Cooling troubles...

[Glorfindel]

Not too long ago, I decided to overclock my aging AMD64 3000+ Winchester Core CPU. I did my research, and found a lot of conflicting info on temperatures to shoot for. Many said to keep it under 50*, but my CPU was at 50* (full load) normally without overclocking with stock cooling. I finally decided to do a small overclock and get the temp up to 55* (full load) which a few people said was a bit high, but not killer. The overclock is currently running at 2250 mHz.

I ordered a new Foxconn 7950gt 512mb from newegg, and figured i'd try to get as much as I possibly can from my old amd64 until April when I can afford to upgrade to conroe... so I added a Thermaltake Big Typhoon and some Arctic Silver 5 to my order. The bonus is that the cooler also works on LGA775 so I can put it on my new CPU when I do upgrade... win-win!

The problem is that with the new cooler, my CPU is still reading 55* when I run Prime95 for a while... I'm sure that the airflow in my cheap case is far from perfect, but I still thought i'd see a drop from the BT.

I know that thermal paste can take a couple days to set in, but I expected to see an immediate drop as well due to such a major change in the cooling...

----------

After reading several posts on this forum, i've realized that my case fans are set up poorly, and after I post this, i'm going to shut down and rearrange them.

Red = 80mm fan flowing outward.
Green = 80mm fan flowing inward. (Side panel fan... the BT also blows inward obviously 😛)

My guess is that changing one of the exhaust fans to intake at the front will improve the temps... but I would think that the BT should have made a difference anyway!


EDIT: Side note... my picture just made me realize that the intake on the side is pulling in air that comes off my huge CRT monitor which gets very hot... I'm also going to try relocating the case to the floor below my desk. (Wood floors... no carpet fuzz issues!)

EDIT2: Placing the case on the floor gave a 1* cooler temperature of 54* at full load. I did not change the fan to intake at the front because I can't figure out how to get to the mounts for those fans... looks like you need to take the front of the case off somehow... might have to remove all the guts to get to them. 0_o

EDIT3: I've noticed three things that seem odd. First, I downloaded a config for speedfan for my motherboard which labeled some of the temps that I wasn't sure what were. One of which is CPU. I assume that this CPU is the BIOS one, and the Core temp it lists is the one given by my AMD64... At full load currently (Prime95 torture test) I have CPU = 46-47* and Core = 51-52*. The second odd thing is that the temp reading for core is 1-2* less than the previous test even though i've changed nothing. Maybe thats the paste setting in... The third thing, and the one that really concerns me is that SpeedFan is listing the CPU Fan speed at 686 RPM. Newegg lists the fan's speed as 1300±10% RPM. Why is the fan running half speed? AFAIK, i've done nothing to change this.

 

[Glorfindel]

I know the difference in the Core VS Bios temps. I was wondering if the 50-55*C max for overclocking was from the core or BIOS readings, as the core usually reads quite a bit hotter.

My main concern is that I saw no increase from changing stock cooling to the Thermaltake Big Typhoon from the core or the bios. I also am seeing the CPU fan speed running at ~700 RPM when newegg lists the fan to run at 1300 RPM.

The case I have came with no fans aside from the side one, the two in the back were added by me later. I'll try moving the side fan to the front for intake if I can figure out how to get to the screw holes.

Shouldn't I see a large difference in temperature from the new CPU cooler regardless of the config of the other fans anyway?

 

[Glorfindel]

Heres what I did to install it...

I removed the old thermal paste from the CPU with isopropyl alcohol.

First, I messed up and tried the standard installation for k8, but I should have done the alternative because the DFI nf4 Ultra-D has a plastic backing to the clip mechanism, and it just fell off into my case and I couldn't screw it in. 😛

I applied a dot of arctic silver 5 in the middle of the CPU about the size of 1/3 a mechanical pencil rubber eraser or so. I put the H bar on the cooler and lowered it down and tried to screw it in, but couldn't, so I removed the cooler and took my motherboard out of the case.

Then I placed the foam and insulator on the back of the motherboard and put the screws that stick upwards thru it. I lowered the heatsink back onto the processor and tightened the thumb screws finger-tight.

I twisted the cooler left and right a couple degrees like the instructions said to do to get rid of air bubbles.

The only thing I can see that could be wrong is that I did not re-apply the arctic silver 5 after removing and re-seating the cooler during installation, but I figured it was still fresh stuff... the cooler seemed to be nice and flat, and doesn't jiggle if I push on it a bit.

 

[freezed1]

look at my post for the venice 3000+ overclocked at 2.86ghz with temps at 26C idle and 32C under 97%load. also i will show some good air cooling mods so u can keep ur case cool 2, with 172mm!!!!!!fans, 200+cfm. =D. if you need anyhelp just post it. also i think ur case might not be gettin enough air inside it. also if you can grab a venice core, they are cheap now (40$) and overclock like hell =D

 

[freezed1]

Not too long ago, I decided to overclock my aging AMD64 3000+ Winchester Core CPU. I did my research, and found a lot of conflicting info on temperatures to shoot for. Many said to keep it under 50*, but my CPU was at 50* (full load) normally without overclocking with stock cooling. I finally decided to do a small overclock and get the temp up to 55* (full load) which a few people said was a bit high, but not killer. The overclock is currently running at 2250 mHz.

I ordered a new Foxconn 7950gt 512mb from newegg, and figured i'd try to get as much as I possibly can from my old amd64 until April when I can afford to upgrade to conroe... so I added a Thermaltake Big Typhoon and some Arctic Silver 5 to my order. The bonus is that the cooler also works on LGA775 so I can put it on my new CPU when I do upgrade... win-win!

The problem is that with the new cooler, my CPU is still reading 55* when I run Prime95 for a while... I'm sure that the airflow in my cheap case is far from perfect, but I still thought i'd see a drop from the BT.

I know that thermal paste can take a couple days to set in, but I expected to see an immediate drop as well due to such a major change in the cooling...

----------

After reading several posts on this forum, i've realized that my case fans are set up poorly, and after I post this, i'm going to shut down and rearrange them.

Red = 80mm fan flowing outward.
Green = 80mm fan flowing inward. (Side panel fan... the BT also blows inward obviously 😛)

My guess is that changing one of the exhaust fans to intake at the front will improve the temps... but I would think that the BT should have made a difference anyway!


EDIT: Side note... my picture just made me realize that the intake on the side is pulling in air that comes off my huge CRT monitor which gets very hot... I'm also going to try relocating the case to the floor below my desk. (Wood floors... no carpet fuzz issues!)

EDIT2: Placing the case on the floor gave a 1* cooler temperature of 54* at full load. I did not change the fan to intake at the front because I can't figure out how to get to the mounts for those fans... looks like you need to take the front of the case off somehow... might have to remove all the guts to get to them. 0_o

EDIT3: I've noticed three things that seem odd. First, I downloaded a config for speedfan for my motherboard which labeled some of the temps that I wasn't sure what were. One of which is CPU. I assume that this CPU is the BIOS one, and the Core temp it lists is the one given by my AMD64... At full load currently (Prime95 torture test) I have CPU = 46-47* and Core = 51-52*. The second odd thing is that the temp reading for core is 1-2* less than the previous test even though i've changed nothing. Maybe thats the paste setting in... The third thing, and the one that really concerns me is that SpeedFan is listing the CPU Fan speed at 686 RPM. Newegg lists the fan's speed as 1300±10% RPM. Why is the fan running half speed? AFAIK, i've done nothing to change this.

set ur fans right, or maybe try some 120mm fans, also make sure ur powersupply has no fans under it thrusting the air inside the case. and also put some fans in the front setiom of your case if you can, (some cases support that feature) and yes put ur case on the floor, its better =D. but man do ur self a favor and grab the venice 3000+ core, its cooler and its cheap now for 40dollas.

 

[Glorfindel]

Now I'm just completely confuzzled.

Heres what i've changed over the past 2 days:

Stock CPU Fan -> Thermaltake Big Typhoon
Stock Thermal Paste -> Arctic Silver 5
1x 80mm side intake -> 1x 80mm front intake + 1x120mm front intake
Case moved from beside large CRT monitor to floor.

Temperature difference? < 1*C


........ whyyyy?!

(hehe cool... the front of my case now sucks hard enough to hold up a whole sheet of printer paper)

 

[HowdyDoody]

Howdy,

I ran into sort of the same issue as you, but with my SLI'd 6800GTS. They were running at ~95C. I added another 120mm fan and dropped the temps a bit, but it wasn't until I reversed the entire airflow of my case that my temps dropped to ~75C. (CPU went from 61C to 54C). All I did was change the direction of the fans.

To sum up I believe it had to do with the fact that my case was older then dirt and not designed for the amount of head generated by todays (or 2 year old) vid cards and cpus.

Two other folks did the same and his temps dropped ~9C. Only by changing the directions of his fans. I'm not saying it will work for you, because changes I made didn't work for the other folks(TomHole, Compukid), and it seems to vary according to each indivual case. I will eventually get a new case, but I didn't want to put in any more cash in a system 2 years old if I could help it.

Here is the posts if you want to check it out.

My Lesson in Case Airflow

yell if you have any questions.

 

[Glorfindel]

I'm under the impression that my problem is mainly in my cheap case. My theory is that there isn't enough cool airflow past the big Typhoon for it to throw at the CPU.

I have a bit of cash left over from my upgrades and I was thinking about trying to find an X-FI platinum on $100 rebate that wasn't sold out, but now I am thinking about a new case instead. I could also upgrade my CPU to a slightly better cheap one, but that seems silly with conroe coming to me in a few months... but a case will still be useful when the happens.

That being said... throw me some recomendations and things to look for in buying a case.

- Its gotta have a window as you can probably tell by all the blue lights everywhere on my picture.
- I would like to spend somewheres abouts $100-150 (including any extra fans i'd need to buy).
- I want a case that I wont have to replace for ages. (ryhme not intended 😛 )
- I don't do LANs or anything, so I really dont care about portability.

Although on the high end of my price range, I think that the Thermaltake Armor case looks the nicest upon initial browsing of cases listed on Newegg.


(I'll try flipping the intake fans around when I get a chance.)

 

[geofelt]

I think part of the problem is the addition of a 7950 vga card. This will generate considerable heat, particularly while working hard. This heats up the air that is sent past the cpu. I had a similar problem and solved it by replacing the stock cooler on a 7800gt with the arctic silencer rev5. This sends the vga heat out via a second slot. I think it would work on a 7950, but you must mod it by cutting off an inch or two of the exhaust. In your case, I would try this theory out by removing the adjacent pci cover(maybe 2) and constructing a duct so that the existing cooler will exhaust the air instead of recirculating it. You could also see what results by leaving the side cover off and directing a small house fan into the case.
I think you applied the as5 correctly. see their web site for detailed instructions.
For the existing case, you could look into higher cfm fans, but the price you pay will be more noise. Try to have about the same amount of input and output air volumes. Also, if the case has air filters, check that they are clean.
As to a new case, consider the antec 900. List is $139, but compusa has them on sale for $90. The TT armor is a very large case; do you have enough parts to fill it?

 

[chuckshissle]

I had the set up like yours before man. Using the Big Typhoon but I upgraded the fan and hooked up a Silverstone FM121 on it. I also had an 80mm side with air duct to direct cool air towards the Big Typhoon. Really helps in keeping down the temps below 50c at gaming with some overclocking.

 

[freezed1]

so ti is workign good now?........if not check my post in the cooler section with the heading of 48v fans . that might help