Question NH-D15 underperforming?

Jun 24, 2024
9
4
15
Hello,
Today I mounted an NH-D15 with a single fan in the middle on my Ryzen R7 5800 X3D. I applied thermal grizzly kryonaut onto the CPU as it's what I had lying around.
The Noctua manual said to apply the paste to a AM-4 CPU using a five-dot pattern with one larger dot in the middle. However, I applied the paste manually with a spatula over the whole CPU as it's what thermal grizzly recommends for that specific paste, and what I heard on this forum is correct for higher density pastes such as kryonaut.
I also used a paper towel for cleaning up the heatsink and the cpu as I did not have a good cloth at hand, and this might've introduced particles into the system, I did however visually check it and it looked ok.

The temps are "Fine" meaning 40-50C idle and 75-85C under load, BUT I do have spikes up to 90C which is a thermal throttle/limit/cutoff on this particular processor. The cooler is in my opinion not warm enough (it is somewhat warm) to the touch, and much colder than the GPU cooler.
I am wondering what this might be caused by, and considering options like:

  • Uneven mounting pressure (I did the screws according to the Noctua manual, until I met resistance)
  • Bad thermal paste distribution (Should I have done it as the Noctua manual said?)
  • Uncured thermal paste/bad paste?
Anyhow, I do have Arctic MX-4 which just arrived, so if that might help I could just change the grizzly for that. Let me know what you think.
 
Last edited:
Jun 24, 2024
9
4
15
Before doing anything else, make sure you have the proper spacers in use and that you have fully tightened the cooler to the CPU.

Are you overclocking your CPU?
I am using the spacers (you mean the gray plastic supports?) that were the only ones included with the mounting kit NM-AM5/4-MP83 which was the one dedicated for my socket and CPU cooler model. I tightened both the mounting kit screws and the cooler screws according to cooler manufacturer spec (it says 0.6Nm) but as I don't have a torque wrench, I did it according to the manual (tighten manually until resistance is met).

Not doing OCing at the moment but may consider it if temps are good enough.
 
Jun 24, 2024
9
4
15
Tightened until I no longer could, idle now is 39-40C, very stable.
Under load the temperature is stable around 60-70C, with the median being 64C

Huh, they only had like 1/8th rotation left to go, I did not expect that to do anything honestly
 
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