Am I pushing my luck?

[kinnsy]

E6600 @3GHz with stock Intel cooler on a Asus P5K Bog standard.

screenie here

You will notice that I'm not using prime or any of the regular cpu stress progs. Folding@home SMP client designed for quad cores does the job as you can see from the four FahCore_a1.exe in the taskmanager window and cpu usage in speedfan.

I tend to run this 24/7 on this box unless I want to play a game or use something that needs the cpu horsepower.

Basically as the title says, am I pushing my luck running with those temps on the stock Intel cooler.

And could anyone recommend a better cooler than the stock Intel job at around the £20 mark?

It's all in a Antec Sonata II case and I'm not sure how much clearance I have in there yet, will check in a while when I power down as I aint sticking my steel rule in there with the power on, not the way my luck has been with pc hardware this last year.

[Clunk]

Folding at home is fine for stressing.

62c will be fine as well.

Cooler wise, for cheapness, maybe the arctic freezer, or maybe a scythe mine for a couple of quid extra...it is worth the extra

[kinnsy]

Thanks I'm new to Intel and they do seem to idle/run at higher temps than I'm used to with my old AMD's

I have an Artic Freezer 64 Pro on my old Opteron165 which appears to work ok on that. Will check out the Scythe mine though.

cheers.

[D.M]

I agree with Clunk, I would say if budget is tight then the Arctic Freezer otherwise if you can stretch a little then either the Scythe Mine or the Tuniq Tower?

Let us know how you get on

[kinnsy]

Looks like it may well be the Arctic Freezer, space is tight in the Sonata II and I'm just not sure the 150mm high Sythe will err, cut it.

[Clunk]

Thermalright SI-128 should be doable and I dare say you could find one of those cheap now.

[GSte]

This does great in tests, though is £28....

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

I had an ACF7 Pro and it was okay..... allowed me to get my E6600 to 3.6GHz on 1.375v, but had load temps of 69C..... the Ultra 120 extreme I have keeps them in the high 40s.... and the Ultima 90 is supposed to be within a few degrees of that, so it sounds good to me....

[Kelainefes]

Originally Posted by Clunk

Thermalright SI-128 should be doable and I dare say you could find one of those cheap now.

It's around 9cm tall, but add a 25 mm fan and it 1s 11,5..
But i'd recommend a 38 mm model, the increase in pressure will push more air through, with the difference increasing as you lower the fan voltage to make it more silent.

[Clunk]

I have used the SI-128 + a 25mm wide 120mm fan in a Lian-Li HTPC case which was very narrow and it fit with a bit of room to spare, whereas the scythe mine wouldnt go anywhere near it.

I would find it hard to believe that any mid sized ATX case would be even close to as narrow as that HTPC case

[Kelainefes]

Since i had a SI 128 SE laying around on the desk (literally) i just measured it and posted the results:
ofcourse almost any normal case will have clearance for 11,5 cm, at worst it will be necessary to remove the air duct, if present.