Overheating problem with T-bird 800

[gimps]

I wish I had friend's system I could test it in. Unfortunately, none of my friends are computer geeks (hah), or even haven computers. wooo..
Yeah, I'm gonna order some thermal compound, and reapply it to my chip. Gonna take a few days for it to get here though, for the fact that I live in Alaska.
Anyway, once I try that out I will post how things are doing.
I may also be adding an additional fan or 2 onto my heatsink.
As soon as I get it all finished, will let you guys know.

 

[gimps]

Ok well, I found one problem. Thermal paste was not used. The thermal pad on the heatsink was not removed, and replaced with thermal paste. Just got my new HSF in today, and going to install it and see how it does, and I also got some Arctic Silver Thermal paste. Will let you know how it's going after I get it up and runnin again.
Question tho, how can I get all that damn stickiness from the thermal pad off the CPU die?

 

[gimps]

ok, I got a real stupid question here. Is the CPU fan supposed to be blowing air ONTO the CPU or OFF OF?
I always thought off, but the 2 HSFs I've gotten for my T-Bird have the fan installed to blow air onto the CPU.

Thanks.

 

[Nighthawk69]

Use rubbing alcohol to remove stickiness... as for the fan, I think most people have it suck OFF the HSF, but you can try both ways... report back on your results with the new cooling solutions.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Gimps,

Most fans blow onto heatsinks. Notable exceptions are Alpha heatsinks. Did you get a globalwin unit? If so, it should blow on.

Also, if you did get a globalwin one, and it comes with a PCTC pad, it is highly recommended that you use the pad unless you have a high quality grease. It'll perform better than silicon based greases, and won't have hte problem of drying out(yes, it will dry out. You're talking about 50W of heat coming off one tiny area, for all you naysayers).

Let us know if your temps improve.


Mike

 

[gimps]

Actually, I got the Vantec SocketA Cooler. ALso bought Arctic Silver thermal grease and put it on. I noticed a roughly 10 degree Celsius drop with the new HSF (I think a lot was the Arctic Silver too)
But, at one time, my CPU temp got up to 70 Celsius.

Also, the rubbing alcohol did not at all help get the stickiness off my CPU die. So there's still some gunk on it.

Another question... If I rig up a way to install 2 more fans onto my HSF, and have them all either blowing off or on, would that help decrease my CPU temp?

Thanks.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

2 fans may possibly help that heatsink..> I'm not very familiar with it, though.

If you have a degreaser, you can use that to remove some of the existing compound. Something like Butane would also work well.



Mike

 

[andygold]

MEK would most likely also work to remove the stickiness, but for a much safer alternative, you could try one of the cleaner/degreasers such as Goof Off, or De-solve-it(I believe they are citrus based).





"""Another question... If I rig up a way to install 2 more fans onto my HSF, and have them all either blowing off or
on, would that help decrease my CPU temp?"""


From my experience working with high temp. avionics in enclosed cases(those that were not liquid cooled)...

If you add extra fans, just make sure that you have enough area for air to enter or escape from the sink. For example, If you put 5 fans on the sink, all blowing the same way, one on each side and one on the top, you would actually be doing more harm than good because you would be blocking the free flow of air across the unit. If you are using 2 fans on opposite sides of the sink, and one on top, have them arranged in a push/pull setup. You want to get the maximum flow across the fins, without blocking ingress/egress. Remember you are not "cooling" the heatsink, you are "removing heat" from it.

 

[gimps]

What, then would be the best setup for 3 fans? I was planning on keeping the one on the top, and 2 more for the sides. I was gonna test it, both with all 3 pushing onto the sink, and again pulling off of the sink, to see which had better results. But if you think they should push and pull, would it be best to have the top pushing, and the side fans pulling, or the top fan pulling, and the side fans pushing?
Thanks.

 

[andygold]

First let me explain that I'm not an "expert" on this matter. I can just relay what I have seen done in various avionics applications.
A lot depends on the construction of your heatsink. I've seen some sinks that are walled-in on two opposing sides with openings only on the remaining two, and the top, which limits ingress/egress. If you have that type, you would definitely not want all 3 fans blowing in the same direction. That would give you large amounts of air being pushed into a confined space(or pulled from) with no exit, basically limiting movement. Remember, you are trying to remove heat.
If your sink is open on all four sides, with extremely narrow spacing between the fins, then you would have to determine whether the original fan, moves more or less air than the pair of add-ons. I'm going to assume that your add-ons move more, and then I would suggest(only my opinion) that you have both of the add-ons blow out, and the top mounted fan blow towards the sink.
If your sink is the type that has a smaller quantity of fins with very large air spaces allowing unrestricted air flow, then either, all in or all out would probably be equivalent. Although I would lean towards all out.
I can't quote you an exact physical law, but, it would be similar to using multiple case fans where it appears it is better to have more air being pushed out than in. Ideally, you would want equal in/out.
Also remember, this is all a moot point if your case is not ventilated properly to begin with. You could have an industrial sized squirrel cage fan inside your closed case moving large CFM, but If you don't have a source of "cooler" air entering the case, you're just exchanging 'warm' air coming out of your fans, for 'warm' air being pushed into the sink.
In extreme conditions, liquid cooling(Coolinol) is top choice, but there are the inherent problems associated with having liquid and electricity confined in close proximity.
Again, I must repeat that the above is not based on some science I have learned/understand, but on assembling electronics that were designed by knowledgable(hopefully )individuals.

Now if I could only figure out how to use the Javascript buttons at the top of the message window

 

[gimps]

Thanks for the help! My case is well ventilated: 3 fans blowing in, and 2 blowing out, plus the ps fan. My case temp stays roughly around 22-25 Celsius (about 71-75 Farenheit), which is close to my ambient room temp. As soon as I get my power adapters (sucks, none of the damn comp stores around here carry 3-4 pin power adapters), I'm gonna hook up my extra fans, and will let ya know how it goes.
Thanks again.

 

[gimps]

Actually, was just thinking about this as I just received my power adapters. Would it maybe even be better to use only 2 fans, one on each side, none on top, and have one pushing and one pulling? That way there's always a force of air going over the heatsink?
Thanks again.

 

[PlunX]

Mikewarrior.. You've told me about my CPU temperatures most likely being wrong more than once, but.. Now I'm starting to get confused. If my CPU is running anywhere from 40 - 50 C., I'm pretty sure that the heatsink would be pretty warm.. I touch my heatsink very often (whenever Windows loads, after playing games, when I wake up in the morning, etc.) and it never feels hot. It's starting to seem like you're exaggerating a bit when you're saying that AMD CPUs are probably running from 40 - 50 C. while a motherboard monitoring program only shows 32 C. or something like that. While I know that the monitoring programs are almost always wrong, I -very- highly doubt that my CPU is running from 40 - 50 C.

 

[gimps]

well, I can believe it. Because I can't get my T-Bird 800 past 824.
I have it running at 103x8.0 right now, which is 824MHz. If I lower the FSB back to 100, and use multiplier of 8.5, my machine won't boot. Then again, it may be because I used the pencil trick to unlock it. Because not even my video card BIOS shows up. But anyway, gonna try this 2 fans on my hs and see what it does.

 

[gimps]

well, I can believe it. Because I can't get my T-Bird 800 past 824.
I have it running at 103x8.0 right now, which is 824MHz. If I lower the FSB back to 100, and use multiplier of 8.5, my machine won't boot. Then again, it may be because I used the pencil trick to unlock it. Because not even my video card BIOS shows up. But anyway, gonna try this 2 fans on my hs and see what it does.