Thermalright SI-97A warmer than stock?

[tyro]

I recently purchased a Thermalright SI-97A for my AMD 3000+ in hopes of reducing the temps for higher overclocks but have seen the opposite. The new sink is actually running one to two degrees celsius warmer during idle and load than the stock cooler. I am rather confident that the new heatsink has been installed correctly. I used Arctic Silver 5 and I understand the set in period. There is a fan on the heatsink, a nice Panaflo actually. I was careful not to use too much thermal compound and made sure to clean both surfaces before application. My friends and I are all really confused by this. Could it be that the heatpipes just do not work in a tower?(heard this and figured it is false but now I do not know what to think) Is this heatsink damaged in some way internally because there is no signs of damage on the outside. The fan works and the bottom of the heatsink makes contact with the cpu. I followed the instruction carefully and am wondering if anyone has any ideas or thoughts (solutions?) about this problem.
-Thanks

[Alfie]

The cooling would be dictated by the fan,it may work better with a more aggressive fan.
A fan with variable speeds would be your best bet,in that way you could keep it quiet when you want and crank it up when game playing, etc.
Overclocking temps increase when the voltage is increased,for agressive overclocking and relying on air to cool can be a noisy experience.

[tyro]

Thanks for the reply...
Should have mentioned before that I have the SI-97A with the Hi output Panaflo in conjunction with a Zalman fanmate 2. With the fanmate on its lowest setting the temp is around 36 degrees celsius at idle. On the highest setting the fan hits ~2500 rpm and becomes audiable and the load temp has not exceeded 46 degrees celsius. Now I know that these temps are nothing to be alarmed about but I mean come on, my stock cooler was keeping up at full load at 45 degrees celsius. So far the only advantage is it is quieter, yet not cooling as well as stock. All of these numbers are directly from Asus Probe. Load temps were observed while running Prime95 torture test. I don't know, after reading some reviews about this cooler I just really had high hopes.
My current overclock is 2.557GHz at 1.45 vcore from the stock 1.8GHz at 1.4 vcore
Should I see if I can get a different heatsink?

[blue60007]

There's nothing wrong with those temps...I doubt you are going to get it much better. And since it's quieter now...

[tyro]

I think I have found a solution. A friend of mine mentioned "air flow" so I decided to take the side panel off. After I took the side panel off the load temp dropped from 46 to 40 degrees celsius. It seems the problem is getting hot air away from the cpu and cool air to it. So I think im going to focus on air flow and getting cooler air to the cpu from outside. Thanks for the input and posts.

[blue60007]

Yes, that's another thing. You might consider getting higher output case exhaust fans too. You could also cut a hole in the side panel to put a fan in to provide cool air. But you'd need to be handy with tools. There are some guides on the internet that give you the outline to do that...Just don't go chopping holes... And I'm not saying you have to do that, that's just an option

[MaxRat]

I would say re-do the install....with that vcore you should be around 22-25 ish with 70-75deg Far. room/ambient temps....
even for AS5 that sounds High....

Go to the Artic silver website and do the install again as they recomend...you can use "Goof off" to get the old compound off then follow with 95% isopropyl alcohol