Milking it... Athlon 64 to Athlon X2 cooler question

[pile it]

So milking a bit more life out of my old gaming rig, contemplating picking up an Athlon X2 3800+ to replace my Athlon 64 3000+. Already added memory upto the system limit of 4GB.

1) Will the stock cooler from the 64 adequately cool the x2 (without any overclock) (Or get one from the vendor for 10$, shipped)
2) cost is about 80$ shipped
3) any other thoughts?

 

[MU_Engineer]

So milking a bit more life out of my old gaming rig, contemplating picking up an Athlon X2 3800+ to replace my Athlon 64 3000+. Already added memory upto the system limit of 4GB.

1) Will the stock cooler from the 64 adequately cool the x2 (without any overclock) (Or get one from the vendor for 10$, shipped)
2) cost is about 80$ shipped
3) any other thoughts?

The stock cooler from the 3000+ should cool the 3800+ since AMD generally used a similar boxed cooler with all of the Socket 939 chips. Also, the 3800+ is an 89-watt chip and the Venice-based 3000+s are between 60 and 70 watts, so the heat production is not all that different. If you are in doubt at all, use your existing cooler and watch the temps. If they start getting too warm, you'll know you need a larger cooler.

 

[pile it]

Well it's running at 33C right now (light load). Call me lazy but what's the idea operating range?

 

[MU_Engineer]

Well it's running at 33C right now (light load). Call me lazy but what's the idea operating range?

Ideally you'd want to have the CPU running at less than 50 C, but under 60 C is acceptable.

Athlon 64s reduce their clock speed and frequency when under a light load, which is why you're seeing that low temp at light load. Load up both cores with something like Prime95 to see how hot it will get under full load.

 

[pile it]

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