Well done TBird?

[asveepay]

I realize there have been many, many posts on individuals trying to cool down their CPU's, but I just got my Asus A7V133 and 1gig TBird set up, but i'm having problems keeping it cool. The core generally idles between 49-51 Celsius, although under load (gaming and whatnot) I haven't seen it rise above 53 degrees.

Anyway, I'm using an Alpha PEP66T, with a Sunon fan. I have an intake and exhaust fan in my case, and i seem to be getting decent airflow. I do not have thermal compound between the sink and the cpu, unfortunately, because I ran out and Radio Shack doesn't seem to carry aluminum oxide grease anymore. =\ I have some Arctic Silver on the way, however, and that should arrive wednesday. I'm not worried much about contact between the sink and the cpu--after checking, i found the name and specs of the core were actually <i>impressed</i> upon the copper surface of the sink.

I just have two questions:

1: Should i even really be worrying at this point? The only reason I'm concerned is because some people post temps that are ten or more degrees cooler than mine with about the same setup.

2: Which direction should the airflow over the cpu be? Right now, i've switched the fan around so that it blows air over the sink instead of drawing air through it. The way it mounts on these motherboards puts the fan VERY close to the power supply--about two centimeters clearance--so i'm considering flipping the fan+shroud around or something. Just looking for recommendations here.

Any input is more than welcome. Thanks.
--asveepay

 

[WarCon]

First off, if it were me I wouldn't be running my computer without any thermal compound of any kind in there. Your lucky it ain't cooked already. Second Alpha's are supposed to suck air and not blow.

And according to many Asus users, the socket thermistor reads high.

Want a good test though, if you heatsink is hot to the touch then if it were me I would turn it off and wait for thermal compound.

And wow, it got hot enough to melt the enamel paint off the core you should be thinking &quot;HOT&quot;.

 

[cavemanmoron]

ooooh too hot if paint coming off call another radio shack....

 

[PlatinumGold]

no ppl. the enamel didn't come off. an imprinted image was made on the copper hs by the core. that's the way i read it anyway.

you don't have any of that thermal gunk on there either? actually i ran my new t-bird w/ standard hs and fan w/o anything till i got my global win wbk38 setup too. no big deal. your temps are easily within tolerances.

ppl are reporting temps in the 90's celsius.

 

[trekin]

There will be those that say the alpha should suckand some will say blow. My 650 would get to 819 and no more with my alpha pep.By simply flipping it over and having it blow instead of suck it allowed me to run at 867. So try it both ways and see what works for you. Just my two cents worth.

 

[WarCon]

Hey platinum he said he could read the specs off the heatsink, so yeah the enamel paint melted off.

And the chip is spec'ed to melt down (fail) at like 90C.

 

[KevinH]

Nah, you're fine dude. That's standard fair for a non-7K rpm fan.

 

[KevinH]

Nah, you're fine dude. That's standard fair for a non-7K rpm fan.

 

[asveepay]

Thanks. I appreciate the advice and musings. At the moment,the box is off while i scrape together a server anyway. Thermal compound and a few other things are ordered and hopefully shipping tomorrow, so we'll give it a go Wednesday or something.

WarCon, to answer your question, the heatsink got warm but was never too hot to touch. The sink on my GeForce was hotter than the alpha after gaming.

However, for sanity's sake and budgetary concerns (don't wanna have to shell out for a new one) I think i'll let it alone for a bit.

Thanks again! =)