Hi, I have an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and have it overclocked to 3.4GHz. I downloaded this program called "SpeedFan" and when i play Call of Duty 4, my CPU stays at 50 and Core 0, Core 1, Core 2, and Core 3 go up to 70C. Is this too hot? Is the CPU and cores 0 1 2 and 3 the same?

You've got that Q6600 cranked up pretty high from it's nominal 2.4GHz. If you are not running a 3rd party CPU cooler like the ZeroTherm Nervana, you better get one ASAP

Ok, thanks, I'll consider getting a ZeroTherm Nervana or I'll bring it down to 3 GHz.

Do you think you'll see much improvement from the stock heatsink and fan to the ZeroTherm Nirvana? And Speedfan says my CPU fan is running at 3516 RPM is that too fast?

Fifty degrees celsius is not to hot... that system will take an average of 64 C without major problems. Neither is the CPU too fast, but it might be too noisy.

"Neither is the CPU too fast, but it might be too noisy"...

Raybay left out the word "cooler" in the sentance

It never hurts to use a quality CPU cooler in place of those cheap pieces of crap stock coolers. You can run a quality coolers fan slower too. The heatsink is much more efficient...

My Q6600 at a stock 2.4GHz runs at 44C with a cooling fan speed (ZeroTherm Nirvana) of 1024 RPM

Ya, my CPU fan is really noisy and if i lower it the cpu goes really hot. So if i got that good heatsink than i could run it at a lower speed and still have good cooling and it would be a bit less noisy?

Oh and also i have a P5K SE motherboard Would the ZeroTherm Nirvana fit on with no problems?

If you overclocked it using an automated overclocker through bios, it's probably got your volts way to high

When you're running something at close to 50% overclock, your temps will DEFINITELY jump.

I'm not surprised that it got to 70C, especially since its on a stock heatsink.

That nirvana is not too shabby, with 4 heatpipes. Google it, and take a look at its design. If you can't get the exact heatsink, just look for another with a similar design (note: 120mm fans are good, there are 92mm versions of such heatsinks out there somewhere... not so good). There are tons of them out there. Some don't come with their own fan (but you can buy your own and install it), so take note.

Also, since these heatsinks use a larger fan, you can the fans slower, and still blow the same amount (or more) of air, so they'll be quieter. They tend to be much much bigger than the stock intel heatsink fan combo, so less air is needed to cool the CPU. All in all, you should get: a cooler CPU & less noisy.

About your question, your m/b is a full sized, standard ATX board. It should fit without a problem.

"My Q6600 at a stock 2.4GHz runs at 44C with a cooling fan speed (ZeroTherm Nirvana) of 1024 RPM"...

If you look at the fans RPM, you will realize that it is real quiet

Ok, I just called the store i bought this PC from and they said they never heard of the ZeroTherm Nirvana. They said I should get a ZALMAN 9700. Do you think i should get this one?

The Zalman is terrific. I am a big fan of Zalman, and use three of their components.

I just went and purchased a Zalman heatsink and fan, and now at 3.4 GHz, it's only 34C! Thanks for all your help

The Zalman is pretty good, and I was a fan of them as well.

However, I found another company, which produces HUGE heatsinks, and I've converted.

Its still a good choice, and I've recommended the 9700 in the past. And I can see that its working wonders now.

The huge heatsinks I have worked with turned out to be disasters. The kinetics of them has caused more damage to CPU's through vibration than was though possible. And there is a limit to how much cooling actually takes place.
The Zalman coolers are very light, reasonably sized, and don't wear out their tie downs or beat the CPU to death.

Hmmm... you brought up something quite interesting there actually.


I've never heard of any problems you just mentioned. As I am a user of such heatsinks, I'm interested to hear how vibration can damage a solid state product such as the CPU.

As for cooling limit, we all should know that room temperature is about as low as you can get via air/water cooling (adding ice to your reservoir doesn't count, nor is it recommended).

Please don't think that I overclock heavily now (I did at first). Right now, I'm glad I have these oversized heatsinks, as I'm running a whisper quiet computer at incredibly low temps.

However, your point about damage do have me concerned.

Blimp01, just so you don't think i'm making this up....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835887011

I stopped using Zalman because their fans fail after as little as 6 months. My Zerotherm is about a year old now, but it is running and nearly silent at 1095 rpms

Making what up? o_O

Never heard of the failing Zalman fans before, a friend who bought one after my recommendation still has his working fine. However, having a fan fail in one of those is a problem, since they weren't designed to be removed.

I don't know how dropping kills chips, but it happens, We see them all the time in the shop. Flash drives and memory chips that have been dropped. The data is lost. Many can be recovered with good software but not always.
Never yet seen a Zalman cooler die, but of course I will because ALL fans for CPU's and case coolers wear out easily. They slow down as they wear on those pin bearings. They are built by machine after all.

I've killed a HDD and a DVDRW on 2 seperate occasions, which effectively destroyed those products (I managed to get a replacement on the HDD tho).

Given that I'm an extremely clumsy person, I have also dropped my current Core2Duo, and a graphics card (with the heatsink on) both at standing height before. These 2 survived.

I suppose anything can be possible given enough time, but I doubt the fact that its a huge, heavy heatsink had something to do with it. If anything, a huge heavy heatsink should dampen any vibrations caused by a fan.

But I'll keep this in mind, who knows when I'll run into weird problems with my CPU. I'll report back here when that happens