Guide to CPU Temperatures and Heatsink Shopping

BrianH

After lurking around the forum, I have seen that many people get scared about there CPU temps. I get scared also, except I don't have to. I remember somebody asking to post a list of good/bad CPU temps for each CPU. In short, there isnt really a "Specified" list of good and bad temps for EACH cpu. It all depends on what you are doing, and what you plan to do with your CPU.

So here is my goal for this thread. To teach those who don't know much about this sort of stuff and to put many at ease =) Lets start with the basics.

CPU Temps..What are they really?

When you see temp guages measuring CPU temps, your getting the temperature output of the CPU. That temperature is technically not the actual temp of the cpu core. For example, the sun, puts out heat that we eventually feel. Is the sun itself 95F? No, thats just what the little thermometers in the weather stations read. The temperatures of the CPU is the heat the little tiny millions of transistors are outputting. The actual temperature of the core, is measured in watts. Each new CPU has its own different level of wattage it emits. Another example. If you ever felt a power supply or the bottom of the notework when its doing work, you know it feels hot. An even better example, are lights- lights get REALLY hot because they put out up to X amount of watts of power..starting to get the picture? You ever wonder why you see on some product info for heatsinks, it says "Up to P4 2.66". Thats because it can only handle the wattage emitted by the 2.66 or below. Now, that doesnt mean that if you have a P4 2.4 and you overclock it to 2.66 or above, that heatsink can't handle it- thats a whole different ball game. Alright, we now what CPU temps are (hehe, just for fun, go touch a light, tell me if it hurts you *cackles*


Good and Bad CPU Temps

When Intel/AMD makes there CPU's they don't say good and bad CPU temps, because well...I don't know.On a stock heatsink, good CPU temps for a P4 are mid to high 30's and low to mid 40's. Anything higher is ok, but when you get above 55C you might need some more fans or a new heatsink. NEVER OVERCLOCK ON A STOCK HEATSINK WITHOUT PROPER COOLING. It is a good thing that nowadays systems shutoff when processors get to hot. AMD's tend to run in the 40's range on stock cooling and even on a basic heatsink unit. Again, especially with Athlon's, if you get temps abover 60 or so, spend some money and buy some new fans or something- will save you money in the end if you have to rebuy that 200 dollar CPU. Both companies say the maximum temp a CPU should ever get is 80C.


Overclocking

In a good CPU article, you got to have a little section Overclocking- because everybody likes doing it, but those newbies can really cause pain to their precious CPU's without knowing how it goes. Through the BIOS, you can overclock your CPU, Video Card, Memory, and/or PCI devices. Overclocking is the forced increase of frequency between your devices and the motherboard. In short, lots of companies despise overclocking because it allows a user to get faster speeds on there component without spending money. Be cautious though, if you get to greedy- boom!, bye bye device =). Overclocking will void your warranty for the overclocked device... but never the motherboard, they love overclocking for some reason *points to his windows based overclocking program included with Gigabyte motherboards that says "Overclocking made easy and entertaining"*. Another thing to caution about is once you start... you will never want to come back to stock speeds =)

Great thing about overclocking is, if you know how to do it, you can buy a P4 2.4B proccessor or a AMD Athlon XP 2200+ and overclock it to 3Ghz (with the proper cooling) saving you a whopping 500 bucks (but denying you of hyperthreading of course) or equal to a Athlon XP 2800+ which saves you a few hundred as well. Not to mention, you can take a Geforce 4 TI4200 and overclock it equal Geforce 4 TI4600. With video cards though, speed doesnt matter 100%, its the technology, so you can't take a Radeon 9000 for example and make it a 9700 or 9700 pro. Will do another article like this on Overclocking later this weekend since it can be expanded ALOT.



What Ways Can a CPU Be Cooled

For the average users, the best way to cool a CPU is through a heatsink/fan combo or heat pipe. A heat pipe is a system that doesnt require a loud [high air pushing] fan and allows the heat to cycle through the pipe where its made into to coolness (ah well, no better word) and that new coolness goes to cool the CPU. It isnt as effective as some of the good heatsink/fan combos out there, but its completely noiseless (hmmm..silence).

Now, if your a power hungry person and want to get the most out of your computer, then there are a few more ways to cool your CPU. The most basic of these "Extreme" cooling devices is water cooling. Water cooling takes water from a resovoir, cools it, and sends it through a pipe to cool a waterblock which acts like a heatsink. The water is cooled enough so it performs a little better then air. Watercooling can be used to cool hard drives, chipsets, and video cards (although theres been some other weird modifications). Next is Peltier/Thermoelectic cooling. How it works is, direct current goes through the Thermoelectic device causing heat to get absorbed on one side and released to the opposite side. For more information about TEC, visit
Thermaltake.com (they sell really nice TEC products and give a great explination about how it works. The final two ways are Phase Change cooling, and Liquid Nitrogen cooling. These are for the above and beyond computer techs and cost around 400-700 dollars per unit. To find out more info about these types of cooling visit Asetek's Vapochill Website and search around.


Heatsinks- The Many Different Kinds

What, you actually thought I would go into saying which heatsinks to get without explaining the differences between them? I would, but that wouldn't be very nice. Heatsinks are simple to understand- heatsink absorbs heat from cpu, the fan cools it off. My 6 six year old cousin could understand that!! So why are they so confusing? Why is it that nobody knows what kind to get? That is because there are so many advances in how the heat can be transfered. In case you didn't know, metals are the best conductors of heat. Nowadays, the minimum material for a heatsink is aluminum, with copper being next in line (lots of companies use aluminum bases for less weight and easy cooling while making the actual material that touches the CPU copper for better heat transfer). Some companies even make silver and gold heatsinks. The problem is, the more the material conducts, the harder it is to cool, the more air you need to push, which ends up in a louder fan. Please note, you can use any standard case fan with a heatsink, as long as A) it fits the heatsink (majority of heatsinks use 70mm or 80mm fans) and B) it satisfies your noise and air pushing level. Fans are rated by there DBa and CFM (amount of air pushed). Any fan is ok to use on an aluminum or alum/copper heatsink, but on an all copper heatsink use only 40CFM or higher fans. The lower the dba, the less noise the fan makes. However, the noise a fan makes is due to the vibrations sent through the heatsink (or case). If you use rubber washers while installing a fan, the noise of a fan will go down alot. anything under 25dba is extremely quiet, anything over 35dba can be a little annoying, and anything over 40-45dba is just your ticket to the insanaity asylum.


Thermal Grease

For any heatsink to work properly, you need a good application of thermal paste. If you have a good heatsink and have high temps, its because of your paste. Arctic Silver 3 and Nanotherm Blue II are the best to use. Both are available at Xoxide.com.


Time For Solutions

Enough of the small talk... my hands are getting tired =) So, you all know about CPU Temps, Overclocking, and Extreme Cooling..now its time to finally answer the question everybody always asks- "Well, which one do I choose"? Because I am such a nice guy *winks*, I have to took the liberty to find out the heatsinks and watercooling kits to use for- Overclocking and Performance (OC/P), Silent Yet Effective (SYE), and the heatsink to use if you want great performance but don't want to spend loads of money (we'll just call it the budget or BH for now) *points to the BH and says "Ah, thats my initials, how nice*, and of course "Brian's Choice Heatsink"- the heatsink/fan combo I would use if it was my PC (Just to let you know, I like silent, attractive, and unique heatsinks). In addition, will also tell you some good fans (both high performance and silent yet still good) to use for some of the heatsinks. Ok, lets get crackin'. I will be including heatsink options for socket 370 proccessors as well, since I have spoken to some people with those still.
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All P3 Tualatin/Celeron Proccessors Using Socket 370

OC/P- SwiftTech MCX370 ($30 w/o fan): It will be very hard for some otherwise very nice heatsinks to beat out SwiftTech tonight. The MCX370 was one of their first heatsinks shocking the hardware community. You want performance.. here's your chunk of copper. Some good fans to use are the TMD 70mm fans or any good high cfm or low noise 70mm fan (for it only uses 70mm fans). An honorable mention goes to the Thermaltake Volcano 7+ which is everybody's favorite http://www.swiftnets.com

SYE- Zalman CNPS-3100($25): Zalman specializes in bazaar yet effective noise prevention cooling. For the socket 370, this is a great silent cooler, and still gives pretty good temps. If you would like to step it up a bit for better cooling and even less noise, there is the higher Zalman-6000 kit for 40 dollars. http://www.zalmanusa.com

BH- Galaxy Monster Cooler ($6): No competition right there at all. Searched around a while and still can't find a nicer heatsink for the price. Good cooling as well when pitted against the P3's/Celeron's. Would have taken the SYE category as well for its 29dba fan, but the Zalman can be put into silent mode for a whopping 20Dba. No URL at this time.

BCH- Zalman CNPS-6000 (40): If you checked out the first Zalman, you will notice how awesome it looks. So for me.. I like to go for the best combo of glamour, performance, and silence. But I would substitute that boring fan for a quad LED or cold cathode fan to show it off.http://<a href="http://www.zalmanusa...manusa.com</a>

The Zalman and Galaxy products can be bought at Xoxide.com
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All P4 Willamette's (2.0GHz and below) Using Socket 423 (Also includes P4 Socket 478 Northwood Proccessors up to 1.8A)

OC/P- Alpha PAL8942($40 w/o fan): All the time people try to OC their Willamette's up to 2.4 or so speeds just to delay the purchase of a new CPU. Alpha beat out SwiftTech, CoolerMaster, and Thermaltake to the lack of not so great socket 423 coolers. For best performance use a delta or vantec tornado fan to get the most of the product. A vantec stealth or panaflo fan can be used as well if you are not going to OC that much. For any of the socket 478 proccessors the SwiftTech MCX4000 is very nice also, but not needed until higher core speeds.http://www.alphanovatech.com

SYE- ThermalTake P4 Spark 7 ($30): The TT P4 Spark uses a thermal controlled fan or manual speed controlled fan (you use which function) to controll fan speeds. The actual heatsink is great itself, so you can keep the fan to inaudible levels using the manual controlled function. If you decide to OC, its a good choice as well. http://www.thermaltake.com

BH- Thermaltake P4 Dragon Orb($20): Thermaltake just rips apart a lot the non-top performance heatsink market for the P4's as you will see. The orb is just a little loud, but comes with a speed control. Its cheap and good, but theres better.http://www.thermaltake.com

BCH- I will choose the P4 Dragon Orb as well because it looks really nice and can be made to become silent. Plus its orange *shrugs*.

The ThermalTake Heatsinks can be bought atXoxide.com .
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All Remaining P4 Willamette's and Northwood's (1.8B-3.06)

This section takes a little explination due to the huge span of core speeds. Since after the 1.8B, overclocking really kicked in since the 1.8B was able to reach speeds of 2.4-2.6GHz, so the top OC/P works for all proccessors in this category. Also, the SYE, BH, and BCH will all be for speeds 2.66 and above, so there will be no need to have seperate heatsinks sets for the lower items considering most people are getting new CPU's these days.

OC/P- SwiftTech MCX4000 ($45 w/o fan): This is it, the creme de le crop. The MCX4000 rivals some watercooling and peltier cooled systems when paired up with high CFM fans such as the Delta or Vantec Tornado fans. Its helicoid design improves cooling as well. The downside is- its a pain in the *** to install for you have to take out your motherboard. Vantec Stealth or TMD fan's can be used as well for silent and still good performance. http://www.swiftnets.com

SYE- Zalman CNPS6500 Copper Heatsink ($50): Pricey, but the best completely silent cooler for the P4. There is a new version of this heatsink coming out soon (with some sort of air duct, pretty neat). A great thing about this heatsink is it comes with a bracker that supports two addition 80mm fans or one 92mm fan to be attached to cool the heatsink better and/or your chipset/videocard. www.zalmanusa.com

BH- ThermalTake 478 Dragon Orb ($20-): I am serious, I can not find a better heatsink that beats the Dragon Orbs Prive :: Performance ratio. It can cool a 2.8GHz+ fine even overclocked a little and it can cool a 1.8B overclocked a fair amount. As I said, there are better heatsinks out there, but not for this kind of money. http://www.thermaltake.com

BCH- ThermalRight AX-478 ($30): Choosing this heatsink for the reason that it is the one I am using right now and I love it, good idle temps and load temps, and I can use a cold cathode fan on it (Those just look so good). If you are having trouble with your CPU temps and need a new heatsink, trash your current heatsink and buy this =). Simple to install; Willl be writing a full review on it later [on my upcomming currently secret review site]. http://www.thermalright.com

The ThermalTake and Zalman coolers can be bought at Xoxide.com .
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All Athlon XP's

OC/P- SwiftTech MCX462-U ($55): The newest version of the MCX-462 ultimately walks right over all the competition. However, it is the if not one of the most expensive heatsinks out there. So, respectfully, a great OC/P heatsink for a little less is the new ThermalTake Volcano 11 heatsink located at
ThermalTake's Volcano 11 product page. The MCX is located at http://<a href="http://www.swiftnets...ftnets.com</a>.

SYE- ThermalTake Volcano 9 /w Coolmod ($30): Anybody getting the pattern yet that ThermalTake has great heatsinks? All these decisions are made through reading many reviews on many different heatsinks as well as the fact I have been checking out heatsinks for months now. Volcano 9 can become silent when you want it to and become performance based when needed- all while providing a unique "cool" LED show on the grill. The Zalman would have won, but the performance isn't good enough to cool future XP's. http://www.thermaltake.com

BH- The New ThermalTake 7($15): This is not the Volcano 7+, but the "7" just for AMD. It cool's really well, it is blue, and it isn't a wallet buster. Remember, any heatsink can get the job done if you have a good application of high quality thermal paste.

BCH- Since I don't know AMD too well, I can't make a decision of my own. Out of the three stated above, I would personally go all out and take a MCX462-U since I know in the long run, the price of the heatsink is less then the price of a brand new proccessor (because you can OC your old chip a little more with that heatsink than most).

The ThermalTake coolers can be bought at Xoxide.com .
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Watercooling for Any Processor, Video Card, etc


When getting watercooling, make sure you get the right waterblock for your CPU. Will also be writing a seperate article on a detailed way watercooling works and how to know the difference between good and bad ones in case your interested. Also, the following are just full kits, you can "build your own" WC system by buying all the parts seperately.

OC/P- Koolance EXOS ($220 +/- for Kit, $40-50 for CPU waterblock, $25 for Video/Chipset waterblock): Koolance is a well known company with a good reputation. There EXOS has some of the coolest features and is highly reccomended for overclocking. http://www.koolance.com

SYE- ThermalTake Aquarius II (170 +/-): The new ThermalTake WC kit is a simple, easy to install, not expandable kit that is designed for quiet cooling. It is not a great performer, as my AX-478 gets about the same temps using a low CFM fan. The Aqua just looks cool and is what you want to get if you want to stop worrying about CPU temps. http://www.thermaltake.com

BH- ThermalTake AquariusII (170 +/-): I had to choose this kit again because it is the second cheapest kit on the market that I know of. The lowest is a crappy, low quality kit from Iceberg which I would never reccomend to anyone.

BCH- DangerDen (200+, customized): DangerDen is a company that makes custom made WC kits for you. Basically, you can pick and choose according to what you need. They have some of the best high quality choices available as well as some of the best low profile low budget pieces also. http://www.dangerden.com

The Koolance and Thermaltake coolers can be bought at Xoxide.com .

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Conclusion

I truly hope that those who needed it learned alot while reading this article and now know what heatsinks to get. However, If I did not answer your question about CPU Temps or what heatsink to get; or you have another type of question to ask me, please PM me or post it. Also, if you would like to know more about Overclocking, Watercooling, or anything, just send me a PM

-Brian Hendricks

EDIT: Minor typographical errors had to be changed

propcgamer

very good guide:D

Big. E

wow i learned a lot from reading that.

WillHutch

I beleive that was his goal. :)

sHArK

Just a little somthing to add to your bit about the
Video Card.. Its a good article for the very experianced...
Peace

http://www.designtechnica.com/sectio...rtid=58&page=1

chocobeat

dude, this helps so much.....the mass of info has overwhelmed me......

Memfis

Thanks a lot man. The guide has helped many including me.

Nitz

good job, if thise is just for the forums his website will be phat

WillHutch

Yes, this is just a taste of whats to come! ;)

Midashand

Ditto! :D great job!

BrianH

lol, why thank you guys, thought my work would go unappreciated for a little bit. If i can regroup my thoughts and take a shower and just do what I need to do, i will hopefully start and finish writing my next article (either on Watercooling or Overclocking) by the end of the night =). Right now, my good old PC has some well...problems. But, thats what our site is going to be for.... no details though, maybe if you bribe WillHutch a bit he might tell you ;)

Furious_Geroge

Whats your thought on lapping a heat sink?

BrianH

Lapping a heatsink can effectively lower CPU temps if done with thoroughly and properly. On my new heatsink that I hope to get sometime soon, I will lap and make a guide on (hopefully our site will be up by then as well).

For all you who dont know what lapping is, it is taking sandpaper (usually a few different levels, best to use 400, 600, 800, 1000, and/or 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper) along with some soap solution, and smoothing out the bottom of your heatsink. Yes, it comes smooth, but lapping makes it even smoother by taking out microscopic grooves- therefore, transfering heat a little better. If you use all of those grit levels and do intervals of 10-15 minute scrubs on each one, it will effect your cooling a fair amount. If its a brand new heatsink that came from a company like Swiftech or Alpha Pal, then you would only need to use just the 400 and/or 600 since those are already lapped before shipment).

To tell if your heatsink needs a lapping, put a coin next to the heatsink, and if the coin appears either really blurry and/or distorted, I would lap your heatsink.

Unknown

woah i jus now learned alot about lapping

evans17

why in c cant you guys post in f we are from usa!!

TheHumbleLobster

I would also like to recommend for all AMD users the Thermalright SLK series, specifacly the 800. Pure copper but with it I have near water cooling temps at idle. Though a tornado on it might play a big role...