Show Us Your Rig [2]

ZaLiTH said:

I assume you're using the same CPU on a new motherboard...?

Yeah, Same CPU on the new board. I haven't changed any settings or used the easy overclock features.

ZaLiTH said:

I would do the same (Arctic Silver 5 is a very good paste, otherwise Thermalright also have some good quality stuff at a slightly lower price, a few friends have bad experiences with Cooler Master thermal paste though, so i'd suggest you avoid that one). Remember to give your CPU a good solid burn-in right after replacing thermal paste though... Doing that when the thermal paste is still fresh ensures that it makes proper contact with both surfaces.

Is there really that much difference in the pastes? I used the the CoolMaster stuff on another machine in the house and it's temps sit lower on the stock cooler than my current system. Granted it's an Athlon II x2. The only reason I ask is because the one computer store in the city only sells the CoolerMaster stuff.

ZaLiTH said:

Very important tip: Never mix thermal paste, if you're going to pull your heatsink off, clean it and replace the thermal paste... Even adding more from the same container again after having run your CPU for a while is a bad idea. You'll find a lot more information on why this is if you search Google.

I have some Akasa TIM clean which does a good job of cleaning. I usually just apply a blob on the middle of the CPU and mount the the cooler.

Cheers for the comments so far guys.

kylehimself said:

Is there really that much difference in the pastes? I used the the CoolMaster stuff on another machine in the house and it's temps sit lower on the stock cooler than my current system. Granted it's an Athlon II x2. The only reason I ask is because the one computer store in the city only sells the CoolerMaster stuff.

I always thought they were all the same as well, but of the three of four tyoes I've tried, I have noticed some differences. As for Cooler Master, that was simply my recommendation, although it is also quite possible that what we used was simply a 'bad batch'.

kylehimself said:

I have some Akasa TIM clean which does a good job of cleaning. I usually just apply a blob on the middle of the CPU and mount the the cooler.

Cheers for the comments so far guys.

I've always been a big fan of "if you're going to do anything, do it properly the first time". Lol... But I'd recommend you spread a smooth layer of thermal paste on both surfaces (cpu and heatsink) and then mount it. Still, only my suggestion. :) Hope you come right with the temps...

ZaLiTH said:

:) Hope you come right with the temps...

I'll see what happens. Thanks for the advice.

Dave76 said:

Should be in your CPU manual.


Did a search and found this:

stock core voltage is now up to 1.40V

If the BIOS is at defaults, the CPU voltage shouldn't be too high, check it just to be sure.

My guess is the thermal paste and getting the cooler attached properly.

Cheers Dave I'll have a wee look in the BIOS later. I tried to rep you mate but apparently I need to spread the rep a bit more.

Damn, changed to the CoolerMaster stuff and now whilst gaming I hit 47C! Gonna have to buy something else me thinks.

Dave76 said:

What is the idle temp?

For a high stress game 47c isn't bad. Run Prime95 and see what the temps go to, this will give us a standard to compare to.

Turned out the reason for the high temps was that my CPU was constantly clocked at 3600MHz running on 117w.

Now that it's sorted and idling at 782MHz on 16W the temps are down but it's funny how different products can vary.

The game I'm testing on is Far Cry 2. The stuff which came on the H50 was some Shin-Etsu product. My temps where steady lows of 27c, and under stress when gaming 38c. Now those temps in my opinion are excellent. When I switched to the Crosshair IV Formula board and used the CoolMaster paste I had, I'm now getting Steady lows of 27c (dipping as low as 25c) but whilst gaming 48c
So it's interesting to see how much better the Shin-Etsu stuff is when it really matters.

Edit: Obviously 48c isn't a temperature to start worrying about. But it sort of bugs me because I know it's possible to stop it even hitting 40c.

Lordbob75 said:

Mine idles at around 45C (according to Real Temp) and jumps to the high 60s with Prime 95 (need to check that later to make sure though)

~Lordbob

As far as I'm aware Intel chips can run hotter though. I think AMD recommend you don't go over 64c or something.