Worth of upgrading case fans and heatsinks?

[ShovelsWorkWellEnough]

A quick question: would there be any measurable performance increase to buy a third-party heatsink and case fan, as my CPU runs fairly hot, or does it just increase lifespan? I was planning on buying an Intel chip at some point this summer, but would there be a substantial increase in performance to invest in the cooling system?

[Chuckthe2nd]

If I'm not mistaken, a high-heat processor can cause lagging and framerate issues in games...

[Obsidian]

Depending on how hot the CPU gets, it may or may not improve performance passed temperatures. I know with Intel chips, they will actually downclock themselves if they get too hot to help regulate temperatures. You don't need to buy anything expensive to get better performance than what the stock heatsink offers. I'd suggest the Hyper 212+ for a budget, after-market cooler. If you have a higher budget, then look at the Noctua heatsinks or the isolated water cooling units offered by Corsair, Antec, Ecco, and even Intel (there's more, but those are the big ones I can think of). It'd help if I knew which processor you were looking at and had the temps you were experiencing, but this is just general advice.

 

Upgrading case fans depends on the case as well. What kind of case is it? Some cases actually, believe it or not, ship with fantastic fans (see: bitfenix)

[BTGBullseye]

As Obsidian said, but also getting third-party thermal paste/grease is definitely going to drop temps if you apply it correctly. (Arctic Silver 5 is always a good one)

[Obsidian]

Yep, to add on to what BTG said, I'd avoid the included thermal compounds with cooler master coolers. In my experience, they're not the highest of quality and difficult to apply (I find they're too fluid). Arctic Silver 5 is definitely a top choice if you want to re-apply the thermal compound to your existing heatsink. There are plenty of guides on how to do this properly if you don't already know how.

[Luis]

My CPU, an Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 was runing at 65°C in load and could reach 71° with a benchmark. I dumped the stock intel cooler, bought some AS5 and a cheap ass thermaltake heatsink (which is not that different from the intel one) and load temperatures dropped to 45°-51°. The Hyper 212+ suggested above is an awesome budget heatsink and the thermal paste is awesome as well. The smallest tube will be good for 5 or more applications. and its cheap..

[BTGBullseye]

If you get the 3.5g syringe you should be able to get at least 20 applications out of it, if you don't, you're using WAY too much. (less is more with this stuff) Just barely cover the surface with it, as thinly as possible. If you can see through it in some areas, that isn't necessarily bad. If some squishes out as you're applying the heatsynch, you used too much, and it starts acting like an insulator.

[ShovelsWorkWellEnough]

I ordered some Arctic Silver paste and a third-party sink, and the improvement is very noticeable. Thanks to all who responded.