Can't find my thermal grease, so can I use....

I've just built a new computer with an Intel 5200 in it. The Intel cooler supplied looks quite competent, but with two instances of P95 running (at 3.2GHz, 1.27V) the CPU is hitting 60C while the cooler feels barely warm to the touch. I'm thinking that the three little patches of chewing-gum-type pad on the bottom are not up to the job.

After a long and irritating search through all my boxes of computer junk I can't find any of my tubes/sachets of white grease. Having read this I was thinking of using a thin smear of Castrol LM grease, since I've got a big tub downstairs. It's got particles of some sort of Lithium compound in, so it should do O.K. right? Anyone know a good reason not to?

I appreciate that there aren't many people about this time of night so I'll probably go ahead and do it anyway in half an hour, once I've spun the front fan on my Akasa Zen around- for some reason it ships with both fans set to exhaust:rolleyes:.

60 is not hot for the CPU, temp is being measured inside chip where it is hottest.

I would not be keen using LM grease - it seems to be far to thin (runny?) to be of use as a heat sink compound.

toothpaste :D
Marmite :D

The intel cooler doesn't have heat-pipe, feeling cold on the outside is normal, the air wouldn't take heat away if the temperature difference is too low.

as long as it isn't runny and will mould to a thin layer when pressure is applied, then you can use anything :)

I'd use marmite, as it spreads thinly :)

Not sure about using it long term, as they may dry out and crack if the heatsink moves slightly

Well, it seems to work.....about as well as the stuff Intel supplied, which does actually spread out into quite a neat circle of powdered metal once the heatsink is fastened down. The LM grease might be a degree or two better under load, but there's not much in it.

I'm not sure whether I can trust Asus Probe, but the temperature behaviour of the CPU is weird- it'll be idling at about 33-34C, only 3-4 degrees above the motherboard's recorded case temp- and then within 5 seconds of starting P95 on both cores the reported temp has jumped 15C or more to 50C; over the next couple of minutes it edges up towards 60C. Then as soon as I stop P95 it'll just as suddenly lose the temp again. I've never seen such dramatic swings in temperature before. This suggests one of two things to me- a) that the stock heatsink is drastically undersized for the job, or b) that the IHS isn't making very good contact with the core, causing a large delta between the core temp and the heatsink temp.

If it's a) then obviously the solution is to do what I should have done in the first place- buy a better cooler. What do people recommend? I've had good luck with Thermalright in the past, still using an SLK-800 on the Athlon XP that this new computer is replacing:p. I'll spend £20-30 depending on what I can get for the money.

If it's b) then I guess I'll have to back off my overclock:(. It\'s annoying, because the CPU will prime for a couple of minutes at 3.6GHz if I give it 1.35V, before it overheats and reboots.

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Originally Posted by blueball

60 is not hot for the CPU, temp is being measured inside chip where it is hottest.

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Well the computer isn't 100% stable, it'll run P95 for anywhere between 20 minutes and a few hours without throwing up any errors but then it'll reboot with no warning. It could be the memory I suppose, though it's rated at DDR2-1066 at 2.1V, and I'm running it at under DDR2-1000 (with the stock timings).

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I would not be keen using LM grease - it seems to be far to thin (runny?) to be of use as a heat sink compound.

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Have a read of the article I linked- water is an excellent thermal conductor until it all evaporates away:).

Mods I'm aware that this is now in completely the wrong place, please move it for me, cheers:).

60c is fine for the stock cooler, leave it alone and stop fiddling :lol:

Stability issues may be down to the overclock not the heat, as 60c should be toasty but ok and still within range (80c I think)
If you really want to get temps down then a Akasa AK-965x3 for £10 would be a good cooler to look at.
Is that stock cooler the little half height one? if so then yes they do seem to heat up fast.

It's a shame in that dan's data report they used two water based non-thremal goops, would of been good if they'd gone for a non-waterbased substance like vaseline.

I think the intel stock stuff has quite a high level of wax in it, I always found it very hard at room temps, but heat it up slightly and it turns quite soft.

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Originally Posted by Rave

Well, it seems to work.....about as well as the stuff Intel supplied, which does actually spread out into quite a neat circle of powdered metal once the heatsink is fastened down. The LM grease might be a degree or two better under load, but there's not much in it.

I'm not sure whether I can trust Asus Probe, but the temperature behaviour of the CPU is weird- it'll be idling at about 33-34C, only 3-4 degrees above the motherboard's recorded case temp- and then within 5 seconds of starting P95 on both cores the reported temp has jumped 15C or more to 50C; over the next couple of minutes it edges up towards 60C. Then as soon as I stop P95 it'll just as suddenly lose the temp again. I've never seen such dramatic swings in temperature before. This suggests one of two things to me- a) that the stock heatsink is drastically undersized for the job, or b) that the IHS isn't making very good contact with the core, causing a large delta between the core temp and the heatsink temp.

If it's a) then obviously the solution is to do what I should have done in the first place- buy a better cooler. What do people recommend? I've had good luck with Thermalright in the past, still using an SLK-800 on the Athlon XP that this new computer is replacing:p. I'll spend £20-30 depending on what I can get for the money.

If it's b) then I guess I'll have to back off my overclock:(. It's annoying, because the CPU will prime for a couple of minutes at 3.6GHz if I give it 1.35V, before it overheats and reboots.



Well the computer isn't 100% stable, it'll run P95 for anywhere between 20 minutes and a few hours without throwing up any errors but then it'll reboot with no warning. It could be the memory I suppose, though it's rated at DDR2-1066 at 2.1V, and I'm running it at under DDR2-1000 (with the stock timings).

Have a read of the article I linked- water is an excellent thermal conductor until it all evaporates away:).

Mods I'm aware that this is now in completely the wrong place, please move it for me, cheers:).

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My ram gives tons of errors at even 2.05V if I don't have any fan blowing on the ram. If I use 4 slots, they would overheat at 1.95V

Well I ordered an Akasa 965, when it arrives I'll have another go at thrashing this processor to within an inch of its life:).

A fan over the RAM might be a good idea, it does get fairly hot to the touch.

When I was using Asus mobos back in my socket A days, I always found that the Asus probe software was about as accurate as a bent police man.

60 degrees isn't all that hot for a modern chip to be honest, its when you get into the 90's you've got to panic, like my old Athlon 900 did, it went upto 98 if I remember correctly.

I made my self a ram cooler out of a couple of 40mm chipset fans, a 3pin splitter and a couple of elastic bands
http://forums.hexus.net/chassis-syst...ml#post1342706
ALthough I discovered that the band hard degraded quite a bit due to heat, so it's currently held on by two long bag ties.

Well, my 965 arrived and it's an impressive piece of kit for a tenner:). I haven't really got time to overclock much before I have to go to work, but prime was stable for about 10 minutes at 3.6GHz (11.5x313)- that was at 1.4V reported (1.425V in Bios). Temps were mid-high 50s, and the fan was not at full chat.

Unfortunately 3DMark 05 crapped out during the first CPU test, so it's clearly not 100% stable yet:(. Any good guides to overclocking Wolfdales about? Things have got a lot more complex since the days of the Athlon XP:eek:. Is Clunk's guide still current?

You wanna look for an overclocking guide relevant to your motherboard really. What board is it? The overclocking guides out there will be helpful though. Overclocking C2D's are really easy, compared to i7!!

Check out this page: http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm

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Originally Posted by Warpy1

You wanna look for an overclocking guide relevant to your motherboard really. What board is it?

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Asus P5K Deluxe.

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Originally Posted by watercooled

Check out this page: http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm

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Erm yes, I linked to it in my first post.....

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Originally Posted by Rave

Erm yes, I linked to it in my first post.....

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Lol sorry m8 didn't spot the link