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Piece of paper quiets Intel Alder Lake stock coolers
- hoseja 5y agoThe really funny thing about those new Intel coolers is that the impressive looking fins are made of plastic.
- FooHentai 5y agoI guess the risks here are that the paper cooks off or crisps up over time, the tape plastic or glue melts into the cooler, or the loop becomes dislodged and jams into a fan somewhere, causing an overheat. 3d printed rings might be a good, cheap option if the gap is not too small. Bit silly that the fan didn't ship with something like this stock.
- Vecr 5y agoNomex paper and Kapton tape (as long as it's rated for the right temps) might be better, but normal paper is not really that flammable at CPU temps as long as there are no sparks, arcs, or flames.
- klysm 5y agoIf there are sparks, arcs, or flames happening around your CPU, something is seriously wrong.
- girvo 5y agoAnd the paper cowl catching fire is probably the least of your problems.
- ungamedplayer 5y agoI once had a claw hammer socket decoupe from the motherboard. Good times.
- madaxe_again 5y agoI’m sorry, your motherboard had a socket for a claw hammer?
- fhars 5y agoAlso known as Socket 939, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon_64#Clawhammer_(130_nm_SOI) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon_64#Clawhammer_(130_nm_S...
- hyperdimension 5y ago"It does now!"
- klysm 5y agoAnd that resulted in fire/sparks?
- ungamedplayer 5y agoMany. And hot melted plastic.
- ehnto 5y agoIt probably passed an overall dB check but it has some very annoying frequencies in it.
- KennyBlanken 5y agoModern CPUs won't overheat unless thermal limits are specifically disabled in BIOS. Most decent motherboards even offer the ability to set a custom, lower limit, and/or to set an action temperature where the system sleeps or shuts down. I have my thermal throttle set at 90c, because I know my cooler won't exceed about 80c even under the heaviest load. 90c means something's wrong.
- The_rationalist 5y agoMaybe it needs some flextape
- Hamuko 5y ago>Bit silly that the fan didn't ship with something like this stock. Cost cutting for something that isn't really that integral part of the Intel CPU experience, as OEMs often have their own cooling solutions (Dell has load-bearing coolers!), and hardware enthusiasts just buy better cooling if they demand lower noise.
- DoingIsLearning 5y ago> cooks off or crisps up Off-topic but as a non-native speaker, English language phrasal verbs are one of the most bewildering things in the language.
- SturgeonsLaw 5y agoHonestly I don't even know how you'd go about learning that stuff. English is such a mishmash of words, phrases and rules that I consider myself lucky I grew up with it and don't have to try and make sense of this nonsense.
- NickNameNick 5y agoOther languages have "borrow words". English mugs other languages for loose grammar.
- triactual 5y agoUL94-V0 polycarbonate sheet or fish paper. Heatsink could easily get over the glass temp of common 3D printing materials like PLA or PETG.
- mewse-hn 5y agoABS would be fine, maybe printed in vase mode to be extra thin
- triactual 5y agoNot flame proof though. You don’t want to put flammable things in something like a computer case that will be running unattended. I get that people do this stuff all the time with no issue. Just know the risks before taking them.
- khyryk 5y agoProbably blocks air that would've otherwise passed over the motherboard VRMs. With good case cooling, it probably doesn't matter, but the design is made to accommodate the lowest common denominator.
- behringer 5y agoYep this mod is inadequate for this reason
- aix1 5y agoVRM = Voltage Regulator Module in case others also aren't familiar with the acronym (I had to Google it)
- pubby 5y agoYeah probably, but that doesn't explain why Intel's higher-end coolers do have a cowl. Surely the higher-end chips need VRM cooling way more than budget-mode i5s, especially when run at stock power limits. FWIW, when I tested (I'm the author), I didn't see any VRM throttling, even on my dinky budget motherboard. But then again, my power limits are set to Intel's recommended values and I'm not overclocking or anything.
- kenhwang 5y agoCommon belief in the computer cooling world is higher end VRMs need _less_ cooling because they're more efficient (which generates less heat) and have higher temperature tolerances.
- bloodyplonker22 5y agoIntel coolers are so ridiculously bad compared to stock AMD ones. Just another small example of how far Intel has fallen behind AMD.
- microtonal 5y agoStock AMD coolers are also terrible. The one I got with my 3700X was terribly loud. Replaced it by a Noctua and it is barely audible at all (in comparison).
- starky 5y agoIt is still night and day better. The Intel stock cooler is a crappy extruded aluminum part. The Wraith Prism that comes with the 3700X is actually a proper heatsink with heatpipes and high density fin stacks that allow for reasonably efficient cooling (if loud). The performance will be similar to a cheap tower heatsink (e.g. Coolermaster Hyper 212) though a 120mm fan like those used on those heatsinks will be much quieter.
- naoqj 5y ago
- mhh__ 5y agoWho actually uses stock coolers?
- chockchocschoir 5y agoPresumably most people don't build their own desktop computers (think offices and alike) and those usually use the stock coolers that come with the CPU. At least in my experience.
- elorant 5y agoI do. I don't overclock my rigs, and the stock fan suits me just fine. I rarely have temperatures above 70C.
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- rbrbr 5y ago
- wheybags 5y agoI never understood why stock coolers have to be so bad. It's not like intel or amd don't have the engineering ability to do the same kind of work noctua does, so why don't they?
- chockchocschoir 5y agoA company focusing on one thing will always beat a company "focusing" on a hundred things. Noctua basically focuses on various cooling components, and only that sector, meaning they have deep expertise in that. Intel I can't even begin to list how many different things they are doing, while their main focus is processors. They have deep expertise in processors, but you can't expect them to be able to beat a single-purpose company like Noctua at their own game. Granted, single-focus vs multi-focus is not the only factor, as sometimes multi-focus companies prove to us, but it is a great factor.
- miahi 5y agoThey are made to be good enough without costing a lot (some Noctua coolers are more expensive than a whole CPU) and usually address only the lower-level enduser market, where a difference of $5 can be an important percentage of the price. But they did evolve. At least for low-power CPUs the Intel stock coolers are not noisy and work well. The AMD Wraith coolers are on par with some of the good 3rd party coolers.
- zinekeller 5y agoThis is the correct answer. Often, Intel and AMD actually partners the design to someone else (probably Delta (Electronics, not the airline!), Foxconn, or Nidec) then the partner knocks down the design for three things a) cheap, b) reliable and c) meets the minimum power dissipation requirements. Acoustic performance is an afterthought if it's even considered (most of the time it isn't).
- skocznymroczny 5y agoThey don't have to. I have been running ryzen 5 1600 on a stock cooler and have no complaints. The cooler is bulky and completely quiet on idle/desktop work. It can be heard when playing games, but it's noise is drowned by the GPU fan anyway.