WTF Why Wont It Cool Off

Well I went ahead and bought the Thermalright SP-94 copper heatsink and then bought a Vantec Tornaod 92mm fan to go on top of it. I modded my Xaser 3 1000 case to take out the two front drive cages to provide better inflow from the two lower front 80 mm fans. I put a BB sized drop of Arctic Silver 2 onto the center of the P4 core and when the heatsink was attached firmly to the board I rotated the heatsink about 1 degree or so in a clockwise direction and then a counter clockwise direction as to spread the arctic silver around. Those fan retention clips were a ***** to put on. This was my hardest CPU fan installation since building my own rigs. However I finally got some help from my dad and we got it hooked on and well the retention clips actually hold the fan on there pretty securely.

I also bought the AeroGate 2 fanspeed controller. Now because the Vantec Fan only comes with a custom built yellow wire for fan RPM detection plugging this cord into the fan controller simply wouldnt allow you to adjust the speed of the fan since the fan connector was lacking the black and red wires. So my and my dad had to modify a 4 pin molex connector and then we soldered the red and black wires into the three pin connector and presto we were able to control the voltage and speeds of the fan from the fan controller.

One thing though is that I use MSI's corecenter and MSM 5 for tempature readings since I Dont know where to place one of the temp. sensors around the CPU. Should it go underneath the heatsink or where would it go to provide accurate readings? Anyways my temps didnt really go down. My idle temp is still 50-52 C and when I play BFVietnam the temp still goes to 60-63C. I don't understand how a fresh application of thermal grease, a new and better heatsink and a 92mm fan providing up to 119CFM airflow at 4800 rpm cannot lower tempatures? What the hell am I doing wrong? Also while I'm asking questions should the Tornado be blowing air onto the heatsink/cpu or should the fan be turned around as to pull warm air from the heatsink and displacing it into the case. When I think about it both solutions seem to work but I have no idea which would be better.

I just dont understand how you people can say you get 39-44C on full load and I am getting 60-63C on full load.

I will say this though. I overclocked my Pentium 4 for the hell of it to 2.9 from 2.4 with the new hardware on and ran Prime95s torture test for 6 hours and it didnt crash nor did the test provide any errors. But max tempature came around to 65C.

So what the hell is the big deal here? How are you people getting 39-44C on full load? After seeing my system and trying my best to cool it with air and having a total of 10 fans in this case it seems like all you guys posting 39-43C on full load are full of SH** but thats just how I feel. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Have you tried leaving your case open while running? Also where do you live and what are your ambient temps?

sup3rcarrx8 said:

Have you tried leaving your case open while running? Also where do you live and what are your ambient temps?

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I live in northern Ohio where there are warm / hot days and there are cool ones. My room temp is usally around 68 Degrees on a cool day and up to 75 on a hot day. I have tried to leave the side of the case fan off and it doesnt seem to make a world of difference.

I have two front 80mm 2500 RPM fans for air intake. I have one 80mm 2500 RPM fan on the top of my case for exhaust. I have two 2500 RPM Side 80mm Fans on my case. The top one blows in so the CPU fan has fresh air to blow onto the HSF/CPU the bottom one blows air in so that the air goes underneath the video card and the bottom of the mobo. I have two 80mm 2500RPM Rear Exhaust fans. I have a 80mm exhaust fan on the bottom of my psu, it takes warm air rising from the heatsink and spits it out the back of the PSU with another 80mm fan.

Thats pretty much the same problem as me, SK-7 and 48cfm fan on top of it. Great airflow, and low ambient temps, but cpu diode is still 48-50c idle. The only thing I can think of is to reapply with some AS5 and get a northbridge cooler.

I would remount the HS just to make sure it was done right.

First, feel the heatsink to make sure that it is warm, if not, the heat isn't being transfered to it so you need to remount it. I ran an Alpha PAL8942 on my P4 with a Delta 80mm Screamer and was at 48C full load with the fan pulling air through the sink like the PAL instructions say to. The Thermalright instructions say to have your fan blowing down on the sink so do that. Also, whats your voltage set to in the bios? If it's set way too high that can make a difference too.


BTW, about the temps, 48C on air was with a room temp of 90F and very humid. Gotta love FL and a few computers folding at full load 24/7 in the same room.

My Vcore is set to 1.5 in the BIOS and MSI's corecenter software program reports 1.47-1.5. I think 1.5 is the default for the cpu core. My DDR voltage is 2.65 and my AGP voltage is at 1.5


I just discovered the Modding your Xaser III thread and I will try to do some mods as what is in those forum post next week or so. Maybe that will help this problem.

After you put the thermal paste on, did you use a plastic baggie or something like that to spread it out on the processor, or did you leave it in the bb form? One more thing that is usefull is to use a credit card or something that has an extremely flat edge that you can run over the top of the proc and assure there is an extremely thin layering of past on it. Also make sure you put some on the bottom of the HS and spread it out, then wipe it off so that there is just a haze.

Hope that helps!

Isn't there a thin plastic tape on the bottom of the sp94 when it ships? Did you make sure you removed that? I'm sure you did, just offering suggestions.

I would duct the 92mm fan to ensure it gets enough air.The intake fans u hav ecannot possible supply enough intake and exhaust for that fan..

Open the case and put a room fan blowing into it at 45 degrees. If the temps go down, then its a case air flow problem. If they don't go down at all, its the sensor malfunctioning. If they only go down a small bit, then its probably a contact problem with the heat sink.

WheaT said:

After you put the thermal paste on, did you use a plastic baggie or something like that to spread it out on the processor, or did you leave it in the bb form? One more thing that is usefull is to use a credit card or something that has an extremely flat edge that you can run over the top of the proc and assure there is an extremely thin layering of past on it. Also make sure you put some on the bottom of the HS and spread it out, then wipe it off so that there is just a haze.

Hope that helps!

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That's the recommendations for the AMD's, not P4's with a heat spreader on it. Check www.arcticsilver.com again.

I put a BB sized drop of Arctic Silver 2 onto the center of the P4 core

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You could also try getting some Arctic Silver 5 insted of 2

I just got home from work and its about 71 Degrees in my room but my pc has been idle for 8 and half hours now. I turned on my monitor and freaked out when MBM5 and Corecenter both reported a Case temp of 39C and a CPU temp of 67C !!! After pacing back and forth and wigging out I took the side of my case off and put my finger on the bottom of the heatsink and it was cool to the touch. I told myself well if it was really 67C then the heatsink would burn my finger. Well I calmed down and closed out both monitoring programs and then I reopened them to see the CPU temp being reported at 50C.

Im going to do that idea with my house fan, turn it on high and blow it into my case at a 45 degree angle and monitor the temps via the software. I havent attached the thermal sensor to the back of the heatsink yet, probably wont do that untill I take everything out again so I can mod the case.

Speaking of thermal probes will a small square piece of tape be sufficient to place the thermal probe on or near the underside of the Heatsink and will this provide me with accurate readings?

What makes AS 5 so much better than 2?

And thanks for all your replies folks, Helping out quite a bit.

If your heatsink wasn't hot it's possible that it's not making good contact with the CPU.

The heatsink never was hot it was all just a software glitch lol

The heatsink should be warm even at idle, it should never be cool unless the computer is off. Sounds like you have a mounting issue or forgot to remove the plastic film off the bottom of the heatsink before mounting.

The heatsink only goes on two ways but when I take out my motherboard then maybe I will switch it and turn it 180 degrees and try that. My software sensors say its at 48- 49C right now and when touching the heatsink its not even warm its actually cool to the touch. And yes right before I installed the heatsink I took off the plastic that protected the bottom of the heatsink.

Dont know how good these came out but for the hell of it i decided to take a couple of pictures.

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0wn4g3 said:

The heatsink only goes on two ways but when I take out my motherboard then maybe I will switch it and turn it 180 degrees and try that. My software sensors say its at 48- 49C right now and when touching the heatsink its not even warm its actually cool to the touch. And yes right before I installed the heatsink I took off the plastic that protected the bottom of the heatsink.

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You have the heat pipes down and that's the right way. If you reverse it, it won't work at all.

Love the red and blue fans, they look great! Color coded, cold air in, hot air out....I likes it!