New fan, new configuration, but higher temps?

So I have a strange problem here, and I'm not quiet sure where to start. I'm currently running my system at 4.2GHz at stock voltage, contrary to what my sig says. I just made some adjustments to my cooling and I am getting much higher temps.

Setup before:
140mm front intake
120mm back exhaust
140mm + 120mm top exhaust
On heatsink: 120mm push (faster fan) + 120mm pull
Heatsink orientation: front to back

Setup now:
140mm front intake
120mm bottom intake
120mm back exhaust
140mm + 140mm top exhaust
On heatsink: 120mm push + 120mm pull (faster fan)
Heatsink orientation: bottom to top.

Summary of changes made:
1) heatsink orientation changed from front-to-back to bottom-to-top
2) heatsink fans swapped so faster fan pulls rather than pushes
3) 120mm top exhaust replaced with 140mm
4) 120mm intake added to bottom
5) TIM changed from stock Cooler Master to AS5

My temps are MUCH hotter... like 7-8 degrees hotter. Any idea what's going on? Is my heatsink just not seated properly? Should I go back to front-to-back heatsink configuration? Should I go back to stock Cooler Master TIM?

Thanks in advance!

juane414 said:

Summary of changes made:
1) heatsink orientation changed from front-to-back to bottom-to-top
2) heatsink fans swapped so faster fan pulls rather than pushes
3) 120mm top exhaust replaced with 140mm
4) 120mm intake added to bottom
5) TIM changed from stock Cooler Master to AS5

Click to expand...

three things come to mind about your CPU cooler. some heatpipes work better in certain orientations... so it could be the changed orientation of the cpu cooler that has weirded it all out. second, fans are more effective PUSHING air... so by putting the stronger fan in a pull config, you're actually lowering the airflow over the heatsink. third, double check the thermal paste, and that the cooler is seated propperly.

the first thought about the cooler's orientation is oddly enough the least likely problem. however, if after checking the other two you find temps don't drop, try it out in the original orientation.


now then, onto the other possible problem, and this one is much easier to test. Pull the sidepannel off your system and see what the temps do. If they drop by more than 5C you have an airflow issue inside the case... I don't see anything in particular which could cause this problem, however lets rule that possibility out first.

I also had the thought about the heatpipes working more effectively in the front-to-back orientation. Thanks for giving me some ideas of things to try. I'll check the temps with the case open and then I'll re-seat the heatsink in the original orientation.

With the heatsink fans I was thinking that having the slower fan in pull config it would trap hot air between the fans. Maybe I was wrong there...

Either way, if opening the case doesn't help the temps then I'll assume the problem is with the heatsink. Either it's an orientation problem, a heatsink fan problem, or it isn't seated properly.

yeah, fans are much more effective pushing air... so by putting the strong fan in a pull config on that heatsink you're certainly lowering the airflow on the cooler. how much depends... i do doubt you'd see a 7C difference just from that, but stranger things have happened, and that's a really easy thing to undo, and test.

Try unplugging the bottom intake fan as well and see if that makes any Diff as well?

Alright, I think I got this figured out. The first thing I did was to run Prime95 with the side panel open for a while vs. having the case closed. I saw a small difference of one or two degrees. So that did virtually nothing. The second thing I did was to unplug the bottom fan that I installed. That caused my temps to increase by about two degrees. Then I swapped the fans on my heatsink and tested again. No change in temps. The last thing I did was to remount the heatsink in horizontal position. That dropped my temps quite a bit. Here are the temps that I've been getting:

Before any changes:
Motherboard: 41c
Socket: 49c
CPU core: 37c

With larger top fan and new bottom fan (heatsink fan swap made no difference):
Motherboard: 44c
Socket: 58c
CPU core 46c

After remounting the heatsink horizontally with new fan configuration:
Motherboard: 44
Socket: 54
CPU core: 42

Conclusion: It appears that the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ prefers the horizontal position over the vertical position. After adding a larger fan to top exhaust and adding a new 120mm fan to bottom intake, my temps are about 4 degrees higher. This could simply be due to an increase in ambient temperature as it has been warmer the last few days. The fact that my motherboard temp is 3 degrees higher makes me think the ambient temp has increased because my motherboard temp was previously very consistent. So... it appears that my temps were/are about as low as they're going to get with this particular heatsink. My case airflow is about as good as it's going to get.

Thanks for the help everyone.

it might be the way the heatsink's pipes are, probably in a horizontal orientation it lines up better with the CPU die making the heat transfer more effective. regardless, good thing you found out.

bluezero5 said:

it might be the way the heatsink's pipes are, probably in a horizontal orientation it lines up better with the CPU die making the heat transfer more effective. regardless, good thing you found out.

Click to expand...

The way the heat pipes line up with the CPU die is an interesting thing. I understand that the die in FX CPUs is more rectangular shape with the longer sides being lined up vertically. With the heatsink in a horizontal configuration the two heatpipes on the outside of the heatsink base probably do not line up directly over the die. That would make me think that the two inside heatpipes have to transfer a lot of heat and the two outside heatpipes don't do much. With the heatsink vertical, all four heatpipes should intersect the die a little bit, which I thought would be better. But apparently not.