2 Q's:Temperatures and CPU cleaning

[UncleBastard]

I got a P4 1.8a and an abit BG7 motherboard yesterday and so far I *think* I have it stable at 2.4ghz. Using the winbond hardware doctor thing that came on the driver CD and from reading old posts my temps seem a little high. I'm using the Heatsink and fan that came with the CPU. Idle temps seem to be around 46-48 and under load it goes between 55-57. Even when the CPU is at the default speed of 1.8ghz the idle temps mostly stay around 45-46. My case has a fan mounted on the side pannel that blows cool air in right over the CPU and it also has a fan on the back of the case that blows air out. Case temps idle are around 36. Under load case temps go up to 40 or 41.

So if you think these temps seem a little high the only thing I can think of doing is re-doing the arctic silver. I'm not sure if I did it right the first time. What I did was put a dab about the size of a pea in the middle of the CPU and then installed the heatsink. From reading old posts it sounds like what I should have done was spread the AS over the whole heat spreader area and then install the heatsink. It this correct?

So if I redo the AS is it ok to clean both CPU die and heatsink with isopropyl alcohol?

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: UncleBastard
I got a P4 1.8a and an abit BG7 motherboard yesterday and so far I *think* I have it stable at 2.4ghz. Using the winbond hardware doctor thing that came on the driver CD and from reading old posts my temps seem a little high. I'm using the Heatsink and fan that came with the CPU. Idle temps seem to be around 46-48 and under load it goes between 55-57. Even when the CPU is at the default speed of 1.8ghz the idle temps mostly stay around 45-46. My case has a fan mounted on the side pannel that blows cool air in right over the CPU and it also has a fan on the back of the case that blows air out. Case temps idle are around 36. Under load case temps go up to 40 or 41.

So if you think these temps seem a little high the only thing I can think of doing is re-doing the arctic silver. I'm not sure if I did it right the first time. What I did was put a dab about the size of a pea in the middle of the CPU and then installed the heatsink. From reading old posts it sounds like what I should have done was spread the AS over the whole heat spreader area and then install the heatsink. It this correct?

So if I redo the AS is it ok to clean both CPU die and heatsink with isopropyl alcohol?

Geesh, ur P4 is running hotter then my Athlon. Yes, you should have spread a thin layer of AS over the heat spreader and then install the heatsink. Not a generous amount, but enough to cover. What I do to clean my CPU is use isoprpyl alcohol 70% to remove 98% of the AS and then use Goof Off to remove any of the small trace amounts left. Comes out looking like new

 

[paralazarguer]

The fan on the P4 retail heatsink is thermally controlled. Having cool air blow right onto it is the worst thing that you can do since the CPU fan will spin around 1600rpm!!!! You would be well advised to disable that fan and have a front to back cooling setup.

 

[UncleBastard]

I didn't realize that about the cool air over the P4 fan. I took your advice and switched them so that there is a fan in the front of the case pulling air in and one in the back of the case drawing air out. My fan RPMs were never down as low as 1600 but moving the fans did raise it from the high 2000s to above 3000 RPMs. I also cleaned off the CPU and heatsink and re-did the AS this time spreading it thinly across the P4 heat spreader instead of just putting a dab in the middle and then installing the heatsink. As far a temps go I don't see that big of a difference. I haven't checked load temps yet but so far idle temps seem only a degree or 2 lower. 45-47 rather than 46-48.

 

[zzzz]

Also check on other abit forums if your mobo is reporting the temperatures higher. With Abit BD7 and BD7-2 ( I think also the IT7) the mobo readings were much higher than those reported by other mobos under simillar conditions. ( I tested the same cpu in same conditions on Asus P4B266 and abit BD7-R and the abit reported about 17-18 C higher!!)

 

[SpeedyGonzales]

@UncleBastard

I am running a P41.8@2.4 on an Abit BD-7. Windbond Hardware doctor was reporting idle temps around 45C and full load around 57C, so quite comparable to yours.

I got these temperatures down to 40C idle and 50-52C full load by using a Coolermaster Case with optimum airflow and reapplied some good thermal compound in a very thin layer over the whole P4 heatspreader (using a piece of plastic in the size of a credit card to make it really thin, less is more here ). I am still running it with the stock HSF.

I also heard the story, that some Abit boards report higher temperatures than other. I have no proof for that, but the temperatures reported by the Hardwaredoctor seem to be higher, than what I can feel with my fingers when touching the HS.

Investing in an aluminium Coolermaster tower may be too extreme, to just get the temperatures down by some 5-7 degrees, so if you do not want to invest so much, just make sure, that you have a good case cooling.

I used Isopropyl for cleaning both the HS and the CPU, no problems with that.

Cheers
Speedy

 

[UncleBastard]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I have my comp at 2.4ghz and I was playing tribes 2 last night for a while without problems. Probably not the most conclusive stability test but so far so good. Maybe the motherboard does just report higher temps than what they really are. Thanks again!