Hi,

I'm building a PC to be used as a digital audio workstation (DAW.) I am absolutely NOT going to overclock, as stability for music creation rig is far more important than clock speed, considering how fast todays mid/high-end dual cores are anyway.

I'll be getting an E6600 or an E6700 very soon, and would like to ask, is the Core 2 Duo stock heatsink/fan everything I need wish for? Or is there some tangible benefit from purchasing one of the brand name products?

Again, stability is the major thing, though of course quiet and cool are both desirable, even though they work at odds with each other.

It doesn't have to be whisper quiet, or ice-cool. Just reasonably good at both.

FWIW, I'm using an Antec Solo case, two SATAII HDs, IDE DVD Burner, Intel BOXD975XBX2KR, 7300 GT 256 PCI-E video card (active cooling), PCI audio card, if these specs in any way matter to the HSF question.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Stock cooler will be enough, with active fan control onboard. This control will make things quieter a bit.

BTW, I work on several DAW/NLE rigs, built by myself. Take a look here http://www.studiocentrum.com/ ALL OF THEM are overclocked, all are perfectly stable & near-whisper quiet. Overclocking will not hurt you or your work, as long as you know what you're doing. And clock speed IS important, when you use some (more & more) software synthesizers & plugins...

When done right, OCed systems are as stable as stock. With that hs you'll reach 3Ghz, maybe a little more with good case cooling, so, another cooler would be better to squeeze an E6600.
If you know little about OCing either you spend some time to learn and test or you better leave it alone.

Just like they said. Your stock HSF will do you fine if you don't plan on OCing, but not OCing, even just a little and not going complicated, will help you a lot. Theres plenty of people on here willing to help and theres PLENTY of post everywhere on overclocking.

Do a little reading, you'll get tons more bang for your buck

Those processors are fine with the stock HSF at stock speed. They run cool at stock speed.

Should you decide to go up to a kentsfield (quad) I'd go after market hsf.

I suppose Intel themselves know this also though. They didn't trust their inexpensive hsf to demo penryn. http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=2972

Definitely DITCH the stock Intel HSF,
for all the reasons confirmed here:

http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/ [...] arning.htm
http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/heatsinks/

The four (4) pronged fasteners are notorious
for not maintaining adequate downward pressure
between the HSF and the CPU.

A third-party HSF with a proper backing plate
is far superior and should solve all of the
problems itemized in the link above.

www.anandtech.com has quite a few reviews
of excellent HSFs e.g.:

http://www.anandtech.com/casecooli [...] i=2967&p=8

"... the Tuniq Tower 120,
Scythe Infinity push-pull,
OCZ Vindicator/SilenX,
Scythe Ninja Plus B/SilenX, and
Thermalright Ultra 120
all overclock to a stable 3.90GHz."

Thus, even if you do not OC,
these HSFs will also work great at
stock speeds.


We are loyal to ASUS motherboards, because
they work so reliably at stock settings with
Corsair XMS DDR and DDR2 RAM. Hence,
the ASUS VR Guard Series has been superb
for our Intel 640 and D 945, particularly
with EIST (SpeedStep) enabled.


GOOD LUCK!


Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell
Webmaster, Supreme Law Library
http://www.supremelaw.org/

I noticed that new HSF too.

We archived those photos here:

http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/ [...] nryn.1.jpg
http://www.supremelaw.org/systems/ [...] nryn.2.jpg


Thanks for the heads-up!


Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell
Webmaster, Supreme Law Library
http://www.supremelaw.org/

I know after market coolers are better, but...sorry for not believing in all those statements...
And I see a lot of ASUS propaganda in the middle...

Thanks for the answers.

What I'm getting out of the range of responses, I think, is that some after-market coolers are better, whether one OCs or not, but that it probably isn't truly necessary.

The idea of having poorly fitted connections is worrisome, though, and I may go ahead and get something with a backplate that's not monstrously huge (stays within Intel's recommended weight limit,) is made by a reputable company, has good reviews, etc...

... and even has some OC potential, should I ever get over my fear of trying this.

Since you are dealing with DAW, this reading might be useful and get some more juice to DAW http://www.quarkav.com/DAW-NLE/XPIndex.php I've read a lot of guides, even officially promoted by Tascam or Steinberg, which were simply erroneous, sometimes near-to-nonsense. This one is good one