On a cooling crusade

DiscoDave · 31 Dec 2009 at 10:43

Good Morning fellow overclockers.

I've had some random inspiration to reduce the temperature and noise of some of my components, namely the CPU and Graphics card. My specs are as follows:

i7 920 (original stepping, got it last year when it was new)
6GB DDR3 NQ PC3-12800C9 1600MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5

rest is irrelevant..

To obtain my goals I have acquired the following:

1x Noctua NH-U12P SE2 Dual Fan - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-010-NC

1x beast of a 4870x2 cooler - http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=244

1x Arctic Cooling 4g MX-3 thermal compound.

The last time I overclocked was when I had a Athlon XP Barton core CPU, so I'm a little out of date. I've had a quick look at the overclocking sickies, so I've got a basic understanding of the process, but I have a few questions regarding specifically the i7:

1. Is there anything I can buy from a general supermarket (tesco etc) that can remove the thermal paste currently on my CPU?

2. How much thermal paste should I put on?

3. What is the technique on applying thermal paste? ie is it best to spread a rice sized drop spread across the cpu, or place a bit in the middle and then put on the heat sink.

4. Any specific cpu/ram voltage settings anyone can recommend (i've seen some for the d0 setting, but not my one).

Thanks for your time, I look forward to posting some results/pics. I have a target of 3.2Ghz.

blaineoliver · 31 Dec 2009 at 10:49

1. Some people use nail varnish remover, others say this is bad for the metal, i use that or just a cotton pad (makeup one) and rub off most, so thers a thin layer left, this has the purpose of filling the little gaps for your new layer of paste.

2/3. Different pastes like different methods, stuff that is thick is best to be pressed by the cpu mount itself a rice grain amount usually. Thin paste is best spread like a card, also depends on the mount, if its push pin then spread it out yourself, if its screw mount, let the heatsink spread it.

DiscoDave · 31 Dec 2009 at 15:46

Thanks for your reply.

I've managed to get some rubbing alcohol which seems to be recommended for removing thermal compound.

My new heatsink is screwed onto the mount brackets, so i guess a rice sized dollop in the middle of the cpu is probably the best way to go.

Anyone got any ideas regarding voltages? here is the specific info regarding my cpu:

DIABLO · 31 Dec 2009 at 16:11

You should be able to 3.2 on stock voltage i'd imagine.

subzero · 1 Jan 2010 at 08:47

I have that heatsink unit and have found that the best results from applying paste was to put a thin line across the spread of the cores and then let the heatsink pressure from screwing down spread the paste out,i did try a few different methods to see which covered the cores the best and this one worked for me..

DiscoDave · 1 Jan 2010 at 17:28

Thanks for all your replies.

This has been my first proper overclock so please be gentle.

I've just applied this HSF, connected the two fans to two individual control pins on the motherboard and stressed test using prime95 (In-place large FFT test) and here are my results: I should mention my cpu was running on turbo mode and during the test reached 2.83ghz.

Obviously the idle temps aren't too important, but I'm curious of my load temps. What do you guys think? Good load temps?

DiscoDave · 1 Jan 2010 at 21:15

Just as a bit of an update:

just installed the 4870x2 cooler, idle temps have droped from 44oc (loud fan at 42%) to 33oc. Cant actually hear it will play some call of duty though and see what it's like on load.

Kind of get the feeling that my cpu temps are a little high on load though..

DiscoDave · 2 Jan 2010 at 01:40

Just as a side thought. I've got this case:

it has a large extractor fan at the top, I've configured the HSF to be blowing hair towards this fan, is this the most efficient setup, or should I have the fans set up horizontally, blowing air to the smaller fan?

Thanks,

game4it · 2 Jan 2010 at 12:47

I have a c0 revision also.
I put it back to stock (with turbo on) and ran the same test as yourself.My max temps on the cores ranged from 50c-54c.
I'm using a corsair h-50 and a lot of Akasa apache fans in my rig now and when i was using my Noctua heatsink the highest core was around 57c.a lot depends on ambient room temps to as my temps can drop by as much as 7c when the room is cold.

I'd say your temps are ok but could be a littler lower.

DiscoDave · 2 Jan 2010 at 19:40

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I've also posted this in the cases forum but I guess its still valid here.

Been having a think about my case airflow (antec 900). My current setup is this:

I'm considering changing this slightly to this:

Even though it's pointing to a smaller fan (but having another fan blowing that direction) I'm assuming that this is a more efficient setup. What do you guys think? Would this drop my load temps a bit?

JonJ678 · 2 Jan 2010 at 19:47

I think it's very unlikely that your psu is blowing upwards from a fan mounted on that side. What's your graphics card fan doing, exhaust or blowing hot air into the case?

DiscoDave · 2 Jan 2010 at 20:09

JonJ678 said:
I think it's very unlikely that your psu is blowing upwards from a fan mounted on that side. What's your graphics card fan doing, exhaust or blowing hot air into the case?

Hi Jon,

You're right, the PSU is actually sucking air in, the GPU fans are blowing air out (there's three of them)

JonJ678 · 2 Jan 2010 at 21:04

I'd want to use the third fan in the front as an intake as well, but otherwise use the second layout.

I'd also attempt to duct the airflow, trying to seperate the case into two chambers where the top has one intake fan, cpu, two exhaust, and the lower chamber is fed by two intake fans and contains the graphics card and the psu. It's unfortunate that the graphics card isn't exhaust, it messes things up somewhat.

This isn't going to directly solve noise issues. However it will get cooler air to the graphics card more effectively, so the card fans won't go as mental. The cpu fan pointing left instead of up is a hunch more than anything else.

How do you feel about a pci-e exhaust between the gfx and the psu? At present it looks like a lot of hot air is being blown into the psu, which I wouldn't be comfortable with.