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How much will thermal paste help; new fans?

L

LS20

Banned
Midtower ATX w/ Superlink 320W PSU and regular Coolermaster HSF for XP1700+

The CPU runs at ~53*C idle and 58*C under load. It's still stable as hell... but the numbers do concern me.


Though I want to lower the temp, my main concern is also the noise level. I think the fan on the Superlink is the culprit. If I didn't go to bed at 3am everyday... I wouldn't manage to fall asleep.


I'm thinking that I should use some thermal paste for the CPU, and install a quiet (while being more effective) fan for the case. Opinions? What brand?
 
Panaflo L1A's are really quiet and can be found really cheap (do a search for that fan and you should find threads that tell you where to buy). Those temps are in the reasonable range. If your going to switch to a premium thermal compound, you should consider lapping your heatsink. That pink pads "wax" permeates the metal pores and stays there even through some pretty harsh chemicals.

But unless you looking to overclock the pad should be ok, not great mind you but definately adequate.
 
No thermal paste is going to lower your temps by 15C!! I see NO DISCERNABLE difference between a GOOD thermal pad and ASII. Unless you were not using ANYTHING before, I would have to believe your sensor is not making good contact with the cpu now, or something else (CPU, Voltages, HSF, mounting height of HS) has changed also to account for that type of difference. Think about it- 15C? C'mon?
 
JustStarting,

I have a problem with this statement of yours: I see NO DISCERNABLE difference between a GOOD thermal pad and ASII. HOw are you testing this?



Mike
 
Same Mobo, same CPU, same HSF- to be exact:

Abit KR7A-Raid133 w/ Winbond HWM
XP1700+@default 1.75v
Taisol CGK742092B (60x60x25mm Big Voodoo Daddy-5800rpm)
Antec SX1030 (w/ 5- 80mm case fans, (3) fan 5.25" Bay cooler, 431W Enermax w/ 2 exhaust fans on it)

Loaded temps (Seti@home 24/7 and UT for hours on end) with Thermal pad were within 1C of the same setup, but with ASII.

system- 20-21C
CPU loaded- 39-40.5C (don't know idle cause its always crunching Seti)

Since ambient temps can change by more than a degree C in my house daily, I consider the test IN MY PARTICULAR CASE- inconclusive. Debate it all you want- facts are facts- the numbers are what they are. And yes the sensor is making good contact as evidenced by the blue telltale mark on the bottom of my CPU.

I think my case has extremely good airflow and contributes significantly to the results obtained.

Mike- Are you saying you agree with Shinsa, that AS Alumina alone, will drop CPU temps by 15C??

edited for case ventilation details
 
NO... I do not believe, under normal application conditions, that AA can drop temps 15C.... Especially not on a socket-thermistor setup, where the readings are highly compressed...

But the reason I asked for clarification is: You do realize that socket-thermsitor setups, evne where you're contacting CPU back, do not accurately measure temp changes, right? Therefore, the 1C temp drop you observe could be a 1C, or 2-5C temp drop in terms of core temp, but that htey weren't picked up the socket-thermistor?



Mike
 
Mike- I'll agree that the thermister is not the absolute best way to measure temperature all things being considered, but not everyone has the tools to measure temperature more accurately in a convenient manner. Comparisons mean nothing without an understanding that the values are not 100% accurate. You only get a FEEL for what does better for your application when testing. 1C to me is not conclusive. Give me 3C difference and I've found something that is truly an improvement over my current setup. Reading reviews on ASIII it seems that under perfect conditions- ie- proper application of paste, HSF, case cooling, air flow etc..ASIII still only yields a 0.6-0.7C improvement. Negligible improvement in the "real world".
 
The CPU runs at ~53*C idle and 58*C under load. It's still stable as hell... but the numbers do concern me.

Quick plug, don't use * for º. Press Alt and type in 0186 and release the Alt button and you'll have a º. Try it and see.

It also depends on your room temp and motherboard. Since most motherboards don't have thermalsistors that touch the CPU temps will vary by quite a bit. If you are in a room that's quite warm (it is winter by the way) then your system will run warmer as well.

My temps right now are 46ºC. Overclocked to 1.4GHz my temps are 49-50ºC. If I'm in a room that's a lot cooler then my system temps drop as well.
 
Believe if you will.

I ran the Xp1700 w/o any pad or paste. The temp rang up 60C

After getting a pack of AA, from the internet, applied to the heatsink and found the temp drop by 15C.

I never said that i was running a thermal pad before.
 


<< Dang your brave..........:Q Poor XP >>



hehe, well, my AA was on the way and I needed to use my computer so...

 
There a plenty of tests on the Net and tons of user reports of CPU temperature drops when going from a thermal pad to thermal grease. I find it hard to believe that so many of us do see a difference, that it's not really there. Not possible! If one is getting "NO DISCERNABLE difference between a GOOD thermal pad and ASII" or any other decent thermal grease, there is either a contamination problem and or a temperature measurment problem. For more information on the contamination problem, read Thermal Interface Basics.
 
JustStarting ? After some research, I find it interesting that out of the twenty some reviews, you would quote the one test that shows the smallest difference with Arctic Silver 3. The only problem is the 0.6-0.7C improvement was over Arctic Silver II. A plethora of tests have shown Arctic Silver II to provide a 5C to 7C improvement over thermal pads. Since most hardware review Sites assume everybody knows this, new Arctic Silver products are in the unique position of being compared against the previous version. This is what happens when a product becomes the industry standard for high performance. Perhaps a Ferrari is only 2/10s of a second faster from 0 to 60 than a Corvette. Does this mean you should not replace your Hyundai with the Ferrari if you are looking for performance? 😉

I have to agree that a 15C difference between a thermal pad and high performance thermal grease is unlikely. If one sees such a difference, it?s probably due to disturbing the in-socket thermistor when removing and installing the CPU for thermal grease application. 🙂
 
MrThompson- If you would read my entire post before jumping all over my statements you would see where I'm coming from. NO DISCERNABLE difference in my case is 1-1.5C. I didn't say there was NO difference- just not anything significant, and certainly not 15C!! And I agree with Mike to a point, thermistors are not 100% accurate, and 1-1.5C thermister temp may actually be 3-4C in theory. My HS surface was well prepped and I don't go for the contamination theory you directed me to in your post.

I say again- Since ambient temps can change by more than a degree C in my house daily, I consider the test IN MY PARTICULAR CASE- inconclusive. Debate it all you want- facts are facts- the numbers are what they are.

and- I think my case has extremely good airflow and contributes significantly to the results obtained.

 
From Intel® Xeon? Processor Thermal Design Guidelines:



<< 10.4.3. Interface Material Performance

Two factors impact the performance of the interface material between the processor and the heatsink
base:

1. Thermal resistance of the material

2. Wetting/filling characteristics of the material

Thermal resistance is a description of the ability of the thermal interface material to transfer heat from
one surface to another. The higher the thermal resistance, the less efficient the interface is at transferring
heat. The thermal resistance of the interface material has a significant impact on thermal performance.
The higher the thermal resistance, the higher the temperature drop across the interface and the more
efficient the thermal solution (i.e. heatsink) must be to achieve the desired cooling.

The wetting or filling characteristic of the thermal interface material is its ability, under the load applied
by the heatsink attach clips, to spread and fill the gap between the processor and the heatsink. Since air is
an extremely poor thermal conductor, the more completely the interface material fills the gaps, the lower
the temperature drop across the interface. In this case, thermal interface material area also becomes
significant; the larger the desired thermal interface material area, the higher the force required to spread
the thermal interface material.

Intel has determined through thermal characterization that it may be challenging to meet the thermal
performance targets with the use of phase change thermal interface materials. The use of thermal grease
in conjunction with high performance heatsink technologies (e.g. copper base folded fin) has been
demonstrated to meet Intel thermal performance requirements. The use of thermal grease is
recommended. >>



If the performance improvement of thermal grease over a thermal pad is there with a Xeon, it's also there with other CPUs.

Q.E.D.
 
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