Prime 95 underclock i5 3570k

You can check with a credit card if the cpu is higher than the bracket around it. If one side of the bracket is higher, the cooling block or whatever it's called wont touch the cpu there.
It will rest on the bracket, hence why no paste will touch the cpu surface.
Use a flashlight to see if the light goes between the credit card and the cpu bracket.

I don't know how your cooling device looks, but my hyper 212 has a mounting surface that's slightly bigger than the cpu surface, at my previous board I made the misstake of loosening one of the screws that hold the bracket in place. I then screwed it in too far, causing the heatsink to rest on one side of the bracket.

Can you show me what manufacturer recommends spreading their thermal paste with a credit card or napkin?

At least you know what your problem is now. Modern CPUs transfer a huge amount of heat out of a tiny surface area. The paste has to be properly applied and you need full contact between the heatsink and CPU. Anything less and your full load temps will be horrible.

unclewebb said:

Can you show me what manufacturer recommends spreading their thermal paste with a credit card or napkin?

At least you know what your problem is now. Modern CPUs transfer a huge amount of heat out of a tiny surface area. The paste has to be properly applied and you need full contact between the heatsink and CPU. Anything less and your full load temps will be horrible.

Click to expand...

Ehm, were you refering to my remark about using a credit card to see if the cpu is higher than the cpu bracket? Any other small, but with a straight edge, object would suffice for that. It's just that the shorter side of a credit card fits over the bracket without touching other components.
That way one can at least confirm if the bracket is lower than the cpu surface.

As for preading the paste,
long ago I used a cotton swipe without the cotton. Used it like a painter uses his brush. I use it upto today, just because I'm used to it. A credit card works also.
I use paper napkins for cleaning the cpu from paste .

Ahem
I purchased new thermal paste today and applied it.... I only applied tiny amount on the cpu where the cores are then plugged the pump on it. temps are very normal "without OC" , this morning I got something around 80 on idle without oc
now temps are in upper 20's - lower 30's on idle...

I think the way I applied the paste and the old paste I had was no good both...now everything is normal. Just waiting for some website to send me spare screws for the corsair pump so I can plug it back in "the bent screw is now broken! " by the way...in case anybody faces a bent screws for the h50 upto h100 there are some spare parts numbered CW-8960002 , I think they can fit a h100i "not sure though" ,instead of buying a new pump...

Will try to oc as soon as I get the pump back or even sooner if I get crazy again and post the results.

Thanks to all , and respect!

Have you ran Prime95 with the newly applied paste and cooling that is giving you 20s-30s on idle? I'd give that a whirl before doing anything to make sure your temps are stable.

Corsair has replacement screws on their website I believe.

will try to oc tomorrow...

Hi....

Sorry to bring this up again , I waited till I got things straight...

CPU now idles at 27-29 degrees. Now it is oced @ 4.4GHZ with Automatic Voltage settings.

I'm using Arctic MX-4 Thermal compound (pea method) , with Zalman cnps20lq water cooling , replaced the fans with Noctua NF-F12 120mm Fans on that one...

It Appears that the initial problem was caused by Corasir's H100i "mostly circulation is blocked or something" really got my blood pressure up when I found out....it is very new! (I Also noticed that the fixing tools on that pump are really bad, screws can get bent easily and some times they don't set up straight when tightened! Zalman "although smaller" did a mush better job quality wise)

Airflow in the case is really good over the motherbaord, I'm using Cooler Master HAF XM case, fans on the top are Bit Fenix Spectre Pro- 200mm , so VRM's are getting nice air flow...

now...under load, here is what I get:


1.41~1.42 Volts..... system is stable without issues, but I think it is a little over the edge for my chip, how can I lower that while keeping a stable system.

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