Help, my CPU isn't cooling anymore

[cyrusfox]

So I have a watercooled setup. I was troubleshooting my main rig and I finally found why it wasn't booting,(stupid 1.8" IDE I was working on drive was holding up boot). In the course of troubleshooting I switched out my Phenom 965 with an Athlon 265, The water cooling was keeping the Athlon 265 a chilly 35ºC @ max load with intel burn test. I reassembled my computer with the phenom( I had cleaned off the thermal paste) and reapplied thermal paste to cpu and put the water block back on.

I booted back up and my cpu is now idling around 48°C, and if I try to do a burn test it shoots up to 65-72°C, I end the test as I don't want to see how high it will go. It instantly heats up, water block is firmly on, System use to never go above 45 °C. I have reapplied thermal paste 3 times, I am thinking it may just be this really crappy radio shack "Silicon Base Heat Sink Compound" I bought a year ago and had lying around, Am I right? Unfortunately I used up all my good thermal paste on the last build.

Where should I go to get some quality thermal grease(store front), not many options besides best buy and radio shack around me. This is horrible, why did I clean the old stuff off!

Also, could it possibly be anything else, I have already refilled my loop and thrown a thermocouple on it, Temps are 60°F. Any other thoughts or experience with bad thermal grease?

 

[fastamdman]

Thermal grease isn't going to add THAT much heat to your system. Make sure you are using the proper amount, aka a VERY small rice grain size, like a really really small amount and make sure the water block is properly seated.

I would re-apply the paste and reseat to see if it helps.

 

[cyrusfox]

I have convinced myself its the paste, so I am going to get some new paste, clean the block and processor again removing the radio shack gunk, and give it another try. If its not that thermal grease, it quite possible is the water block(not flat), or maybe I am not getting flow through my water block. So I'll get to work with more troubleshooting and come back and report.

 

[tweakboy]

You sure the pump is working properly pushing the water ???

 

[cyrusfox]

You sure the pump is working properly pushing the water ???

No, I don't have a flow indicator of any type, it was easier to tell when I had air in my system(see the bubbles in the tube). I believe it is flowing. It was working great before, but I may flush my loop. I just really don't want to if I don't need to.

 

[Schmide]

Watercooling requires maintenance, what do you have? how long has it been up? etc...

 

[MrTeal]

Even cheap thermal grease like this Rosewill stuff won't cause anything like that kind of temperature rise.

At a standard 100um thickness on a 2.5x2.5cm square, even that cheap stuff would have a thermal resistance of about 0.067C/W. Even if you slathered on a 1mm thick layer you shouldn't see a 13 degree rise at idle.

 

[veri745]

If you aren't royally screwing up the thermal paste application, then I would suspect the pump.

 

[cyrusfox]

Watercooling requires maintenance, what do you have? how long has it been up? etc...

I installed the loop last summer,There is a MCP350 pump pushing water to an old Thermaltake cpu block, then going through a 3x120mm Radiator, then to a 120mm radiator/Reservoir combo, back to the pump inlet. Only cpu is being cooled.

As for Hardware, this is a 790xta-UD4 gigabyte mobo with a Phenom ii X4 965BE that was overclocked(now just testing it at stock till temps are under control). A Sapphire Radeon 6950 2gb. I am going to mess with the mount and reapply some new silver thermal grease I picked up and if that doesn't work, I will flush the system. What would you recommend for maintenance. What is a good method for cleaning out the radiators?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Double check the pump

 

[SpeedTester]

Not that it matters but which chip are you running, the 965 or 265? Your first post you switched out the 965 for the 265 but now you are saying you are running with the 965.

 

[Qianglong]

Did you check if there are any kinks on the tubing that is restricting the flow? Are you using any anti-corrosion additives to the water and did you disassemble the CPU block completely to thoroughly clean and inspect the block?

 

[cyrusfox]

Not that it matters but which chip are you running, the 965 or 265? Your first post you switched out the 965 for the 265 but now you are saying you are running with the 965.

the 965, I only used the 265 briefly to test why my system wasn't booting, Fixed that and then switched back to the 965, When I switched back to the 965, I cleaned off prior thermal grease. Using the 965 now. Mount seems to be fine, but I am recleaning and reappling new thermal grease, but it probably is the pump or the line is being obstructed to greatly reduce flow.

Did you check if there are any kinks on the tubing that is restricting the flow? Are you using any anti-corrosion additives to the water and did you disassemble the CPU block completely to thoroughly clean and inspect the block?

No kinks in the tubing, no anti-corrosion additives just Nuke -Cu Biocide (PT nuke blue). Cpu block is copper and clear acrylic, I have not dissassembled the block as I can see through it cleary, looks pretty dang clean.

What do you all use to clean out radiator and blocks?

 

[Magic Carpet]

I don't like maintenance, thus.. I don't deal with water. Simple as.

It probably just needs cleaning.

 

[WoodButcher]

Disassemble and clean the blocks, flush the rads, (I know Imma catch sheet for this one!) but, for flushing what I'll do is add orange cleaner to my loop and run it a minute or two or till it foams and let it soak for 30 min to an hour, then run hot tap water though it. I set the PC on the counter, use spare hose to lengthen the loop, fill and drain line and let it flush for 5-10 min. Rinse with distilled and refill.
If you find you have a clog don't force it with more water or air pressure. The rads, pumps, fittings and hoses should not have more than 10 PSI applied to them or you may do damage. For a rad I would load it up with orange cleaner stop the holes with your fingers shake and soak. Then blowing through in both directions to clear the passages.

 

[cyrusfox]

New thermal paste did the trick, maybe I messed up the mounting the other times as well, but this time I disassembled the mount and reassembled it carefully. This Thermal paste is a crappy BestBuy Dynex silver compound, and it seems to be working great. At Overclock (CPU 1.55V) I am not getting temps above 49 °C. So glad I didn't need to mess with my loop, it was a PITA to set up and I hate having to mess with it. I want the reward of a new cpu/mobo if I need to change anything out(That's when I plan messing with it).

I don't like maintenance, thus.. I don't deal with water. Simple as.

It probably just needs cleaning.

My line is clear, I was pretty sure it didn't need any cleaning and the pump was still vibrating the tubing and the radiators. Now my radiators are warming up while I stress the cpu, Heat transfer achieved, It was probably faulty mounting on the other attempts. But I would rather blame radio shack rather than my own shortcomings.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I have used that cheap radio shack paste in a tight bind and it is crap.

Applied some to a old pentium 4 and after a while it just ran like a dog and lagged like mad for no reason..i cleaned it up and slapped on some artic silver 5...i swore the machine just woke up.

I always applied the right amount but removing the heatsink the stuff was like water if you can afford a nice water cooling set up a couple bucks for some quality thermal paste shouldn't set you back.

 

[cyrusfox]

Disassemble and clean the blocks, flush the rads, (I know Imma catch sheet for this one!) but, for flushing what I'll do is add orange cleaner to my loop and run it a minute or two or till it foams and let it soak for 30 min to an hour, then run hot tap water though it. I set the PC on the counter, use spare hose to lengthen the loop, fill and drain line and let it flush for 5-10 min. Rinse with distilled and refill.
If you find you have a clog don't force it with more water or air pressure. The rads, pumps, fittings and hoses should not have more than 10 PSI applied to them or you may do damage. For a rad I would load it up with orange cleaner stop the holes with your fingers shake and soak. Then blowing through in both directions to clear the passages.

Thanks for the instructions, I will definitely be doing a cleaning when I upgrade to either ivy or sandy depending on how patient I can be. Which orange cleaner exactly? Something like this?

 

[WoodButcher]

Yes, I use the one from Home Depot. A grease cutter but it has also citric acid that cleans copper well, some like vinegar and others will swear it will destroy your rads. Personally I think if the rad is that worn I'd rather have it puke up while I'm cleaning the loop with the PC shut down than to happen while I sleep and spray on a live PC. Be sure if you run the pump to flush the PC is powered down, I use a spare power supply, but you can use the one in your system. Disconnect all the power connections and jump the 24 pin to heat up the supply.

 

[Ferzerp]

It wasn't the makeup of the paste... It was your mounting or application of the paste.

Most anything of that consistency will work similarly well (within a few degrees) in the short term. Long term, they will not, but short term, all of it works the same.

Remember the old toothpaste, peanut butter, thermal paste test? They all worked reasonably similarly initially. Of course, the odd materials all degraded extremely quickly and only worked for a day or two, but still, it goes to show that most anything that fills in those gaps will perform similarly.

edit: this may have been the study. http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm Not very scientific, and it was vegemite instead of peanut butter, and it didn't give actual temps, but gave degrees C / Watt (lower is better), and initially the weird items were just as good, (but nothing was as good as water).