cleaned case with no avail. athlon at 67C. (found out my heatsink is THE problem)

[LongCoolMother]

i posted before about my CPU temps idling at 64C, which is too high, a lot of you recomended i clean the case of dust and move cables out of the way. well, i cleaned uo the dust pretty good dusting it and vaccumming. i slide the ide/power cables all into a ledge in my case, but after about 15 minutes of playing a 3d game, (moto gp ultimate racing tech and sometimes mohaa), the game just freezes. occasionally i get artifacts too! im running my entire system NOT overclocked, and its surprising, because my fan is SO loud (could be my heatsink too), i mean, its so loud you wwouldnt be able to sleep next to it, while the p4 1.7 HP workstation im using right now is silent!

as you can probably expect, a loud fan should yield good cooling results. apparently not, i have a coolermaster heatsink and fan, but i dont know the model number. it came STOCK, so it should not be causing overheating issues, BUT IT IS, can you believe it? okay well, ive finally decided to buy a new heatsink after resorting to all these solutions. im no cooling person, so i need your guys' help.

im thinking GC68, because its quiet and i heard it cools well, but im nto sure, because its not a super cooler or anything, and my CPU is hot as heck even with this really loud fan. i really dont want to spend more then $20, but if i have to, i will. thanks.

 

[LongCoolMother]

oh, and i also heard the volcano 7 is cheap with very good performance and an adjustable fan speed. any ideas? ive seen it at frys before, so i can pick it up easily.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

if you feel your heatsink with your hand when it's this hot, is the heatsink itself HOT?

 

[mechBgon]

Is the system in question this one from your Rigs page?

What thermal-interface material did you use between heatsink and CPU? Since the first time you installed the heatsink, has it ever been removed? What temperature does the motherboard itself read as the case temperature?

 

[sodcha0s]

What is your ambient room temp? If it's hot in your room (or inside of your case) a new heatsink/fan or thermal paste isn't going to help much, if at all.

 

[Drewpy]

another thing to check would be the direction of the airflow on your heatsink. my sk-6 works with the air blowing down through the heatsink. some other brands specify the fan to pull the air though the heatsink.

you may have already, but getting all the dust out from your heatsink will help considerably, if its now clogged with dust

 

[muddocktor]

You need to bite the bullet and get a decent hsf, most probably. The stock hsf that comes with an AMD proc or most pre-built AMD systems is just bordline adequate for cooling, IMHO. Also, you don't say anything about your case ventilation. AMD procs need a good hsf and good case ventilation to run cool. You need at least 1-80mm fan of around 35-40 cfm as an intake and another as an exhaust on your case so that you are moving fresh, cool, outside air through your case. Also, invest in a good hsf like a Thermalright AX7, Alpha PAL 8045 or Swiftech MCX462(this one's expensive though). Depending on how sensitive to noise you are, you can go with an 80mm fan for those heatsinks in the range of 84 cfm for a Vantec Tornado or high speed Delta EHE down to something like the Enermax adjustable fan, which has a small pot on a lead to let you manually adjust the fan speed(and noise). Finally, use a good thermal grease such as Arctic Silver 3 for optimum heat transfer between the hsf and proc.

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: muddocktor
You need to bite the bullet and get a decent hsf, most probably. The stock hsf that comes with an AMD proc or most pre-built AMD systems is just bordline adequate for cooling, IMHO. Also, you don't say anything about your case ventilation. AMD procs need a good hsf and good case ventilation to run cool. You need at least 1-80mm fan of around 35-40 cfm as an intake and another as an exhaust on your case so that you are moving fresh, cool, outside air through your case. Also, invest in a good hsf like a Thermalright AX7, Alpha PAL 8045 or Swiftech MCX462(this one's expensive though). Depending on how sensitive to noise you are, you can go with an 80mm fan for those heatsinks in the range of 84 cfm for a Vantec Tornado or high speed Delta EHE down to something like the Enermax adjustable fan, which has a small pot on a lead to let you manually adjust the fan speed(and noise). Finally, use a good thermal grease such as Arctic Silver 3 for optimum heat transfer between the hsf and proc.

thanks for the advice. im going to look into it. and the system is the one in my rigs page. the heatsink is hot when i feel it, but its not THAT hot (150+ F). its hot enough you cant keep your finger on ir for more then a few seconds, is that too hot? i never moved the heatsink or installed anythoing on my own. i bought my computer custom made from www.neocomputers.com and they claim they test the system for 24 hours before shipping it out or something. i dont mind buying a new heatsink, i just need to know if thats the problem as one of you said, it might be blowing the wrong way or my room temp is too high.

thanks for the recomendations on new heatsinks, ill look into that too. i did notice that the temps are a lot hotter in the summer then when it was winter, when it was winter, it was more like 63C instead of 67C, which is still to my knowledge too hot. ill try underclocking for now, but that really sucks.

 

[LongCoolMother]

oh, and my case ventilation sucks too. its a steel case, with a plastic front panel and i dont have any exhaust fans goin, only the power exhaust fan in the rear, which IMO shoots out some...pretty hot air. the only other possible place i see that can install an exhaust fan is right under the power fan exhaust, there is a built in fan grill.

 

[skriefal]

You don't have any case fans? Definitely stick in an 80mm or 92mm -- whichever fits -- in the exhaust fan mounting spot that you referred to. This will make a huge difference, and very likely will add enough airflow that you won't need to replace the heatsink.

 

[sodcha0s]

Yes, definitely work on getting some airflow through your case! Your PS fan isn't near enough to cool your case properly. You really need one 80mm intake and one 80mm exhaust minumum, in addition to the PS fan.

 

[LongCoolMother]

oh!! thanks for the tip. i didnt know it would make a large difference. ill try putting a fan there first, and then if it still doesnt work well, ill get a heatsink.

now...can anyone recomend me a good exhaust fan to use? im going to measure the width of the grill right now....hold on. okay, the diameter of the fan grill was 60mm. that means i should use a 60mm fan right? can someone recomend me a good one? preferably not too loud, but since my computer already sounds like a jet engine, might as well get a lil more sound if it means much better cooling. thanks you guys

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Since you're heatsink is getting hot, at least you know it's making good contact A new heatsink would be a good suggestion, though, plus case cooling. Sucks you only have 60mm space, since 80mm moves a lot more air for the noise...

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

You need a better case. If you are getting visual artifacts your CPU isn't the only thing getting too hot. I have this case and an SVC Goldengate w/ 80mm adapter & Sunon fan and it keeps my XP1700 idle temps at around 43C & under load 49C with a 28C system temp. Noise isn't that bad either, you can hear a lot of air being moved around with the 3 Sunon fans & 2 PS fans, but without the whine you'd get with smaller, higher RPM fans.

You also might want to check this out, although it would only be a band-aid to your problem:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/article.php?sid=436
It will drop my idle temps to around 33C.

 

[Gene396]

Most case exhaust holes are 80mm. To check; there are 4 mounting holes surounding hole. Check the closest distance between holes (not diameter). If it is about 2 inches (51mm) between centers of mounting holes; this is a 60mm hole. If it is about 2 3/4 inches (71mm) this is a 80mm hole. If it is a 60mm hole; can you possibly enlarge hole to 80mm? 80mm fans move a lot more air and generate a lot less noise!!

The exhaust fan should help a lot. Next think about an intake fan; preferably a 80mm fan. If heat is still high; you will have to go to a new HSF combination. Again, get HS that uses a 80mm fan. I am using a PAL 8045 and getting very good results.

In case I have not made my point; 60mm fans just don't get the job done!!!

 

[hoodwink]

I don't know what kind of power supply you have but a higher quality psu made a big difference in my idle case temps. I replaced my stock power supply with an Enermax Whisper 350W psu and temps went down almost 10 dgrees. I believe this is because the enermax has a big intake AND exhaust fan while the stock psu did not. The intake sucks up a lot of hot air rising up and out of the case. I also threw in two more 80mm Panoflo L1A's for additional intake and exhaust.

 

[Quad]

from my experience cleaning the dust from your case doesn't help a lot.

recently i removed my heatsink, rinsed it out with water, cleaned the bottom, cleaned the cpu, and re applied a fresh layer of arctic silver. before i did this, my heatsink was clogged with dust and the thermal compound was completely dry.

after the cleaning, my temps dropped 10 degrees

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: Quad
from my experience cleaning the dust from your case doesn't help a lot.

recently i removed my heatsink, rinsed it out with water, cleaned the bottom, cleaned the cpu, and re applied a fresh layer of arctic silver. before i did this, my heatsink was clogged with dust and the thermal compound was completely dry.

after the cleaning, my temps dropped 10 degrees

please dont mind me for asking, but how do i clean my CPU? do you mean just dusting it off? i really dont want to take my CPU off my motherboard, i never done it before and i dont want to mess it up. and my heatsink, is that safe to remove to clean?

i dont think i can enlarge the hole, i didnt check the exact size yet, but its like carved into the case, the grill. if i do enlarge it, im going to have to cut the case and then install my own grill. and i dont have the tools for that. also, how do i get an intake fan? the front of my case is plastic, so i cant install one there, the side perhaps?

 

[mechBgon]

LCM, can you look again at my question up above? Curious to know what thermal interface, and whether it's ever been disturbed...

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
LCM, can you look again at my question up above? Curious to know what thermal interface, and whether it's ever been disturbed...

sorry i didnt answer completely. i have no idea what thermal interface compound was used because i did not install it. i never moved or in any other way disturbed the heatsink or CPU, i havent even seen the CPU before. i would take a look, im just reluctant to do it because ive never done it before and im afraid i might damage something due to my lack of experience handling heatsink/cpu work.

 

[mechBgon]

Ok, I was asking because many heatsinks come with a non-reusable square of gummy phase-change thermal compound, and if the heatsink had ever been removed, it ought to be scraped off and replaced with a new one, or with a high-quality thermal compound.

I bet that rear exhaust fan would help some, even if it were a 60mm... if the air near the CPU is moving, it keeps the CPU fan from recirculating its own hot exhaust through the heatsink again (I guess I'm stating the obvious there). Using a high-quality thermal grease will also lower your CPU temperature compared to a PCTC pad.

Putting the fan in is easy enough. If you'd like to try the thermal grease, you need to get the CPU cooler off, thoroughly remove the old thermal pad or thermal grease, apply new thermal grease (illustrated procedure here), and reattach the heatsink.

Incidentally, the Volcano 7's are reputed to be quite loud, and even the 7+ with the adjustable fan is said to be loud at its lowest speed. Another random thought I had: what is your CPU voltage, if you look at it in the BIOS? If you got this combo from someone else (I'm making a guess, since you said you'd never seen the CPU), it could be manually set to 1.85V by a bridge mod. It could also have a PCTC pad that got reused and is compromising your thermal transfer.

 

[muddocktor]

I imagine that you should be able to at least take the fan off of your heatsink without taking the heatsink off of the processor. You could then blow out the dust in the fins and see if that will help on the cooling. It really sounds like you need to do something about the case ventilation first, before you worry about changing the heatsink. While you have the fan off of the heatsink, see if it fits the fan hole on the back of the case. That will tell you for sure what size fan is needed there, 60mm or 80mm. The fan on your heatsink will most probably be a 60mm fan. As for an intake fan, look inside your case in the lower front part of it, behind the plastic faceplate. Most cases have a fan cutout built into the case body there. Even though it is behind the faceplate, it will still suck outside air through the faceplate and help blow cool air inside. As far as fans go, Newegg has a decent price on the 80mm Enermax adjustables, so you can hit a good compromise between noise and cooling. I've also used the 80mm Sunon fans and they've been good.

Try getting the case ventilation fixed and the dust bunnies out of the heatsink first before you go buying the new hsf and see how much that lowers your temps.

 

[LongCoolMother]

ahah, i found my problem. my heatsink and fan are crappy as heck.

this is my heatsink: http://www.coolermaster.com/products/cpucooler/fcpga/dp5-6i31a.html

can u imagine that? 26CFM and 38dba, that crazy.

by the way, i bought 2 80mm fans yesterday, only to find that the intake on my case was made for 80mm, but the exhaust was 60mm. this really sucks, i dont like 60mm fans because i heard they werent as effecient.

 

[muddocktor]

After you get you a better hsf, you can use the 60mm fan off your coolermaster in the case exhaust spot. Or, if you have a dremel tool, you can get an 80mm wire grill like the ones on this page and cut the opening on the back of your case bigger to mount the 80 mm fan you just bought. Another added benefit to cutting out the case grill and using a wire grill is better flow properties and less wind noise from the fan.

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: muddocktor
After you get you a better hsf, you can use the 60mm fan off your coolermaster in the case exhaust spot. Or, if you have a dremel tool, you can get an 80mm wire grill like the ones on this page and cut the opening on the back of your case bigger to mount the 80 mm fan you just bought. Another added benefit to cutting out the case grill and using a wire grill is better flow properties and less wind noise from the fan.

i might try cutting it, if i can borrow a dremmel from a friend. by the way, what do you think is causing the sound on my heatsink? is it the heatsink design itself or the fan? maybe both? id be very happy if the fan was quiet, and it was just the hsf. since ill be using the fan off the CPU cooler to exhaust my case.