New Temps

[wellmad]

tbh I couldn't tell which way round the fan was supposed to go but after experimenting (holding my hand next to the fan whilst the machine was on!) I've currently got it with the label of the fan facing the heatsink.

I could easily switch it round and try another temp check. Or, after reading Acksaw's other posts, I could try using a little more thermal paste (arctic silver ceramique)...?

[acrobat]

There is often a little tiny arrow in the plastic of the fan, which shows what direction the air is flowing. It can be hard to see, but usually it is there. On my Sharkoon fans, I think the only indication was the label. The label with the logo, faces the way the air is flowing.

80 degrees is far too hot, whether it is overclocked or not, but it will most certainly be because of the thermal paste application. Might have to wipe it off with proper thermal paste remover, let it dry, and then apply it again. You just have to keep doing that until you get it right.

If it's not that, then it's probably just an uneven surface on either the chip or the heatsink, or both.

Also, no matter how good your heatsink is, it needs to be fed fairly cool air inside the case too. So you have to make sure you have a decent set of fans in the case, to keep the air flowing in there.

[wellmad]

Thanks acrobat, after a discussion with another forum member, it seems that the 'thin line of thermal paste across the centre of the quad core chip ' method advised by Arctic Silver isn't that great and temps can be reduced by doing the old technique of a small mound in the midddle of the chip and then spread out thinly with stiff plastic.

I'm going to take the H/S off and see if the paste currently on there is patchy and re-do it. Will also check for an indication of flow direction on the fan.

My case fans are a bit naff so I'm going to replace the rear one with another nice new yate loon and maybe hang a couple on the side panel of the case too to bring more cool air in (or maybe turn them around and push warm air out)...?

[Winkle]

Just throwing more and more fans at you case may not improve air flow, you've got to make sure there's a direct path. Quite often those cases with large side fans offer worse thermal performance because they disrupt airflow through the case.

I used the thin line method for my quad core and my temps are fine.

[acrobat]

Thanks acrobat, after a discussion with another forum member, it seems that the 'thin line of thermal paste across the centre of the quad core chip ' method advised by Arctic Silver isn't that great and temps can be reduced by doing the old technique of a small mound in the midddle of the chip and then spread out thinly with stiff plastic.

I'm going to take the H/S off and see if the paste currently on there is patchy and re-do it. Will also check for an indication of flow direction on the fan.

My case fans are a bit naff so I'm going to replace the rear one with another nice new yate loon and maybe hang a couple on the side panel of the case too to bring more cool air in (or maybe turn them around and push warm air out)...?

I think the thermal paste could be thrown on with your eyes closed and it could work out terrible OR perfect It just seems so hit and miss to me. Sometimes people put it on with a straight line and its great, and sometimes a straight line has terrible temperatures. I think the only important thing is that it ends up being quite thin, and spread over the majority of the chip, without oozing out the sides, and it also needs to not have any little gaps in it which could hold air. Having said that, I fitted mine about 50 times with all different types of varieties, and the temperature was always bad, so I think I just have a rubbish chip which isn't flat. But I get the impression, that is quite uncommon, so it's worth applying the paste atleast a few times and seeing if you can get a decent improvement.

I eventually gave up, and I bought a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and it helped. It is still not a good temperature, but that heatsink was good enough to bring the temperature down to a safe level anyway.

As for the case fans, a steady flow is as important as a fast speed. You are meant to match the air flow in to the case, with the air flowing out of the case. (You can match it thanks to fans showing you what their "CFM" is) Sometimes, having one fan better than the other, can actually make things worse. So like Winkle said, it has to be a nice steady flow. I actually saw this myself when I had a nice steady stream and then I put a fan inside the case, facing the CPU. The temperature went UP because the fan inside the case was interrupting the smooth, steady, flow of air.

It's also fairly important to have minimal clutter in the case too. If there are hundreds of wires and a big graphics card sticking out and stuff, they can interfere with the air flow a bit. So it's best to have it tidy inside too if possible.

[wellmad]

the inside of my case is pretty clear:



I took the front off of my case (thermaltake shark - good air flow in reviews) and found the front fan filter was literally carpeted in dust. I cleaned all this off and can now feel air flowing into the front of the case, however after just 25 minuts with orthos stress test running, my cpu is already at 42! A degree higher than with dust blocking the front of the case!

If I replace both the front and rear case fans with yate loons, I should get better airflow from higher fan rpm so I guess this could help. Still need to try re-doing the thermal paste I guess