my temps suck

ultra-120 panaflow 114cfm fan.

right now im at 1.65v and 260x10 and my load temps are 60c.

I have a feeling the heat just inst getting to my ultra-120. At the touch, its not even warm. I have tried AS5 and the compound that comes with the ultra-120. Same results. Ive also tried just about every method of applying the thermal compound. Im running out of as5 . My ambient can go anywhere from 60f-90f in my room and the load temps seem to be slightly affected. Another reason to me that it seems like the heat just isnt going to the cooler.

any ideas?

--pak

make shure the waterblock is making connection with the cpu. just turn the screws till they cant be turned nomore

Drinkyoghurt has the right idea, but he dosn't have a waterblock .

Lap your Ultra 120 and make sure your temperture sensors are correct.

Well this is on two different mobos. Lap em huh? Just the ultra-120 or the cpu too? I think my temps are kinda high to begin with. Normally ppl lap to get better temps, not to fix some wacky temps.

--pak

OK, im going to try to lap my ultra-120. Could anyone give me a sort of a guide to go by or what grit sand paper to buy? Preferably something I could buy at home Depot or something. and I should do the CPU too right?

Also, I have seen on these forums about people removing the IHS(internal heat sink?) what does that do exactly? Is that something I want to try?

--pak

Check your IHS

I agree with what these guys are saying but you also need to check the IHS, (the heat-speader on the CPU). I have seen some A64's that are extremely cupped. My 3000+ was like a soup bowl. I"ll bet that the HS is a lot flatter than the IHS is. You should check the IHS before you lap the sink.

Well the first thing I did when I recieved my ultra-120 was check the surface. As far as I can see, nice mirror finish. I never really took the time to take a look at my cpu. I know its not a mirror finish, but I cant say its nice and level either. I guess my best bet is to lap the CPU.

I cant seem to find any good guides to lapping. Can anyone possibly link one? Or maybe just tell me here briefly? I think I got the basic idea of it, but im unsure of what grit sand paper to use. Preferably stuff that I can purchase at home depot would be great.

--pak

http://www.a1-electronics.net/Heatsinks/Lapping.shtml
Many guides tell you to jump from 800 to 1000 to 1200 and so on. Its no necessary. You don't need a mirror finish, and you shouldn't go over 1200 grit. All you are looking for is making it flat, because the AS will need all those groves that aren't visible to the human eye to make better contact between the two surfaces. Make sure that you take either a piece of Styrofoam or something similar so that you can push the CPU pins in there and not worry about bending them of putting uneven pressure.

You don't need to go finer than 1200 (many people don't bother going that fine), but there's no harm in it. It's basically a matter of personal taste once you get to that fine of a grain. The finer the grain, the more shine you'll get, and I've seen recommendations for going as high as 2000 and using a sheet of ink-jet paper to get a mirror finish. The real goal of lapping is to get an even surface and remove any scratches/grooves that could hurt performance, beyond that, it's all cosmetic.

Ok, so I gave it a shot. Closest grits I could find were 400 and 800. Thats the only thing I could find in the middle of the night.

When I took my CPU off, I sat and gave it a good long stare down. I never have before. I wanted to see if I could see any imperfections, and there was nothing that I could see with my naked eye. So I pulled out the 400 and layed it down and put some water on it. Started moving my CPU lightly and slowly in circular motions. The first thing I notice was that the outside endges of the cpu and the dead center seemed to be taking the only bit of scuffing at first. So I continued for about another 10 minutes rotating directions. In the end I had copper showing on the outside and right in the middle.

At this point I wasnt sure on what to do. I wasnt sure if I should keep going to expose copper evenly acroos the whole IHS or go to the 800 grit. I decided to go to the 800 grit.

I did the same with the 800grit as I did with the 400.

And here are my results with 2 different temp monitoring programs. This is at 1.625v which is what my cpu runs stable @ 260x10.

a64info
idle 40c load 53c

Smart Gaurdian (which is the software that comes with my mobo)
idle 36c load 38c......I know WTF?

The other thing I noticed that in my bios, my cpu temp in there is 21c. I dont know if that means much. I know it should be lower cuz the CPU isnt doing much in bios.

I normally do use a64info to monitor my temps, but I know that few times that I have opened up smart gaurdian they were pretty close. Maybe I should compare with a 3rd program? any suggestions?

Give me your thoughts from what I have said. I know there is a lot. I tried to be as detailed as possible with the lapping cuz it was my first time and I dont know if I should do more or not. I wish I took pics. Im going to give this a few days before I attempt to lap again depending on what is said here.

TIA
--pak

Ideally you would have wanted to expose the copper evenly across the heatspreader, and then moved on to the 800 grit paper. 21C is a pretty low cpu temp, especially in BIOS. From my experience the cpu is under more load sitting in the BIOS than idling on the desktop.

OK, I think I will pull it off again and get the copper exposed evenly. When I go to the 800 grit, how long do I want to stay on the 800?

Well if 21c is low for being in bios, then maybe my monitors are wacky?

--pak

Speed fan is the only one you should use. Don't use any other crap.

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

BTW that is a very nice drop, Make sure you don't bend the pins though and don't put to much pressure on it. Another thing is to get some Mineral Spirits or Acetone and give it a good wipe.

Here are the best instructions to follow when applying AS5, don't take anyone else word for it, these guys know what they are talking about, after-all they engineered the product and tested-it more than any of you could dream of.


One question, whats the ambient in your house? With air you will never drop below the ambient temperature (thats pretty cold , 21 c).

My ambient can range anywhere from 60-90f. Whats wierd to me is that my ambient seems to not affect my CPU temps at all. But I guess that could be that bad contact thing. I used that speedfan and it matches A64info exactly, so I guess those 2 are right.

10c drop is very nice, but I would really like to achieve the 40c load that a lot of people on these forums claim to have. To me, with the cooler I have and at 1.6vcore, I should be able to get those temps. Shouldnt I?

--pak

Well I gave it another shot. Made it so all I could see is copper. 0 Improvement.

Could it be that I just have a chip that runs hot?

--pak

well, it could be a combonation of bad airflow and more drives and stuff in your computer than other peoples.


try cable managment if you havn't already.

but i couldn't imagine that giving you a 10 c decrease.


maybe its just that your cpu just runs a bit hotter than usual is my guess.

well I keep the side open and have a big fan blowing in.

--pak

could be a faulty prob

if probe is located in the mobo, this is my secound mobo with the same proc and same temps.

--pak

Is it possible that some chips just run hotter than others? I coulsn't get my 3500 above 2.4ghz at 1.55v because of temps. They were getting up to and above 60 before I said, "forget it."