From the videos, it looks like I would have to mount that radiator to 120mm rear fan. Do I need to reverse the fan so that the air is blowing a certain way? (As I write this thread, I don't recall if my rear fan is pushing air out or sucking air in)

3) The concept of "push-pull" is relatively new to me, and I was thinking that I would want to leave either coolers, depending on which one I get, as just a single fan default configuration. Would the H50 single fan be as okay as the CM 212+ single fan?

Thanks!

 

[Rifter]

the corsair H50 and CM 212 would both be fine for your mild OC with 1 fan. Corsair recommends intake as the fan direction for the rad. Of course the H50 looks smaller, its a waterblock not a air heatsink.

Both will fit just fine in your 900, trust me if i can fit the NH-D14 in a Antec 300 you will have no issues at all with a CM 212 in a 900. And the H50 is so small it would fit in any case i have ever seen so no fitment issues there.

 

[Kakkoii]

Arctic Silver 5 is one of the cheapest and one of the best thermal pastes you can get.