I did lots of research when I purchased my Q9550 as I wanted to overclock and the stock cooler was barely keeping temps below 75 degrees under Prime95. I wanted to find the right balance between performance and price and came up with this:

http://www.phanteks.com/PH-TC12DX.html

Picked up a boxed and complete used one from eBay for £20 and it's pretty damn awesome.

You should be able to find an old used Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme for that price. Here in Sweden bare coolers with Socket 775 mounting kit sell for $10 to $15, sometimes even less.

I'm pretty sure the Ultra 120 Extreme beats all new budget coolers.

I use a TX3 with my 2600k since day 1 - I can't recommend it enough. Keeps the cpu cool even on summer-time. I had to change the fan once though, started being noisy due to the amount of hours it worked. Great little cooler.

Hyper 212? Sould be able to find some good second hand heat sinks for cheap.

You could try BSEL Mod to 1333MHz FSB (only IF MB supports that speed in it's spec).
Since Xeon X3230 is a Q6700 (G0) it shouldn't be too hard, and I think 3,33GHz is doable without Vcore increase.

As for cooler, I would go for TR Ultra 120 Extreme 😀
Keep in mind, that cooler is usually sell without fans included (if you already have a free 120mm fan, it's not a problem tho).

PS. Tj. Max. for your CPU is 90C, I hope programs you are using know that.

Put a higher CFM exhaust and added a 120mm low speed to the side panel, blowing on the chipset heatsink. Helped drop temps a few degrees, but I'm still not happy with cpu temps climbing into the 60s with just light gaming, and hitting 70+ with p95. I went ahead and ordered the Cooler Master Hyper TX3. If this keeps the cpu under 60 in the summer, I'll be happy.

BTW, this cpu is not officially supported by the motherboard (D946GZIS) -- it's just known to work:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=656178

Any thoughts on making a shroud?

gdjacobs wrote:

Any thoughts on making a shroud?

The case I'm using kind of sucks. On the one hand, the top and sides are kind of this sieve-like (tiny holes everywhere) so air flows in from everywhere. On the other hand, there's no shroud/duct built in and it's all-round old and crappy. I think I bought it around 2004 or so and it was a no-name budget case then. Its saving grace is it has room for the longest graphics cards (which is why I'm using it, as my previous GPU was an 8800GTX). I think I have an equally old Antec lying aorund that has a side panel duct and may be cooler, but I haven't been in the mood to transfer cases, especially if it ends up not making any difference in temps.

Dose your motherboard support 45nm CPUs?
If so you could get a 45nm Xeon for cheap. They have a lower TDP if I recall and they're a faster cpu.

Jade Falcon wrote:

Dose your motherboard support 45nm CPUs?
If so you could get a 45nm Xeon for cheap. They have a lower TDP if I recall and they're a faster cpu.

No, I wish. Intel D946GZIS

I'm lucky it has undocumented support for the X3230.

I just put the Hyper TX3 in. Haven't played any games yet, but web browsing used to be around 50-55c on the stock Intel copper core cooler (with a side panel-mounted 120mm fan blowing over the cpu/chipset). With the Cooler Master (and side panel fan removed), so far it's hovering around 40-45c. That's more like it...

Can you take a pic of the case? How many case fans can you squeeze in?

Im using this with my Q9400 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Genuine-Inte … UwAAOSwsW9YyLx8 with good case ventilation and my cpu is about 78 under full loud and my apartment temp is at 74.

Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

Can you take a pic of the case? How many case fans can you squeeze in?

Im using this with my Q9400 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Genuine-Inte … UwAAOSwsW9YyLx8 with good case ventilation and my cpu is about 78 under full loud and my apartment temp is at 74.

Wait, you're talking fahrenheit for both the cpu and your apartment? I usually use F for room temp (I'm in US) but always C for cpu/case temps.

I'll post a pic later, not home at the moment. But at the moment the case has one 80mm exhaust fan, and that's it for case fans. The PSU has exhaust, the cpu has one fan blowing from front to back, the gpu has one fan. No intake fan, no side fan. The case itself is full of holes though. 🤣. Top and side panel have hundreds of tiny holes to suck air in from everywhere.

@Oldskoolmaniac
Here's some pics:

10 minutes of Prime95 gets it up to 65c. Overall, about 10-15c lower temps than the stock Intel cooler, idle and load.

I go by celsius. make sure that cpu cooler is sitting tight with the cpu and make sure it has a copper bottom, also zip tie another fan to back of the sink for a push and a pull effect and that case definitely needs fans on the front for good air flow. I think the problem is with case that everything is in, maybe put a 200mm fan on the side panel? https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.as … Id=1&Submit=ENE

Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

I go by celsius. make sure that cpu cooler is sitting tight with the cpu and make sure it has a copper bottom, also zip tie another fan to back of the sink for a push and a pull effect and that case definitely needs fans on the front for good air flow. I think the problem is with case that everything is in, maybe put a 200mm fan on the side panel? https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.as … Id=1&Submit=ENE

I didn't think there was a problem. 😀 Temps are pretty good by my book. Thank you though!

I know you said "under $25" but.. this is pretty close, $26.76 free shipping and probably one of your better options. Supports LGA-775.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/351951420741