Hi,

I think my E8400 ANd motherboard are running too hot at idle state. CPU cores (as Everest reports) 48-50C each core, the motherboard temp is 45-50C. This is at room temperature of 22C.

Motherboard is ASUS P5Q
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx? [...] odelmenu=1

My case is: Gigabyte GZ-X5 which is not quiet.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Product [...] uctID=2711

At the moment E8400 uses it's stock, low-profile Intel cooler, which runs at 2,2k rpm and is loud. Add 2 12cm Case fans at 1,1k rpm at it gets even louder.

I was thinking to replace the stock cooler with something else, and i can chose between 3:
1. Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
2. Nexus XIR-2300
3. Nexus HOC-9000

Which one is the best? I want it to be super silent at idle state and no matter how loud at full load while i'm playing something, as my HD4850 then is the loudest thing anyway. Even if temps ARE 50C with new cooler, i want not to hear it work.

Now, there's some difference about these coolers. They all seem to be quiet (as reviews state), but i didn't find a review which would test these three coolers in 1 test session.

Freezer 7 costs 33.5$
XIR-2300 - 57.8$
HOC - 57.8$

The shop they are sold at states, that Freezers noise is 0.9sone (don't know the dBa equivalent, 17dBa?)
XIR - 15dBa;
HOC- 17dBa.

Now is it worth to pay extra 24$ for Nexus cooler, like XIR-2300?
Also will any of these coolers help me cool motherboard too? My old system running Celeron 1.7GHz (willamette) never exceeded 52C at full load with stock cooler (38C for motherboard). In idle it like 33C CPU and 30C MB.

Thats all for now i think, i hope you can help me.

Thank you.

ok, first thing first, any of those heatsinks above or any hih end aftermarket heatsink for that matter can be made silent at idle. All you need to do is use the 3pin mobo connector and through the bios or speedfan you will be able to tell the fan work once the cpu reaches a certain temp.
To cool your motherboard you hace a few options. you can invest in a new heatsink for the north bridge. You could also purchase a cpu cooler where the fan directs the air down towards the motherboard, however if you look at the top ten heatsinks on frostytech none of them use that design. Another option that you have is to get an antec spot cool fan or make a ghetto one yourself (thats what i would do) However you could be like my highly intelligent friend and take off your side panel and stick a house fan there.
My choice of the above coolers would be the arctic freezer 7, however if you can get your hands on one a xigmatek s1283 with a retention bracket is highly recommended or the sunbeam contact cooler.
However something seems wrong with your temps as my q6600 idles lower then that, so you might want to take off the cooler, clean the cpu and heatsink with rubbing alcohol, apply new thermal paste and re seat the cooler making sure the pushpins click into the mobo

Thanks.
Too bad there's not much of a choice here in my country, so Freezer is the way to go, so far.

I also think to detach the front 12cm case fan and make it blow on the mobo. Will see if it is better or not.

I am starting to think, that this case is not only bad at keeping all the noise inside itself, but its bad at airflow.

With both case fans (rear and front) spinning at 1,1k rpm overall system temps gone down by 3-4C.
With 800rpm it reaches those 47-50C temps. (CPU cooler is spinning at 2,2k rpm then).
If i turn off case fans, CPU cooler starts to spin at 2,7k rpm and keeps temps at 50C. In this case mobo temp reaches CPU temperatures really fast.

It's strange how can a P45 low-end motherboard get so hot without overclock (actually it's even underclocked, as ASUS EPU utility is set to 'medium power saving', can't turn it to 'max power saving' as it will turn of the case fans.

Another excellent cooler if it is available in your location is the OCZ Vendetta 2, does a much better job than the Freezer 7. If noise from your case fans is an issue, I would suggest that you replace them with Scythe Slipstream 120mm 1200rpm fans if you can get them, they are both quiet and efficient, I use 4 of them in my P182 case.
Judging by the photos of that case, you would be well advised to use a dremel tool or something similar to remove the rather restrictive metal grills for the fans. This will improve airflow and reduce noise. You can put the normal chromed wire grills on instead, this will keep things like fingers out of the fan while allowing maximum airflow and minimum noise from air turbulence.

I have one more question.

Something is going wrong with the temperature sensors

It happened several times.
1. CPU temp goes sky high, up to 124C and doesn't move. Everest reports individual core temps correctly. Other sowtfare shows 124C too. After restart is back to normal.

2. Motherboard temp. goes up to 95C. I turn on the case fans and it goes down to 20 and less C by 2-3C every data refresh (everest stability tool, tho it's only for monitoring, no test are being done). If i turn case fans of, it raises temp by 3-4C per refresh till it reaches 90+C again.

3. Motherboard temp. suddenly drops to 2C, goes up to like 30C and again to 2C. After like 5 mins it shows the correct temps again.


So whats wrong? Should i send it to waranty to replace the board?