need advice on temp difference between a 2.8 non-HT northwood, and a 3.2 HT northwood

[grepcomputers]

So, I just upgraded my CPU today, from a 533FSB 2.8GHz Northwood (no hyperthreading) to a 800FSB 3.2GHz Northwood with hyperthreading. And my idle temperatures went up by about 12F, or about 7C.

Now, I have an Antec's cheaper version of the Sonata, with 1x 120mm intake and 1x 120mm exhaust, both fairly low-rpm, quiet fans, and an antec 350W PS which is also a low-noise (single fan) version. I have a Thermalright SLK-947U heatsink on the processor, which is a great big honking piece of copper, with a low-rpm (and very quiet) 92mm fan on it. I applied the Arctic Silver 5 thermal the same way I always do, noticed the temperature difference, and so I did it again. Got exactly the same temperature readings. The heatsink is quite warm to the touch, but not what I'd call hot.

Keeping in mind that these are both northwood processors, is this the kind of temperature difference I should be seeing? The arctic silver page does say that it takes (quite) a few "thermal cycles" for the compound to fully take effect (for a low-rpm fan), and after this time, temperatures might drop by as much as 5C. Which won't bring me back to where I was with my old 2.8GHz Northwood, but close.

Right now, about 2 hours of operation after the second install of the heatsink, the idle temperature is 111F, or about 44C. But, as I said before, this case is designed around silence, with few fans (I got a gigabyte geforce 6800 with no fan - link - and boy do the heatsinks on this get hot (and right below the processor)). And everything is low RPM (<=2000RPM, including PS).

Under load (running prime95 torture test and playing an avi file) I hit 70C (before I chickened out and stopped it...) Of course, it was stable for the whole 4 minutes it ran...

So, what do you think?

Thanks...

 

[InlineFive]

A Northwood should run about 20-25c cooler. :Q
That is near the danger zone. :thumbsdown:
Quiet can only go so far in terms of hardware support. 🙁
Speed up your fans. :|
Profit?

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Yeah, change your fans speeds a small amount. Try to exhaust a bit more air.

 

[MDE]

My 3.2C @ 3.6 runs under 60C with the stock heatsink. It's in a Sonata with a 350W Fortron PSU (120mm fan on the bottom running at about 7V).

 

[grepcomputers]

Well I reapplied the ArcticSilver and reseated the HS (again) paying careful attention to AS's application intstructions. I put a slightly higher RPM fan on the heatsink (~2000RPM vs. ~1600RPM).

Rebooted, and idle temps have dropped by about 10F, or about 6C. And load temps (prime95 and an avi file again) have dropped to steady at 130F/55C.

These temperature drops can't possible be due to a 400RPM increase alone, can they?

So that's promising. I'll just have to see what a few thermal cycles do to the setup.

Thanks...(any more thoughts are welcome)

 

[MonkeyWrench4000]

A passive cooled 6800 will change your ambient tempurature inside the case to be much much warmer then the true ambient tempurature of the room the pc is in. With a passive cooled 6800, you should consider better case cooling, whether that means a little more noise or not.