New system running too hot

jonshram · 4 Nov 2009 at 14:16

Hello, Ive recently built my second computer after my first about four years ago, I decided to use my old case (Coolermaster Centurion 5), DVD and hard drives but everything else is new, a list of which is below, I decided on the components after them getting good reviews in a few magazines and online articles, the CPU and GPU specificaly because they where said to be good for overclocking something Im keen to do at some point, I decided for the time being to use the stock CPU heatsink and buy a better one when I get round to overclocking.

Gigabyte GA-M720-US3

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X 1024MB

Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W

Anyway to cut a long story short my system maxed out at 62 degrees according to coretemp and had a minimum of 35/36, I've subsequently cleaned up the cabling and fitted an additional 120mm fan (Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 800 RPM) to the front of the case under the DVD as it only had a 60mm in front of the hard drives, and replaced the stock heatsink with a Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ using Arctic Silver 5, its now running around 35-40 degrees in windows with a minimum of 32 and max of 55.

Considering the additional airflow into the case, the much tidier cabling and the huge difference in CPU heatsink and fan size, this still seem too hot,
my next step would be to fit it all into a new case, I was going to go for a Antec Three Hundred.

What Im trying to find out is if the high temps are all likely down to the old case before I go and spend more money on a new one and find out that it doesn't make much difference

Thanks

reflux · 4 Nov 2009 at 14:18

Sounds fine to me. Are you load temps under Prime?

SMAndy · 4 Nov 2009 at 15:56

AMD chips don't like high temps! If i had that chip, i'd have done what you have too. 55°C max temp though is fine... You may be limited in your overclock to multiplier increases, as any voltage increase will increase the temp.

Have you checked to make sure the Fenrir is on centrally? It's really weird, but i've seen people on here report that 1mm of uncovered cpu space increases their temp by ~10°C.

Give the heatsink a good squeeze down, turn it as far as it will go each way. Also remember that AS5 takes time to settle before you get the best performance out of it. Couple of days of good use and it'll have settled, and you may find your temps have dropped by a couple of degrees.

jonshram · 5 Nov 2009 at 12:42

I ran prime 95 last night for about four hours last night and it was at 55 degrees most of the time and reach a maximum of 58, I did notice that the heatsink wasn't sitting quite parallel with the motherboard as in its slightly twisted, the tube of AS5 paste that Im using is four years old, could that be part of the problem?

SMAndy · 5 Nov 2009 at 15:17

That should be fine.... That temp is a little high, but I don't think its anything to worry about. Could always try some fresher thermal gloop.