Overclocking (Main Thread)

Looking at $67 there aren't many decent coolers available. Sure, you can find some that will drop the temperatures, but they won't make a massive difference. If you want the absolute heavy hitters, you're looking at something around $167 😁
. Though... I suppose at least until this point we could stretch it.

James Morris4 said:Looking at the list below, $67you won't find many truly top-tier coolers. Sure, you can pick one up that will drop your temps a bit—it’ll help, don't get me wrong—but we aren't talking about a massive difference here. If you want the absolute heavy hitters, the kind of gear that actually moves the needle, you should really be looking toward something like the $167 😁Cooler Master Hyper 212 +
. Though... I suppose you could push it up to this point if you really wanted to stretch its limits.

Just a heads up. Don't go expecting to hit $67that 4 GHz mark...

Man, I’d jump on that too. It sounds like the absolute gold standard for $67 setups, right? Is that the "fast phase" tech everyone's buzzing about? From what I gather, you’ve got this volatile liquid that evaporates right over the CPU to drop the temps, then travels down to the heat exchanger where it condenses. Does that mean the cooler has to stay perfectly upright at all times just to function properly?

I assume any cooler equipped with heatsinks operates on that same principle. It doesn't necessarily need to be oriented vertically.

Thanks, man. I did a little digging online and realized I totally mixed up my terminology. phase-change cooling actually involves using a compressor—kind of like how a fridge works—whereas what I was describing earlier is just heat pipe cooling.

I also took a look at this review where the photo shows there’s a tiny gap between the pipes and the processor. I'm assuming I can just fill that in with some thermal paste, right? Not gonna lie, I've never actually swapped out a cooler before.

Anyway, bottom line: how much better is this cooler going to perform compared to the stock ones that come with the Intel Core i3 or the Athlon II x4 620?

Thermal paste must be used regardless of whether the processor and cooler bases are perfectly flat or uneven. Everyone reading this should keep that in mind! 😁
If you have the time and interest, you could lap the cooler base to make it flatter, provided you know how. If not, you can probably figure it out with a little bit of Googling.

Check the chart below to get a general idea of how much better the performance will be.

James Morris4 said:Thermal paste is something you absolutely have to use, regardless of how flat or uneven the processor base and cooler might be. Everyone reading this better take note!

We could go on forever debating this, but yeah, it’s just common sense to use paste...

I think this part of the pipe is pretty much flat, though you can clearly see those tiny little grooves in the photo here:


So, you just "smear" the paste over all five of them. Look, I’ve always known you need thermal paste to get a solid connection, but I honestly had no clue where the limit was—like, how deep of an uneven surface can the paste actually handle? If you were looking at a gap the size of a quarter, I highly doubt any amount of paste would save you. 😁

I'm not sure if you should apply the thermal paste directly to the cooler base first, but I'd suggest against it.
Instead, just put a small X pattern of paste on the processor itself and then set the cooler on top. Just be careful that the paste doesn't squeeze out too much when you press it down, since it tends to spread.
Personally, I wouldn't use a cooler like that on my CPU without doing some delidding first.😁

Zachary Wilson30 said:There's plenty to debate there, but yeah, having paste is definitely the smarter move...

It doesn't have to be paste, obviously; anything else that conducts heat just as well or better would work. 😛

That’s exactly what I was thinking. You’d go for the cooler base first to fill up all those slots, and then hit the processor. So why isn't that the move? Why is everyone saying don't do it?

If you spread the thermal paste manually over the CPU or the cooler base to get an even layer, you're going to end up with way more air bubbles than if you just put a small pea-sized amount in the center and let the pressure from the cooler base do the spreading for you.
There's a really great video out there demonstrating this; I think someone on the forum posted a link to it a while back. Let me see if I can track it down.

Edit: Found it. Link. Here's another one.
To be fair, the base on the Cooler Master Hyper 212 + isn't quite as flat as what they're using in the video, but I doubt the difference would be all that significant.

Thanks, man. I took a look at that and checked out the Arctic Silver instructions too. Apparently, they suggest different techniques depending on what kind of processor you're running, since the die sits differently under the heat spreader. Mostly, it’s one of those methods where the paste just spreads naturally from the pressure of the cooler base (kind of like those clips you linked). They also recommend "tinting" before you seat everything to make sure it fills those specific gaps in the heatsink that have been giving me such a headache 🙂
. Well, now I know exactly what I need to do when I swap it out. Thanks for the hand.

So, I want to know if there’s actually a noticeable performance hit if my RAM is running below the default speed? (In my case, it's at 712 MHz, while the default is 800).
Look, no need for a long philosophical debate here—I just want a straight answer. Will I actually see a difference in games, apps, etc.?
Right now, my memory ratio is set to 1:1. I could bump up the divider, but then the memory would be running at a lower clock speed, and I'm not sure how smart that is. That's why I'm asking: will those missing 90 MHz really matter, or would it be better to overclock it by an extra 50 MHz?

Not likely, you'll only see that in synthetic benchmarks

Alright, I'll just leave it at 712MHz so I can keep it at a 1:1 ratio. Thanks for the help!🙂

Hey everyone! I’m looking to pick up a new cooler for my Phenom X2 550 BE—I’ve got it pushed to 3.6 GHz at the moment. My current Freezer 64 Pro is driving me nuts because it’s constantly screaming at over 2000 RPM, so it's definitely time for an upgrade.
I’ve been eyeing the Cooler Master Hyper 212 +, and from everything I’ve been reading online, it seems like a solid piece of gear.

I just wanted to tap into the collective wisdom here—do you think that's a good move? Or is there something else in that same price bracket that might be a better "best buy" than what I'm looking at?

Thanks in advance!

William Taylor18 said:Hey everyone! I'm looking to grab a new cooler for my Phenom X2 550 BE, which I've got pushed to 3.6 GHz. My current Freezer 64 Pro is driving me nuts—it's loud as hell because it's constantly spinning north of 2000 rpm, so it's gotta go.
I've been eyeing the Cooler Master Hyper 212 +, and from what I'm reading online, it's supposed to be awesome.

Just wanted to get some advice. Is that a solid choice, or is there something else in that price range that's actually a better "best buy"?

Thanks!

If your freezer is hitting 2k rpm... what kind of temps are you even seeing???

Either go Zalman Performa (has that stupid "cqnx quiet" name lol) or the Hyper 212 +..

Personally, I'd go with the 212+ since you can run a push-pull setup on it..
Not so sure about the Zalman.

Hitting about 45-46 degrees...

William Taylor18 said:Around 45-46 degrees...

Whoa, that's pretty high. O.o
I had my unlocked x4 running at 3.4-3.6 GHz... and it sat around 40-42...
Now, with my x4 unlocked at 3.1 (just like your Phenom X2 550 BE), I'm hitting 36 degrees with the fan at 1000 RPM.

I can't seem to unlock mine because I'm stuck with an older Gigabyte GA-P33 motherboard... It idles around 38-40 degrees, which isn't bad, but the second I fire up a game, the temperature jumps to 45-47 and the fan starts screaming at 2500 rpm.
And honestly, I don't get this part: if the Intel Core i7 quiet mode is actually enabled, why aren't the frequencies dropping from 3.6 down to whatever my base clock is?? Before I started Overclocking, the frequencies would drop normally—which obviously kept things cooler and made my freezer setup much more effective...

Look, I've read quite a bit about that Cooler Master unit, so I'll probably just end up grabbing that one...