help cooling with an artic cooling freezer 64 pro

boosttc

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Feb 17, 2007
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Heres my setup:

biostar geforce 6100-m9 939
artic cooling freezer 64 pro 92mm cooler
amd athlon 4000+ san deigo 2.4g socket 939
(1) 120mm fan blowing out rear
(1) 80mm fan blowing out the top
(2) 80mm fan blowing out the front
(1) 80mm fan blowing in on the side

when i first installed everything my cpu idled a 36 degrees c. speedfan tells me the cpu fan is spinning at 18000rpms which is not possible. since the install 3 weeks ago, i sit around 42 degrees c and about 50 degrees on full load. speed fan reconizes my mo-bo. i need to get a fan controller to control the other fans cause they are all molex connector and speedfan does control them. a buddy of mine has the same set up roughly and his idles at 30 degrees c and 40 at full load. any ideas to get the temps down. i also noticed a little grease oozing out the side of the processor from when i pushed down on the heat sink. is that to much to use? help is much appreciated. thank you.
 

robmurphy

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Jul 12, 2006
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On the 2 HP machines I've upgraded I used the existing heatsing as the new CPU (S939 x2 4600) were OEM and did not come with any heatsinks. The cases have one 80 - 90 mm rear exhaust case fan, the CPU cooler, and the fan in the PSU. My idle temp is aout 38 C, load 48 - 50C.

I use speed fan to control the case fan wich is connected to the motherboard and the CPU cooler. The CPU temp does not get any better once the case fan gets to 50%.

Maybe you have more fans than you need. Try running one fan blowing in, the 120 rear fan blowing out. You should be able to connect the 120 fan to the motherboard so speedfan can control it. If the motherboard has a connector for a second case fan use that for the fan blowing in. If not just use it as its connected at the moment.

If the thermal grease is coming out when you push on the heatsink then thats a sign that the heatsink may not be fully seated. This would also explain the higher CPU temps. I would remove the CPU cooler, clean of the thermal grease. Check that the plate that the heatsink clips to is correctly tightend. Check for signs of wear on the lugs the CPU cooler fixes to. Check to see if something is in the way of the CPU cooler and preventing it from seating correctly. If all that looks OK then re-apply the thermal grease and then refit the CPU cooler. Check once refitted that its firmly seated. If there is still much play after re-fitting the CPU cooler then you will ned to find out why. The CPU cooler will not perform well unless its in good contact with the CPU.

If you motherboard is mounted verticaly in the case and you are still having problems then try laying the case down so that the motherboard is horizontal, and see how the CPU cooler feels then. The Artic Pro Freezer is a big heavy heatsink, and it may be too much of a strain on the mounting. I would have used the Artic Pro Freezer in my machines but it would not fit.

As speed fan is not reading the CPU cooler fan speed I would check that the CPU cooler is on the correct connector on the motherboard. Once the CPU cooler is properly mounted try running your machine at idle and check the CPU temps. Add CPU load and check that the fan speed increases. If its staying at a constant speed and speedfan cannot read it then it may be a motherboard problem.

If once all is working try running the intake fan at 5V instead of 12. If the system temps (i.e. hard disk and motherboard) stay the same then leave it that way. You could also try adjusting the CPU cooler speed from speedfan.

Rob Murphy
 

boosttc

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Feb 17, 2007
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for some reason i can not control the cpu fan through speed fan. the rpms stay the same. i have tried every thing under the sun to control it. ideas. i am thinking my thermo grease is applied wrong(to much). the heatsink is definatly seated correctly and there is no play in its movements. i am thinking i will have to buy a fan controller for the case fans and then speed them up some. it also doesnt help that my room is fairly warm most of the time.
 

Sythro

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Dec 13, 2006
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One thing to check with that particular heatsink is that you need to make sure that the two black "pegs", on the base of the heatsink, fit into the retention clip mechanism properly. If it's not, you'll still have tension on the clip, but your cpu coverage will be lopsided, which may explain the difference in temperature.

Another thing to consider (as you mentioned) is the amount of thermal compound on the processor. If you installed the heatsink out of the box without adding any compound or removing the old, the MX-1 should suffice (the stock paste that's on the heatsink). If you removed the stock paste and used something like arctic silver, you'll find application methodology all over the web, including Arctic Silver's website.

Good luck.