Stock Heatsink/Fan vs. Separate CPU Cooler

I cant believe this is an actual question....but yes the aftermarket one is much better. Unlike the stock one it has copper, heatpipes, and much more metal for better conductivity.

But only get one if u intend on overclocking or u want ur PC quiet. Otherwise stay stock

Did anyone notice he installed it without thermal paste? I thought the stock coolers had it pre applied.

Lol, I was going to tell him to stop and turn it off and put the other one on, but then I figured as you said, he probably didn't know what the grey stuff was.

To the orginal poster... Heh, the fans are okay. Good airflow is never bad. That is a good cooler but if your not going to oc it's kind of a waste. But you already have it so I guess you can learn to oc if you want. Returning it is sort of a waste too isn't? That's up to you. Oh, and btw, you have to apply the thermal paste on that cooler differently then others. You put VERY thin lines in the cracks of the hsf then apply. If that's not enough, then put more on the cpu where you need it until it's sort of barely coating it. Putting too much is not good, but you got to make sure it's coated. Geez, what a hsf for this person to pick their first time...

Well I got everything on tight it seems good! So just a quickie here. I have the special SATA cable from my HDD plugged into my MOBO and then from my MOBO to my disk drive.

What other connections do I need to make with the SATA?

For example. On my Hard Drive and Disk Drive I have the SATA DATA/POWER hooked up. There is also a place for some sort of 6 pin plug on one and an 8 pin plug on the back of the other. Do I need to connect those because I don't know what plug would fit.

Also, I just tried booting up and absolutely nothing happened. I must have a power connection problem. I know I have the main stuff plugged in though. The huge MOBO connector, the cpu, fans, LEDS and video card.

* Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KSRTL 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Retail

* Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500 - Retail (N82E16819115036)

* LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS120-08 - Retail

* Antec NeoPower 650 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

* Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120mm "Core Contact Freezer" CPU Cooler - Retail

* Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

* HIS Hightech H487F512P Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
[Question: It has room for 2 separate PCI-E power supply plugs so I'm assuming it needs both? -one of the 6 pin plugs pci-e has another small 2 pin plug with it too but I see no place where that would go.]

* ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

* mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996587 - Retail

I put together a similar rig a couple months ago.

Power: There is a 4-pin power connector above the CPU that you need to supply with power otherwise your system will not boot.

SATA: I believe there is 6 red SATA connectors on the P5Q Pro MB. Simply start adding cables connecting one connector to one hard drive. Also connect one cable between a connector and your DVD player. Also make sure your hard drive doesn't need the jumper removed to be 3.0Gb/s. I believe I have a Seagate that comes with a jumper defaulting it to 1.5Gb/s.

CPU: I initially had the e8500 stock heatsink and fan in there. But when I played games, I noticed that my temperature was hitting 85c. When I would run Orthos, the two cores would hit 90 - 100 degrees celsius. I replaced the stock stuff with a Tuniq Tower 120 a couple of days ago. The idle temps before the transition were 52/48. Idle after the transition is now 35/33. When I run orthos, or play games, the temps stay mid to upper 40's now. However, the Tower 120 has a 120mm fan "inside" the heatsink, which I replaced with one of those Scythe fans for better airflow.

Also... when I built my rig (in early September) it was plagued by freezes and BSODs. It wasn't until ASUS released a BIOS update (in October) that the computer became stable. So you definitely want to update your BIOS.

Edit: If you want to use the RAID controller, make sure you enter the BIOS and switch from IDE to RAID. I think it is under the first tab. You have a choice between IDE, RAID, and AHCI. Then you need to hit the cntl-I (or something similar) during bootup, to setup the RAID controller. I have two terabit drives running RAID 1 (mirror).