Noctua NH-D14 Temperatures

[neilpeart]

Hello forum

I finally got my Noctua NH-D14 (I paid more than 200 dollars because of shipping, taxes and transportation to Chile but it worths it) I overclocked my core 2 quad Q9400 from 2,66 to 3,6 and I have temperatures in Idle 31ºC and load 51ºC. My question is if these temperatures are OK. I ran prime95 and no errors for 15 hours.

 

[burebista]

[...]I paid more than 200 dollars [...]

Your temps are perfect fine.

 

[neilpeart]

thanks for your response. I guess the 200 dollars worth it because this cooler kick ***

 

[muddocktor]

Yeah, the NH-D14 is a very good heatsink and should work well for you for future upgrades too. Noctua is very good about turning out new base mounts for newer sockets for their heatsinks. Be sure to keep your invoice for the buy as Noctua is also very good about sending the new mounts to you for free as long as you have the original receipt for it.

 

[neilpeart]

yeah, because I will upgrade my pc components, I want to buy the new LGA 2011 and I think I will have to ask for the new mounts.

 

[grumperfish]

^^^
You might want to go with Sandybridge/Ivybridge (socket 1155) instead if you're primarily using the PC for gaming. LGA2011 isn't really a gaming platform per-se, and you can save money with either a 2500K (gaming, general desktop tasks) or a 2600K (if you do video/audio editing) for a significant upgrade over your current CPU. Also Ivy Bridge will be out for socket 1155 next year, bringing 10-15% clock performance increases, so if you're buying then that's the way to go.

LGA 2011 brings more PCI-E lanes to the table, but if you're not using 3 videocards or a ton of server-grade PCI-E addon boards, it's not really worth the heavy price premium over socket 1155. Socket 1155 CPU's are significantly faster than socket 775 quad-cores already in both single and multi-threaded performance, so you won't be disappointed if you go that route.

 

[neilpeart]

^^^
You might want to go with Sandybridge/Ivybridge (socket 1155) instead if you're primarily using the PC for gaming. LGA2011 isn't really a gaming platform per-se, and you can save money with either a 2500K (gaming, general desktop tasks) or a 2600K (if you do video/audio editing) for a significant upgrade over your current CPU. Also Ivy Bridge will be out for socket 1155 next year, bringing 10-15% clock performance increases, so if you're buying then that's the way to go.

LGA 2011 brings more PCI-E lanes to the table, but if you're not using 3 videocards or a ton of server-grade PCI-E addon boards, it's not really worth the heavy price premium over socket 1155. Socket 1155 CPU's are significantly faster than socket 775 quad-cores already in both single and multi-threaded performance, so you won't be disappointed if you go that route.

Really? I didn't know that, Actually I love playing games, that is why I want minimum 2 PCI-E slots to install two gtx 580 or I will wait for the new geforce gtx 600 series. Or at least one card for physx. If you mean that the LGA 1155 is better I'll buy that socket. As long I have a good gaming pc, I want to avoid lags.

 

[grumperfish]

Depending on your monitor resolution you may not need so much graphics power. For 1080p or lower a single 570 or 580 would be more than enough.


Socket 1155 is a very decent platform for gaming. A 2500K CPU under that Noctua cooler will overclock to 4.3-4.4ghz easy (higher clocks would depend on the board and the chip), and it would pretty much annihilate your current Q9400. Here's a comparison between your chip and a 2500K, keeping in mind that this is at stock speeds, and the 2500K will be able to overclock up to a realistic limit of 4.8-5.0ghz depending on voltage:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/76?vs=288

 

[neilpeart]

Thanks for your response. And what about a core i7 2600k should it be faster than the 2500k? I want to buy that cpu in the future.

 

[grumperfish]

The 2600K is nearly exactly the same as the 2500K with the addition of hyperthreading.

Hyperthreading will not help you in gaming. By the time any game requires more than 4 cores, the 2600K will be obsolete. Hyperthreading is only useful in specific applications (dedicated audio/video editing work, or scientific applications). For practical uses and gaming, the single and multi-threaded performance of a 2500K is already extremely high, and more than enough for general use and gaming for the foreseeable future. Additionally, 2500K's are easier to overclock as you generally need less voltage.

Basically, get a 2500K instead of a 2600K unless you actually need hyperthreading.

 

[neilpeart]

Ok I see, I only want to play games with maxed out setting without the annoying lagging

 

[grumperfish]

^^^
Go for a 2500K then, or whatever the Ivybridge equivalent later, and it'll handle all your gaming needs easily.