Comp hardware question - socket 775 standard fixings??

Factual Questions
1

My heatsink fan is on its deathbed. I’ve given it a temporary extension by blowing out all the dust (with a rocket blower normally used for blowing dust away from expensive camera equipment). This has reduced the noise and made it run smoother. But it is still prone to start whining and slow down to the pace of a child’s plastic windmill on a calm day. I have to give it a knock with my knuckle to re-start it.

Thing is, it is held onto the mobo with threaded screws. I’ve looked into replacement heatsinks and some of them seem to be ‘clip-on’ types. (I have been looking at www.quietpc.com specifically this… Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Quiet Intel CPU Cooler)

My question is - does 775 have a completely standard fixing? Do these clips use the same holes as the threaded screws? And will it be secure? It comes highly recommended, but that doesn’t say much about things bought from the internet these days.
ETA: An aside question. I’ve heard pentium core 2 processors are designed to shut down if their temp exceeds a certain limit. Is that true? (Is my cpu ‘safe’ from overheating? Even if I don’t seat the heatsink properly?)

BTW in case it’s relevant my cpu is a core 2 quad Q6600 2.4ghz 6FB (family 6, model F, stepping B ‘Kentsfield’)

2

The standard is the “push-in” clip, it’s what the stock Intel coolers use. The holes are standard as well.

You must have an aftermarket or OEM cooler that probably screws into posts coming through the holes from a backplate mounted behind the motherboard. There isn’t a standard for those other than the hole spacing. You should be able to take out the motherboard and remove the backplate and posts, then put the clip cooler on. The Freezer 7 cooler comes with pre-applied thermal interface material so you don’t need to worry about that.

The CPU won’t overheat, it does shut down.

3

You could just put a new fan on the heatsink, assuming it’s spaced to accept some standard sized fan.

The push pins use the same screwholes, yes. They push through to the other side and then expand, locking it into position. No, it’s not terribly secure and I much prefer getting a backplate and screwing the heatsink in.

Edit: I use a taller and heavier heatsink, so yours will probably be more secure than mine was with the push pins. They’ll probably be adequate, especially if you don’t move your case around a lot.

Yes and no. If it gets to the throttle temp, it’ll slow down and eventually shut down. But there can be stability problems and long term damage by running it at chronically hot temperatures but not quite hot enough to trigger the auto throttle.

4

If you weren’t having overheating problems before the fan went bad you don’t need a new heatsink; it would be quite a bit easier and less expensive to just replace the fan with one of the same size … unless the quiet thing is important to you.

QuietPC is a legitimate company, no need to worry about ordering from them.

5

It is rare these days that the fan on a CPU cooler is a separately replaceable item. The whole sink/fan unit can be had for less than $10.

6

Rare? Every heatsink I’ve ever dealt with had a mount for some standard sized fan.

7

Most new off the shelf stuff looks something like this.

For the price, a separate replaceable fan is pretty much irrelevant.

8

Mine is secured to the heatsink using little rings which would come off, with difficulty, if you broke them.

9

See my previous post. And I ‘accidentally’ removed the heatsink from the CPU anyway, so I will feel better if I just put a brand new heatsink+fan on there.
But another poster mentioned about back plates. If my current heatsink screwed in that means I must have back-plates. And if the new heatsink clips in I’ll have to take off the whole motherboard to get at the back plates to remove them. That’s frustrating!