[sekkho]

Hi all,

I bought my Pentium 4 661 Cedar Mill 3.60 GhZ processor with a lot of reviews praising how cold it runs (about 30-35 degrees on load, 20-25 degrees on idle). I am using this CPU on the ASUS P5WD2 Premium motherboard. All new parts. Stock heatsink and fan.

When the computer was running, I grounded myself and then touched all three heat sinks bottom to top (CPU, north and south bridge). All three were warm, but not hot to the touch. This leads me to believe that everything is hunky dory and that the CPU temperature is just being read wrong?

I went to glance at my heatsink and I noticed that there is a pushpin clip that holds down another heatsink about an inch and a half away from the CPU. The bottom of the heatsink is resting tightly against this small white clip. The clip is plastic, but could this be the culprit?

I took the heatsink off the CPU and noticed that the thermal 'pad' that came with the heatsink from Intel had melted very thin (i.e. I could still see metal through the thermal material on both heatsink and CPU). I don't know how thick it should be, but that seems a little thin?

Do you all think I should order an aftermarket heatsink with some more clearance? Like the Zalman 9500 with arctic silver paste?

Thanks!

Edited by sekkho, 08 July 2006 - 09:50 PM.

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go out and get some artic silver 5 thermal compund the pads that intel provide arent good at all.

make sure when you replace it that you remove all of the old resign on teh bottom of the heatsink using some rubbing alcohol. dont use any harsh scratching impliments try to keep the bottom of teh heatsink as scratchless as possable.

troppo

[troppo]

go out and get some artic silver 5 thermal compund the pads that intel provide arent good at all.

make sure when you replace it that you remove all of the old resign on teh bottom of the heatsink using some rubbing alcohol. dont use any harsh scratching impliments try to keep the bottom of teh heatsink as scratchless as possable.

troppo

[sekkho]

thanks for the quick reply! will 70% isopropyl alcohol work?

[†Gladiator†]

NOOOOO
99 percent or greater.... for sure
but your temps are pretty decent for the proc u have
The Zalman cnps9500 is defintely worth the pennies just make sure you have plenty of air blowing through the case so you won't create a vacuum inside it.

[sekkho]

NOOOOO
99 percent or greater.... for sure
but your temps are pretty decent for the proc u have
The Zalman cnps9500 is defintely worth the pennies just make sure you have plenty of air blowing through the case so you won't create a vacuum inside it.

good to know (my fan and paste are still on order from newegg). to expand that cooling information, what would create a vacuum inside the case? I have all stock fans so far, which are: one 120mm fan on the bottom of the PSU, one 120mm fan on the lower front of the case (front of case is mesh), one built onto video card. I have one spot for a 120mm exhaust fan, but I dont know if it will do much good.

[troppo]

the best thing to have to cool a case is a slight negative pressure inside the case

that really just means more air coming out than is going in. i no this doesnt really make sense but what i have in my case is a 80 at the front and a 120 at the back blowing air out

seens that you have a 120 mm in the front buy another 120mm to go in the back to blow the air out. try to get one that moves more air than your one at the front.

another thing that is just my opinion would be that the cooler you ordered is ok but i prefer one that blows air down towards the motherboard this helps to keep the area around the cpu cool aswell. and that will help to cool your RAM also but thats my opinion that will do good to remove the heat from your CPU but might increase the heat around the CPU if you understand what i mean.
if you still plan to go ahead and get the zalman make sure that you do buy a 120mm exhaust fan because if not that thing would just blow hot air around inside the case heating everything up look at the picture below.

and also im not sure where you heard that a 3.6Ghz intel is runnign at 25 under no load that must have been temps for water cooling NOT air cooled. 3.6Ghz's run fairly hot and alot hotter than that.

download this program to see what your temps actually are
http://www.softpedia...e-Edition.shtml


troppo

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Edited by troppo, 12 July 2006 - 12:18 AM.

[sekkho]

yep all that made sense to me. thanks for the info, wish i would have known all that before i ordered all this junk. well i am looking forward to having a cooler and quieter CPU either way, even if it wasn't that necessary

i'll be sure to grab a 120mm fan for the back...

the final thing that i can think of is that my PSU came bundled with a lot of power cords, which would be at about the same height and direction as the Zalman's fan, so I'll have to secure them away from that I suppose, oh boy