I've been putting this off for 5 months, but now that I've sorted everything else out in my PC, and the summer is coming... I need to figure this out once and for all.
I've got an E6600 running at stock speed. I'm using an Arctic Cooling 7 Pro. I've tried fitting it about 6 times, each time with varied amounts of thermal paste. I can never seem to get a decent temperature.
Currently my temp averages 47C idle in IntelTAT (and CoreTemp). Under full load, it averages about 63C. I am pretty sure these temps are too high considering it is stock speed, and its an Arctic cooler. I want to overclock it and thats not gunna happen with these temps.
I had trouble fitting the HSF originally, but I've taken the whole motherboard out, and the little plastic connectors are all the way though the motherboard, so it seems to be securely fastened on. Also, the stock Intel HSF gave me almost the same temps.
So what do I do? I was going to buy a bolt through kit and try to use that instead of the horrible plastic fasteners on this Arctic cooler. But I'm not sure the bolt through kit would work properly, and it would be more hassle to find the right screws and stuff for that, so I'm thinking about just getting a whole new cooler. I could try RMA'ing this one back to Scan, but I'm not sure they would let me do that seeing as its 5 months old now. But either way, I could just buy a Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme or something. I could do without spending £50 odd quid... but it would be worth my peace of mind, if it made my temps really good, and let me overclock finally. The only thing stopping me from doing that, is that it seems kind of insane considering I already have an Arctic Cooling 7 Pro. (And also the Thermalright is out of stock at kustompcs )
Any advice greatly appreciated. I've learned quite a lot reading all these forums for months, so I know for sure my temps are pretty crappy now, and although my PC is perfectly stable, I want to get good temps so I can overclock.