Heat sink upgrade

Sorry, no, never seen it mentioned in any reviews. Why did you select it? If price, look at this, VERY GOOD for the price, I have one in my PC.

Hyper 212 Plus

A Guy

Noticing you are running a Phenom X3 I would point out what the specifications are for this one.

Speed Control Type: PWM controller

Intel Socket LGA 1156
CPU: Intel Core i7 Processor / Intel Core i5 Processor / Intel Core i3 Processor
CPU TDP: <= 115W

Intel Socket LGA 1366
CPU: Intel Core i7 Extreme / Intel Core i7 Processor
CPU TDP: <= 130W

Intel Socket LGA 775
CPU: Intel Extreme Edition, Prescott, Celeron D, Core 2 Due, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Extreme, Dural-core, Pentium D
CPU TDP: <= 130W

You may want to look around a bit more for one that is intended for AMD cpus.

You won't know until it came in and you can set a few super thin rolling papers as one tech uses under it to see if you can pull one out from one side or the other. Generally the idea of the thermal paste or compound used however is to fill in the minor differences with the thin layer of paste compensating for any unevenness.

The link A Guy posted for you there however is a real bargain when price checking against what is seen at newegg. Have a look! Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus Intel Core i5 &#38; Intel Core i7 compatible RR-B10-212P-G1 120mm &#34;heatpipe direct contact&#34; Long life sleeve CPU Cooler

HellionDarklord said:

okay so the hyper 212 plus looks like it would work. Would I have to lap it to get it truly level though?

If you want to get to that level, you could lap it, but it's a direct contact heatpipe cooler, so it isn't a base, you'd be better off not tring to lap the actual heatpipes unless you REALLY know what you are doing. A Guy

You actually have to be tooled to work with soft metals such as a tool+die shop or easily trash it entirely! The thermal paste used generally makes up for any mass production descrepancies anyways.

For one sink that had to be replaced here on the new build when swapping memory out that would have need to be lapped since it was simply too large and ended up resting on two of heat shields of the dimms themselves! That was replaced fast!

The hyper 212 plus is a great cooler.
I wouldn't worry about lapping it, install it and see how it's working.

You should see a definite decrease in temps. Not sure what your CPU runs at with the stock cooler, but should be much better.

Mine runs at idle 29c and Prime95 at 59c.

I ended up dropping one of these on the Phenom II X4 965 model here. Amazon.com: ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED: Electronics

The last AM2 build with a 6000+ X2 however saw some real low breakin temps like 23C with this one when first getting that one together. Amazon.com: Zalman CNPS9700LED Ultra Quiet Cpu Cooler: Electronics

What ever you go with make sure the fan if it has one is free spinning. Sometimes those get pressed in a bit during shipping and may get caught up on one of the fan tips. The first link shows the hsf used to replace another larger model similar in size to the Hyper 212 seen at Newegg.com - ZALMAN CNPS10X Extreme 120mm CPU Cooler with Worlds first PWM Fan Speed Controller

It's large with aluminum fins and a copper base plus a fan controller. Only look at that one if you have low profile performance dimms installed however! When I had to swap memory out here the new memory saw ribs sticking up along the top that raised the sink up a bit. Newegg.com - Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB &#40;2 x 2GB&#41; 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 &#40;PC3 12800&#41; Desktop Memory Model 996659B

When choosing a sink especially any large one you want to make sure that will fit down on the board and have clearance on all sides to avoid running into the same problem I saw here. That's still a great price seen at amazon there since most other places will want $15 or more over that.