Phanteks PHTC14PE Inadequate Temps

[Nicky27]

Hi there,

First off I just installed the Phanteks PHTC14PE_BK heatsink on to my AMD FX 4130 CPU @ 3.8 GHz. This heatsink is known to get very good temps, although I am not getting ideal temps for the processor I have. I am idling around 38 celsius and goes up to about 45 celsius while gaming. I thought the cause of this was because of my bad application of thermal compound so I decided to repaste it, the right way, still did not help. Anyone know what it could possibly be? My processor isnt all that great so I do not understand why I am getting such bad temperatures. Is it the thermal paste job? Please help.

Thank you,
-Nick

 

[Someone Somewhere]

What's the case, and how are the fans arranged inside it, including direction?

What's the ambient temperature?

 

[jossrik]

45 degrees isn't that bad of a temp at load, you can go higher without worrying too much. Also, ambient temperature is important when you look at your temps, if your ambient is sitting at 35C then 3C is no big deal for your idle temp. From what you've said, everything sounds well within normal ranges to me.

 

[Nicky27]

What's the case, and how are the fans arranged inside it, including direction?

What's the ambient temperature?

I have a Corsair 650D case with one 200mm fan pulling in air in the front and one at the top also pulling air out, also one 120mm exhaust in the back, I can post a picture if you would like. Ambient temp must be about 65-70 fahrenheit is usually how warm my room is.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

~20℃ isn't that warm...

The case should be fine, though.

 

[Nicky27]

~20℃ isn't that warm...

The case should be fine, though.

I see, I just feel like I can be receiving a lot better temps for the processor that I have, I've seen posts where people are getting high 20's celsius to very low 30's idle with processors better than mine.

 

[Nicky27]

45 degrees isn't that bad of a temp at load, you can go higher without worrying too much. Also, ambient temperature is important when you look at your temps, if your ambient is sitting at 35C then 3C is no big deal for your idle temp. From what you've said, everything sounds well within normal ranges to me.

My question to you is do you think I should be getting better temps with the equipment I have given the CPU and speed and quality of heatsink?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Definitely.

Did you clean the old paste off first? What with?

 

[Nicky27]

Definitely.

Did you clean the old paste off first? What with?

91% Isopropyl alcohol on a 100% cotton cloth

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Should be OK.

It's possible that the motherboard is turning down/off the fans when idle, to make it quieter. If so, you'll have worse (but still fine) idle temps, but as the CPU heats up it will use the fans more.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

What board do you have?

 

[Nicky27]

ASUS M5A97 R2.0

 

[Nicky27]

Should be OK.

It's possible that the motherboard is turning down/off the fans when idle, to make it quieter. If so, you'll have worse (but still fine) idle temps, but as the CPU heats up it will use the fans more.

Is it possible to disable this if this is the case? I would prefer to get the best temps if better is possible..

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Those temps are pretty close to normal for that setup on that board.

 

[Nicky27]

Thank you, is there anyway I can improve the temperature?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Due to the thermal and power design of the board there's not much room for improvement.