why is it so hot?

[Red Squirrel]

I've had trouble keeping this thing cool, it's only a AMD Athlon XP 2000+. First I only had the cheap heating pad on, it was runing too high (around 57C @ 1.6Ghz default) so I decided to get some thermal paste. I checked with my supplyer and just waited till I get an order so I don't spend 20 bucks on shipping for a $7 item. So I got some silicon paste, I was told it's not that good but I already had bought it, and figured it's still better than the thermal pad. I put it on and I was runing in the 60C's, tried reapplying it a few times thinking I was just not doing a good job, but every time the temp just went higher. Now I'm runinng at 49C but I had to downclock to 1.3Ghz.

Is this normal? I heard of people runing overclocked at 40C I have trouble staying at 50C at stock speed lol.

I have quite the air flow in there, 1 80mm intake, 1 120mm intake, a 80mm exhaust not far from the cpu and the PSU fan. My CPU fan is a thermal take volcano 7.

 

[mechBgon]

Volcano 7, huh? Check two things:


1) Make sure the heatsink is on the CPU in the correct direction, the link in my signature shows how.

2) Make sure that the clip is installed into the heatsink in the correct direction. Look in my guide there, and see how the end of the clip with the screwdriver catch is at the stepped end of the heatsink? It MUST be set up that way. The clip's not symmetrical, and if it isn't installed correctly, the pressure point of the clip won't coincide with the location of the CPU core.


Hope that helps


Oh, and 3) make sure you used the strong clip, not one of the two clips that match and are for Pentium4 setups.

 

[pspada]

It's funny, i was looking at this hsf at Fry's yesterday, and saw the different clips included. Did not get the warm fuzzies from it, and selected a different one for this new 2000+ machine.