Cooling Solution for Pentium D 3.6

[wpurcell]

Hello! I have a Pentium D 3.6GHZ processor on an Intel D945GPM motherboard. One hard drive, one DVD RW, a GeForce 7600Gt Graphics card, and 3.25GB RAM. I'm using a Cooler Master Hyper TX CPU cooler. I have two 92MM fans, one in the back of the case exhausting, one in the front blowing over the HDD into the case, and the standard PSU fan. Under between 5 and 10% load I'm running around 58 to 60 C. This seems a little high, no? When I run folding@home the load increases to around 55, and the temperature rises to between 68 and 74 degrees. Way too high, I beleive.
I'm not ready to take the plunge into water cooling, and would like some advice on a more efficient air cooler for the CPU.
Thanks in advance!

[sswilson]

First off... Welcome to the forums!!!!!

Always happy to see a new face around here.

I had a quick look at some reviews on that HSF and while the temps aren't top of the heap, they do look decent.

With that in mind, I would suspect the absolute best you could expect from a different aftermarket cooler would be a 5c - 10c improvement. There are certainly better aftermarket coolers on the market, but you'll have to decide for yourself if the added expense is worth it to you for that kind of improvement.

Those temps do sound high to me, but I've never run a P4 other than the one in my laptop so hopefully somebody better versed in normal operating temps (especially of the higher end ones like your 3.6) will jump in.

Have you tried anything other than changing the HSF to bring your temps down?

It could be that your TIM is poor quality, or possibly not making good contact. It could also be possible that it's just getting old and needs to be re-applied.

You can also check to see if the airflow inside your case is adversly affecting your cpu temps. Try running it under load with the case side off and a house fan directing air on the motherboard/cpu.

[3.0charlie]

Welcome to the forums!

I have a P4 541 3.2 GHz running @ 4.0, folding 24/7. Temps are 24C idle, 38C load. It's water-cooled, but once was air-cooled...

The cooler was a Zalman CNPS 7000-CU (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...=ZALMAN%20TECH); idle temp was 38C, load temp was 56C.

Those CPUs run hot, very hot. I had to have the best fan set-up as possible, to provide as much cold air as possible to the cooler. The mod that had the biggest impact was adding a side case fan - directly in front of the CPU cooler, extracting the hot air.

Your CPU is running hot, no mistake. Like sswilson wrote, changing for another cooler may reduce temps by 5-8C (maybe 10C) but don't expect low temps. Replace the TIM, make sure your fans provide enough air flow and if possible add a side panel fan. Also I suggest to look for a cooler which is made of cooper - it will have better heat transfer.

John

[wpurcell]

Hello and thanks for the welcome to the forum. It's nice to see a Canadian site! My thermal paste is OCZ Ultra, just applied two days ago when I installed the 3.6. I cleaned the cooler and the cpu with a kleenex, then applied a bead about 1/8" around to the center of the cpu and installed the cooler. Previous to that I had a 3.2, but it wasn't running any cooler.
The fan on the cooler is running at ~1200rpm. Will installing a fan controller help? The maximum rpm for that cooler is 1800. The other two case fane are running at around the same rpm. I'm looking for a grill, and will install a 120mm fan on the case side just below the cooler as there isn't enough room directly across from it. Would removing the shroud from the cooler make a difference? I think it may impede air flow somewhat by directing air into the motherboard.
Thanks again for all the advice!

[wpurcell]

Hello! When I say I "applied a bead", that is to say a round "blob" about 1/8" is size, the shape of a small pea, right in the center of the CPU. It's early in the am yet, and my first coffee is still brewing!

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by wpurcell

Hello and thanks for the welcome to the forum. It's nice to see a Canadian site! My thermal paste is OCZ Ultra, just applied two days ago when I installed the 3.6. I cleaned the cooler and the cpu with a kleenex, then applied a bead about 1/8" around to the center of the cpu and installed the cooler. Previous to that I had a 3.2, but it wasn't running any cooler.
The fan on the cooler is running at ~1200rpm. Will installing a fan controller help? The maximum rpm for that cooler is 1800. The other two case fane are running at around the same rpm. I'm looking for a grill, and will install a 120mm fan on the case side just below the cooler as there isn't enough room directly across from it. Would removing the shroud from the cooler make a difference? I think it may impede air flow somewhat by directing air into the motherboard.
Thanks again for all the advice!

Have you disabled all power saving and noise reducing features in your bios? There should be a way to force that fan to run at %100 (all of your fans should be at %100 until you figure out why your temps are so high).

How about Speedfan? Can you adjust the fan speed on your motherboard with that?

As far as the TIM goes.... if it's a new installation, I'd wonder about how well it's making contact.

Could it be caught up on something and not making full contact with the cpu?

Lastly since it is a new CPU, there is an extremely slight chance that the cpu's HSF (cover???? never could remember which is the cooler and which is the metal shield over the cpu... :) ) might be warped thus preventing a good contact.

That's an extreme long shot, but it's not completely unheard of.

Try to get those fans running at full speed first, and then maybe consider trying to reseat the cpu fan in case it's not making a good contact.

[wpurcell]

I've installed SpeedFan, but I can't seem to affect the fan speeds with it. Do I need to disable the "SMART" feature in my BIOS? Well, off to work. I'll check back into the forum tonight. Thanks again!

[3.0charlie]

For TIM, I spread a very slim amount across to whole surface of the cooler, using an old credit card. Does the trick.

SMART is for HDDs, it is not fan-related. The fan control is another control in the BIOS. You should find a Fan setting, controlling the CPU, Northbridge and Chassis fans in percentage of speed.

John