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Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer not good

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tarekh020

Registered
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Im glad to join such a great community and i wonder if i got help with

my system is:
MB : Asus Rampage formula
CPU : Q9550 C1
Ram: 4x1 GB kingston HX 1066 CL5
VGA: Gigabyte 512mb HD4850/zalman
HDD: WD 640GB black edition
PowerSupply: ASUS P55GA 550 watt
CPU Cooler: Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer+arctic selver 5
Case: antec 900

Honestly im not happy with my temp at all,
When i use without OC it runs @ idl my temp is 51-43-45-45

strange.jpg

I can reach 4GHz with that great board when i OC i see 84 temp @ maximum temp
Plz advice,I dont know what 2 do, Is Sunbeam isnt that good or what!
 
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Maybe your thermal paste is not applied correctly. Too much? Too little? Not even coverage? On the other hand, maybe those temps are not that far out of line. I'm an AMD man myself but my observation of other user's comments on this forum who run those high end Intel quads is that they run pretty warm. But, they seem to be safe at those higher temps compared to AMDs. Are those "Maximum" temps under load or at idle? If under load they are quite good, even at stock speeds and voltages. You are still well short of your TJ max.
 
I applied the thermal paste in the front of the cpu with just point in the middle and my cooler spread it
Maximum temp is achieved @ maximum load in game like GTA4 and X-MEN W
Thanks alot for trieng helping me
 
That's a rather general statement to make about the cooler. I am running it myself and my load temps while overclocked never top 45C and at idle they fall as low as 26C. I think it's a great cooler, and it's quiet, especially compared to my old Arctic Cooling Freezer 64. Either your cpu really does put out a lot of heat, your thermal paste is crap or it is not applied correctly. What kind of paste are you using?
 
I used arctic selver 5 and hardly installed the cooler on Rampage formula, its very painfull to install this fan on this board, and i checked my applied thermal paste many times but no improvment
 
tarekh020 said:
I applied the thermal paste in the front of the cpu with just point in the middle and my cooler spread it

That isn't the correct way of applying AS5 to a quad...

http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_intel_quad_wcap.pdf

... and the Core Contact Freezer is one of the best coolers available. What's the ambient air temp. in your computer room? Remove the board and the HSF, then reapply the TIM correctly as shown in the PDF I linked you to. After reinstalling the HSF, double check to make sure that it's squarely seated on the IHS, and not cocked to one side or another.
 
Have you tried a different temperature monitoring program like CoreTemp or CPUID Hardware Monitor? Do those show the same temps?
 
That isn't the correct way of applying AS5 to a quad...

http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_intel_quad_wcap.pdf

... and the Core Contact Freezer is one of the best coolers available. What's the ambient air temp. in your computer room? Remove the board and the HSF, then reapply the TIM correctly as shown in the PDF I linked you to. After reinstalling the HSF, double check to make sure that it's squarely seated on the IHS, and not cocked to one side or another.

I will try it and will keep you updated, thanks thanks thanks
 
If I was you I would spread a thing layer across most of the cpu. It looks like that heatsink has little valleys between the pipes on the base. Doesn't seem like it would spread the paste very well.
 
The instructions for the sunbeam say to use a little more than usual, I think they say 1 1/2 times the usual amount due to those small valleys.
 
honostly i dont know how to spread a thing layer across, or i didnt understand
Should i use more arctic silver or what
i think i would buy another cooler if this will fix my heat problem, plz advice coz all of ur replies appear to be very pro
notice: My reading temps above is all @ default settings
Thanks alot for your kind support
 
Try a different program to see if it gives you the same temperatures. Try

CoreTemp http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

and

CPUID Hardware Monitor http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

After that, remove your sunbeam and clean off the old Arctic silver with either the Arctic Silver cleaning kit or some rubbing alcohol and q-tips.

Reapply the Arctic Silver thermal compound to your processor following the guideline posted at http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appi..._quad_wcap.pdf

Go to PAGE 4 of that PDF and look at the diagram showing the red line on the CPU. this is where you want to apply your AS5. Notice the orientation of the CPU and where the notches are so that you apply the line in the right direction.
 
Well, just want to mention that AS5 has a curing time, so any results you see right away will be lower in the future. Then, I want to say that as long as you have an even coverage without air bubbles, it makes no difference how you get there. And then I want to say that is it not the cooler. According to frosty tech, they ranked the sunbeam as #2 for overall cooling power, so maybe you have simply reached the limit?
 
I tried all method u instructed me with ,and temp is decreased about 2 degrees but its still high according to default settings ,
this temp is keeping me back away from overclocking
Someone told to get my cpu lapped ,Do you recommend it or should i avoid coz my plans is to keep my current system as long as i could within @ least 10 months
thanks for your kind support and its a pleasure to comunicate with real pros
 
Well, lapping the cpu voids the warranty (but so does oc'ing) so I would do it if you feel you want to, but remember that lapping basically has to be done to both the cpu and the heatsink to be truely flat. But, since the sunbeam can't really be lapped, it makes little sence. I have heard that intel cpu's have been very concave though. Check the amount of AS5 at different spots on the cpu after removing the sink.
 
Same Problem

Hi Tarek,

I had the same problem with my Core Contact Freezer and my Q6600. I was getting way too high temps when I put my meagre 3.2GHZ OC'd Q6600 under any kind of load. Usually would exceed 70C which was unacceptable to me. Up to 75-80 on LinX. I was at a loss because Frostytech at the time said this was the best air cooler ever made by mankind. I tried playing around with different TIM's such as AS5, TX2, OCZ, etc. and different application methods and to no avail. The ONLY way I could get reasonable temps was to have the included fan which is a very decent fluid bearing fan mind you, on full blast which sounds like a hair drier. Again, this was unacceptable so I resigned to the fact that maybe I had one of those chips that basically just suck for overclocking. We've all had one before.....

My favorite (IMHO the most scientific) review site xbitlabs.com gave a glowing review of the Scythe Mugen 2 cooler so I said what the hell and tried it as a last ditch attempt. I now have a 3.5GHZ Q6600 that only gets up to 66C on LinX after 10 minutes and usually hovers around 50 - 55C (very acceptable to me) under most other reasonable loading. Quiet as a mouse too.

It turns out the direct heatpipe cooling style of the Core Contact Freezer doesn't jam well with Quad Core processors. It has something to do with the fact that the outer two pipes barely get any heat loading and the internal two pipes have 4 cores blasting away on it.

Now I'm sure I'll start a flame war with the many proud owners of Core Contact Freezer heatsinks on Quad Cores saying that I suck. However, if you a do a little googling and allow yourself to be skeptical of Frostytech's testing results, you will find that many people are having similar problems with this cooler on Quad Cores.

Please also note that my old CCF heatsink is working awesome on my brothers dual core rig. (e7300 @ 3.8GHZ)
 
Im really enjoyed reading .It was very helpfull,and i have learned more than a strategy on how to find a solution for this troubleshooting.
My old system was MSI p35 platinum with E7200 and the temps was never better and i was able to achieve a 4GHz with stability, the temp was 57 @ maximum load and 35 @ idl then i suddenly found it useless with Quad core, I thought that maybe its my cpu coz its an C1 steping but some ppl told tht its not that much improvment in E0
But now i figured that i have to replace my cpu cooler or try to lap my cpu on a pro hands, If i replace what is the best cooler for me? or should i go with H2O.
Thanks and best regards
 
Hi Tarek,

I had the same problem with my Core Contact Freezer and my Q6600. I was getting way too high temps when I put my meagre 3.2GHZ OC'd Q6600 under any kind of load. Usually would exceed 70C which was unacceptable to me. Up to 75-80 on LinX. I was at a loss because Frostytech at the time said this was the best air cooler ever made by mankind. I tried playing around with different TIM's such as AS5, TX2, OCZ, etc. and different application methods and to no avail. The ONLY way I could get reasonable temps was to have the included fan which is a very decent fluid bearing fan mind you, on full blast which sounds like a hair drier. Again, this was unacceptable so I resigned to the fact that maybe I had one of those chips that basically just suck for overclocking. We've all had one before.....

My favorite (IMHO the most scientific) review site xbitlabs.com gave a glowing review of the Scythe Mugen 2 cooler so I said what the hell and tried it as a last ditch attempt. I now have a 3.5GHZ Q6600 that only gets up to 66C on LinX after 10 minutes and usually hovers around 50 - 55C (very acceptable to me) under most other reasonable loading. Quiet as a mouse too.

It turns out the direct heatpipe cooling style of the Core Contact Freezer doesn't jam well with Quad Core processors. It has something to do with the fact that the outer two pipes barely get any heat loading and the internal two pipes have 4 cores blasting away on it.

Now I'm sure I'll start a flame war with the many proud owners of Core Contact Freezer heatsinks on Quad Cores saying that I suck. However, if you a do a little googling and allow yourself to be skeptical of Frostytech's testing results, you will find that many people are having similar problems with this cooler on Quad Cores.

Please also note that my old CCF heatsink is working awesome on my brothers dual core rig. (e7300 @ 3.8GHZ)

I truely doubt that... If what you say is true, all you have to do to fix it is to turn the cooler 90 degrees and get the cores across the pipes. It could simply be that your intel chips pump out a **** load of heat. Even then the cooler should be able to handle it because frostytech put it under the 140watt synthetic load test and it performed beautifully. I think it could simply do with ambients or poor case flow. I have seen numerous Amd chip users (quads cores) running a Sunbeam with no issues what so ever.
 
Again ChanceCoats123, I can link to at least 10 reviews that gave this cooler awesome reviews. Believe me, I know. Thats why I bought it. I drank the CCF KoolAid. Please also understand that it was these reviews themselves that had me at such a loss as to why I was getting such crappy results with it. I have great ambient temps and a top notch P180 case with nice airflow.

However the problem both Tarek and myself is described perfectly below by this review:

http://www.ninjalane.com/reviews/cooling/sbcorefreeze/page4.aspx

Quote
" I think the Core-Contact Freezer can do a great job at cooling lower end processors and dual core units however quads will need to remain at their default speeds.

The reason for this is in the core processor contact. Here we have four 8mm heatpipes and only two are really getting worked hard since they are directly over the processor cores while the two outer heatpipes get to do very little work. This creates an unbalanced chain reaction that does not allow the heatsink to handle the heat very well. The other reason is in capacity, Heatpipes by nature have very thin walls and while heat can have direct access to the heatpipe you lose efficiency due to a smaller heat differential. The higher the temperature difference, the more heat the pipe can remove. This is clearly indicated in the benchmark portion of the review. Maybe a stronger fan would help or more surface area on the radiator but neither of these come in the retail package."

END QUOTE

ChanceCoats123, thats why I am writing this post. I am not trying to dissuade anyone from buying the CCF cooler. Tarek already has bought it; so have I. I wish everyone the very best air cooling results no matter what cooler.

I am just trying to explain to him a potential solution to his problem rather than blaming it on ambient case temps. There was just a sale for the Scythe Mugen 2 on the online deals section of overclock.net where you could get this cooler real cheap (<$40 shipped). Might be a better alternative than buying a new case and getting some obnoxiously loud case fans.....

PS: I do however trust xbitlabs.com infinitely more than every other review site out there. YMMV.
 
I would recommend swaping out the stock fan for a higher CFM fan. Also another thing you could try is taking the side panel off of your PC and blowing a box fan into it to see if that helps lower the temps. If it does than you need more airflow in your case.

There is a special way to apply thermal compound on these HDT coolers (like yours) Here is the article
That should help your problem. Another thing you should consider is the bolt down 775 kit for the HDT, they work miricles.
 
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