New case/cpu cooler - same temps

choliscott

Senior member
Mar 11, 2010
206
0
76
Hi folks, yesterday I purchased a Antec 300 case & Zalman cnps9500. I put everthing together with my 1090t which on a 4 gig OC I was getting around about 35-40c on normal load. With stock cooling.

However with the Zalman I'm getting the same temp.

First of all, is the side of the case fan with the "safety bar" the blow side? I'm assuming it is.

Ok in the case I have 2 hard drive fans blowing in. There is a fan on the side that blows out, along with one on the top & rear (all fans blow out except hard drive ones)

I have the cpu fan pointed up, which right below the top case fan.

Acouple of things I can thing of is that I need to do one of the following

1). Turn off top fan.
2.Turn another fan so it blows in
3). Space hard drives further apart or equal spacing (I have 4 drives installed)

Anybody have any suggestions to try besides remove drives.

Thanks
 

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
7
81
A couple things I can think of off hand...

#1 The CNPS 9500 is not a very good CPU cooler. Even the Zalman CNPS 10X is a lot better.

#2 35-40°C is not very warm. Your body temperature is right in between that, so I don't see that as very warm at all. If you touched your CPU do you expect it to feel like an ice cube?

#3 Typical room temperature is around 25°C. The air inside your case (especially after running past your hard drives) is always hotter than room temperature. Thus, the air might be 30°C or higher by the time it reaches your CPU cooler. Air cooled CPUs will always be hotter than the air going into the CPU cooler. Thus, consider 35°C possibly the best temperature you will likely get with normal air cooling.

#4 The stock AMD cooler has a copper base and quad heatpipes with an 80mm fan. I would be surprised if it wasn't close to a Zalman 9500 in performance.
 

choliscott

Senior member
Mar 11, 2010
206
0
76
I'll agree 40c isn't that hot, but when I read others are getting 10-15c cooler with the same cpu, I figured I would try to lower my temps. For instance one person's idle temp was 21c & on load was 45c. I do know having multiple drives installed creates more heat. The part I'm not sure is the avg temp increase for a each drive added.

A couple things I can think of off hand...

#1 The CNPS 9500 is not a very good CPU cooler. Even the Zalman CNPS 10X is a lot better.

#2 35-40°C is not very warm. Your body temperature is right in between that, so I don't see that as very warm at all. If you touched your CPU do you expect it to feel like an ice cube?

#3 Typical room temperature is around 25°C. The air inside your case (especially after running past your hard drives) is always hotter than room temperature. Thus, the air might be 30°C or higher by the time it reaches your CPU cooler. Air cooled CPUs will always be hotter than the air going into the CPU cooler. Thus, consider 35°C possibly the best temperature you will likely get with normal air cooling.

#4 The stock AMD cooler has a copper base and quad heatpipes with an 80mm fan. I would be surprised if it wasn't close to a Zalman 9500 in performance.
 

busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
5
76
I'll agree 40c isn't that hot, but when I read others are getting 10-15c cooler with the same cpu, I figured I would try to lower my temps. For instance one person's idle temp was 21c & on load was 45c. I do know having multiple drives installed creates more heat. The part I'm not sure is the avg temp increase for a each drive added.

This is a common issue with AMD cpu's. You have to be very careful while reading temps and 35-40 is actually a very good range. 21c at idle is below the usual room temperature, which cannot be possible.

tempact.jpg


The one in the green box is the accurate reading. The reading in red box are wrong but which are usually reported for AMD cpu's.

P.S Those are idle temps BTW.
 
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choliscott

Senior member
Mar 11, 2010
206
0
76
Ok at the moment, with just surfing the web & nothing else, I'm at 37c (TMPIN1). However If I was to do a stress test with Prime95, I'm hitting 60c within about 10 minutes, when I read others being able to run a stress test for hours & not even come close to hitting 60. Based upon what I've read on AMD's website for the 1090t, 60c is the max temp, unless that is referring to a different temp.

This is a common issue with AMD cpu's. You have to be very careful while reading temps and 35-40 is actually a very good range. 21c at idle is below the usual room temperature, which cannot be possible.

tempact.jpg


The one in the green box is the accurate reading. The reading in red box are wrong but which are usually reported for AMD cpu's.

P.S Those are idle temps BTW.
 

HybridSquirrel

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2005
6,161
2
81
that doesn't really sound like an issue to me. but because people are getting lower temps, i suggest a new heatsink. I use the same one you do, and the only reason I still have it is because the backplate is a pain in my ass to take off. Check out the hot deals section for a good deal on one of the best air coolers out there.
 

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
7
81
For instance one person's idle temp was 21c & on load was 45c.

Please do not compare your temperatures to other people. Same thing with overclocks. You are just setting yourself up for disappointment. Often when people are posting "hey check out my overclock and temperatures" they are posting BRAG threads. Everyone else who are getting normal results like yours just don't bother posting about it.

As yasasvy mentioned, 21°C is BELOW room temperature which (in a normal room) is abslutely, positively IMPOSSIBLE TO ATTAIN using air cooling or even liquid cooling. The only way to attain those temperatures (again, in a normal room) would be to use more extreme cooling measures such as TECs, dry ice, phase change or some bong/big reservoir liquid cooling with ice cubes in the water.

Here is an example of what I mean by using ice cubes. :awe:

Your load temperatures sound great too. 60°C loading with Prime95 on a hex core overclocked to 4GHz running mediocre air cooling? Hell yeah!

I assure you that you have NOTHING to be concerned with at your reported load/idle temperatures.

Something else to consider is that the motherboard sensor or BIOS could be reporting wrong. BITD I've had a socket 370 board report NEGATIVE :eek: temperatures while I was using a VIA C3 CPU with air cooling in normal room temperatures. I also had an Abit IS7 socket 478 motherboard that reported temperatures higher than all the other enthusiast motherboards, by a good 10-20°C. Abit reps insisted that they were reporting "proper" temperatures an that all other manufacturers reported "improper" temperatures. Well, there was a big outcry among enthusiasts, so finally Abit relented by releasing a BIOS update that, ahem, "fixed" the temperature problem. Like magic, after flashing the BIOS, CPU temperatures were lower.

Another thing is that your software could be reporting wrong. It is not unknown for different monitoring software to report temperatures that differ from each other.
 

zagood

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2005
4,102
0
71
In addition, how is your 9500 plugged in? Straight into the motherboard, or directly to the PSU? Or are you using the FanMate that probably came with it?

If directly to the motherboard, turn off Cool n' Quiet (or whatever the BIOS fan control is called) and see if that helps. If it does, you need to adjust your BIOS settings.

If the fan is running at 100% already, yeah, it's really not the best heatsink in the world. Decent when it was released (5+ years ago?) but there are much better available now. They won't look as pretty but will perform better at the same price or lower.
 

deimos3428

Senior member
Mar 6, 2009
697
0
0
Your load temperatures sound great too. 60°C loading with Prime95 on a hex core overclocked to 4GHz running mediocre air cooling? Hell yeah!

I assure you that you have NOTHING to be concerned with at your reported load/idle temperatures.
Nothing to worry about for normal computing but I sure wouldn't want to run Prime 95 for much longer if it is hitting 60C (unless you're sure it has stopped trending upwards).

You might try reseating the cooler just in case it isn't mounted well, but you're probably reaching its limits with that overlock. Hopefully it's at least quieter than the stock cooler.
 

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
7
81
Nothing to worry about for normal computing but I sure wouldn't want to run Prime 95 for much longer if it is hitting 60C (unless you're sure it has stopped trending upwards).

But, running Prime95 is not "normal computing" for the OP.

what do you mean by "normal load"?

I mean by surfing the web, maybe watching a video file saved on the computer, etc. Nothing really processor intense like encoding
 

choliscott

Senior member
Mar 11, 2010
206
0
76
You mean the jet engine? Yes its way quieter

Nothing to worry about for normal computing but I sure wouldn't want to run Prime 95 for much longer if it is hitting 60C (unless you're sure it has stopped trending upwards).

You might try reseating

the cooler just in case it isn't mounted well, but you're probably reaching its limits with that overlock. Hopefully it's at least quieter than the stock cooler.
 

choliscott

Senior member
Mar 11, 2010
206
0
76
At the moment I've been hitting about 35-40c which I am content with. With the summer soming up, I'll have to see what that does. I did try running prime again & this time it hit 62c within about 15 minutes. If a 15 minute stress test to test stability is sufficent, then I won't worry about what I'm getting.



Please do not compare your temperatures to other people. Same thing with overclocks. You are just setting yourself up for disappointment. Often when people are posting "hey check out my overclock and temperatures" they are posting BRAG threads. Everyone else who are getting normal results like yours just don't bother posting about it.

As yasasvy mentioned, 21°C is BELOW room temperature which (in a normal room) is abslutely, positively IMPOSSIBLE TO ATTAIN using air cooling or even liquid cooling. The only way to attain those temperatures (again, in a normal room) would be to use more extreme cooling measures such as TECs, dry ice, phase change or some bong/big reservoir liquid cooling with ice cubes in the water.

Here is an example of what I mean by using ice cubes. :awe:

Your load temperatures sound great too. 60°C loading with Prime95 on a hex core overclocked to 4GHz running mediocre air cooling? Hell yeah!

I assure you that you have NOTHING to be concerned with at your reported load/idle temperatures.

Something else to consider is that the motherboard sensor or BIOS could be reporting wrong. BITD I've had a socket 370 board report NEGATIVE :eek: temperatures while I was using a VIA C3 CPU with air cooling in normal room temperatures. I also had an Abit IS7 socket 478 motherboard that reported temperatures higher than all the other enthusiast motherboards, by a good 10-20°C. Abit reps insisted that they were reporting "proper" temperatures an that all other manufacturers reported "improper" temperatures. Well, there was a big outcry among enthusiasts, so finally Abit relented by releasing a BIOS update that, ahem, "fixed" the temperature problem. Like magic, after flashing the BIOS, CPU temperatures were lower.

Another thing is that your software could be reporting wrong. It is not unknown for different monitoring software to report temperatures that differ from each other.
 

HybridSquirrel

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2005
6,161
2
81
At the moment I've been hitting about 35-40c which I am content with. With the summer soming up, I'll have to see what that does. I did try running prime again & this time it hit 62c within about 15 minutes. If a 15 minute stress test to test stability is sufficent, then I won't worry about what I'm getting.

usually in summer i see a 2-3c increase in my case temps. i hit around 65 on prime95 as well, and when im playing bc2 it rarely gets above 50. dont sweat it =D


edit: was trying to find a graph that was posted here that has case temps in reference t the ambient air temperature of the room. it took it all t way up to 90f in the room, and if your room gets that hot you should probably move rooms :p
 
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Schmide

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2002
5,747
1,039
126
First of all, is the side of the case fan with the "safety bar" the blow side? I'm assuming it is.

Ok in the case I have 2 hard drive fans blowing in. There is a fan on the side that blows out, along with one on the top & rear (all fans blow out except hard drive ones)

I have the cpu fan pointed up, which right below the top case fan.

Acouple of things I can thing of is that I need to do one of the following

1). Turn off top fan.
2.Turn another fan so it blows in
3). Space hard drives further apart or equal spacing (I have 4 drives installed)

Anybody have any suggestions to try besides remove drives.

Thanks

Side fan should blow in, airflow is less about positioning and more about pressure and prevention of recycling of hot air, vortexes and dead air spots. In general, in through the front/bottom/left side, out through the back/top/right side, messing with this leads to problems.