Is the Intel LGA775 stock cooler not sufficient? Too tall? Not efficient enough?

Barley wrote on Today, 20:57:

Is the Intel LGA775 stock cooler not sufficient? Too tall? Not efficient enough?

Not sufficient. It's congested case. So it's fine but if I use it for more than 1 hour, the entire computer could warm a sub pretty easily. I wouldn't mind giving it a modern touch to bring those temps way down as we have better components available since that socket was released.

Hi,

Can you specify what do you mean by "low profile build", for example how much vertical clearance do you have in the case, also the type of the motherboard could be useful as well to know how large the horizontal clearances without obstructing components are?

Also if it is a congested case then adding an extra case fan and making that air flows without obstacles might give better results than directly upgrading the CPU cooler.

A picture of the case + motherboard might help in giving advice what kind of cooling would be optimal.

Would help to know the CPU, as you're going to get away with significantly less if it's a Core 2 vs trying to cool a Pentium D

All the stock hinks of metal from Intel are trash and have been since the Pentium 4 days.

There are still a lot of heatpipes based low profile coolers that will fit 775.

However, just moving to a better CPU cooler is not going to fix the inside of the case heating up. You must have sufficient airflow through the case.

What case are you using? What intake and exhaust fans are you using? Are you using airflow restrictors (metal grills) on any of the fans?

To answer the last two posts.

1. The case is an HTPC case, so there isn't much I can do about airflow outside of what it provides. I was able to change one of the case fans with a noctua one, but it's only around 60mm, so it can only do so much.
2. There's a cut out right above the CPU cooler so that air can come in. The rear has only one real vent for air flow and that's for the power supply.
3.

Fish3r wrote on Today, 21:22:

Would help to know the CPU, as you're going to get away with significantly less if it's a Core 2 vs trying to cool a Pentium D

Almost forgot to answer you, it's a Pentium 4 630.

iiamsiincere wrote on 37 minutes ago:

To answer the last two posts. […]
Show full quote

To answer the last two posts.

1. The case is an HTPC case, so there isn't much I can do about airflow outside of what it provides. I was able to change one of the case fans with a noctua one, but it's only around 60mm, so it can only do so much.
2. There's a cut out right above the CPU cooler so that air can come in. The rear has only one real vent for air flow and that's for the power supply.
3.

The Pentium 4 630 is a Prescott based model with a TDP of 84 watts, high but should be still manageable.

Looking at the picture it does seem to be a little tight inside here, the heat sink on the CPU seems to me to be made of mostly aluminium and straight fins in one direction, some improvements might be made by switching it to a mostly copper one, and also because it is an ingress fan then it might be better to have one which not only have straight fins in one direction but some openings in the other sides to better spread the airflow around the CPU.

If there is no place for more case fans I notice that there is an empty PCI slot next to the graphics card, as the graphics card is in the way between this slot and the CPU the location is not ideal, but you might be able to fit a PCI slot fan(You can find these on multiple online stores/marketplaces including Amazon) here to exhaust heat from the case.