P4: Does Retail = Boxed?

[Erik]

I have an order trucking its way across the country from newegg, which
contains a P4 2.8C and a P4P800. Should be here in 2-3 days.

Now, many years ago I bought a PIII450 "boxed", not OEM. The boxed
version of the P3 came preassembled with the heatsink and fan; IIRC
the whole assembly was ONE unit right out of the box. I just plugged
it all in and it's still working up to this day.

The P4 I bought from newegg is "retail, with heatsink and fan", not
OEM. What will I get? Will this be the same setup, i.e. the heatsink
and fan already attached and ready to go, or will it come in separate
pieces, in which case I will be compelled to use a good thermal paste,
etc?

 

[Navid]

I have an order trucking its way across the country from newegg, which
contains a P4 2.8C and a P4P800. Should be here in 2-3 days.

Now, many years ago I bought a PIII450 "boxed", not OEM. The boxed
version of the P3 came preassembled with the heatsink and fan; IIRC
the whole assembly was ONE unit right out of the box. I just plugged
it all in and it's still working up to this day.

The P4 I bought from newegg is "retail, with heatsink and fan", not
OEM. What will I get? Will this be the same setup, i.e. the heatsink
and fan already attached and ready to go, or will it come in separate
pieces, in which case I will be compelled to use a good thermal paste,
etc?

I got my P4 2.6C retail from Newegg 3 months ago.
It came in 2 pieces, CPU was one and the heatsink and fan connected
was the other.

 

[Darkfalz]

I have an order trucking its way across the country from newegg, which
contains a P4 2.8C and a P4P800. Should be here in 2-3 days.

Now, many years ago I bought a PIII450 "boxed", not OEM. The boxed
version of the P3 came preassembled with the heatsink and fan; IIRC
the whole assembly was ONE unit right out of the box. I just plugged
it all in and it's still working up to this day.

I bought a retail P3 and P4. Both required me to install the HS + Fan myself
(which I prefer to do, because preassembled ones are often STUCK together).

 

[Erik]

I bought a retail P3 and P4. Both required me to install the HS + Fan myself
(which I prefer to do, because preassembled ones are often STUCK together).

Did you feel it necessary to use thermal paste, or did you use what
Intel gave you in the box as far as the heat transfer pad?

 

[Barry Watzman]

You will get a sealed retail box, inside will be the CPU and the
fan/heatsink assembly, but they won't be assembled, in fact they can't
be assembled because the motherboard is the only thing that holds them
together.

 

[Erik]

I use the thermal pad if that's what's included. Note that the thermal
pad usually disintegrates if you remove the heatsink from the CPU after
installation, thus it's "one time only", then you have to clean things
up and use heat sink compound (very rarely, it separates intact and can
be reused).

Intel has two factory heatsinks. The "standard" one is aluminum and
comes with Celerons and P4's without hyperthreading below 3 GHz.
However, for the high-end CPUs (hyperthreading above 3 GHz), they use a
copper heatsink and different fan. The copper heatsink does not use the
thermal pads, it comes with a syringe of heatsink compound. The fan on
the copper heatsink blows a lot more air and is also quite a bit noisier.

Great, thanks for your info!!

 

[Barry Watzman]

I use the thermal pad if that's what's included. Note that the thermal
pad usually disintegrates if you remove the heatsink from the CPU after
installation, thus it's "one time only", then you have to clean things
up and use heat sink compound (very rarely, it separates intact and can
be reused).

Intel has two factory heatsinks. The "standard" one is aluminum and
comes with Celerons and P4's without hyperthreading below 3 GHz.
However, for the high-end CPUs (hyperthreading above 3 GHz), they use a
copper heatsink and different fan. The copper heatsink does not use the
thermal pads, it comes with a syringe of heatsink compound. The fan on
the copper heatsink blows a lot more air and is also quite a bit noisier.

 

[Darkfalz]

I use the thermal pad if that's what's included. Note that the thermal
pad usually disintegrates if you remove the heatsink from the CPU after
installation, thus it's "one time only", then you have to clean things
up and use heat sink compound (very rarely, it separates intact and can
be reused).

Intel has two factory heatsinks. The "standard" one is aluminum and
comes with Celerons and P4's without hyperthreading below 3 GHz.
However, for the high-end CPUs (hyperthreading above 3 GHz), they use a
copper heatsink and different fan. The copper heatsink does not use the
thermal pads, it comes with a syringe of heatsink compound. The fan on
the copper heatsink blows a lot more air and is also quite a bit noisier.

Mine came with a little square of compound pre-applied. I get a bit paranoid
about making a good seal but I guess there's no point in taking it apart and
trying again.

And yes it's noiser than it needs to be, it's way too agressive with trying
to cool down the CPU. Luckily enabling Q-Fan solves this problem.

 

[DaveW]

The RETAIL CPU comes with a fan/heatsink assembly and a CPU that you attach
together on the motherboard. You will either get thermal grease, or more
likely, a thermal pad in the kit.

 

[Erik]

The RETAIL CPU comes with a fan/heatsink assembly and a CPU that you attach
together on the motherboard. You will either get thermal grease, or more
likely, a thermal pad in the kit.

I got it today! Opened up the box and it looks like there's a thermal
pad already attached to the bottom of the heat sink. I will use that
as-is.