• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Reducing CPU temps in preparation for 1st overclock!

Mattus said:
Are all four of the pins definitely pushed in until they click home on the other side of the motherboard?

Does the heatsink actually get warm?
Click to expand...

I think all of the pins are in properly, but I haven't physically pushed them to make sure. I'm very new to all this, so I'm not sure how much pressure need be applied to check it.

I haven't touched the heatsink either, so I will put my hand close to it and check that once the computer has been shut down. The problem is I'm back at my parents' house and my pc is in my flat. The reseating is scheduled for Monday! But I'll do the other checks you've just suggested too first.

Evil-I said:
What kind of case cooling do you have? It doesn't matter how effective your CPU HSF is if the heat it dispels just hangs around in your case.

How many of what sized fans will give us a rough idea of how good it is.

Best,

E-I
Click to expand...

I must admit, the cooling isn't extensive! In fact it amounts to:

1) one 80mm exhaust fan
2) while the Intel HSF blows air into a duct and out of a vent in the side of the case.
3) a second perforated vent in the side of the case.

The case hasn't got any intake at the front. And I'm wondering whether the duct actually impedes hot air being removed from the case properly out of the exhaust fan.

My pc consists of the following (to make things clearer I hope):

Intel 6850 + Stock HSF
4x1GB Corsair RAM
2x250GB maxtor HDD
Gainward 4870 1GB 'GS' (has improved cooler)
Arctic 700 PSU
 
Sounds better than mine, all ive got is the dinky side fan, cpu fan and my PSU fan that blows down into the case anyway.

When im back in work il probably invest in Silverstone cases :)

Report back how you get on on monday mate good luck with the reseat
 
jamesgoss said:
I must admit, the cooling isn't extensive! In fact it amounts to:

1) one 80mm exhaust fan
2) while the Intel HSF blows air into a duct and out of a vent in the side of the case.
3) a second perforated vent in the side of the case.
Click to expand...

Hi James,

I think your case cooling is your first issue. For a setup like that you really should have consideraby more air flow through your case. 1 x 80mm fan isn't going to cut it! And trying to overclock your CPU in this case even with a new HSF is not a great idea.

I've got an overclocked Q6600 running at 3.2 Ghz with a Nvidia 8800Gt graphics card. My case is quite an old coolermaster one and soon to be replaced but still has 2 x 80mm intake fans, 2 x 80mm expel fans as standard and a couple of years ago I drilled a hole in the side panel and another one in the top of the case to fit two 120mm fans. My CPU idles at around 30 degrees and never gets above 55 degress under full load (I'm using a thermalright 120 ultra heatsink)

Unless you have reasonable case cooling your CPU cooler can be slightly irrelevant, as if you aren't moving the heat out of the case, it doesn't matter how efficient you cpu cooler is.

E-I
 
Hi E-I,

I was curious as to the effect of having a better case. Satriani has the opinion that his case, with worse cooling than mine, is still better in terms of temperatures. I have the MX-2 anyway, so I will try that (tomorrow, since I forgot the nail polish remover; what else removes paste??). But which case for around £50 or £60 would you suggest? I'm thinking Antec 300 or a Coolermaster 690 Dominator. But I'm open for suggestions!
 
jamesgoss said:
Hi E-I,

I was curious as to the effect of having a better case. Satriani has the opinion that his case, with worse cooling than mine, is still better in terms of temperatures. I have the MX-2 anyway, so I will try that (tomorrow, since I forgot the nail polish remover; what else removes paste??). But which case for around £50 or £60 would you suggest? I'm thinking Antec 300 or a Coolermaster 690 Dominator. But I'm open for suggestions!
Click to expand...

To be honest mate anything that has a decent number of fans and good airflow through the case is fine. Its usually a balance of number of fans and their speed to get decent airflow whilst not sounding like Concorde taking off.

I'm not saying you haven't got an issue with your heatsink, it may well be worth reapplying the TIM and making sure the heatsink is attached firmly. But if you do want to overclock you need to manage the heat to make sure that you have the cooling potential to meet the additional heat your overclock will create. Also of course, the cooler you can keep all your components the higher and more stable you will be able to overclock.

E-I
 
It sounds like a combination of things. It's a shame I didn't spec a better case at the start really, but I didn't know a thing about this air-flow malarkey!:o

If the reseat works/only to an extent, I think a new case might be a priority, followed by a new HSF...
 
Hi,

I have the same CPU as you and had the same problem when i checked temps. I OC'd to 3.05ghz and in prime my temps were up to 90-92 but were only like 35-40 in idle. I personally think it has something to do with the paste used with the stock cooler because when i removed it there really wasn't much on it.

I have the Antec 300 with 3 x 120mm fans (not including the case fans) and i recently upgraded the hsf to a Tuniq tower, perhaps not the appropriate upgrade but i like the look and the blue LED is the theme to my pc. Anyways now my pc idles at 25-30 and 50-51 underload. Ive clocked it to 3.4 and i haven't seen 52 degrees yet.
 
Thanks Will, that's very interesting to hear. I'm just doing some work now, but I'll be reapplying the paste once I've cleaned it off with surgical spirit in an hour or so. Let's see what happens!:p
 
Ok, the results are in! And they're not pretty...

I added a small blob in the middle of the cpu, like the manufacturer's website said for MX-2.

The Idle temps are the same, but there's a large difference in the Load temps now, they've actually gone up, which suggests I haven't done a decent enough job! The ambient temps are the same. I think I'll have to give it another go.

Temps are as follows:

Pre-reseat Idle: 57
Pre-reseat Load: 86

Post-reseat Idle: 57
Post-reseat Load: 91(!!!!)

Looks like I'll be purchasing that new case! Haha!
 
jamesgoss said:
well i've just taken the HSF fan off, and the layer looks very nice and even, I put about a rice grain's worth. I'm trying to add photos but it appears they have to be web based...
Click to expand...

Do you mean a rice-grain's worth in thickness across the heat spreader, or a rice-grain blob, spread out? The idea of thermal paste is basically just to fill any gaps between the heatsink and CPU, shouldn't have to be very thick at all, really. For photos, upload them to ImageShack or something, and paste the uploaded image URL.

Anyway, there are plenty of good cases, depends how much you're willing to spend. If you can spend about £100, the Antec 902 and Coolermaster HAF 932 are very good for cooling, although personally I think the HAF 932 is ugly. For up to £30, the Coolermaster Elite 335 is usually recommended for a cheap case. Around £50, the Antec 300 is good, and I'm not sure about the Silverstone case, but their more expensive cases are highly rated.

Edit: Those pics look good. The paste seems to have done it's job on the heatsink, filling the gaps. I guess the way to go now is a new case and HSF.
 
Last edited:
D D Danneh said:
Those pics look good. The paste seems to have done it's job on the heatsink, filling the gaps. I guess the way to go now is a new case and HSF.
Click to expand...

Ah, well that's a relief: at least I put the stuff on correctly. Thought I'd buggered it up.

The most I'd want to spend is £50 really, the main competitors being the Antec 300 and the Coolermaster 590 (which I have found for £45 including delivery).

As for a new HSF I think I'll go for the Sunbeamtech Contact badger.

I'll reapply the HSF now, have just waited for the surgical spirit to evaporate. Then see what the temps have decided to do this time!:D

Spread the thermal compund across the whole CPU. Temps as follows:

Idle: 44/45
Load: 65/66

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37664129@N06/3464010740/

How much better is that?! Didn't even touch the BIOS for the fan speed. On top of the world right now esp after the first failure. Thanks for all your help guys!
 
Last edited:
A decent hsf like the sunbeam/af7 would take a fair bit off those temps.

It is a great buzz when something goes right for once, glad to see you fixed it as it really was very high.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom