Heatsink Question(Solved)

[tbird]

Paste was there for reason I guess. Also if its not clamped it may move in time and perhaps damage something else. Also guess it would be important to transfer heat from attached device to heat sink / fan.

[Baphomet]

The purpose of thermal paste is to fill in the tiny gaps left between the surfaces of the CPU and the bottom of the HSF; kind of makes for a nice tight seal as it were (insert polar bear joke, here).

If you're processor is staying well within it's operating temperature range, even while under load, I suppose you're okay, but generally speaking, yes, thermal paste is there for a reason.

If you want to pull things apart and apply paste, what I do is put a tiny little bead of paste on the CPU case and then push my index finger tightly into the corner of a plastic sammich bag so the plastic is smooth and skin tight against my finger tip. I then kind of buff the paste onto the CPU casing, making little circles and such, until there's just a haze of the paste all over the bottom it. That's all you want, that's all you need. It's not like making a peanut butter sammich, there's supposed to be a VERY thin "coat" of thermal paste between the two surfaces, not a thick honkin' layer. See pic below... Notice how you can sort of see the casing on the CPU through the applied thermal paste? That thin. Again, it's a glazing sort of thing, not peanut butter.

[cowboy]

If you going to buy..purchace "Artic Silver"
http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

[drama]

there's supposed to be a VERY thin "coat" of thermal paste between the two surfaces, not a thick honkin' layer.

i couldnt agree more. its always best to use it spairingly (think thas spelled rite). using too much is almost as bad as not using any at all. it will act like a thermal insulator rather than a thermal conductor.

nvr had this isse on a cpu but i did with the north/south bridge of a buddies mainboard. was an evga 680i. im sure you have heard about how they are natoriously known for high chipset temps. well anyway this is why. see the attched pic below (now mine jus found it on teh net...thas what it looked liek tho). removed the heatsink/pipe assembly. cleaned it (thas was a pain) dropped some "as5" on there. put it all back together. dropped the temps from 80c to about 45c.

anywayz long story short mos def use a very thin coat.



-drama

[DaddyX3]

Thanks for the replies and and pictures !

Will be going to the local pc shop VERY soon !!

Just a heads up on the thermal paste Nick ... You can go to your local radio shack and pick some up for a fraction of the cost. Will save you a bundle.

[Baphomet]

... well anyway this is why. see the attched pic below (now mine jus found it on teh net...thas what it looked liek tho). removed the heatsink/pipe assembly. cleaned it (thas was a pain) dropped some "as5" on there. put it all back together. dropped the temps from 80c to about 45c.

Using that much thermal paste on any PC component is felony offense in the the 48 lower United States, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands AND Mexico (Canada abstained, but then they don't really need thermal paste anyway) and is punishable by hangin', shootin, and castratin'... to DEATH!!!

Well, okay, but it SHOULD BE.

[DaddyX3]

Thanks for the tip....about $12.95 Australian

LOL- sorry 'mate', didn't know you were from across the sea's. You even have a Radio Shack there? Prolly not, but basically its just a store that sells diodes, resistors and what not and is a true to life electronics store.

Using that much thermal paste on any PC component is felony offense in the the 48 lower United States, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands AND Mexico (Canada abstained, but then they don't really need thermal paste anyway) and is punishable by hangin', shootin, and castratin'... to DEATH!!!

Well, okay, but it SHOULD BE.

LMAO!!! I was thinking the same damn thing Baph!!! I just didn't have the cojones to say anything

[Cab]

Just a real short and quick post... Hobart was amazing I had a great time there!

[Baphomet]

Well,went as per posted before to the local and got some Arctic thermal paste,came back and applied,but could only get three of the damn PLASTIC pins to seat.After an hour of trying rotating,swearing etc,went back to the local with the case and offending heat sink.She looked at it and said "oh,those are crap" Nice
She then said "they can only be taken out once or twice & then the plastic pins bend" Nice
Bought a new Socket 775 heat sink for $25 au

LMAO... I discovered the same thing, although, my process WAS a tad less painful. Yes, the "default" HSF connection for the 775 is a royal biatch. I just read all about it BEFORE having to go through the experience. I think we both wound up using the same exact HSF though. And what dreamy little install it had, too. I don't why some people, whoever they are, think the world needs yet another elaborate "system" for connecting a heat sink to a motherboard. SCREWS people... Screws!!! Simple. Effective. Pretty damn hard to @$#! up!! Capische??!!

Bit concerned though...after about half an hour of the screen saver running (skyrocket) the "screenlet "Nvidia gpu core temp" was 53 degrees Celsius...

Running Skyrocket as your screensaver, eh? Well now THERE'S an important detail.
Okay, better to give a little too much information, I suppose, than not enough. That being said...

My E8400 does something rather similar, but I can't get the "temp" to drop. I say "temp", in quotes, because according to the installed Asus monitoring tool, my CPU is idling at 48C (!!!). Turns out it's a wee-little problem with at least some of the 45nm processors, the E8400 being one of them; they report false temps. Most everyone is reporting the issue regardless of motherboard/chipset. I'd suggest googling your proc +heat and see if the same issue is being reported by other users or not. You might just need to give your PC a little time to stabilize as well. Freshly applied thermal paste requires several heating/cooling cycles to become fully effective.

[DaddyX3]

I would not be too concerned with your temp issues ... they are most likely software related and I would not sweat it. Your not going to melt down or anything. If you did, it would very surprising and you would be that "1 in a million" guy. Odds are that your not going to be having issues with heat.