What else can i do to cool my pc?

[naimcohen]

Hi.

i have 2 80mm silent fans running at 1000 rpm and have just bought a noctua nh-u12f heat sink for my core 2 duo e6400 cpu and my temps from speed fan are:

temp 1: 34
temp 2: 41
HD0 : 40
temp 1: 40
core 0: 46
core 1: 43

Are these temps too high? They were more or less the same on my old heat sink (alpine 7) I would have thought they would be a lot cooler because of the new heat sink.

I think I may have screwed up the applying of the thermal paste, can anyone explain how to properly apply it?

Thanks

 

[Trevante]

Those temps are ok, but I'd also expect them to be a bit lower.

Which paste did you use? AS5? The Artic Silver website says that for dual core Intel CPU's you should put a thin line down the middle, not just a small blob in the middle.

 

[naimcohen]

i used the paste that came with the cooler

i spread it all around the cpu, i guess that was wrong?

thanks

 

[graysky]

Take trevante's suggestion and use the AS5 as per the manufacturer's instructions. Your HS and/or CPU may not be entirely flat either. This is the #1 reason why people get poor temps (poor contact). You can consider lapping both of them. I did it and get a huge drop in my load temps.

Thread on Q6600 lapping
Thread on HS lapping

 

[Trevante]

Originally posted by: naimcohen
i used the paste that came with the cooler

i spread it all around the cpu, i guess that was wrong?

thanks

Did the instructions say to spread it? Normally you don't need to spread thermal grease on chips with heatspreaders (but I've really only used AS5 and that's what their instructions say).

Also, most of the thermal grease that comes with HSF's usually isn't as good as AS5. I'd suggest you go get some.

 

[gchanjam]

I believe the problem might be airflow in your case. 2 80mm fans at 1000RPM isn't going to be moving very much air.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Exactly, case air flow is as important as the thermal dissipation rating of your hsf. I just moved out of an mge quantum case because I didn't like the case air flow. It had two 80mm and 3 92mm plus the ps fans for a total of 7 fans moving air around in there and it was still too hot for me. You're going to have to get a better case with much higher cfm to clear the heat away from your components.

 

[Noubourne]

46 and 43 are not too high.

You are really barking up an invisible tree at this point, and none of this advice is going to get you any lower than 43C.

Unless you have a bad mount, in which case simply re-seating will buy you a few C. Way more than changing to a different brand of thermal paste!

Good heatsinks show their stuff under load temps more than they do at idle.

Idle temps are useless measures, except to show you the minimum temp you could possibly get under load.

 

[TheMold]

How warm is the room you are in?

 

[Noubourne]

Unless you plan to overclock and heat becomes an issue, I wouldn't bother doing anything at all so long as your load temps are below 60C. I would bet they're around 57-58. That's perfectly fine.

Before you go looking for a new case, what is your ambient temps? How much temp drop do you get by removing the side of your case? If you don't see much difference with the side panel off, then buying a different case is not likely to change your temps much.

WHY do you want lower temps?