waht have i done to my Pc... big performance loss !

[R B Customs]

yea i rang intel up and they sent me 4 pads for free. next day delivery now thats what i call service.
i only got them sent out to put on my new watercooling system cos i didnt weant to use anythign but the intel heat pads... again waranty reasons.
im getting some arctivc silver tonight from a friend ( or some other type of heat paste ) so cant really give any updates as yet. seems okay though, had an hour on HL2 with no slowing down.
it was a very sudden change though. nothing gradual about it at all, one day it was fine, next it was dying
ill keep you guys updated !
Rick

 

[Synergy]

Definitely sounds heat related... is the chipset fan/sink attached and turning? Also, get rivatuner or similar app and make sure the fan speeds on the vid card are set to 100% all the time. I had an X800 XT once that by default would sit at something like 75% fan AND would overheat (to the extent of artifacting) at stock speeds!

 

[R B Customs]

right guys im hoping this will be one of the last posts in this thread
but my PC seems to be fine now !
i got soem * ahem* 'arctic silver' from a mate but it turned out to be one of those cheap single packs of thermal grease... so i popped out to the shops and found some akasa silver paste for 3.50, applied it etc started in bios and 68C !!! ohhh dear lol... so i swithcedd off... re done the thermal paste ( dont think i had enough on )and started again... it was sittign at 29 degrees for a while i was amazed !
even under load im getting no more than my usual idle speed... i really didnt expect a bit of paste to make the difference it has... highest temp so far is 49 i think... but thats with *** fan so that i can only just bare the noise lol

so it must have been throttling of some kind... im just still mythed abotu how it got to the stage where it had to throttle ... gravity or elves in the night tinkering with it... i dont know ?
and with these all new cool temps i may be able to try a bit of OCing
but anyway,, thank you all for your time ! ! !

btw synergy... no fan on my 6600gt lol... its the asus silent one none on the chipsets either... although the heatsink on the northbruidge is annoyingly directly under my waterblock and that thing gets HOT !

thanks again everyone !!
Rick B