Alpha PAL8942 Problems.. CPU = 50C+

[fumbduck]

I had a retail intl heatsink from a 1.6a on my IT7-Max2 with a P4 2.8, but it was in the 50's, so I got a PAL8942.

I installed the heatsink as told, one thing I found odd was it says to make the airflow of the fan point away from the heatsink, I've never run into this before.
The fan isnt very high CFM, like maybe 20, but the CPU is at 50 and going up.


any suggestions?

 

[tapir]

is it a panaflo or better?
2.8 is a lot to cool, anything less than that is probably not gonna turn out good..

 

[Bovinicus]

Most heatsinks do require the fan to be facing down, but there are some coolers which suggest the air is blowing away from the heatsink.

That temparature isn't too bad. The 2.8GHz P4 runs hotter than you might think. Just because it is .13 micron doesn't make it free of heat. I'm surprised it is the same as with the stock heatsink, but there are a few possible reasons.

What kind of case temps are you getting? To effectively cool a CPU you need to have good case cooling as well. Moving cables out of the path of the airflow, cleaning your case, and installing new case fans are some ways to reduce this temparature.

Did you remove the thermal interface material that was on the stock cooler? You need some good thermal compound if you hope to accomplish low temparatures. The stock thermal compounds are always poor at conducting heat.

 

[fumbduck]

Yeah, it has Arctic Silver 3 on it, i have 2 intake fans, and 1 exhaust fan on my case, which is an aluminum skyhawk usa.

maybe i should get a 50cfm like suggested, thats just effin loud.

should i try pointed it at the heatsink?

 

[fumbduck]

adfadfa

 

[Thor86]

20cfm and the fact your are sucking air away from the HS is your problem. Get at least a 30-35 cfm rated 80mm fan (they are not that louder than stock Intel fans) and blow into the HS. Your Alpha is one great HS, so unless you absolutely want a whisper quiet unit, you are limiting the heat dissipation.

 

[CaptnKirk]

The Alpha PAL series of heatsinks reccomend that you set the fan to extract (SUCK) heat away from the core.
You may want to add a Y.S. Tech adjustable fan, as you can vary the fan speed,
thereby increasing or decreasing the CFM flow volume to meet your demands, and control the sound level.
There are other adjustable fans out there, I just find this one to be easier to use and more reliable than most.

 

[Ketchup]

Your temps aren't that bad at all. Mine is at 48 at idle, and I am not worried because I know my Abit BD7-II reports the temperature about 10 degrees higher than it actually is. Yours may be doing the same. As for your fan, it should be fine, but if you are going for quiet, I think you would have been just as well to use the stock heatsink, and you would have saved some money too. If you want good cooling, get a better fan on there (I ordered my Alpha with a 47 CFM Delta.)

 

[jhites]

Actually, your temps are a little high for idle. I pasted some numbers for you to use to compare from my BD7II that should be relatively similar to the IT7-Max2 of yours.

I have used 27cfm, 36cfm and 50cfm, each will reduce the cpu temps 1-2C and the fan should be set to suck away from the cpu not blow into it. This is recommended by Alpha and I have tried it both ways and sucking air away is a little better. This is the way Alpha designs the heatsink.

Here are some tests that I recently ran with my new 2.4b - Alpha 8942/50cfm sunon - AS3:
Sensor 2 = idle/load/average and load was the highest temp using Prime95 torture test.

Motherboard Monitor ?Temps / vCore
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vcore . . . . . . . . . . Sensor 1 . . . . . . . . Sensor 2
2619mhz 145fsb = . . . 1.44/1.49/1.47 . . . . . 34/35/34 . . . . . . . . . 36/39/37
2709mhz 150fsb = . . . 1.42/1.49/1.46 . . . . . 33/47/42 . . . . . . . . . 36/48/43
2799mhz 155fsb = . . . 1.42/1.49/1.46 . . . . . 33/48/42 . . . . . . . . . 35/48/43
2889mhz 160fsb = . . . 1.42/1.50/1.47 . . . . . 31/45/36 . . . . . . . . . 34/47/38
2997mhz 166fsb = . . . 1.55/1.65/1.60 . . . . . 33/55/45 . . . . . . . . . 37/52/45
3033mhz 168fsb = . . . 1.62/1.71/1.69 . . . . . 33/59/38 . . . . . . . . . 37/54/41
3069mhz 170fsb = . . . 1.60/1.71/1.68 . . . . . 32/56/39 . . . . . . . . . 36/52/41
3105mhz 172fsb = . . . 1.62/1.70/1.68 . . . . . 32/60/40 . . . . . . . . . 36/56/42

Notes: The BD7II board undervolts and the temps readings are usually +5-8C higher than most other boards.