How bad is the Intel fan/heatsink

[Slickrick214]

I wanted to do a build for a general home computer (fooling around on the Internet, watching YouTube video watching videos on netflix and light gaming) I was going to go with and I5 but what I wanted to know is should I use the stock Intel fan/heatsink or should I get an aftermarket cooler. I've been doing some reading and so many people have said bad things about the stock cooler. I had read that it gives bad cooling performance , the push pins are really annoying. They can pop out causing a bad seal and you have to apply so much pressure to get the pins fully in place that it can warp the motherboard or break the pins. I really don't like the sounds of the stock Intel fan/heatsink.

 

[hpfreak]

The fans work fine, I've installed them before, SB i5 too, not a problem, it took a bit of pressure, but unless you plan on overclocking or running CPU intensive tasks (which you aren't based on what you wrote above) then I wouldn't worry about getting a 3rd party heatsink.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I work on repairing PCs. I also build them. Honestly, I only have issues witht he push pins on cheaper mobos. On the decent mobos, like Asus, they are not hard to put in and I haven't had one break yet.

For cooling at stock, its actually fine. If you don't overclock it will do fine and is very quiet compared to after market.

Thing is though, unless you buy a top end after market fan, the lower end ones still use push pins to attatch.

As for the board warping, there is a bit but its fine. Some people blow stuff out of proportion.

 

[Guest]

they work. just make sure you have the little tabs on the side slots lined up so it locks when you twist it after pushing down.

 

[Slickrick214]

Thanks. A couple thing.

For what I wanted to do I don't plan on overclocking. There really isn't any point a quad core I5 should be able to handle light games just fine. I wont be playing games like Crysis or BF3 more strategy games like CoH's and games like that. I was most worried about board warping more than anything, even more than bad cooling. I was going to get an ASUS z68 M-Pro motherboard. It's not top of the line but it'd not cheap. Hopefully I wont have any problems with it.

Also do you think it would be worth it to wipe off the stock thermal paste? One think I noticed is pre applied thermal paste seems to be kind of junky. It seems to not last very long and it dries out and turns to powder pretty fast. I was going to replace it with something like Artic Silver 5 or MX 4

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Our stock HSF (heatsink/fan) is designed to deal with our processors under normal conditions. The biggest problem with our stock coolers is when they are not installed correctly. Simple things that you can do to make sure that you are installing it right is to put it on the board before you mount the board in the chassis also once it is mounted you can look at the backside of the board to see if the clips are in all the way and spread. If the HSF is already in the case and you want to check just reach in and pull each twist clip straight up. If you can pull it straight up it wasn't seated right.

Also our stock thermal paste has tested to be very good so unless you are removing the HSF don't clean it off. If you are replacing it any good thermal paste is fine.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Slickrick214]

Best answer selected by Slickrick214.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey