# [SOLVED] AMD CPU heatsink advice needed



## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

Allo again :wave:

Now I've got my graphics-card running nice and cool, I'm looking to upgrade my AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ to a 6000+ beasty.

The one I'm seriously thinking about doesn't come with a heatsink or fan, so my question is:

Are there any good heatsink+fan combos, suitable for AM2 sockets that don't fix through the mobo? i.e. they clip on using the standard 'spring-clip' method, mainly because I don't really want to dismantle my entire PC to fit it, if I can help it. 

I can dismantle if needs must, but my 'Jeantech Titan' case is a bit of a PITA to remove the mobo without removing everything else first (3xHDD's + Optical-drive)

Thanks in advance :smile:


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

Hi WereBo

I have a AMD 64 X2 5600 (windsor) 2.8G running now
It is OCd to 3.2 on the stock fan|cooler with and 1.36V
The only reason for the slightly increased voltage is due to my MB not being the 
best that money could buy.

If I remember correctly the 6000 is a smaller die and will run a bit cooler.

Honestly I have never had the temp over 50 or so.
Im sorry that I cant be more specific as I have just reloaded and cant give the current temp.
Believe me, I work this setup with games etc.

The point is that the stock cooler will be fine under slightly more than stock conditions
even with minor voltage increases.


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I wuz thinking of trying my existing 4200+ CPU stock cooler - Even with permanently dusty heatsink vanes (Mrs WereBo is a permanent textile-crafts nut, hence more than lots of dust :wink, it's presently running at 42C-43C, and rises to about 47C under load (it's O/C'ed 10% from within the BIOS).

The thing I did notice though, is that the 6000+ uses 125w, compared to 89w (or 65w) for my 4200+.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

The 4200 stock cooler will work, make sure to clean off the old paste, use artic silver, you know the drill

The 6000 in retail version will come with a heatsink and thermal pad witch is ok

AMD did make a 6000 in a 89w I have one, look around its better then the 125w version, maybe hard to find though you may have to look on ebay.

The only thing I am a little concerned about is the 4200 should idle around 35c or so with a room temp of 70F so if its idleing 42C the 125w may be higher


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I think the extra 5C or so is from the permanent dusty room from loads of wool, cotton and other textiles that the missus plays with - I can clean it out every other day and it's still just as thick  Unfortunately, I don't have a spare room I can put it in.

That's what made me think about 'better-than-stock' cooling, but al the ones I've looked at so far, have the 4-bolt mounting through the mobo, which I'm hoping to avoid.


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I think the "4 bolt mount" you are looking at is the heat sink retainer which sandwiches the motherboard. AM2/AM3 coolers fasten to this retainer with a heavy spring clip.


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

Aha! So as I've already go the retainer fitted, which my stock heatsink is fixed to, I won't need to remove the mobo to fit a Zalman or Arctic-Cooling unit?


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*



> I won't need to remove the mobo to fit a Zalman or Arctic-Cooling unit?


I wouldn't say that for sure. Some are coolers physically quite large and I just find it easier to lay the board out on a solid flat surface.


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

Fair enough, it looks like that whatever I buy, it's gonna be 'pot-luck' about fitting it :grin:

Thanks for the help, 'tis appreciated ray:


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

Be sure to check the specs for you MB to be certain that it can make the switch to 125W and 1.3V
It seems that you have a Windsor 6000 and your 4200 is a Brisbane core.
The Windsor is a larger core 90mm and requires the extra power.

My 5600 is at at 30 - 32c just sitting here on the internet according to core temp.

From what I can see at newegg (In the states) there are basically 2 types of coolers for the amd2 setup.
Some will mount to the plastic mount that is already on the board
and others that will need the plastic piece to be removed and then use the same holes.

Here is a link just to be able to see.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010110574 1371028526&name=Socket AM2


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I just checked the mobo specs with Asus and, apparently, the max it can handle is the Athlon x2 6400+ 125W, so I should be OK with the 6000+.

I triple-checked the CPU temp, using the BIOS reading, 'PC Wizard 2009' and Speedfan and all agree (+-1C) to my CPU temperature floating between 43C-44C. That's with a 120mm fan in the front (air in), an 80mm fan on the side panel (air in) and 2 80mm fans on the back (air out) and all the cables tidied out of the way, as much as possible.

I'm not overly worried about them, they're still safely within AMD specs and even when running a virus-scan, listening to my .mp3's and surfing, they never get above 46C-47C - That's about the most intensive thing the CPU does, apart from what's needed to run the [email protected] GPU client.


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I agree, those temps are ok.
AMD uses the tape under their coolers and you stated that you will be using the
compound.
I should think that will help.

I was wrong earlier my CPU isnt currently OCd.
I forgot that I reset it when I did the reinstall.

I do know that it is always set to max. with no cool n quite.
My cpu fan is currently 3000 rpm

How is the new video card cooler working out?


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

My CPU is OC'ed by 10%, according to the BIOS and I have the 'Cool 'n' Quiet' installed, but it don't really seem to do much, only the CPU fan is thermal-controlled and everything else is powered off Molex plugs.

Re: VGA cooler, apart from the fan's power-lead not fitting the little plug on the 9800GT card, I had to use the Molex adaptor so it's on permanent full speed, the card's temp is 46C-48C with permanently running the [email protected] GPU client - it's about 20C-25C lower than before, which is good enough for me :grin:

I can't really comment on it's noise, as one of my 80mm fans drowns it out... :laugh:


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

Depending on you power settings I think it will over ride the C&Q

I still have mine turned off in the Bios.
I know that it can be an effect while OCing and just didnt need something else to consider.

I game on this system regularly and just keep the fans BLOWIN
I also listen to slacker.com most of the time so I dont notice their noise.
I use a external amp and some pretty good size speakers.
In the summer the neighbors love me.


46c on the vid card isnt bad.
With gaming Ive seen mine get a little over 60C while heavily OCd.
8800GTX

I think that I may have mentioned this in your vid card post but if not, I have
one of these 2 slots below my card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...10090573 1372526581&name=PCI Slot Case Cooler

My vid card sits low in my case and this helps to draw air down towards it.
It dropped the temps 10-15C under load.

Sorry about the American sites. I just use them for an example.


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I've got my sound-card hooked into my stereo too, powering a pair of Heybrook studio monitor speakers that can rattle the ornaments on my mantelpiece :laugh:

I used to have one of those slot-mounted coolers, but it didn't make any difference to the temps, whereas when I fitted it in Mrs WereBo's PC that sits in a desktop case, it dropped about 8C off her PC :grin:

No probs with the US sites, I only get envious cos your prices are lots lower than the UK, it's not even worth ordering stuff from the US cos by the time shipping and import duty's added, it's the same as here then :sigh:


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

Our price only seems low.
Last I knew the dollar to the pound was 1.6
If you got it from China it would only be 5 pence

I think that is right. Isnt a pennie and a pence the same
1/100 of a dollar/pound?
I never have used foreign money

Funny thing I was watching the movie Patton recently.
"The only thing that keeps us seperated is our common language"


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*



WereBo said:


> I just checked the mobo specs with Asus and, apparently, the max it can handle is the Athlon x2 6400+ 125W, so I should be OK with the 6000+.
> 
> I triple-checked the CPU temp, using the BIOS reading, 'PC Wizard 2009' and Speedfan and all agree (+-1C) to my CPU temperature floating between 43C-44C. That's with a 120mm fan in the front (air in), an 80mm fan on the side panel (air in) and 2 80mm fans on the back (air out) and all the cables tidied out of the way, as much as possible.
> 
> I'm not overly worried about them, they're still safely within AMD specs and even when running a virus-scan, listening to my .mp3's and surfing, they never get above 46C-47C - That's about the most intensive thing the CPU does, apart from what's needed to run the [email protected] GPU client.


Are those temps while running [email protected] ? If so they are normal if not very good


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

Yep, [email protected] in my Startup folder and only gets turned off when I go to bed, approx 16-18 hours later.


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I didnt think of that but it a very good point.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

[email protected] runs your cpu at 100% so your cooling is very good, temps normal with that running.
When you mentioned your case fans I new you had a decent setup, my 6000+ 89w system has about identical temps when folding.

[email protected] runs on a low priority meaning it gives cpu cycles to other apps as you open them so you really don't notice it running. With all that said I think I would give the stock heatsink a try, if temps get to far out of hand then get a better cooler


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

That seems a good way to go, my present stock heatsink will provide some cooling, if not very good cooling. While I've got it free, I'll try lapping the baseplate area, I've got a load of various grades of emery-papers down to 'Flour Paper', kicking around from my wood-turning days :grin:

Fingers crossed, I'll order it on Monday, then it's down to Royal Mail and the British weather :laugh:


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

The new CPU arrived this morning and is now fitted - From power-down to power-up took about 10-15 mins, most of that time was cleaning the old gunky thermal-paste off the stock heatsink and 'flour-papering' the heatsink baseplate :grin:

It's been running for approx 30 mins and both 'Speedfan' and 'PC Wizard 2009' show the CPU temps at 41C-42C after setting the BIOS AI overclocking to 5%! I'll leave it for a few days, then try setting the OC to 10%

I'm most impressed :laugh:


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

Hey great job! Thats pretty good with [email protected] running.

Wondering why your using speedfan and pc wizard and not asus probe


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I like Speedfan cos it sits in the system-tray and gives a constant temp. reading for my CPU and hovering over it pops up my GPU and HDD temps.

I have Asus probe installed, but it's limited to what it can tell me - Although it's handy when I need to adjust Speedfan's offsets.

I tried lifting the BIOS AI Overclocking to 8% after several hours (I couldn't be bothered to wait a few days :wink) but it wasn't very happy, it decided to have a deep sulk just past the Windows welcome screen - I had to hit the reset button and set the OC back to 5%, before it would come out to play again.

For some reason that I can't figure out exactly, I forgot to reconnect the side-panel 80mm fan, and the CPU temp is now reading between 35C and 39C, it's dropped about 5C on average. 

I can only imagine that the side-fan was disrupting the smooth airflow between the 120mm front-fan and the two 80mm rear-fans


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

How did you go about OCing it.
It may need the memory turned down a little until you get is fine tuned.


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

There's an option in the 'Advanced' BIOS tab that lets me set the overclocking by 3%, 5% 8% or 10%, I haven't delved too deeply into the 'hows' etc., but at 5% it's well happy and shows a clock-speed of 3150Mhz. The memory-timings/voltages are all set to 'Optimised Auto'.

PC Wizard 2009 gives the following blurb re: the RAM, if it means anything to someone... I got the 4Gb RAM as a matched pair, complete with their own heatsinks.



> Manufacturer :	A-Data Technology
> Part Number :	ELQVE1B16
> Serial Number :	Unspecified
> Type :	DDR2-SDRAM PC2-6400 (399 MHz) - [DDR2-800]
> ...


It won't work any higher than 5% though, the CPU gets unstable and refuses to boot into Windows. I assume this chip is at the lower end of the 10% 'average' :laugh:


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

You may have to start adding voltage to get it higher, I wouldn't do it


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: AMD CPU heatsink advice needed*

I'm not bothering to, it's running plenty fast and cool enough for my usage, with enough to spare to see me nicely for quite a few years to come, give or take a few more HDD's for my .MP3's :grin:


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