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Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme not working right?

I

imported_Westside

Junior Member
I have a q6600 (not overclocked CPU) and a Thermalright Extreme 120, and my temprature has been around 44 Celsius around each core. My ass crappy old heatsink (Golden Orb II) has done the same or better temperature. The exception with this heatsink however, was that when I open my PC case, the temperature drops to around 36. I was wondering if this is a problem with the airflow of my case. Does anyone here know which side of a case fan sucks and which blows? Is it the sticker side the blows? Also I have used a washer to increase my clamp force, which did almost nothing to improve my temperature. Thanks in advance.
 
They're arrows on the fan's themselves that show the direction the fan rotates and which direction airflow blows.

System Specs?
What are you using to check temps?
Are these temps at idle or load?
What are ambient room temperatures?

Details... Details... Details...
 
The full spec is:
Intel Q6600 2.4 GHz (Not OverClocked) with G0 Stepping
eGeforce 8800GT 512MB VGA (G92)
XFX nForce 680i lt Motherboard
pc6400 DDR2 OCZ dual channel Memory (4GB)
Windows Vista Ultimate

My ambient temperature is around 78°F, sorry I don't have Celsius as of now, as this is more accurate than my metric thermostat.

I use speedfan for temperatures
 
Actually, the TIM is really smeared to the sides, because this guy is heavy and moves around ALOT when you install it. if only it wasn't such a pain.... Why did they make a great cooler and messed up on both the fact that it has a horribly unflat base and difficult installation process? However, I DID lap the base of the heatsink, so I think it's not that bad once I get a chance to change the airflow.
 
Yeah, those temps are bad. Here, nearly to summer, my G0 Q6600 OC'd to 3.3 GHz idles cooler than that with the same heatsink. Also, as Quicksilver points out, many fans have arrows on one side of the housing (on the ouside) that shows the direction of the spin and direction of airflow. IIRC, I think all computer fans blow out the side with the support bars.
 
I have yet to be impressed by the performance of this heatsink. Everytime I look at it, I just wish I had bought a Zalman 9700LED. I don't really need CPU over clocking, but I enjoy really stable system. Also those are temperature when I ONLY run speedfan and nothing else under Vista, so it's almost idle.
 
Do you have a fan on your heatsink? I've got one on the front side that blows through the heatsink where the case fan then moves all the air on out of the case. Also, earlier, you mentioned that the TIM was "smeared to the sides". Did you see a bunch of it come out the side from under the heatsink? If so, you may have used too much. And, yeah, the heatsink will move a bit while you try and tighten it down, but it really shouldn't move that much. Some slight shifting to side to side is OK, but you want to avoid any lifting so you don't create any air pockets in the TIM.
 
It doesn't lift at all, it does tilt slightly, but that's the only movement it has AFTER the installation, it was really difficult to not move it around when installing this guy though... I also have one of those Scythe silent fans S-Flex 21F I think. It moves ALOT of air, along with my sidefan. However, I can orient the heatsink only horizontally due to my stupid chipset fan getting in the way. Infact, I got two pictures of my system:
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4666/dsc00663ax5.jpg
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2412/dsc00664qu7.jpg
 
Well, I meant to be careful about lifting the heatsink while you tighten it down since you mentioned it moving around a lot while you tightened it. Anyway, looking at those pictures, are you sure you have that case fan oriented correctly? It almost looks like it's blowing into the case instead of out. In my experience most computer fans take air inside the "open" side and blow it out the side with the support bars and wires. So on your set-up it looks like the rear case fan is blowing into the case and the heatsink fan is blowing down into the case. If you have a fan on the front blowing into the case, that would leave only the PSU fan blowing out.
 
couple things could be wrong.

1. You used too much tim
2. Your ihs and sink are both unflat.
3. You have a bad mount.
4. Your ambients are utter crap, hence why your getting the same temps on both sinks.


Right all the listed is my guess.
 
Hmm... Using too much thermal paste is actually bad for the temperature? I'll remount it with less TIM and give it a try. Thanks for the cool advices guys. (pun almost not intended.)
 
Originally posted by: Westside
Yes, the case fan on the back is blowing into the case, but I have one on the front the takes the air out.
Click to expand...

Does anyone know if this would work OK? This would seem to put the overall airflow counter to the direction the PSU fan is trying to move air.

I guess the main problem with your set-up is the way you were forced to mount the CPU heatsink. It might be worth a shot to reverse all your fans. Have the front take air in and the rear blow outward as they would in most cases. Now as to which direction the CPU fan should blow... not sure which is best, but maybe you should reverse it too and have it blow upward. This would seem to cause the air to hit the bottom of the PSU and spread outward... hopefully being taken out by the rear case and PSU fans... or maybe it would just trap heat up there... I'm not sure.
 
PSU is nothing to worry about, I got a 610 Watt Silencer, which has not fan on the bottom, and I've touched the bottom, which is extremely cool.

When it took the side of my case off to have an open case for my PC, the temprature dropped to 33degrees on core 3 being lowest and 39 on core 2 being highest. I need a side fan too, but this case does not support that... Damn... :'(
 
Originally posted by: Westside
PSU is nothing to worry about, I got a 610 Watt Silencer, which has not fan on the bottom, and I've touched the bottom, which is extremely cool.

When it took the side of my case off to have an open case for my PC, the temprature dropped to 33degrees on core 3 being lowest and 39 on core 2 being highest. I need a side fan too, but this case does not support that... Damn... :'(
Click to expand...

LOL so this is why im guessing all my options 1-4 applies to you. 😀
 
Originally posted by: Old Hippie
Do the penny mod and crank her down good. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

bah..

Honestly you need to lap your true.

I havent found 1 yet which was truely flat. Even there IFX-14 isnt flat.

Let me show you how unflat were talking abuot:

First pass:
http://i125.photobucket.com/al...orla/Thermalright1.jpg

Second pass:
http://i125.photobucket.com/al...orla/Thermalright6.jpg

I lap all my thermalright stuff now until the entire base is that pretty pink copper. Sorry TR makes great sinks, however there final finishing touches need uber work.

 
Originally posted by: aigomorla
Originally posted by: Old Hippie
Do the penny mod and crank her down good. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

bah..

Honestly you need to lap your true.

I havent found 1 yet which was truely flat. Even there IFX-14 isnt flat.

Let me show you how unflat were talking abuot:

First pass:
http://i125.photobucket.com/al...orla/Thermalright1.jpg

Second pass:
http://i125.photobucket.com/al...orla/Thermalright6.jpg

I lap all my thermalright stuff now until the entire base is that pretty pink copper. Sorry TR makes great sinks, however there final finishing touches need uber work.
Click to expand...

Get it CMM'd to see how TRUE your TRUE is. Also fender washer pliobonded is better than a penny. 😉
 
As I said in my previous posts, I lapped it AND used the washer method (similar to penny) and the washer was much thicker than the penny.

aigomorla, once I can get my lazy ass off the chair, lol, I'll try all of your four advices, thanks.
 
Originally posted by: Westside
Yes, the case fan on the back is blowing into the case, but I have one on the front the takes the air out.
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: WestsideWhen it took the side of my case off to have an open case for my PC, the temprature dropped to 33degrees on core 3 being lowest and 39 on core 2 being highest. I need a side fan too, but this case does not support that... Damn... :'(
Click to expand...

I'm thinking this is purely an airflow/ambient temps issue.

What case are you using? Unless you have a Lian-Li or some other case where the motherboard mounts "upside down" you're not doing yourself any favors by having intake at the back and exhaust at the front. Switch the directions on those so the front is intake and the rear is exhaust.

What case fans are installed?

Make sure the fan on the heatsink is blowing through the fins, not away from them.

-z
 
I reversed the fans and the temperatures got a little better. 36 to 42 degrees across cores. I use the shit case made my thermaltake, which I got as a gift from a "friend". It's called thermaltake matrix, and the website is: http://www.thermaltake.com/pro...ower/matrix/vd2000.asp I really don't want to spend money on another case. I just want to know if the current temprature I have is normal... My ambient is pretty damn high, as Toronto just a quick extremely hot weather recently. 34 degrees feeling like 40 with the humidity (Although the humidity shouldn't affect the PC. I don't need over clocking, I just want a relatively stable system.
 
As I said in my previous posts, I lapped it AND used the washer method (similar to penny) and the washer was much thicker than the penny.
Click to expand...

Woops, musta missed that part.

Are we to the "add an air conditioner" part yet? :laugh:
 
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