Cooling nightmare!!

60+ degrees C!! someone give me a clue here.... i recently(a few weeks ago) bought a new athlon XP 1600 system. I built it myself in a nice roomy case with 1 80mm front vent fan, and i even left the side off. I havent even overclocked it yet! and it runs a good 65c+ i was using the stock cooling fan, (the one that came with the chip). This was way to hot, ijust figured the stock heat sinc was a terd. So i bought the ThermalRight SK6 with delta 38cfm fan(Damn that thing is noisy!) I even bought some arctic silver, and installed it with that. And now im running at a cooler 60c All these readings are according to the asus motherboard probe utility. It says my MB temperature usualy hovers around 34c(didnt seem to hot). WHY the hell does this chip run so hot with no side on the case, not overclocked,and with one of the (suppposedly)best heat sincs i can buy... im afraid my XP is going to melt!! (it already melted right through the cpu/heatsinc pad) there are no wires, no nothing whithin a 12" radius of the cpu fan.... Should I not trust the asus probe utility?? Somebody chill me out!!!!

Glitched said:

All these readings are according to the asus motherboard probe utility

Click to expand...

Theres your problem right there. That thing reads anywhere from 10-15c higher than actual temps. But even taking that into account, those temperatures are still high, especially for an XP.

What motherboard are you using? I figure its an Asus motherboard. If it is, their in-socket thermistors also read a bit higher than actual (about 4-5 I believe). I would pick up something like a Compunurse digital thermometer and try it again. Make sure the probe is touching the die (if possible, don't put it under your hsf if its going to move it at all). or as close to the die as possible and take readings. I'm sure its not actually at 60+c.

And if you wanna use the in-socket (or in die, if the mobo supports it) thermistor, use Motherboard Monitor 5. Its about the most accurate monitoring software out there.

Firstly congrats. on your first post and welcome! Down to business......
You might like to try looking at some of the cooling articles and beginners guides linked from the front page down the left. They're a good place to start. 60 degrees aint going to be fata; so youve got time to do some research and plan your attack. In the mean time:

1. Is your 80mm fan pushing air in or out? The normal route for airflow should be in at the bottom front of case and out somewhere at the top rear where all the heat will 'collect'. Once you've got a front to back airflow and a tidy case (re-route cables to prevent air turbulence) having the side on the case should reduce the temps a couple of degrees. This will also quiet that delta fan down a bit too!

2. The SK-6 is certainly better than an OEM heatsink if used correctly. There have been recent quailty isses where the base of the sink isn't smooth. If it feels rough then it may need lapping to get a good contact with the CPU die. (carefull polishing with fine sandpaper)

3. You said youre using Arctic silver? You've said the heat pad has melted through? Are you using both the compund and the pad? This is deffinately a bad idea! Clean the whole lot of with some solvent and a blade the start over with just the AS.

4. Motherboard probes can be a bit inacurate. If you're serious about overclocking think of buying some other form of temp sensor such as the digidoc 5, or compunurse. Much more accurate!

Try this and let us know how you get along. Any more problems give us a shout. good luck,

Mike

ok.. first off thanks for the great replies! I got the motherboard monitor 5, and it reads my cpu temp at 53c (I think) although the software doesn't see any of my fans. Now my fan "pushing" direction is something I thought about. I have it setup so that it blown in, down on the heatsink.... made sense to me that would be what I wanted by looking at the design of this particular sink....Is this not correct? should it suck instead of blow? and yes I did use the pad and the AS2... I knew better than to do that, but was afraid of metal to metal contact(you know scratching and chipping...but ill take that pad off now).. and my case already is amazing clean(as far as wires and cables). but I don't have a rear fan, so ill add one.. thanks again for the help!


P.S.

removing the pad got me down to about 51c, but fan direction doesn't seem to have an effect. 51 is still hot isn't it?

or if im going to use the onboard mobo sensor... should I just forget about even worrying how hot my cpu is?

and ONI, I have the exact same mob as you! what does your temperatures read according to those sensors?

Well if you've gone down by about 10 C already thats a good start! Well done.

A couple more tips that may help: Dont worry about metal to metal contact. That is exactly what you need. The compound is only there to fill in any microscopic imperfections in the chp surface. So use just a very thin layer of paste, thinnner than paper.

Not too sure about fan direction on SK-6, but I would have thought with all those tight fins the air should blow down? Someone will correct me on this if not! But there is really no hard rule on this. It all depends on the airflow within the case. Whichever way gives lower temps is better!

Good luck with adding a rear fan. If your case allow it try adding a duct as well. This is a piece of tubing going from the fan directly to the heatsink and will prevent the sink just recycling warm air by bringing in fresh cool air from outside the case. Look under "Tips and Techniques" then cooling. Some good stuff about ducts in there.