Overheating issues using Artic Cooling

[Skinleech]

Hi all,

Sorry for the long explanation for a quick question; I recently bought an Asus barebones Vintage AE-1 from anotehr user on the forum. Nice wee case, tidily put together, and basic though the motherboard is, it'll work perfectly for my nice, quiet HTPC.
I've added to it:

Athlon 64 3200 (stock cooler)
1gb DDR400 TwinMOS ram
Radeon 9800 Pro
120gb Seagate SATA HDD
Pioneer 111 DVDR

Everything runs fine, all the cables are nicely cable tied out of the way, but I'm not happy with my CPU temp - it sits about 51c during idle, which is far too high in my book. I've connected the hsf correctly, and applied a thin layer thermal paste to the CPU core (after cleaning the cpu and hsf with thermal paste remover, so I know there's no issue there.

Now, I picked up an Artic Silencer 64 expecting to see a drop in temps - but no, the CPU started overheating, hitting temps of 78c in a matter of moments. I had to use the Artic cooling retention bracket rather than the stock AMD one, again cleaned the CPU/hsf and applied thermal paste.

As far as I could tell, the Artic Cooler was connected correctly, the fan was spinning all the time, but it obviously wasn't cooling as it was supposed to - could I have put too much thermal paste on, so it was insulating the CPU?

Any ideas would be great, I'd like to use the Artic Cooling hsf over the stock one, but obviously not if it's going to cause issues. For extra info, all these temps were taken through the BIOS, and the motherboard temp sits about 28c all the time.

Thanks.

[Golden Dragoon]

It seems like a very small case, prehaps part of it is pushing the cooler when it is closed, so it no longer makes good contact with the CPU?

It is very rare that too much thermal paste will cause tempratures that high, the only time I ever saw a large increase like that was when my friend installed a new heatsink without first taking off the plastic film protecting the thermal pad (Some heatsinks come with a film protecting the base from being sratched, it is worth the effort to double check yours).

Even putting large ammounts of thermal grease rarely makes a processor overheat that much, as most of it would "squish" out of the sides and thus leave a thicker than normal, but still ok layer.

[Skinleech]

Thanks for your response - it's certianly not the film, and I doubt the case is contacting the cooler - it seems fine height wise. ANy other ideas?

[Golden Dragoon]

I suppose it could be a mis read temprature, after all bioses vary a large amount on the tempratures they report, though if the temps were reading low with the stock cooler, but high with this new one then that is doubtful.

The only other thing I can think of is that the stock cooler is simply better than the Artic Silencer 64, I know some of the stock AMD coolers have heatpipes built into them, and give great performance.

[FatalSaviour]

Not the 3200+ stock cooler though

The cooler is definitely making contact with the CPU ok Skinleech? (i.e. the socket's not slightly too low/the retention bracket slightly too high/the base of the cooler's been lapped a bit too much ?)

[Golden Dragoon]

"We'd hazard a guess that this PIB cooler revision will also see service with the next speed grade of Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64 X2, if and when they appear."

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4347&page=3

I don't know if the 3200+ has this cooler or not, but if so it would likely give better performance than the Arctic silencer 64.

In any case there is obviously something wrong with the setup he has, as A64's are generaly cool running processors.

[Skinleech]

"We'd hazard a guess that this PIB cooler revision will also see service with the next speed grade of Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64 X2, if and when they appear."

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4347&page=3

I don't know if the 3200+ has this cooler or not, but if so it would likely give better performance than the Arctic silencer 64.

In any case there is obviously something wrong with the setup he has, as A64's are generaly cool running processors.

Nah, it's not that cooler - I've had the chip almost 2 years, and the cooler came with that. It's not been used for most of that time though.

The cooler is definitely making contact with the CPU ok Skinleech? (i.e. the socket's not slightly too low/the retention bracket slightly too high/the base of the cooler's been lapped a bit too much ?)

As far as I can tell, yes. There was a thermal paste smear on the hsf, but it is possible that the cooler did not actually make contact - I will probably try and re-connect the AC64 hsf & see what happens. Thanks.

[ash_rm]

I've got two Arctic Cooling Alpine CPU Coolers, one for a Sempron 64 and one for a S775 Pentium 4. I think the coolers are pretty similar to what you have.

The Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 Cooler doesn't seem too bad, admittedly I haven't tried the stock cooler to compare but it seems to keep it under 50c at all times. The sempron 64 is the venice core so it runs pretty cool anyway.

With the Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 cooler for the P4, it's a different story, I had the temperature reaching almost 75c in the BIOS, this was 25c hotter than the stock intel cooler. I tried reseating re-applying the Arctic Silver and that dropped the temps a little. Ended up putting the stock cooler back!

What are the temp differences with the stock cooler?

[Skinleech]

Cheers for response.

As with original post, 78+ with AC64 Cooler, 50ish with stock - quite a difference.

[Skinleech]

So. Fitted the AC64 again, made sure contact is being made & turned on - it hit 59c in a matter of moments, just loading Windows. This is with the side of the case off too.

Not impressed at all. Doubt it's even worth returning it to Scan.

[Golden Dragoon]

Have you reset your bios to its defaults? it is possible that the processor is getting too much voltage or running overclocked and is heating up more because of that.

have you felt the side of the heatsink while the computer is on (be careful it may be very hot) if it feels cool to the toutch after 5 mins of baing on then there is likely a contact issue and it isn't making contact properly, if it feels hot then the cooler is likely just not good enough and you should go back to the stock cooler.

[Skinleech]

No defaults to restore. I'll look into more over the weekend. Thanks for your constant replies. The cooler deffo should be good enough, it rated for an a64 4000.

[peterb]

51 degrees isn't that high - my (oldish) AMDs run at about 60 withought any problems.

[crossy]

That's wierd - I've got a 64Pro on my A64/3800 and she typically runs at between 28-38 degrees, at least according to the dumb ASUS A8N-SLi I've got.

A couple of things to check:
1. check the exhaust airflow - is it reasonably good, and how warm is it? It's not unknown for mobo sensors to tell lies - after all, they're just chips, and you can get a bad batch.

2. remove the cooler, clean off the TIM and replace with a good brand - Arctic Silver works for me, (Maplins sell it these days, or put in an order to the friendly folk at KustomPC's in Ayr).

3. check the input airflow - make sure it ain't blocked, see if you can do some cable tidying.

4. upgrade to a 64Pro. Word of warning - they're a b*gg*r to fit.

Hope this helps.

Crossy

[Skinleech]

Cheers Crossy. 1-3 are not an issue - regarding #1 the machine would hang as it hit 70c so no false stats there.

It seems ok just now, I have all the fan controls turned off, so the fan is on a constant max, temps seem about 42/43c idle, which is a lot better.

I know 51c is acceptable, but I wanted it cooler - and having paid for a supposedly decent cooler I was a bit pissed off with the lack of performance. Probably why it is no longer a marketed product by AC...

[crossy]

Cheers Crossy. 1-3 are not an issue - regarding #1 the machine would hang as it hit 70c so no false stats there.

It seems ok just now, I have all the fan controls turned off, so the fan is on a constant max, temps seem about 42/43c idle, which is a lot better.

I know 51c is acceptable, but I wanted it cooler - and having paid for a supposedly decent cooler I was a bit pissed off with the lack of performance. Probably why it is no longer a marketed product by AC...

That's good to hear if still a little on the "tropical" side

I replaced my AS-1 TIM with the latest version and I did see about a 4 degree reduction "out of the box". The latest 64Pro is a good piece of kit - gets my recommendation - if the heftin' lump will fit!

Crossy