Team Building Experience

[Nikomus]

Should I have another go at prime95? I don't want to push it too far. but at the same time, it should be able to cope at normal frequencies... Presumably, it'd shut off to avoid any damage if it was overheating?

[Ulti]

It usually does shut off or throttle down but I think there is some leeway between the temp the pc shuts off at and the max temp of the CPU.

I remember my pc would autoshutdown when I didn't mount the cooler on properly once but I remember it went up to 80 degrees or so and the CPU was meant to handle 72 degrees.

I think you should give Prime95 a go though and keep both eyes on the CPU core temps and a hand on the mouse ready to exit Prime95 if it goes above 60 degrees at all.

[Pob255]

The 53c is probably the graphics card, but it may be some other random figure speedfan is picking up.
According to speedfan something in my pc is at -128c

[Nikomus]

Poking around it looks like it might be the northbridge... I had another go at Prime95, and in about a minute the temperature went up to 60°C...I don't want to push it to much. Would the CPU underclock/shutdown if it was too hot?

[Ulti]

Yes it would.

I don't get how your CPU is running so hot though, sure has 125W TDP but that beast of a cooler should be able to move the heat out, especially if it's at idle.

[Nikomus]

Hmph... My new PC is so close to working properly :-(

I just tried Prime 95 again, and it quickly went from idling in the high twenties up to 62C, so I quit it. The temperatures fell just as quickly as they went up, but then it suddenly restarted itself. As it was rebooting it said there'd been a "hyper transport sync flood error". I don't understand how such a big heat sink with two fans on it isn't really working. It's supposed to be able to take 89W passively! Surely the fans can deal with an extra 36W? The fans are a pair of these, if it helps.

[aidanjt]

Eh, just use AMD's system tools. They'll be better calibrated to AMD's chips, too.

[Nikomus]

Last night I did some cable management, and found my front intake fan wasn't working, so fixed it. I now have four 120mm fans in a direct path, it's like a wind tunnel... but the PC has been crashing again today, cause unknown. This is really starting to get to me why it doesn't work quite properly. People on other forums quote about 29°C idle temperatures, and mid forties for load. Mine is 22/23°C idle, and seemingly infinite at load. Doesn't really make any sense.

I have to leave my PC building for a while to go home for Christmas, as I can't take a fully loaded Stacker 831 on the train. When I get back I'll try the stock cooler, and try re-attaching the Z600 with some Arctic Silver 5. Any other suggestions about what to do would be welcome, but I'm getting worried that something might just be faulty. I'd have no idea how to find what either. I'll post back when I start working on it again. Thanks a lot for you help so far,

Niko =]

[nvening]

That TIM looks fine but for future the easiest way to do it is to put a small bit in the center of the cpu, then get a polythene bag and stretch it over your finger so its smooth. Then spread the TIM over the cpu using a circular motion so that the whole cpu is covered. Works a treat!

Then you can just chuck the bag away, no mess

[Blaineoliver]

Ram is in wrong places, its not right for dual channel, unless i am mistaken?

[Ulti]

It's annoying when manufactures don't have the RAM slots colour coded. Theoretically those are the wrong slots. Easiest way to check is in CPU-Z to check if the memory is running in single channel or dual channel, if it's in single then put them in alternate slots.

This is unrelated to the heat issue though. And usually heat issues are to do with mis-mounted coolers.

[aidanjt]

I checked the manual. That is indeed the dual channel order for that model.

[Nikomus]

Reviving old threads is fun! Just thought I'd post up some conclusions to all this. My PC still has issues, but after reseating my CPU, they are completely unrelated to overheating. After cleaning off the Cooler Master gunge they bundled with the Z600, I put on a fresh coat of Arctic Silver 5. Instead of spending ages trying to smooth it out, I used the blob-in-the-middle technique they show in their instructions. It felt a bit slapdash to be honest, but it's worked wonders. The highest temperature I've recorded after about half an hour of stress testing was 44°C. I know that isn't the longest time ever, but I can't see it going massively above that. I've seen idles as low as 17°C too. There's probably a contribution from just mounting it again. Perhaps the heat sink wasn't on tight enough the first time, but in general AS5 was nicer to work with.

In conclusion:

Cooler Master Thermal Grease: No
Arctic Silver 5: Yes