AM3 CPU cooler

smithy1988

smithy1988

smithy1988

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3 Jul 2007
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Location
Newcastle UK
My dads just recently bought a laptop making his desktop pc redundant.
Decided today that i could utilise it and swapped my GPU and PSU into it.
Marginal increase in ram and CPU performance was the reasoning.

Been gaming on it tonight and one of the fans has been going crazy.
After taking the panel off its the CPU Fan, so im thinking that perhaps the stock one isnt up to the job. My dads never gamed, so i doubt this will have ever been an issue for him.
Im not planning on overclocking, so just want something more effective than stock.

Spec
Amd Phenom II x4 955 Black edition
4gb DDR3
Asus M4A785TD-VEVO
Corsair HX520W
Sapphire 512mb HD4870
Coolermaster elite 335.

Firstly what temps are acceptable for CPU and GPU units?

Recommend me an aftermarket cooler please. If buying a new one, will i need to re-apply thermal paste? Or do they come with some.

The case has a ported funnel design on the side which sits fairly close over the cpu fan. Should i maybe be looking at an additional fan to blow or extract some air out/in? through it?

Thanks for your feedback
 
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Have you cleaned the CPU cooler and fan? If not it's very possibly full of dust and lint.

955 max temp is about 55-62c.
No idea on GPU

Maximum acceptable to me is below the above. ;)

What case do you have? Cooler needs to fit the case too.
 
I havnt actually taken the fan and heatsink off but iv blown the fan which got rid of quite a bit of dust.

Checked the bios setup and theres a feature that puts the fan on 100% if temps reach 55 degrees, so it must be around that.

Case is a coolermaster elite 335. There is the option for a 120mm fan behind the front casing and the funnel on the side panel above cpu fan looks like a fan can be attached to the side of the case.

Thanks
 
doyll said:
If you can, remove the fan and check to see if the fins are plugged with lint/dust/hair. That's a pretty common thing. If they are pick it out with something like a straightened paper clip.

So can use coolers up to 163mm

Thermalright True Spirit 120 for £24.98 is a very good little cooler
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-098-TR&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2352
Click to expand...

Will check that tomorrow and remove fan.
Thanks for the advice on the cooler. Is that classed as a budget or mid range?

Do you suggest installing any other fans? e.g. a front 120mm

Thanks
 
It's a low priced very good cooler at the upper edge of mid range cooler range in cooling ability. It's not far below the best coolers.
 
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Anything with a 120mm fan is usually good, especially with lots of fins. If you really want to improve the cooling of your system make sure you have a front intake fan, as you'll get a lot of stagnant hot air around the HDDs which will migrate towards the top of the case near the CPU by convection. Pulling some cold air from outside the case near the bottom will help with this.
 
Indeed.

You should have a front intake and rear exhaust. And if you can use the bottom 3x 5.25 bays for a second front intake it would be even better.

If you use PWM fans in for all of these (like same fans as cooler has) you can use a PWM splitter with molex power and have all fans run the same speed as CPU using motherboard PWM CPU fan header. Then system is quiet when it's not working hard and as air and cooling is needed the fans pick up rpm.
 
That sounds like a great idea. There's an exhaust chassis fan already there but space for a 120mm front intake.

So if my understanding is correct we split the CPU fan header so both fans will operate at the same RPM dependant on load.

Is it worth changing my exhaust fan to the same as the new intake so they're the same?

Can you spec me up a basket?
CPU cooler
Fan splitter
Thermal paste? (If needed)
New 120mm front intake
New exhaust fan (if needed)

Thanks for all the help
 
Fan splitter

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-031-AK&groupid=1929&catid=153&subcat=

Fans - I would go for Akasa Apache but they are £10 each so instead you could try Bit Fennix or a n other.(given the fact that the actual difference between prices is no more than £3/£5 per fan , I would stick with the known , good, Apache's) Be careful to get fans that can be PWM controlled!

Cooler - Sorry as I do not run with Amd I do not consider that I could say which are good or bad coolers.

You will need to both clean off the existing thermal paste and probably put new on - Akasa Tim cleaner works well (and smells ok) to remove.
Some coolers come with thermal compound applied - if you buy one with then no need to buy - if you get one without then you will need to buy. There are loads but as a first , cheapish, purchase would probably go for the Gelid extreme as it's , allegedly, good at cooling and it is , I believe , non-conductive
 
Pretty soon I'll have to start charging a commission :D

You can clean old TIM off with isopropyl alcohol or even rubbing alcohol. Much cheaper than TIM clean. Isopropyl is best.
Ideally have case fans with more cfm than cooler fan so they more more air though than cooler does.

Send me a trust message and I'll try to sort you out.
 
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Can you put another 120mm intake in the bottom 3 5.25 optical bays?

Would be ideal to have 2x intakes in front and 1x exhaust in back with all unused PCI slots open.
 
Would suggest following order of events :-

1. Choose cpu cooler & Tim (if required). - if the cpu cooler does not come with a fan then obviously get the appropriate fan to fit.

2. Choose 2 new fans - to act as intake at front and exhaust at rear.

3. Order the above + the splitter.

Take out the existing cpu cooler and exhaust fan.

Install the new - run for a few days and see how things go. If you decide that a further intake fan would help (you may find that it does not add as much to the cooling as you would hope!) then you can use the 'old' exhaust fan. (Saves buying 3 :))

Would agree that iso alcohol is best cpu cleaner but it can be difficult to easily source and using alcoholic beverages is a bit of a waste/sacrelidge:D
 
Im more than happy to go with the suggestions. Im no expert, so in need of advice.

That makes sense to me.

Thermalright True Spirit 120 CPU heatsink.
TIM- any suggestions or is it much of a muchness (looked at heatsink spec and no mention of it pre-applied)
Splitter cable (posted above)
2x Akasa Apache's

What temperature drop am I likely to see?
Thanks
 
The Elite 335 has 4x 5.25 external drive bays. The front of case appears to be a mesh grille on these bays like the bottom part of front has. If the bottom area is to let air in for the fan the bay front can be used the same way. A common mod is to put a fan in 3 external drive bays. The fan can be held in place with pieces of foam or zip-tied to each side of the bay cage. If this is possible I can supply some images and/or link to doing it.
 
The fan can be held in place with pieces of foam or zip-tied to each side of the bay cage. This one is with foam wedging it in.
p1020124cb1.jpg


You should see a 10c or more drop if all is done right. Problem will be removing the heated exhaust from cpu cooler and GPU. One fan in and one fan out will only move about the same amount of air TS120 cooler does. In theory that means no other air is moving. I like having more fans in than out. In fact most of my builds have no exhaust fans. Just exhaust vents and intake fans. Also your PSU is pulling air from inside case and exhausting it. So ideally we need another intake fan. And the only place I see that it might be possible is the 5.25 external bays.
 
doyll said:
The fan can be held in place with pieces of foam or zip-tied to each side of the bay cage. This one is with foam wedging it in.
p1020124cb1.jpg


You should see a 10c or more drop if all is done right. Problem will be removing the heated exhaust from cpu cooler and GPU. One fan in and one fan out will only move about the same amount of air TS120 cooler does. In theory that means no other air is moving. I like having more fans in than out. In fact most of my builds have no exhaust fans. Just exhaust vents and intake fans. Also your PSU is pulling air from inside case and exhausting it. So ideally we need another intake fan. And the only place I see that it might be possible is the 5.25 external bays.
Click to expand...

I understand that, but surely as a first step im going to see some difference in temps by doing what we have discussed above. Better heatsink/fan. Better exhaust fan and an intake. Its got to be an improvement?
Perhaps if i need additional cooling afer this i can look to install one in the external 5.25 bays?

Is it advisable to run the exhaust fan through the chassis fan header (as it is now) or also run that through the splitter so its cpu temp/load dependant
 
Most of these things are not written in stone. There are so many variables to change things every case (no pun.. maybe a pun) is different.

Bottom line here is whatever you do should help. I say should because we won't know for sure until it's done but the odds are you will see a major improvement. My educated guess is if you get 2 new fans and a cooler and put them both as intakes on splitter with cpu fan you will get better results than using one as exhaust.

If you want to get buy cheap now get cooler, splitter and 1 fan. You can always add a second fan in front bays later for the cost of a second fan and scrounge up some scraps of foam.

Akasa Apache FN058 £8.48
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-057-AK&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=4

Cooler comes with TIM.
Isopropyl Alcohol is best cleaner I know of. Rubbing alcohol will work but it's not as pure. The special TIM cleaning kit are just too much money for what you get.

Assume you got my email?

You have enough posts to sign up for free posting of your order too.
 
No Email as yet. Virgin medias servers are currently down so no access.
I'll go for two fans. I can keep it to one side incase i want to add another intake like you say. Or if im happy with the temp drop then i'll just swap the exhaust fan to the spare apache, which wont harm anything.

Isopropyl isnt a problem- My sister works in a lab so already got that one sorted. Cotton bud or something best to use to clean it?

Any other coolers to be considering before i go ahead and order?

Last couple of questions. Will my board work with the PVM for 2-3 fans?
Theres a default function in the setup (Asus Q-fan) does this need to be enabled or disabled in order for the PVM fans to work from the board.

Appreciate your answers and sorry for all the beginner questions
 
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