P4 550 3.4GHz Running Too Hot, Looking For A Better Solution

[nuschu]

I'm running a P4 550 (3.4 GHz) on an Intel 915PBL motherboard with a Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCU cooler using Arctic Silver Ceramique. The cpu fan is turned up to its maximum speed on the control pod that comes with it and shows a reading of 2327RPM in the Intel hardware monitor program. It's all housed in an Antec P160 case with a Antec 120mm fan in the front and an Antec 120mm fan in the back with an Antec 480W power supply. The case fans are not connected to a fanbus, they are connected to the "fan only" connectors on my Antec power supply.

The case temps are fine but the processor is running between 50-53c with WinXP loaded, around 60c with some load, and around 69-71c if I run Seti@Home maxing out the CPU at 100%.

The other two motherboard temp sensors show 35c and the sensor on the video card (BFG 6800GT OC PCI-E) is around 63c.


As an experiement I ran Seti and I watched the temp go from 54C to 71C in 2 minutes. The two system zone temps went from 35C to 40C and my temp probes on the case read 41 near the processor and 31 by the video card. The processor fan did not change its speed, it stayed around 2327RPM. Turning SETI off sent the temps back to normal in about 1 minute. The power supply fan did ramp up when the temp went up, but the two 120mm case fans aren't running through the motherboard so I'm not sure if they changed speed.


It's no hotter than 70F in my room... I have an IR temp reader from work and I checked around the intake and it reads 69F even when the heating vent in my room was blowing. The vent is in the ceiling and is not by the computer (the computer is by the window so it's a little cooler near it).


The original thread I posted in is here:
http://www.maximumpc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12581

I posted this message here mainly for a second opinion and to get more advice on my problem.


Anyway, now I'm looking for a new/better cooling solution so I'd like advice on the best heatsink/fan combo for a P4 550 3.4GHz. I'd like it to be at least as quiet as a Zalman with its fan set to max speed... Right now I'm looking at the Thermalright XP-120, not sure about a fan for it yet..

 

[batmanuel]

That's a little on the hot side. Those are actually the same idle and load temps I get on my P4 550/915PBL combo - but mine is in a Sonata with only a single 120mm exhaust fan and the stock cooler that came with the retail box. With the Zalman cranked all the way up, I'd have figured you'd at least be a few degrees cooler under load.

I've heard - I'm not sure it is comletely accurate, though, so correct me if I'm wrong - that with the P4s you actually need a pretty thick application of thermal compound because of the integrated heat spreader. If you only put on a thin layer, like you're supposed to do with a bare core CPU like an Athlon XP, heat might not be getting transferred properly from the spreader to the heatsink since the spreader is typically not as smooth as a bare CPU core (unless you lap the heat spreader).

 

[nuschu]

I was actually concerned that I may have put too much on 🙂

So far most of the advice I've gotten is to scrap the Ceramique and either use Arctic Silver 5 the Honeywell PCM45 stuff. Along with that I've been told I should be better off with a Thermaltake XP-120 heatsink....

 

[nuschu]

I went ahead and order the XP-120 along with a fan and some AS5, so I'll see how that goes..

 

[akugami]

AS5 and Arctic Ceramique is not going to be too different in terms of temperature. AS5 might give you 1C or so lower but I doubt more than that. Most top quality thermal paste will be within 1C of each other with 2C tops. If you're getting a greater difference than that you probably didn't put the right amount on, too much or too little. I'd also look at the insides of the thing and see if you can re-arrange some of the IDE cables and power lines to clear up some space for easier airflow.

 

[nuschu]

All of the cables in my case are rounded or wrapped and they are all organized as much as possible. I don't think it's a case airflow issue. Regardless, I'm going to give this XP-120 heatsink a shot to see how it does...

 

[racolvin]

Not sure what to tell you. As you can see below, I run a system almost exactly like yours and my CPU idles at around 40C. I only have the one exhaust fan in my system, instead of the 2 that you run. My ambient temps in the room are around 68F. Given the near identical configs, I'd have to say there was something up with the installation of your Zalman that is keeping it from doing its job the way it should.

R

 

[nuschu]

I guess I can always try to reinstall it and see how that goes.. What thermal paste/grease did you use?

 

[racolvin]

Originally posted by: nuschu
I guess I can always try to reinstall it and see how that goes.. What thermal paste/grease did you use?

AS5 and a reasonably liberal quantity at that. Probably 2 or 3 grains of rice, versus the one grain usually recommended 🙂 Also, I found that when I paid carful attention to the installation of the Zalman to make sure it went down on the processor, that helped a great deal. I made sure I counted turns of the screwdriver and alternated sides to try to make sure it went down evenly.

 

[emilyek]

More As5 than recommended makes it run hotter, not cooler; I've done it a few times, and that's been my result, as well as what the AS5 people say.

Reapply the paste in the recommended 1 grain amount, and make sure that everything is fitted correctly.

If that changes nothing--but I don't think it won't-- my guess would be the Intel mobo just runs hot.

 

[wisdomtooth]

I'm noticing that there are some variation between chips as well.

At where I work, we have 10 workstations all with P4 3.0gHz Northwoods, and some run really cool (40C or so under load) while some run really hot (65+C under load) even though all are using the same stock Intel fansinks with their original TIMs.

I think it's probably how the thermal paste is applied underneath the CPU heat spreader (between the slug cover and the CPU die silicon itself) that is determining how much heat is being transferred to the heatsink.

If those machines were mine, I'd tear off the CPU slugs and mount the HSFs directly on the die and see if it will make their temperatures more even. But alas that would void their warranty. 😛

 

[charlietee]

I have found that using the "fan only" headers for the cases fan's turn them way to slow for my taste.

Temps have to go way up before the fans turn even close to full speed and even then not even close to what the fans do if you connect them to a regular molex connector giving them 12 volts.

 

[nuschu]

Ok, I have the XP120 installed with the Tek-Chain fan and it seems to have cooled down quite a bit... At 1000RPM I can maintain 44C idle, if I turn the fan up a bit I can get it down lower... The highest temp the CPU hits when running SETI (100% CPU usage) is 54C (and once again, it's lower if I turn the fan up a bit).

You can find a nice quiet fan writeup here:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19803&highlight=tekchain

This go around I used AS5 instead of Ceramique, I applied a little in the middle and then smoothed it over the surface of the heatsink using a credit card and then kept applying small amounts until I could cover most of the heat spreader on the CPU. I left a little border along the edge so it would have room if any AS5 squished out a little... After I had a very thin layer applied I put a small dab in the middle... This seems to have worked pretty well. I used to use the small rice sized dab in the middle technique, but I've been reading a lot posts from other people who have gotten better results from covering more of the heatspreader using the credit card technique...

Now I just want to get a fan controller and tie my case fans and my CPU fan together so I can get the noise down a bit while maintaining a decent temp... Are there any fan controllers with presets? What I'd like to find is a fan controller that I can put in gaming/folding mode (all fans max rpm), idle/web surfing/movie mode (slow fan speeds), etc... It would be nice to be able to hit one button and just switch between preset user defined RPM settings for all fans...