I'm going to be buying a new processor (Quad core 2.5 or 2. http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=2760 and i'm wondering, I have a heatsink for my PC... and my new CPU.. does having a fan effect it? Aka, if the CPU has a cooling fan does does having a heatsink hurt it?

well. I don't see why it wouldn't UP. also, the processor link up there is a 2.66 GHz. another thing, do you have a motherboard that supports socket 775?

Having a fan is definately a good idea. With my Blue Orb 2, the CPU heatsink has a 120mm fan at about 78 CFM. This is enough to keep my AMD 5600 overclocked to 3.2GHz between 50-60 degrees C. If you have no fan, your CPU will generally be a bit hotter. I'll do a quick experiment sometime to see what kinda difference it makes in my rig unless there are some forums or sites where other people already have,

Heatsinks and fans can co-exist in a system as far as I know.

Some computers simply have fans on their heatsinks. My Q6600 came with an extra one attached.

Thanx, I was guessing that, but I aint the biggest computer tech buff out there.

Neither am I.

They do.

My PC has a Scythe ninja heatsink, that came with an optional fan to attach if you wish. My PC has great airflow so I decided that it wasn't necessary to add the fan in as it would just add to the noise and not accomplish anything that wasn't already done.

A heatsink works by dissipating the heat from the CPU through thermal contacts, all a fan does is to help 'blow away' the heat from the heatsink. In effect having a fan allows for more adequate cooling, however if your computer case has good airflow (mine has an outtake fan right beside the heatsink) then you might not need a fan at all.

Some heatsinks have built in fans (typically the ones that come with the processor) however higher end ones usually just have the fan as an optional choice to attach.

Lemme also add that having a fan on a low duty cycle does help a lot more than no fan unless your normal case airflow is really good past that spot. I have this big honking 2 lb heatsink with copper base and aluminum fins. Fan off vs. fan at 25% is a large difference in temperature. However, fan at 25% vs. fan at 100% is a much smaller differnece in temperature. Granted, the more heat you dissapate, the harder you would have to work to dissapate even more heat, but something like a 120mm fan at 15-25% would make almost no noise at all and still produce plenty of wind. The Speedfan program could probably control your fanspeeds, assuming your motherboard has the proper hardware for that. otherwise, you could get fan controllers that ahve knobs/switches to directly control the fan speeds.

Anyways, to keep your CPU cool, using a good silver based thermal compound and a heatsink with a good sized copper base goes a long way. I don't know much about heat pipes. Are they generally worth the exrta money or is it just a marketing gimmik?

As side note, I think that there are special heatsinks in existance that have the fins at a certain angle to take advantage of the airflow through the case.

If you want to really get into keeping your CPU cool, you could drop a bit of real money on a peltier block, which uses an electrical current to force a temperature differnece between two plates. In otherwords, your CPU heatsink would have to vent more heat, but it would still keep your CPU cooler... for a price.
http://www.dansdata.com/pelt.htm
http://www.benchtest.com/tester.html