Hi all, i have a question (first build ever)
 
My parts are starting to come in and the first batch included my cooler and paste. I open it up and have a few questions
 
my  
 
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
 
includes paste already applied. Do i remove it and apply the  
 
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
 
or
 
should i just skip the AS5 and just use the paste that is already applied.
 
second,  
 
I plan on OC my E8400 to 3.6 and leave it at that. can I use the stock Heatsink and just give my new AC7 and paste to a buddy?
 
any thoughts, thanks inadvance
 
my rig  
Antec 900
E8400
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro + AS5 paste
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800  
Evga 780i sli  
2 * Evga 8800 GTS
PC Power & Cooling 750W Power Supply
2 * 250 seagate HD's (No raid)
HT omega Sound Card
Asus DVD/CD
XP Pro 32

Can't answer your first question, but I would definitely *not* use the stock heatsink and overclock the CPU.  Sure, it might be okay, but why risk it?  A good heatsink is not expensive now anyway, if your buddy wants one make him buy his own.

I would advise not using the stock cooler.  Even though standards have risen significantly in regards to how far procs can overclock, 20% OC is still significant and will result in a temperature increase.  
 
I would assume, since you didn't mention it, that you are using stock cooling on your GPUs.  Depending on your case airflow, your SLI set up could significantly increase the internal case air temperature.
 
I have the same MB as you, and if you use the NB fan, it blows hot air on your GPUs, which doesn't help the situation.
 
(The following suggestions assume you have a BTX midtower case)
 
I would suggest installing your heatsink so that it blows out your rear exaust, then mounting an additional 120 fan on the top panel blowing directly down on the HSF, if you're case allows it.
 
Then, install another 120 on your side panel between your GPUs blowing out of the case, this will help pull the air from your case front fan to the GPUs and pull the radiant GPU heat away from the cpu/nb.
It will also help allieviate any airflow issues caused by your soundcard between the to GPUs.
 
 

The compound that Artic Cooling use is reportedly as good if not better that AS5

Hey Banana:
 
I bought the same AC F7Pro cooler, and AS5, but all the research I read indicated that the 1-2 degrees potentially gained by the AS5 are outweighed by the risk of misapplying the AS5.
 
So, I just used the F7Pro's stock paste, and kept the AS5 for a rainy day.  Now that my system has been running stable for 3 months, I am going to tinker with it by running the F7Pro vertically (Antec 900 has a fan an inch above the cooler), and will remove the stock paste and replace with AC5.  I will let you know how that works out.
 
My suggestion is to keep the F7Pro.  You will want the peace of mind that your "baby" is properly coddled and cooled.  I am hoping to do the same thing with a new e8400 over the coming months (3.6 GHz, so I can keep 1:1 RAM), but know that I will eventually be tempted to crack 4.0.  And you would definitely want the F7Pro if you go to 4.0.
 
That's quite a first system you have!!!  Go the distance and eliminate the only possible weak link (stock cooler).
 
What case will you be using?

Sorry forgot to list case
 
Antec 900 case, also the sound card is a PCI card and will fit on the last pcl slot leaving the 2 gpu cards clear.  
 
I also plan on placing the 2 HD's out of the way of the 2 front fans on the case so the fans have a direct view of the GPu's
 
 
I already have (case, HD's, CPU, Heatsinks, PS, and Sound card) The GPU's and Mem should come today
 
 
 
I am very new to building, this will be my first attempt (it will be a $1,600 experiment

Thanks guys for the replies,
 
husky, did you have any problems installing the AC7, could you give any hints.  
 
also, Should I just set it vertically from the start (fan facing the 120 top fan on the Antec 900 case) I read some others doing that as well
 
 
ziegemon ,  
 
since I am using the Antec 900 case, do you think I will have a problem with heat and if you are familiar w/ the antec 900 case, what fan configuration would you use
 
thanks in advance

I'm not familiar with the case, but I looked at it on Newegg.  Looks like you've already got a big top fan, and one more fan on the front of the case than I'd assumed.
 
My recomendation would be to put a 120 on your side vent, pointed to blow air out of the case.
 
Several of the Newegg reviewers mentioned that the 200mm case fan on the top is very fragile.   Try not to let anything touch the blades, moving or not.  You'd have a hard time replacing that.
 
Looks like the case would have really good airflow, if you've got everything in the right place.

Hi Banana:

You REALLY have a great system.  The Antec 900 is considered one of the best venting cases at any price.  Most of your concerns are already well-settled:

1) Do not blow out with the side fan.  DO blow inward, directly onto your GPU with an additional 120mm fan.
2) Don't mess with relocating the HDs.  You are forfeiting one of the strengths of the case--i.e., ability to cool the HDs via the bottom or mid fans.
3) Instead use the adapter included with the case;  this is just for your situation.  It allows you to mount an additional 120mm fan AFTER the HDs, just so you can re-accellerate airflow over your GPU.
4) Do NOT violate the laws of thermodynamics;  cool air always blows in from the bottom half of the case, blows out from the top.  Only caveat is that it can blow in from the top half if it is blowing in from the "cool side", i.e., from the front.  You want to pay attention to airflow--also stay with front-to-back airflow in addition to the concept of heat rising.  Violate either of these and you are working AGAINST mother nature.
5)  I think that mounting the CPU cooler vertically is optimum for the Antec so that you are leveraging its MAIN strength (the top mount bigass fan).  I should have done that from the beginning, and will do it shortly.
6)  Best advice for mounting the AFPro7 or any cooler for that matter is to do it BEFORE mounting the Mobo.  It is very difficult, time consuming, and out right frustrating to mount it when the mobo is already in the case.  (that's why I have put off re-mounting the cooler vertically--because I know I will need to take the whole board out--and as such, I might just wait until my e8400 upgrade).  
7)  My base philosophy for any computer purchase or upgrade is to do it right the first time so that you don't have to second guess it later.  That goes for fans, coolers, paste, etc.

Once again, my compliments on your first system!!!

I certainly agree with Husky about having your HS positioned so it's fan blows out the top.  When I looked at the pictures of the case, I had foolishly assumed the big fan was blowing inwards on the heat sink.
 
There may be a problem with your heat sink fan hitting the northbridge heatsink, it's impossible to tell from pictures, but there isn't a whole lot of room there.  If that's the case, you should point towards the other exhaust.
 
I'm more into the front to back airflow, and trying to get the heat from the cpu and the heat from the gpu out of the case without needing to meet each other, but on the other hand my case doesn't have the exhaust of ultimate doom on the top of it.  
 
I'm certainly open to being wrong about the side fan, but I'd be curious to know what the temp differences would be either way.  I think it's the difference between getting a higher volume of air over your cpu sink or getting less flow over it a lower temperature.  I don't think any laws of thermodynamics need to be violated.  It's been a long long time since I took thermo in college, but I got an A.  I also got a C in fluids, so I'd advise you play with it a little bit and do what gives you the temps you want.  Doesn't take much effort to flip a fan.
 
 

I didn't mean to discount ziegemon's points, and my credentials certainly don't warrant it (political science does not count does not count as a hard science!).  

But at least for the design of the Antec 900, there are loads of posts about how to optimize airflow.  The consensus is the sidefan must blow inward, and then the only real decision is whether to aim the CPU cooler up or back.   And having the ACFP7 blowing upwards is the closest thing you can get to creating a push-pull configuration without actually having to strap a second fan directly onto the cooler.  To ziegemon's point though--be sure that your Northbridge gives proper clearance to blow upwards.

The side fan and extra internal fan did not affect my idle temps. that I could tell, but they did give me a couple degrees headroom with the GPU and CPU at load.

FYI, did not actually use the internal 120mm bracket/adapter because I had a spare 140mm fan on hand and found I could easily jerry-rig the 140 to do the same thing.  (attached the 140 to the back of the HD cage with screws and plastic wall anchors fitting into some open slots.)

Thanks guys,
 
I saw the extra mount/fan that would attch to the HD cage, But I know the 8800 gts's are long and wasn't sure if they would fit with that attached. I thought for sure it wouldn't and I will have to remove it. If it does fit I will add that fan and keep the HD's right in front of the 2 front case fans
 
I know this case has a mount also on the side panel and again I wasnt sure what space I would have after installing 2 8800 gts's (from what i heard they are very very big/long)
 
my current rig has a regular house fan (13inch) leaning on the side of the open case blowing air on the whole rig (MB,CPU,GPU, and MEM).  
 
My ati x850 card overheats and shuts down when gaming. this has been going on for awhile (2nd agp upgrade since I owned the rig, 1st was a ati 9800) 4 1/2 years ago

I can't speak about the 8800 GTS for sure, but I have about an inch and a half clearance with my jerry-rigged fan at the back of my HD3870.  The stock fan adapter will then give you perhaps another half inch on top of that.  So, your GTS will likely fit with the internal fan.  I want to say that they even sell lower profile fans (i.e., thinner) but am not sure.

It will definitely fit with the side fan attached.

Once again, the Antec was designed with our scenarios in mind, so most of the issues you are concerned about...are no longer concerns.  That's why we paid the big bucks for it...