cooling prob

[Eagle]

i need some help on my comp! my computer always overheats when im doin stuff and the noise the alarm makes really annoys me! im gonna buy a new heatsink i think! any suggestions into what one?

im in england so im thinking of spending about £10 - £15 on one!




(also i have attached an image of my System temps at the time of this post)

[Alaron]

Don't worry too much, 54C is only warm, not too hot. Be sure to double check your BIOS temperture reading too, sometimes programs can give the wrong temp. If the BIOS confirms a 50+ C idle speed, that is a little warm.

If you are in the market for a new heatsink for an AMD, look for a Speeze Falconrock. It is only $10 US, so it fits your budget ~6 quid. It is a very quiet, effective hsf for its price. My temps lowered 5 degrees compared to the amd retail unit.

Hope that helps

[Eagle]

well it does go as high as 60 C and thats when the damn bleeping noise starts!

[JPMiller]

can you post a pic of your computer... what kind of airflow do you have?
If you dont already have it I would suggest putting an intake fan on the side of the case above the CPU and an exhaust fan on the top of the case... some links to general cooling info...
http://www.kpod.co.uk/ars/
http://www.short-media.com/article.php?111.0
http://www.jsihardware.com/articles.php?ID=5
http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/airflowtweak/2.shtml

[Eagle]

i dont actually have a pic of my computer. i can tell you that my leads are tied up as best i can round the side of the case, i have 4 fans on there. 2 on the back, 1 on the front, and one on the side. the one on the side is blowing air outwards

[Eagle]

the best thing i can offer is a quickly drawn picture of the location of fans

[P4ForMe]

Your fan layout seems sufficient to me. Is it overclocked? If it isn't something is seriously wrong with that overheating.. I have no idea what that would be though.

[Eagle]

no it isnt overclocked (thought it was but found out i had just set it back to its default setting)

what about my heatsink? could it be a piece crap? its the stock one that came with the processor

[Iniamyen]

It might be your heatsink making poor contact with the processor die. I don't know much about the retail amd heatsink; does it have thermal tape on it? You might take a glance with a pen light to see if everything is making contact well, although if it was making very poor contact I would expect the cpu to fry itself.

[Eagle]

although if it was making very poor contact I would expect the cpu to fry itself.

lol

mmm there is some sort of grey thing stuck on the top of my processor that i think came with the heatsink and got stuck on it! cant really remember if it was me or not

[Tin]

the 2 rear fans should be exhaust, side and front fans should be intake. on my rig, i have one front intake, 2 side intakes, and one rear exhaust. its best to have positive case pressure as it cuts down on the dust getting in all of the hard to reach places.

[Brown Hornet]

could your vcore be set to high,that can surely cause heat

[nocturnx]

hmm make sure the hsf is securely seated on the cpu. You could try putting some arctic silver on it and reseating the hsf.

[Eagle]

could your vcore be set to high,that can surely cause heat

whats this?

hmm make sure the hsf is securely seated on the cpu. You could try putting some arctic silver on it and reseating the hsf.

i believe it is on properly but im gonna play around with it at the weekend! also where do you get this arctic silver?

[Eagle]

i looked at my processor and my heatsink this morning and it seems that there is a grey substance on it! it looks like there isnt really much on the processor and that on the bottom ogf the heatsink there is a big "white" gap from where its been worn and where the processor has been sitting!

could this be the problem?

[Cricket]

That sounds like the thermal pad. If there's a bit of it missing, that's normal...it got smashed by the CPU die/core. You're going to have to clean off all the grey stuff from the heatsink and CPU and apply thermal compound in it's place.

You can get regular thermal compound or Arctic Silver (or something similar) at most computer shops.

Cricket

[FLG]

Get Artic Silver 5, works wonders. Droped my temp 7c as compared to generic stuff. AMD heatsinks are the worst lapped heatsinks i have seen, the amout of roughness and inperfections are terrible, but thats what thermal paste is for

[Eagle]

ok ill get some thermal compound. is it easy to fit?

i am goin to get: Antec Silver Thermal Compound Pentium 4 CPU / AMD is this ok?

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Eagle ok ill get some thermal compound. is it easy to fit?

"Easy to fit"? What do you mean? The thermal compound? Thermal compound is easy to apply. But you have to clean off the old stuff first. Alcohol and clean rags will do that. Then all you gotta do is apply a very thin layer to the bottom of the heatsink where it contacts the CPU and a very thin layer to the raised part of the CPU. Don't use too much, stuff should be almost transparent. If you use too much, it acts like an insulator and your CPU temps will be higher than they should. I usually just wrap my index finger with plastic food wrap, apply a tiny amount to it and then rub the thermal compound onto the heatsink and raised part of the CPU.

Cricket

[Tin]

Originally posted by FLG Get Artic Silver 5, works wonders. Droped my temp 7c as compared to generic stuff. AMD heatsinks are the worst lapped heatsinks i have seen, the amout of roughness and inperfections are terrible, but thats what thermal paste is for

you can also lap your heatsink. i lap every heatsink i purchase before i install it. start out with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper and work your way up to 1200 grit. keep sanding until you get a mirror-like finish. lapping is worth yet another 5C or so. AS5 works much better on a lapped heatsink

[macrymble]

just out of curiosity...as you work your way up to 1200 grit, what should the interval be? 600-800-1000-1200? or what?

And should you do this on all heatsinks even non-amd stock ones? maybe just start on 800 or 1000 grit or something?

[FLG]

If you google for "Lapping" or "Lapping guide" you will get tons of hits. I dumped the stock AMD hs awhile ago, switched to a Tt Volcano 10+, by far one of the best lapping jobs i have seen a company do. Literally just as good as a mirror, i now have a Tt aquarius 2, dosent look like a mirror but couldent feel any imperfections.

[macrymble]

is it necessary or helpful to lap a more common brand name of heatsinks like thermalright and such?

[JPMiller]

Personally I believe a large part of your problem was your fan arrangement... the fan on the side of the case needs to be blowing inward, onto the heatsink.
If both are fighting for the same air it creates turbulence that reduces the heatsinks ability to work.
I would turn your fan to blow inwards, (there are arrows on the side to show the way it blows), and lap the bottom of the HSF, (use a flat surface like glass or something to work on...), and apply the thermal compound like Cricket instructed, (I use a credit card edge or similar to spread the compound on the CPU die)
Make sure the back of the computer is away from the wall.
If all else fails you may want to look into flashing your bios to the newest revision, sometimes it reports the wrong temps and that would trip the alarm unnecessarily.

[Tin]

Originally posted by macrymble is it necessary or helpful to lap a more common brand name of heatsinks like thermalright and such?

thermalrights will need a good lap job. they come with crappy finiosh on them, even more so than a thermaltake heatsink. lapping is very well worth the effort if youre going to OC your rig.

[Eagle]

umm yer well......

i got some thermal compound! works wounders! instead of my comp runnin at 59 - 61 C it now runs at 48 - 51 C

big difference!!

thanks all who helped!