Is replacing an included CPU fan for stock speeds always an always?

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs Is replacing an included CPU fan for stock speeds always an always?

Hello
I'm gathering information on how to build my first home built PC. I read or watch a video at two sites already that said even if you plan on using your computer at stock speeds and not overclocking you should replace the CPU fan and never use the stock cooling that comes with your CPU. Both these sites went as far as to mention water cooling. So what's the lowdown are these sites correct? Should you at least immediately replace the stock cooling fan with a better one to keep your computer working for a long time? Or even as the sites suggest consider using an easy to use sealed water-cooler even for stock speeds? Please tell me what you think? Are the Intel stock fans particularly up to snuff or not? Are there any CPU cooling systems that are particularly easy to clean?

Reply to in66732

If you use at the stock speed the cpu included fan its ok. After a time it will be loud.If you plan to overclock then buy an aftermarket fan.

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Reply to sosofm

The stock coolers provided with the CPUs are generally poor to mediocre at best (the exception may be with Intels plan to offer a closed loop cooler with Sandybridge E and Ivybridge CPUs).

Do they need to be replaced? Strictly speaking the answer is no, but it is highly recommended. In almost every test of the stock coolers, they perform worse than almost all rival aftermarket solutions.

Would I run a rig with a stock cooler? Yes, if cost was the sole consideration and I did not plan to OC the chip. It is OK to run a stock cooler, but all enthusiasts go to aftermarket coolers soon (if not immediately) after making a new build.

Most office PCs run with their stock coolers, and many have been running for years. While the stock cooler is not an optimal solution, it won't kill a CPU.

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Reply to Chesteracorgi

The stock fan will be fine at stock speeds if you don't push the system too hard for too long. If you are worried about your cpu temp, then download speedfan to keep an eye on it. However I work in a pc repair centre and I see a lot of Intel stock heatsinks. If you stick with the Intel cooler you are going to have to get used to opening up your case and cleaning out the dust about once every 3 months otherwise it will overheat. I would recommend buying a third party heatsink, as it will afford you peace of mind over your cpu. But for just stock speeds anything over $30 and definitely water cooling is overkill. However if you do want to over-clock your cpu, the Intel stock fan is not good enough.

Hope that Helps

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Reply to Phil1988

Stock fans are perfectly fine for stock systems. After all, the people who make the processors and who are warrantying the part against failure are including the fan and heatsink for you, don't you think that should tell you something?

Phil1988 wrote :

If you stick with the Intel cooler you are going to have to get used to opening up your case and cleaning out the dust about once every 3 months otherwise it will overheat. I would recommend buying a third party heatsink, as it will afford you peace of mind over your cpu. But for just stock speeds anything over $30 and definitely water cooling is overkill. However if you do want to over-clock your cpu, the Intel stock fan is not good enough.
Hope that Helps

What would be the physical characteristics of CPU cooler or fan which would resist the necessity of having to clean it for a longer interval of time? What would it look like? How would you recognize it?

Reply to in66732

stock is fine

Reply to 13thmonkey

Stock cooler is fine when not OCing.

I only recommend replacing it if you feel it is too loud. I have a Core 2 Duo E6600 in my HTPC that runs at stock speed. I use a Tuniq Tower to passively cool it (i.e. no fan) to keep noise down.

Hello again
I thought of another question which may be pertinent to the question I've been asking here so I will ask this question here. Is just expecting all core of a CPU say the Intel I7 2600K. to run on its maximum turbo boost frequency for an extended period of time a kind of overclocking like thing which might require extra good cooling. What I am after is a massive improvement in my transcoding speed. On another thread of the support forums for the product videoredo TVSuite v4 (which is the best I tried for transcoding MPEG-2 transmission stream videos to a different codex which shrinks the file size greatly) I ask the question of how much better that processor would perform with this program compared to my present processor and got this reply.

Quote :

Our H.264 encoder supports up to 8 cores so a quad core with hyper threading will use all available speed to recode and you should see a dramatic improvement over your current system

This reply can be found at this URL: http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/ [...] #post96022

So I hope I am not just belaboring your points or ready-made, but is stock cooling is good enough apply to expecting to have all four cores running at maximum turbo boost speed for a extended transcoding session with transcode's one after another in a transcode queue?

Reply to in66732

Well, again I say that the vendor who warranties the product is supplying you with the cooling fan. However, aftermarket coolers are not pricey and if you feel like you are going to run in a very demanding situation, you may want to go ahead and get one as you are apparently concerned about how warm your processor is going to get. If you don't, you are going to be worrying about it constantly, right?

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jitpublisher wrote :

No I would not worry about my processor being damaged without an aftermarket cooler. I am just trying to figure how much overclocking would mean from a forum with people aren't hell bent on overclocking. Does one figure out the overclock improvement from the Turbo frequency or the non-turbo frequency. In another part of the reply from the makers of the transcoder (videoredo TVSuite v4) in which transcoder maker responds to my question about how much improvement ssd or RAM disk make in transcoding speed his answer was not much. So I'm assuming it not much is the answer to that question then he overclocking ram in addition to the CPU would result in an improvement in transcoding speed with which this particular program which would be a not much improvement in speed. I am thinking that if without overclocking I can improve my transcoding time by 80% compared to useing Intel E5200 2 core processor running at 2.5 GHz that improvement with overclocking would only be something like from 80% to 84% tops so is my thinking right or wrong.

Reply to in66732

Also because the heat sync on stock fans are quite thick they clog with dust really easy so keep an eye out on them, easiest way, hoover just above the fan, i let the fan spin because i've never had a problem with doing this but others will cry out to not because it "messes up the bearings yadda yadda yadda" So that's up to you

Reply to noahscorp

having both stock and non stock systems in my house I can say that if you are going to be near your pc, or if its used in a quieter environment then get an aftermarket cooler. I have an HTPC in the living room running a Athlon II x3 with the stock cooler and during quiet movie scenes the cpu fan is really noticble to me. Its much quieter than the i5 htpc in my bedroom though. I'm currently researching coolers that use stock mounting since neither htpc allows access to the bottom of the motherboard.

Reply to popatim

Well that's all very good information to consider. I will certainly consider how good the fan bearings on in stock coolers are and how noisy they are, but my most pressing further question is when I was asking about overclock versus non-overclocked performance. If you are already moving up tremendously in your processor power will the difference between overclocked and non-overclocked be no more than the order of a 20% time decrease when trans-coding?

Reply to in66732

best improvement, aside from cpu choice (amd vs i7) for transcoding would be fast disk systems. Ideally you want 3 drives or raids. 1 Data, 1 scratch, 1 work. SSD's just put the cpu as the bottleneck and you cant work any faster than that. in the end, its all on the CPU. i7-3960x ?

Reply to popatim