The GoD of cpu heatsinks

[elsegundo]

my system is actually pretty quiet. i have plenty of fans going, two pointing out, two pointing in, a vga card fan from zalman (i figured the videocard gets more stressed from gaming than the processor), and the stock fan/heatsink for my pentium. the only time my system ever overheated was when the fans got so cloged up from dust that one of the fans stopped working. the system turned itself off to avoid damage. put half a can of dust-off to my rig and it purrs. now i regularly dust my computer, once every two or three months or so, or when my game gives me low FPS while in low demand areas (anything old world, nagrand, blades edge. zangramarsh happens to tax my videocard the most). in any case, i dont plan on overclocking my processor. so it appears i will not have to get a fan. however, does getting a fan/heatsink keep the processor running at a lower temp? improving performance and prolonging the life of the processor? just thought those may be benefits. with all this talk of fans and heatsinks, im trying to come up with some rationalization to buy one. lol

[Sam DeathWalker]

cooler tempratures will extend cpu life, but you will no doubt upgrade the cpu way before running even hot will make a difference. Best to be cool so you dont get to hot and destroy the processor or start having random errors you can't figure out where they are from. I never overclock but I do like silence.

Running cooler does not improve performance (below the normal non burning it out) per se its just lots of people overclock for some reason and if you over cool you can over clock.

[algol]

I watercool. WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?!?

Oh, and Thermaltake usually sucks. ThermalRIGHT is the one that usually makes nice heatsinks. Thermaltake is a bunch of cheap knockoffs (cheap quality - and usually overpriced not low-cost) for the most part. A few exceptions.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Oh, and Thermaltake usually sucks. ThermalRIGHT is the one that usually makes nice heatsinks. Thermaltake is a bunch of cheap knockoffs (cheap quality - and usually overpriced not low-cost) for the most part. A few exceptions.

I have noticed this trend in the reviews I've read of cooling solutions as well (cases, CPU/GPU coolers, etc.).

[Sam DeathWalker]

I use thermaltake for case, power supply, case and cpu fans and could not be happier. Being able to move hard drives from computer to computer in seconds is a big plus for me, with the drives facing the side of the case instead of the back. I dont see anything "cheap" about their products, they are costly.

I havn't looked closely at thermalright products though being satisfied with the thermaltake.

[Thulos]

I watercool. WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?!?

Oh, and Thermaltake usually sucks. ThermalRIGHT is the one that usually makes nice heatsinks. Thermaltake is a bunch of cheap knockoffs (cheap quality - and usually overpriced not low-cost) for the most part. A few exceptions.

I'm sorry but Thermaltake doesn't suck. I'm using a lapped Big Typhoon VX (YES AIR) and am overclocking my Q6600 to 3.4ghz and staying under 61c under 100% cpu full load for 8 hours of prime95. For those that are counting thats a 1ghz overclock with a Thermaltake product.

Edit: My main issue with cooling is getting cool air into the case and the hot air out. As soon as I solve that problem I'm going to actually push for 3.6 or higher. Enjoy your $150 water solutions.

Edit 2: Anyone have some good input on how to accomplish edit #1.