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Ok, what the heck is wrong here?

Markbnj

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
Moderator
Ok, I am on my third heatsink, and there must be something fundamentally wrong. I can't seem to get below 42-43c at 1.475 vCore on air. On my third hsf atm and getting a little frustrated. Here's the setup:

Wavemaster case. Pics here.

Exhausts: one 120mm fan in PSU, which is an Antec neoPower 480 and seems to run pretty warm. One 80mm fan in the rear wall below the PSU. One 80mm fan in the case top grill. One ??mm fan in the NV Silencer rev. 5.

Intakes: two 80mm fans behind the front bezel.

Current heatsink is a Zalman 7000cu. Previously I had a Thermaltake Venus. Before that stock. Temps have really been about the same with all of them.

For the two previous hsfs I used the stock thermal compound pad. For the Zalman I applied AS5 in a thin layer across the CPU's heat spreader (yeah, I learned later their recommended method is more involved), and have been turning the system off at night to get the heat/cool cycles they recommend for curing.

Cable management is good enough. There is clear airflow throughout the case.

Seems like I ought to be below 43c idle with the Zalman.
 
several things come to mind...
What is your ambient room temps?

also are all your fans intake with only the top rear being exhaust?

okay first of all your video card is not the issue you have excellent cooling!!
Plus I believe(if memory serves me correctly) it send the hot air out the rear....very good!

I would question how much outside air you have entering your system......

I would also take your PSU out of the equation....except to say its expelling hot air also but not really as much from the case as from the PSU itself!

Also take the AS% curing process out of the equation...you really wont see that much of a difference from the install to the 200hr curing...maybe 2c-4c difference......every little bit helps!
But I assume you are looking for temps below 40c....

Check your airflow......don`t assume its ok...

also make sure In my Opinion all your fans (except for the rear 80mm and of course the PSU) are all intake......

You might try adding another fan...

Or you might try getting a different heatsink such as the Thermaltake XP 90 copper or the SI120 or even the XP120.....also you have the Scythe Ninja and the Zalman 9500....also theres the Big Typhoon.....

One word of caution...before you order any Heatsink go to the makers site and check for compatability...

Good Luck!! 🙂



 
Thanks for your thoughts. The room is fairly cool. I don't know the exact temp but it isn't hot.

I forgot to mention that the machine is under my desk. The top of the desk is about a foot above the top of the case. That was the rationale for having the top fan be exhaust, otherwise I figured it would be sucking in the hot air that came over the top of the case. I think I will pull it out and see if the temps drop. The intakes being behind the front bezel should be a plus, since they are drawing air pretty close to the floor.

That fan doesn't seem to be moving much air, though. It's a techtoys 80mm, plugged into a standard 3-pin to molex adapter.

I thought about 120mm rear and top fans, but if I want to go that route I will have to mod the case.
 
I would definitly try moving it out of the desk cubby. If that doesn't work, you can always mod the back of your desk with a regular floor fan, (there's a post on AT here somewhere about how he did it.) and it worked very well if I remember correctly. You're wire management looks fine. You might also want to reapply the paste, you could of put TOO much on so the heat is getting trapped under there. I thought the first time my layer was thin -- I was wrong. I reapplied my AS5 today and it dropped from 36c to 32c with a XP-120 and a U1A Panaflo on it. I have an AMD 3500+. I hope this helps, don't know if the Zalman is a PITA to take off or not, but I know for sure the XP-120 is.
 
Thanks, Craka, I'll try that. The Zalman should come off easily, as there is no bracket around the base and it can be freely twisted. What do you recommend I clean the previous layer off with?
 
Hey CraKaJaX, just wanted to let you know that I reset the Zalman tonight, following Arctic's recommendations to place a small bead in the center of the contact zone. So far it looks like my temps are down 6 deg. c at idle. At 36-37 now, browsing the web and whatnot.
 
Good Deal.....you might not get any better temps using that heatsink!!

But with that said....you might get alot better temps using the XP 90 copper...or the XP120 or SI 120...
or the Scythe Ninja or the Zalman 9500...

Good Luck my friend!!🙂
 
All good points above ^^^^. I'll tell ya OP that your main problemo after looking at your pics is this....you need better exhaust...I garuntee you lower cpu temps with better exhaust...whether it be to mod another 80mm or mod a single 120mmm or if your looking for the "easy out" get a HIGH VOLUME 80mm (which WILL be loud as anything) to replace your existing 80mm exhaust. After so much tinkering/research/testing etc...I know beyond a doubt, that a cases exhaust capability (provided good airflow through the case via neat wiring and properly placed components, in which yours is ample) is the single most important cooling ingredient with an aircooled case. Intakes do very little except to aid in HD cooling. The "wind tunnel" effect is what you are looking for>in from front bottem>out through upper/mid exhaust. Your psu sitting right on top of the cpuHSF radiates heat. The HSF is sucking this in. With better exhaust, it will aid in that "sucking heat" from the psu and HSF out of the case. One thing...what are your case temps and what are you using to monitor it?
 
Thanks for all the comments, guys.

Jedi: I am seriously thinking I should go with a Ninja or Zalman 9500, or one of the other sinks that you can install with the fan blowing toward the rear exhaust. That's the one thing that I don't like about the typhoon: I think that fan would be pretty close to my side panel.

JBDan: I think you probably have a point there. I have the fan in the PSU, and the 80mm on the rear bulkhead, and that is the sum total of my exhaust. I would love to put a 120mm in the rear, but I need to take a close look at the case and see what a pain it will be.

Edit: oh, and I was a little impetuous on the earlier reading. After playing BF2 for a bit and getting everything warm I'm idling at 40-41c. I had to put a quarter volt of vCore on earlier, so I guess that isn't too bad for 1.475v. I still want to get it down further.

Whoever asked about my monitoring tool: speedfan.

Last edit: someone asked about my case temps: 42c. The cpu is consistently running 1-2c lower than the case temp.
 
if you want a new heatsink and want the fan blowing toward the rear, I would definitly get a zalman 9500. one word - beastly.
 
where are you getting your temperatures from? You motherboard temp sensors? They may be way off. I know that when I move from one bios to the other, I can drop or gain as much as 4-5 degrees.
 
Well yeah, and I know they can be inaccurate. But I presume relative changes are still indicative.

What better source is there? Do you mount external sensors?
 
What i did a few months ago is i d/l a few CPU temp monitors....and I found the ones that were qccurate...
By accurate I mean that reported the same readings as my ASUS Probe.....which has proven to be very accuate!
Then I found that Everest@home which is a freeware also reported the same as my ASUS probe....

The I also found that Motherboard monitor was good albeit slow...
what I mean by slow is it took a few minutes to report the temps that my probe and everest were reporting....

Good Luck my friend!!
 
Never thought it would matter when I purchased my fan controller, but if you have one equipped with four, two-pin thermal sensor plugs, you can tape sensors near places already monitored in software. There will be maybe a 2 or 3C lag in temperatures taken from heatsink bottoms. Despite all these things, you can get an idea whether or not your motherboard and CPU sensors are in line with "independent" sources of data.
 
I would tend to agree with JBDan. On my system I have 2 exhaust fans, a 80mm on the top and a 120mm on the side. It really seems to make a difference. I also have 3 intake fans and all are speed controlled. My case temp is 25-26C and CPU is running around 36C with all the fans on high. When I lower them the temps rise to Case temp 29-30C, 42C CPU.

I really beleive the Exhaust fans make a difference in getting the heat out of there.
 
Thanks. Yeah, I do believe it needs more exhaust. I looked at high flow 80mm fans on Newegg last night, then I imagined a jet engine running under my desk and closed the window. Looked at slot fans at Compusa on lunch today, but put them back on the hook. Looked at the back of my case, but it doesn't look promising for cutting a bigger hole. Think I am going to let the AS5 set up for a couple days and contemplate things.
 
Originally posted by: Markbnj
Thanks. Yeah, I do believe it needs more exhaust. I looked at high flow 80mm fans on Newegg last night, then I imagined a jet engine running under my desk and closed the window. Looked at slot fans at Compusa on lunch today, but put them back on the hook. Looked at the back of my case, but it doesn't look promising for cutting a bigger hole. Think I am going to let the AS5 set up for a couple days and contemplate things.
Click to expand...

g-luck with that...let us know how it goes
 
Run the system without any side cover on the computer to alleviate any trapped hot air... take readings and then try blowing a tabletop fan into system. Do this to rule out case exhaust fans having an impact on the system. If your still getting high readings I'd look to the heatsink, lap it and reapply artic silver 5. If your upgrading I wouldn't spend money on the XP-90C get the SI-120 with a good Panflo if you have the extra room.

 
Originally posted by: timecop67
Run the system without any side cover on the computer to alleviate any trapped hot air... take readings and then try blowing a tabletop fan into system. Do this to rule out case exhaust fans having an impact on the system. If your still getting high readings I'd look to the heatsink, lap it and reapply artic silver 5. If your upgrading I wouldn't spend money on the XP-90C get the SI-120 with a good Panflo if you have the extra room.
Click to expand...


Lapping the heatsink and using AS5 will NOT alleviate the problem.
Lapping in and of itself is rarely a fix for temperature related issues.
AS5 will NOT improve the temps that dramatically....2c-4c at best!!
 
I know for a fact that the heatsinks I have lapped seemed to bring down the temp 2-3Cs. Now that depends on how warped your sink is... or the top transfer material. If the copper is a little cruddy maybe the heat transfer will be less. Add to that artic silver installation errors like using too much or not fully covering the right area and you may have up to a 6C higher temp. I'd like to see Thermalright apply real silver coating to their sinks instead of nickel.... they should for the price your paying. lol.
 
I did a flatness test on the bottom of the heatsink with a metal straight edge, and it didn't look like it needed any lapping. Nicely polished as well.

I will try the panel off test, as it does seem that would test for airflow.
 
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