Tips for cooling down my CPU?

[Vodoun]

Currently I have a Zalman heat sink like this one; not sure what the difference would be between that one and mine, but it looks similar.

Today I re-applied the Thermal Paste, but because of the difficulty of installing my heat sink, I can't help but do a sloppy job (It's a nasty metal doohickey clamp on) ; also, I heard that it was best to put a dab in the middle instead of spreading it out, but instead I chose to spread half of it around and put half of it in dab, because I imagined that the paste wouldn't spread all the way across the CPU if I didn't smear it.

I have like five fans in my CPU, and good ventilation, so it's ridiculous that I'm getting temperatures as high as 70c (I witnessed 80c before re-applying the paste, but I don't know if it will climb that high again or not) while playing DotA 2 in particular (TF2 runs at ~70).

Within my limited amount of knowledge and experience, I can only imagine that my heat sink is crappy, and that I should try buying a new one; are there any other tips?

I've heard that I have too many cables haphazardly placed around my CPU, but they're mostly far away from my CPU, and I can't imagine that could be legitimately causing the problem.

It is a pretty hot summer here; on idle my computer runs at ~47c.


I haven't over-clocked at all.


I'm running AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+

3G DDR2 Corsair RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX


My motherboard is an ASUSTeK M2N-SLI DELUXE so if you think the heat sink is the problem, please recommend me a better one that might be easier to pop in.

Actually my connector piece (I don't know what the call it, the piece your heat sink pops into) looks different than the one in the pictures so I don't know what would be compatible with it, or if rather every heat sink comes with it's own connector.

My motherboard even possesses some "heat pipes and heat sinks".

[paul9]

The problem is likely the ambient summer temperatures.
The more heat the air in the room already has in it, the less "willing" it is to accept the heat from the heatsink.
Thermal paste should be applied so you get a very thin, even layer between the CPU die and the heatsink. You are just aiming to fill minute gaps between the two where they are not perfectly flat.
The Arctic Silver website had some tutorial videos on it, although I haven't looked lately, but they are probably still there.
The five fans in your case, are they all blowing air out, or in or both?
Too many fans without proper airflow planning can cause problems, with deadspots for airflow.

[ShyguyXPC]

all you do is just put a small dab, grain of rice to metal BB sized drop in the center of the CPU, apply the heatsink and the fastening pressure between the heatsink and CPU should spread the paste out evenly.

If your Heatsink uses screws or bolts to fasten it down, you turn each bolt a bit, start with one corner, then to the opposite, then to one of the other corners and then its opposite, and repeat in pattern with a slight tightening or each one until its secure.



If you have cables all around your CPU, even if farther away from it, this can break up the even air flow, assuming it is at all even or balanced, as those act to disrupt airflow.

Can you post some pics of the inside of your case, where your fans are located and how it looks in general inside?

does your CPU's Retention Frame (the plastic frame the heatsink attaches to on the motherboard that you have no idea what its called), have metal bolts fastening it, or does it have Plastic tabs holding it in?

ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe

look at that pic, does it have the metal bolts holding it on, or plastic tabs?

[Taxmancometh]

FWIW- I have a Zalman heatsink and it sucks! I ran a CPU stress test and the BIOS alarm set for 80c went off. I'm thinking of buying something from Cooler Master. Shyguy recommended this one: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Hyper TX3 RR-910-HTX3-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" 92mm CPU Cooler

I have a Q6600 CPU.

[ShyguyXPC]

TX3 for cheap and if the Hyper 212 Series is too large to fit in the case, otherwise Hyper 212, or Xigamtek's Loki or Gaia series Coolers for the price range. Also decent are Arctic Cooling's Freezer Series coolers, usually in same price range as the others.

Those Zalmans, some were good back in the day, but they're not all that great now days, although some modern Intel CPU's have dropped in heat and wattages, meanwhile AMD CPU's really haven't dropped much in Wattage ratings compared to Intel's.

[Vodoun]

I have a cooler master case where the fans were pre-installed; they're running in the right direction.

I applied a small pea sized drop of thermal paste to my CPU, rather than a grain of rice though,

so I'll have to re-do that; and I am curious do most heat sinks come with a 'connector piece'?


Mine is seriously like this little metal bar that you're supposed to clamp down on both sides;

it's a huge pain in the ass, and I presumed that it could be causing problems with the thermal paste.


Most of the cables are off to one side where most of the fans are not, so ( : / ) I dunno.


I'm definitely considering a new heat sink.

[ShyguyXPC]

connector piece? are you talking about that metal bar you mentioned?

If so, thats for AMD CPU's, depends on the heatsink used, not all use that method of securing the heatsink.


as to cables... Tucked away like this:



Or as close to out of the way and path of airflow as you can get for your system.

[de_day]

All good comments and this is a little off topic, but that is the neatest case interior that I've even seen.

I've seen lots of people build out these fantastic systems and then put the cheapest heatsink available on top of that precious hi-tech "brain" and wonder why they have problems.

connector piece? are you talking about that metal bar you mentioned?

If so, thats for AMD CPU's, depends on the heatsink used, not all use that method of securing the heatsink.


as to cables... Tucked away like this:



Or as close to out of the way and path of airflow as you can get for your system.

[ShyguyXPC]

Thanks, it was my first REAL attempt at making a "Clean" interior case. Originally I was going with my older Corsair 750W PSU, non modular, but after 3.5 years of use, I figured it was time to get a newer one anyways, so was looking for a Modular or Semi Modular, went with the NZXT Hale82 850W, newegg had it on sale, for the same price as a Seasonic M12 II 650W, which was what I was looking at. After a little digging around, I found the Hale82's were in fact Seasonic M12 II's, just rebadged and stamped as NZXT's. So was a no brainer after that. SoloCamo got in on that deal as well at the time.

Otherwise it wouldn't of been as clean in the case, would of had more cables to tuck away, I used mostly Sleeved Cable extensions, for the 4 Pin Molex, HD Audio front panel, USB 2.0 Front panel, Front panel wires, and what not.

Only PSU cables showing is the Mobo's 20+4 pin (4+4 pin is under the Liquid Cooler Radiator, can't see it), and PCIE cables.

I have a 5 x 3 Pin Fan Power distribution Block (single 4 Pin Molex connected to it), installed in the bottom 5.25" drive bay for the Top, Bottom, Front, and 2x 120mm on Rad.

Cables could be more "matched" and sleeved for a better look, but for function of air flow through case, its fine the way it is.

My 2nd GTX 560 Ti will be here tomorrow hopefully, so that case will get a tad more cluttered with the 2nd card in it soon. But I have to also install a new side panel case fan, sound dampening mats on side panels, and my PCIe x1 USB 3.0 card, then route the power cable for the GPU's and USB card.

[electric]

if AMD Cool 'n' Quiet Technology is turned on disable it in the BIOS


i own that board and did have a 8800 GTX [gone to hardware heaven]
that said between the processor,PSU and the GTX card ,i found it put out
a lot of heat,no need to turn on thermostat while computer was running

as far as installing the CPU and paste,take motherboard out of case [too hard if you
don't ] use a credit card spread a little paste on the CPU and heatsink when you
have the heatsink locked on twist the heatsink plus fan to get rid of any voids
between the CPU and heatsink ...wipe excess with clean tissue

don't worry about any paste getting on the motherboard shouldn't.t cause
any problems because of the coating the manufacture uses to protect the board
just don't get any on any contacts [fan connections ]