Cooling questions

Discussion in 'Overclocking & Cooling' started by Drunken Pirate, Jun 6, 2010.

  1. Drunken Pirate

    Drunken Pirate Geek Trainee

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    Hello,

    Today I installed this cooler, replacing the loud stock cooler from this cpu which performed decently but I thought I might get an improvement with a better heat sink.

    Well this post got too long and I've changed a lot so I'm deleting parts of it, here is my current situation: I've got my system idling at CPU 34c and the cores at 31c in ambient air of 23c by changing my power plan to balanced (why would I need my CPU running at 100% all the time!?). This is okay, but not what I want just yet. I realized that I didn't install my TIM quite right as I followed instructions for standard heatsinks and not HDT coolers. I stumbled across this excellent guide and will be running down to Radioshack when it opens to get some better TIM or maybe this TIM because it has gotten good reviews and is non conductive, which is always good. I might go to Ace to pick up some sandpaper to smooth out the surface, depending on if I think it needs it. (I didn't inspect it quite that closely when I first installed)

    Running prime95 in ambient 23-25c gives me temps around CPU 54c and cores at 51c, much better from my previous 59c/56c, I think the TIM burnt in a little better.

    I'll let you guys know later this morning what my results are.
     
  2. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    The thing to remember about thermal pastes is that they're there to fill in the microgaps that occur between the CPU heatspreader (or for those really old school, CPU die) and the heatsink. Sanding the heatspreader and/or heatsink with some high grit sandpaper does help by smoothing the surface(s). Still, one thing to remember is that since the thermal paste is just filling in gaps, you don't want to glob it on. Less is more in this case, as too much paste will act as a heat insulator, clearly not the effect you're looking for.
     

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