To choose the best CPU heat sink, determine the socket of your processor and find compatible options for performance, size, and sound levels. Passive heat sinks conduct heat into metal parts and can be large and heavy, while active heat sinks use a fan and are more compact.
When choosing the best computer processing unit (CPU) heat sink for your computer, it is very important to first find a heat sink that fits your current CPU configuration. To determine if a CPU cooler will fit your processor, you need to determine its socket. Usually, processor sockets look like a plastic rectangle with a small metal lever on the side that clamps and releases the CPU chip. From the compatible CPU cooler options available, you can then determine whether each CPU cooler meets your needs in terms of performance, size, and sound levels.
“Socket” is the name of the bed where the processor is placed, and identifying this is important, because a heat sink made for the wrong CPU socket won’t fit the CPU properly. The types of sockets are numerous. The only way to determine your socket is to find out your CPU type and determine the compatible socket. A couple of well-known processor and processor socket manufacturers include Intel® and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD®). Once you’ve determined the compatible socket for your CPU, you can use that information to choose the best heatsinks that fit your CPU’s socket build.
Go to the computer hardware store and look at heat sink packs for CPU coolers that you’ve determined are compatible with your CPU socket. If you don’t have a computer store nearby, find the dimensions of each heat sink on the manufacturer’s website. With these measurements in mind, make sure the heat sink fits into your computer case, the metal box that houses your computer’s parts, with the case door closed. Most fan-based heat sinks are fairly compact and fit in all but the most tightly configured computer cases. A CPU heat sink that uses a fan can also be called an active heat sink.
Heat sinks that don’t use fans are usually called passive heat sinks. Passive heat sinks are usually large metal fixtures attached to a clip that attaches to the CPU heat sink bracket. Because passive heatsinks remove heat from the CPU by conducting it into the metal parts of the passive heatsink, high-end passive heatsinks can be quite large and difficult to fit into a standard computer case. Passive heat sinks can also be much heavier than most active heat sinks, requiring a special heat sink clip and bracket device designed to support the heavier passive heat sink. One advantage of passive coolers is that their lack of a fan motor assembly makes them a much quieter option for cooling a CPU.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
