heat sink

[Babyface786]

whats better replacing whole heat sink, or just the thermal paste and a good ole clean?

[Rick9955]

depends what its on, cpu heatsinks tend to have fan failure which can be replaced, if the heatsink was doing its job properly then clean off all old paste and reapply new paste and refit, specialist fan/heatsinks can be expensive so unless your old one wasnt up to the job then just clean and refit

[Babyface786]

thanks ricky..its for the cpu. by not working do you mean the fan not spinning, because the fan spins. most time it quiet until i do something that involves graphics (low level games wise not movies which run fine). the noise is killing me as the fan whirs upto full speed. i really dont want a new heat sink unless i have to because of compatability issues, not sure which i would need.

[Rick9955]

your cpu fan is controlled according to cpu temperature, the hotter (greater load) your cpu has the faster the fan runs to keep the cpu heatsink cool, maybe the fins on the heatsink are blocked?? try a vac to clean it out, when i build a system i always get a heatsink which will do the maximum cpu of the board regardless of the cpu being fitted, saves hassle and expense later,you could also try cleaning the in/out of the power supply, adding a hot air exhaust to the case, maybe extra fans to the back of the case not forgetting to put them in the right way round ie front fans should draw air into the case, rear mounted should take air out, you could uprate the heatsink fan but be aware a lot of case fans are bad to fit cos they are thicker than cpu fans, its actually not hard to fit a new heatsink/fan combo if you take your time and do it carefully, remember to also clean the cpu with a proper cleaner.

[Babyface786]

great advice mate, thanks for taking the time!!