Heat sink issue

[atroposz]

Hey there,

Im a beginner putting my first rig together with a lot of help from friends. One thing I did myself (after scouring these forums and basic bare bones models offered on websites) was pick the components. However, a friend of mine is now saying he thinks I need a heat sink. I read a couple articles about them, and it seemed like the underlying theme was they were running *much* more powerful builds that I have any intention of running, and with the things I have, the various case/hard drive/psu/graphics cards inherent fans should be sufficient. So, my question is, anyone mind glancing over my parts and giving some input? Thanks a bunch!

(I havent bought anything but a monitor and graphics card yet (6850 - Im so glad someone one in these forums mentioned I might want to wait a week til they dropped!) so anything can be changed if necessary.) Oh! And one more question. The PSU I picked out is not modular, but it was the one that was recommended several times when I asked for suggestion. Ive got fairly small hands but the friend who will be helping me assemble it doesnt. Anyone have a clue on if Im going to need a bigger case? The descriptions list the Challenger as "roomy" but Im feeling a little OCD about everything being 'perfect' the first time)



Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

XIGMATEK ACXTNRP-PC402 400W ATX12V Ver.2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner



Ive already got the SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 Card winging it's way towards me.


Thanks again for any help

 

[Wolygon]

You always require a Heatsink though there is one included with the CPU. This is sufficient for normal use though if you want to overclock it is not. When overclocking you need more cooling than stock otherwise you would be limited a lot.

If your not looking to OC then just stick with the stock HSF. You can always buy one later if you think you want to OC.

With the RAM you should have really bought a 4GB kit as these are made for dual channel systems like yours. The 3 DIMM kits are made for X58 (i7 9XX) as they allow it to run in triplechannel mode. If you install all 3 sticks you will be running in single channel mode though this does not really have any impact on performance, at most 10% in demanding RAM applications which you probably will never run.

Hope that helps.