Northwood Heatsinks

[benjamat]

When I got my 1.6A Northwood I stuck it straight into a brand new system with standard heatsink and got a tremendous 35 degree temp. Ran like this for over a week while overclocking up to 2.4 but not ultra stable so I thought take it off, do the wire trick and use arctic silver.

Big mistake, before anything else happened and at idle temp the thing had jumped from 35 to 39 degrees. Now I know I had increased the voltage but did not expect this heat increase at idle and can only put this down to the tremendous heat transfer properties of the compound/tape on the back of the standard heatsink as compared to stripping this off and using arctic silver.

My recommendation is do all your tricks on the processor before clamping iy down for the first time and then leave it alone. If you take it off you will lose some of the properties as it sticks everywhere. I would set the voltage at 1.7v for performance and safety.

I would appreciatye any thoughts on this.

Many Thanks

 

[benjamat]

Any comments

 

[THUGSROOK]

you already used the retail intel HSF?

big mistake - the wax from the thermal interface on that POS it just about impossable to remove. (at a microscopic level) i would suggest you "lap" your cpu, scrape all that wax chit and tin foil off the HS, lap the HS, and then use arctic silver to reinstall.

you really DONT need a new HSF.

 

[SupermanCK]

35C ISN'T REALLY THAT BAD...MY IDLE IS AT ~28C...LOADED (RUNNING PRIME95) 50C+

 

[benjamat]

Many Thanks,

Do you really mean that invisible residue from the waxy base on the stock intel heatsink will effect the functionality of arctic silver up to 4/5 degrees c ?

If this is the case then what is a simple effective method of removal and of course it will never be possible to use arctic silver with stock heatsinks if the wax cannot be removed or at least it will be pointless.

Wow didn't think of that.

 

[Zukatah]

To remove the wax, use nail polish remover and finish the job with isopropyl alcohol. Instead of using the nail polish remover (acetone), you can also use Goof Off.

Ideally, you should remove the thermal pad before using it, it's less of a job to remove.

 

[Barrei]

Supermanck 35c is a good idle temp especially if you have cpu voltage turned up, your idle temp of 28c is great { is your comp in the fridge ha,ha}Intel themselves say don't worry as long as you stay under 66c and even if you go over 66c chip will clock down automatically until temp is safe, mine idles at 39c with stock HSF and cpu volt at 1.60v spikes as high as 56c during intensive gaming , so Benjamat idling at 35c is much better then " not to bad".

 

[Nate420]

My P4 (@2.5) also idles at 28C(load 45C), but I have ~200CFM of case flow. It idles about 32-33C (load 52C) with a single case fan running.