Help! Failing Prime 95 Torture Test - CPU hits around 59C

[DaveyTN]

You mentioned to better cool your NB. What is the NB? Is that the chipset??

 

[wisdomtooth]

Yea, the NB = the Northbridge chip. It's the chip sitting underneath your SLI vid card with its own dinky little ineffectual fan and heatsink on it.

 

[DaveyTN]

Well guys its getting late here (eastern time zone) and I'm going to call it a night. I really appreciate your help here!

I'm going to let this prime run all night with case open and fan on to see if it can make it through the night. If it does, we will chalk this one up to a heat problem.

Thanks!!!!!!!

 

[Ike0069]

Monarch seems to have alot of problems with their new builds. Have you been th their forums? They have a section for custom systems they have built. i would make a post there and see what they say.
I personally wouldn't make any changes without contacting them first. I tried that myself on my combo and went thru hell to get an RMA.
As for the temps, I guarentee they will tell you they are normal. I had a 3000+ hitting 60C when gaming for <15 minutes, and they told me that was normal. That was when I decided to reseat my HSF and use AS, and the rest is a very, very long story. It all worked out in the end, but I won't buy anything form pre-built from Monarch again.
IMO those temps are higher than they should be, but they are definitely within spec, and are not the cause of your problems. My guess would be the memory. Running memtest will let you know if that is the problem or not.

 

[DaveyTN]

I'm running memtest+ right now (i'm typing this on a different computer). About how long does memtest+ take to run?

 

[wisdomtooth]

How did your Prime95 go with your overnight session? Was it stable?

If it was, it's definitely a heat problem.

 

[DaveyTN]

No, it still bombed out on me. Ran a little longer though, slightly over an hour.

 

[Ike0069]

Any errors on Memtest yet?

 

[DaveyTN]

No error on MemTest yet. I only ran it for 1.5 hours though. I tried something interesting though.

I tried playing Half Life 2 with my side computer case off and a fan blowing close to the mobo. The game ran fine, even after 45 minutes of game play with no lock ups!!

When I have the case fan on, Half Life 2 will lock up in less than 20 minutes everytime and I have to do a reboot.

So, I'm starting to think that maybe the air flow in my case is not that great.

Here are some of my temps while playing HL2 with the case closed:

- BFG 6800gt card 1 - 86C
- BFG 6800gt card 2 - 86C
- AMD 4000+ CPU - 58C
- PWM - 46C
- Chipset - 59C

I think everything is running just a little too warm.

Should I try reducing the stock 370 speed of the BFG back a little?

Should I try putting NV5 Silencers on my video cards?

My case has three fans - one in bottom front, one in top back and side fan.

Help with the heat!

 

[rise]

first off, remove your pci slot covers to allow some airflow. do you have a fan you can position to glow from front to back over the chipst and vga's and out the back? i'm going to get one of these to try out.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=371007

if you can't push monarch and if they will just say what Ike says they will, don't even tell them and go ahead and reseat the hsf anyway.

also, on the vga's i don't know if the new silencers fit on sli'd cards. but removing and applying as5 to the stock coolers will probably help somewhat. i have the af700 cooler but it doesn't look like it would fit on two with out snipping the fins. its a great cooler tho.

did i miss it? what are your temps on just one card?

edit-- i remounted the chipset fan using as ceramique and got ~6c better. idles at 40 and loads around 45 with 1.6v. once you have the cards in there be sure to push down on the chipset fan and make sure its making nice contact.

 

[DaveyTN]

Thanks. I'll try removing the PCI slot covers in the back to see if it helps with ventillation. Also, how does the zalman in the link you gave me work. Do you position the nozzle over the area you want to cool?

 

[rise]

looks like you can fasten it onto one of the drive cage rails and then angle it to blow where you want. i don't have it but if you check zalmans site they have some more info.

i'm going to get one and use it over the chipset or the ram or both depending on the results, noise and temps.

btw, you don't have those foam filters over your fan grilles do you? i removed mine from my CM praetorian which helps. and like wisdom said, you may want to take a dremel and enlarge the holes. i dremeled out my pci slot covers so they vent but look decent.

its just a shame when you buy a set up system you have to do all this crap to get it cooled properly.

 

[DaveyTN]

Yea, it is a shame. I've become obsessed with trying to get this problem resolved. I may order the zalman you have posted in the link...

 

[Ike0069]

So you have 2 6800 GT's in SLI? I didn't realize this. Try and run the games on one card and see if still locks up.

It's possible that the 2 VC's are just getting each other too hot and causing problems, but a CPU temp of 59C is not going to cause a reboot by itsself (assuming the temps are accurate).

Are you certain that all three case fans and the PSU fan are spinning at full speed?

 

[DaveyTN]

Yes, I have two 6800gts in SLI. I may try removing one and running one by itself. I am sure that all fans are working and faced the way they should. Now, I'm not sure if they are all turning at full speed? How do I check this???

 

[wisdomtooth]

Interesting thread over at Silent PC Review on cooling the Northbridge on the NForce 4 HERE.

All I can say is, barring a miracle from Monarch, you will probably need to extensively overhaul your system to get it to run cooler (which is why we recommended that you self-build in the first place rather than buying a pre-built).

HTH.

 

[DaveyTN]

Well, I've got an update on cooling my rig. I managed to install an 80mm fan in the bay that holds my hard drive and point it directly at the Northbridge. As a result, I have managed to drop my load temps on the NB by about 8C. Things seem to be running smoother now; knock on wood. I'm still thinking about getting NV5 Silencers for my two BFG 6800gts.

 

[Ike0069]

That's great man. Hope everything keeps running smooth.
Just realize that the silencers are named that becuase their primary purpose is to provide quieter cooling. You will probably get some decrese in VC temps, but don't expect too much.

 

[bjc112]

Are you using the thermal PAD that came with the CPU or are you using a thermal paste ( better solution )

 

[DaveyTN]

When I had the computer built, I selected Shin-Etsu G675 Thermal Grease. I'm not sure if they put any on there or not though. Should I take the heat sink off and look? How hard is it to remove the stock AMD 4000+ heatsink, clean off any old thermal compound and then re-apply thermal compound and re-attach the heatsink? Is this hard to do?