I like to keep my PC cool because increased heat leads to increased energy loss which leads to even more increased heat which leads to me feeling uncomfortably warm which leads to me loosing concentration which leads to me crashing in LFS which leads to me getting angry which leads to me throwing PC out of the window which leads to me having to buy a new PC which leads to me being poor.
See, cool CPU means more wealth!

Vain

Quote from Matrixi :

Been there, done that. http://nismo.1g.fi/temp/radeon/

Did that melt off O_o

Quote from Shotglass :

since when does silicon age at temperatures well below 150-200 °C ?
ive heard it a lot from self proclaimed oc experts but never seen any proof of it or heard of it in lecture/book that deals with silicon and semiconductors

The silicon doesn't age as such, but the heat damages the "circuits" (not really circuits, but I can't think of a better word), and as chips get smaller the work inside the waffers is smaller, and becomes victem to damage from heat easier. It is claimed (but yet to really see any hard evidence of it, as I believe that the source was rather biased) that the 90nm die has about 5 years of life in it. If there is any truth in that, who knows.

I don't claim to be an expert at anything, and still only know the basics (or what I think is the basics anyway).

Quote from pb32000 :

Thermal pads generally annoy me when you come to remove the heatsink, they can stick so tighly together its unreal.

Tell me about it. I've still got a P4 thats literally stuck to a heatsink with a thermal pad. It's been like that for a few years now. Any hints? (seriously, its completely stuck, and no I didn't build the machine said processor once lived in)

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Did that melt off O_o

Yup, I was wondering why I started getting artifacts in HL2 and opened up my case and found the fan tilted like that.

Surprisingly the card is still working fine, ATI ftw. \o/

Quote from the_angry_angel :

Tell me about it. I've still got a P4 thats literally stuck to a heatsink with a thermal pad. It's been like that for a few years now. Any hints? (seriously, its completely stuck, and no I didn't build the machine said processor once lived in)

The only thing you could do is try and force it, the stuff sets harder the hotter it gets, and after 2 weeks of constant use it's set solid. You could get some dental floss, and try and pull them inbetween the HS and the CPU.

Quote from Matrixi :

Yup, I was wondering why I started getting artifacts in HL2 and opened up my case and found the fan tilted like that.

Surprisingly the card is still working fine, ATI ftw. \o/

Thats just nuts.

Quote from Jakg :

never heard of a passive cooler doing a modern CPU (esp a 64 bit one), what CPU and temps you get?

khhihiiii, I mean the NB cooling you asked lål :P

Quote from Blackout :

khhihiiii, I mean the NB cooling you asked lål :P

gonna say, how on earth were you cooling a modern cpu passivley, but now it makes sense

Actually I have no idea about my system temperatures at the moment, they used to about 40 degrees but havent checked atleast in a year or so :P. If some people have obsession about the temperatures I must have obsession to silence. Got my Radeon 9600XT with passive heatsink, and prosessor has big copper thingy from Zalman and it's cooled down by very silent fan, and the powersuply is allso silent one (Nexus something), but I think the fan in it is braking down because I can hear it I hope I don't have to upgrade very soon because then this would become very noisy...or it would reguire even more money to have all the new silent cooling gear I hope new memory I ordered can give some more boost :P

Quote from Jakg :

gonna say, how on earth were you cooling a modern cpu passivley, but now it makes sense

Just an FYI, I can cool my A64 passivly. Well could, until I dropped in the heater... I mean the X1900XT-X. It used to run ~20c idle, and the fan on my ACFreezer 64 Pro would turn off, as would most of the fans in my system. But after the heater went in temps rarely drop under 30c.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Just an FYI, I can cool my A64 passivly. Well could, until I dropped in the heater... I mean the X1900XT-X. It used to run ~20c idle, and the fan on my ACFreezer 64 Pro would turn off, as would most of the fans in my system. But after the heater went in temps rarely drop under 30c.

seriously? :chairfall

Indeed. I used to have a video of it somewhere, you can see the fans slow down and stop as the system was running. Was kinda cool, the only noise was coming out of the PSU, great for watching movies and enjoying music.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

The silicon doesn't age as such, but the heat damages the "circuits" (not really circuits, but I can't think of a better word), and as chips get smaller the work inside the waffers is smaller, and becomes victem to damage from heat easier. It is claimed (but yet to really see any hard evidence of it, as I believe that the source was rather biased) that the 90nm die has about 5 years of life in it. If there is any truth in that, who knows.

as far as i know the only reasons why a semiconductor could fail is either frying the pn junctions (which would lead to instant failure) or diffusion of doping which shouldnt happen at any significant rate at the kind of temperatures a cpu works at

Quote from the_angry_angel :

Tell me about it. I've still got a P4 thats literally stuck to a heatsink with a thermal pad. It's been like that for a few years now. Any hints? (seriously, its completely stuck, and no I didn't build the machine said processor once lived in)

get a knife with a thin blade and cut through it

Quote from Shotglass :

as far as i know the only reasons why a semiconductor could fail is either frying the pn junctions (which would lead to instant failure) or diffusion of doping which shouldnt happen at any significant rate at the kind of temperatures a cpu works at

Probably true, I've not read into it all that much, but then there is more to a CPU then the die. The pins can warp, and like a chip I have, the PCB can warp. It's kind of funny to look at, but after I clamp it down it's fine.

Quote from Shotglass :

get a knife with a thin blade and cut through it

Tried that

Not tried the dental floss method though..

Quote from Jakg :

i know, and it was warming up to, i did have 10%, but three mins of audio conversion got me to 48, and ive now discovered my fan is sitting at 3000 rpm

My fan is at 2400rpm @ 32C. Cooler chip though probably: A64-3000@2Ghz.

However, I did have the same fan in a previous case and it only dropped -5C, IMO the biggest improvement in cooling comes from your case and the air flow around it. Mine dropped ~15-20C with my new case. The case has 2x 12cm fans which are also low rpm, so a bit quieter than usual, and a proper directed airflow.

Quote from mrbogeyman :

My fan is at 2400rpm @ 32C. Cooler chip though probably: A64-3000@2Ghz.

However, I did have the same fan in a previous case and it only dropped -5C, IMO the biggest improvement in cooling comes from your case and the air flow around it. Mine dropped ~15-20C with my new case. The case has 2x 12cm fans which are also low rpm, so a bit quieter than usual, and a proper directed airflow.

i have a Coolermaster Wavemaster with one case fan and two holes in the back for watercooling (which i dont have)

uh oh

hmmm, put the oem fan from my dads X2 4400+ on (he has a Zalman Reserator, and i want one!), and it is running a bit cooler (but still hits 50 under full load with 10% overclock), as it looks to be a better bit of kit, but that just doesnt seem enough for me, and ive been looking at more fans, and wonder if any of you have any experience with the following:
Any of the Zalman Flower series (they look good, but the heat sink makes me think there geared towards noise as a pose to cooling)
Cooler Master Hyper 48
Cooler Master Aquagate Mini R 120 and 80
and also, could i trust a second hand reserator of eBay? if so, would it be worth buying a fan from Zalman to fit over the top of the resivour to cool it?