One of the most important components when it comes to hardware for the PC is certainly the heatsink, a component that allows the CPU to remove the heat generated during operation (and can also be very high, especially when we run heavy programs or open a HD video) thus keeping its temperature under control. All modern PCs (fixed and notebook) have a processor heatsink, but the component supplied by the computer manufacturer or included with the CPU is not necessarily the best solution available for our needs. Let's find out when it is convenient to buy a new heatsink for the CPU or whether to leave that stock included with the processor itself.
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Differences between passive, active or liquid heatsink
Before going into the discussion on which heat sink to choose, we must know that in the PC world there are various types of heat sinks:
- Passive heatsinks are those that manage to dissipate heat without the aid of a fan; these heatsinks are normally very small and are able to remove heat only from CPUs that do not have high frequencies or that are optimized for energy saving. The passive heatsinks are good because of their extreme silence (there is no fan so they don't feel) but they cool very little and risk decreasing the CPU life, especially if we often use the PC at maximum load.
- The active heatsinks have one or more fans positioned between the fins that favor the removal of heat, so as to cool the CPU in a much more effective way. The presence of the fan makes the active heatsinks more noisy but keep the processor temperature more under control, so as to lengthen their long-term duration.
- Liquid heatsinks are a particular type of active heatsink in which a coolant is used instead of air to cool the CPU to the maximum. The liquid passes inside pipes and exchanges heat with a copper plate (placed above the CPU), then the removed heat is removed by means of a system of fans and / or pumps. It is currently the best way to cool the CPU with any frequency and with high powers (even in case of overclocking), but the noise can be important especially if you use models with large hydraulic pumps.
After seeing the types of heatsinks, let's discover together the advantages and disadvantages of stock and new heatsinks that can be placed.
Stock heatsink: advantages and disadvantages
All processors have a heatsink so even if we have a preassembled PC we will find a stock heatsink, i.e. a cooler provided by the processor manufacturer. The stock heatsink is also included in the packaging when we purchase a new processor, in the intention of personally assembling our PC.Below we can see the image of the stock heatsink supplied with Intel processors.
This type of heat sink can be used without problems on our PCs if we do not have special needs (surfing the Internet, occasionally seeing some videos on YouTube, reading emails and using Office) and we do not want to spend money on a replacement heat sink.
It allows you to monitor CPU temperatures that are not overclocked and, if cleaned regularly, it offers a fair cooling capacity.
The stock sink has small dimensions, therefore it can be used even in the smallest and narrowest houses without the risk of having to leave a panel open to let the air in.
However, its shortcomings are limiting: the integrated fan becomes very noisy when the CPU is very stressed (you can clearly hear it) and without proper cleaning it quickly becomes ineffective in preserving the best temperatures for the processor.
New heatsink: advantages and disadvantages
A new third-party heatsink is certainly an additional expense to be taken into account from the assembly of the PC or in anticipation of an upgrade of the pre-assembled computer, but the advantages are numerous in any area. Below we can see one of the many third-party heatsinks that we can install on our PC.
The main advantage of a new heatsink is to make the PC silent. With a new heatsink we will no longer have to worry about temperatures even in case of overclocked CPUs, in addition the fans and fins included in the heatsink are much larger and are able to cool the processor much better, without having to generate all that noise (a good fan of a third-party heat sink is able to obtain good cooling already at 2000 rpm, while the stock must run at least 4000-5000 rpm to cool with the same efficiency).
The presence of many fins will make the cooling of any CPU effective, but we will have to pay attention to the space: make sure that there is enough space above the processor to be able to place the new heatsink, perhaps choosing mid-tower PC cases suitable also to contain a large size sink (some even go as high as 80cm or more).
If you focus on a liquid dissipation system, the space problem above the CPU does not arise (in the end it is a plate with two small tubes near it) but we will have to make sure that there is space for the pumps or a slot for the fan (or the fans) used to dissipate the heat extracted from the liquid.
Below we can see the image of a liquid solution suitable for domestic scenarios and easily placed inside standard PC cases.
Which CPU cooler to buy
Now that we have seen the advantages and disadvantages of the various heatsinks that we can place on our PC, let's see together the best models that we can buy in case we had chosen to place a new heatsink to replace the stock.Air coolers
- Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO (23 €), 3 Heatpipes CPU cooler and 92mm fan.
- ARCTIC Freezer (from 26 €), 3 Heatpipes CPU cooler and 92mm fan.
- beQuiet (from € 30), 4 Heatpipes silent CPU heatsink and 120mm fan.
- Noctua (from 49 €), heatsink for CPU with 4 silent Heatpipes and double 120mm fan.
Liquid heatsinks
- Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 (42 €), liquid cooling and 120mm radiator.
- Corsair Hydro H45 (57 €), liquid cooling and 120mm radiator.
- upHere Liquid 120 (59 €), liquid cooling, LED lights and 240mm radiator.
- Enermax Liqmax II 120 (69 €), liquid cooling and 120mm radiator.
- Corsair Hydro H150i Pro (€ 164), liquid cooling, LED lights and 360mm radiator.
If we want to learn how to better manage the temperatures and fan speeds on the PC, we can do so by reading the guide available below.
READ ALSO -> Manage the PC fans for better cooling and air flow
