Socket 775/478...huh?
 

I'm researching a new CPU fan and stumbled across this interesting tidbit...775 or 478 socket chip. I thought this was going to be easier than this, I should have known. So any of you hardware folks out there care to educate me on some of the finer details of how I go about garnering this info? My end goal is to be able to pick out the fan that I want, buy it and bring it to someone to have it installed. I know that I don't have the skill to install it, but I should be able to figure out which one to buy dammit! :thumbsup:

hardware analysis

toms hardware

click on the addresses above and do your research on both cpu hope this helps

the first link got me what I needed, thanks! As I expected, based on my research, my cpu is a 478. thanks again!

:) not a prob glad it helped

You say that as if it's hard to install a CPU fan. It's really a breeze. Just take off the old guy, wipe down the leftover thermal compound, slap a little new stuff on, and snap it into place. If you have a friend who's done it before, great, have them help, but don't pay anyone to do it. You'd be wasting your money.

Here is a better resource to find out what socket your chip is
http://www.techreport.com/cpu/

This will also help if you are planning to look for a new cpu.

The more I'm looking into it the more I'm relaizing that the only thing I can fuck up is putting on too much thermal paste or not enough, either way I should notice fairly quickly, based on chip temp. Can't get any worse than it is now, heat wise. I 've been running at about 45-65 C for over a year now, so I also know that the fan is under powered. for the heat that this thing is putting out. Stupid Prescott proc.....oh well, pc still going strong despite the crazy temps. We do shut it off everyday because it runs so hot and only start it up when we need to use it.

45-65 is not something to worry about with a Prescott; that's probably the standard operating range and you're not going to get much lower than that with a typical cooling solution. Around 80 you can start worrying.

have you considered water cooling?

Prescott's maximum operating temperature is 74º C so you're still in the safety zone -- however, a new CPU fan/heatsink combo can never hurt, so long as you install it carefully.