Quality of the Intel Retail Box heatsink/fan?

[Mallow]

Ok, I haven't bought an intel processor in a very long time but a customer of mine has to have intel so I'm researching it. I know the quality of the AMD retail box heatsink/fans are basically crap and your better off buying a hsf after market. What is the quality like for the intel retail box hsf? Can anyone give me their personal experiences? tia.

 

[Tsaico]

I found them to be adequate for the stock speed. I also though usually scrape off the pad they have and use my own grease...

 

[DaveSimmons]

p3-933, cel 1.2a, p4-1.6 - all good retail sinks (and p4 is quiet), no need to remove their thermal pad unless you want to overclock.

In reviews I've read the P4 retail hsf has done very well against other brands (except the $30+ ones), and the fan can be quieted by undervolting it if you aren't overclocking and have good case airflow.

 

[Siddhartha]

Originally posted by: Mallow
Ok, I haven't bought an intel processor in a very long time but a customer of mine has to have intel so I'm researching it. I know the quality of the AMD retail box heatsink/fans are basically crap and your better off buying a hsf after market. What is the quality like for the intel retail box hsf? Can anyone give me their personal experiences? tia.

Why would Intel or AMD put a low quality\ineffective heatsink\fan on a product they warranty for three years?

 

[oldfart]

The stock Intel HS/Fan is very good. It uses a 70 mm variable speed thermal controlled fan. The 1.6A - 2.8 GHz all use the same one. The 3.06 GHz uses a larger one. The stock one is fine including overclocked setups.

 

[Derango]

My 1.6A @ 2.14ghz, stock fan with the stock thermal pad thing still on gets 30-32 C at idle and 43C full load. Its pretty good

 

[cockeyed]

In my experience, the P4 HSF is excellent; very quiet and cools stock speed fine. I like the variable speed temp controlled fan it has. As already said, I would scrape off the pad Intel puts on and apply your own HS grease. The pad Intel puts on is just OK but scratches very easily during install and cannot be re-used if the HS is removed.

 

[Mallow]

thanks so much for the feed back guys... you answered my questions.

Dr. Smooth - Have you installed a retail Athlon 1800+ recently? The quality of the hsf is questionable. They usually give load temps. of 55C. This is within limits but I am more comfortable w/ my load temps < 50C for long time. Sure it might last 3 years but I want mine to last as long as possible.

l8rz all.

 

[ShowdOWN]

another vote for the retail hsf if you are not planning to overclock. i build P4 systems all day and they run very quiet.

 

[CrazySaint]

I used the stock HSF from my 1.8A to overclock it to 2.7GHz!

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Mallow

Dr. Smooth - Have you installed a retail Athlon 1800+ recently? The quality of the hsf is questionable. They usually give load temps. of 55C. This is within limits but I am more comfortable w/ my load temps < 50C for long time. Sure it might last 3 years but I want mine to last as long as possible.

It depends on the speed also. I just bought a retail 2200 and the included HSF is pretty nice, quiet and my temps are low 40s idle.

 

[The Stigenator]

I built a P4 2.53ghz this weekend.. what thermal pad on the bottom of the HS .. its a joke.. it was a peice of black metal. That came off so easily.. so I went and bought some thermal tape and used that. Later I will put some artic silver on it too. So far it Idles around 50C is that normal for a P4. My AMD 1.4 TB runs at 42C idle.

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: The_good_guy
I built a P4 2.53ghz this weekend.. what thermal pad on the bottom of the HS .. its a joke.. it was a peice of black metal. That came off so easily.. so I went and bought some thermal tape and used that. Later I will put some artic silver on it too. So far it Idles around 50C is that normal for a P4. My AMD 1.4 TB runs at 42C idle.

50C at idle is definitely high for a P4 at stock speeds. I've OC'd my 1.8A to 2.7GHz with 1.62v using the stock HSF+AS3 and my idle is about 48C and load is around 52C.

 

[OTR]

Originally posted by: Mallow
I know the quality of the AMD retail box heatsink/fans are basically crap and your better off buying a hsf after market.

Retail is better, because they are guaranteed to exceed cooling requirements, are usually more quite than the "overkill" after market products, and oh yeah, have a warranty that will likely exceed the life of the computer. How many of us have a 3 year old computer that we really care about? If my 3 year old P3 500 burned up tonight, I would celebrate,.. an excuse to by a new mobo/proc combo.

I always get retail processors for the systems I build and use the included HSF. It cracks me up that people will attach these humongous heat sinks that nearly exceed the weight capacity tolerated by the motherboard and put up with the painful not stop whine of the oversized fan when the modest retail hsf works just fine.

 

[Alptraum]

I always buy retail Intel for my personal machines. Over the years I have not had a single problem with them.

 

[jasonsRX7]

My P4 2.4 sits at 36c idle with only one case fan in the rear. It never hits 50c under full load, so 50c idle is definately way high.

With the retail hsf, btw

 

[Mallow]

once again thx for the quality post people.

 

[Challenger]

The_good_guy and CrazySaint those temps seem aweful high.I've got two P4 1.6As overclocked to 2.4 and one idles at 26c and the other at 28c.Max temp for either at full load running Prime95 for 24hrs is about 45c.I have noticed on these processors the higher the Vcore the higher the temps