- Oct 21, 2004
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Thanks to klah to start off for directing me to the compatability specs in a former post - much appreciated!
I purchased the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu heatsink/fan today, arctic silver 5 paste
So I took the entire motherboard out of the case so I could get the stock fan/sink off. I also removed the plastic back/board on the other side of the motherboard, as well as the little plastic retention square that came attached to the mobo to hold the stock fan and sink in place. What I was left with was the spot for the CPU and 2 screw holes. Followed the directions and put the new plate on the backside of the motherboard, screwed in the two little holding pins.
Now..I cleaned off all the stock grey paste stuff that came with the stock heat sink. Completely cleaned the metal surface of the cpu gently with rubbing alcohol(Pure). Put the paste on, placed the rather large and heavy Zalman on and screwed it into place.
Now I know it's no official test - but I made a mark of what my Seti @ home was running tempwise before the changes with the stock heat sink and fan - and it was hitting about 40-41 at maximum Seti load. Now it runs at about 48/49 C maximum Seti load. Idle used to be 34-35 and now idle is 38-49
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here? I didn't screw the screws in extremely tight on the zalman because I'm afraid of forcing stuff in that regard. I screwed the screws tight enough until I couldn't screw them anymore, was that not enough?
Also - on the Arctic silver 5 - I have heard of two methods. One is to get a thin layer covering the entire back of the chip (Fx-53 here - large metal surface) - or to put a small dab in the middle and just push the heat sink copper surface directly onto it - the force would spread the paste out over the most important(middle) areas while allowing lots of metal contact.
Having heard the horror stories of what happens when you run things without paste - I opted to cover the entire surface of the back of the processor chip. I tried to make it as thin a layer as possible - I used a powder/chemical free surgical glove to rub the stuff in as thin a layer as I could over the entire surface before putting the sink down and screwing the screws tight.
Could it be that I'm getting bad temps because I used too much? Would I be much better off just putting a small dab right in the middle (about the size of a Bb pellet almost, or a short-grain wild rice), and smoosh the heat sink down so that the middle portion is gauranteed protected?
I know that this isn't necessarily the 'best' heat sink out there - but I don't think it's something that should be getting worse read outs then the stock set up. This device is easy enough to simply unscrew (And hold gently so it doesn't fall right off) and just carefully remove it, the processor - clean both, then try the other method - putting a little dab in the middle.
I thought I put a thin enough layer on the back - but maybe I put too much? I put enough so that none of the chip showed through the gray, which I'm guessing may be too much. Do I need to do a round 2, guys? Going to keep programs at a minimum till I can get this fixed..
-Jen
I purchased the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu heatsink/fan today, arctic silver 5 paste
So I took the entire motherboard out of the case so I could get the stock fan/sink off. I also removed the plastic back/board on the other side of the motherboard, as well as the little plastic retention square that came attached to the mobo to hold the stock fan and sink in place. What I was left with was the spot for the CPU and 2 screw holes. Followed the directions and put the new plate on the backside of the motherboard, screwed in the two little holding pins.
Now..I cleaned off all the stock grey paste stuff that came with the stock heat sink. Completely cleaned the metal surface of the cpu gently with rubbing alcohol(Pure). Put the paste on, placed the rather large and heavy Zalman on and screwed it into place.
Now I know it's no official test - but I made a mark of what my Seti @ home was running tempwise before the changes with the stock heat sink and fan - and it was hitting about 40-41 at maximum Seti load. Now it runs at about 48/49 C maximum Seti load. Idle used to be 34-35 and now idle is 38-49
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here? I didn't screw the screws in extremely tight on the zalman because I'm afraid of forcing stuff in that regard. I screwed the screws tight enough until I couldn't screw them anymore, was that not enough?
Also - on the Arctic silver 5 - I have heard of two methods. One is to get a thin layer covering the entire back of the chip (Fx-53 here - large metal surface) - or to put a small dab in the middle and just push the heat sink copper surface directly onto it - the force would spread the paste out over the most important(middle) areas while allowing lots of metal contact.
Having heard the horror stories of what happens when you run things without paste - I opted to cover the entire surface of the back of the processor chip. I tried to make it as thin a layer as possible - I used a powder/chemical free surgical glove to rub the stuff in as thin a layer as I could over the entire surface before putting the sink down and screwing the screws tight.
Could it be that I'm getting bad temps because I used too much? Would I be much better off just putting a small dab right in the middle (about the size of a Bb pellet almost, or a short-grain wild rice), and smoosh the heat sink down so that the middle portion is gauranteed protected?
I know that this isn't necessarily the 'best' heat sink out there - but I don't think it's something that should be getting worse read outs then the stock set up. This device is easy enough to simply unscrew (And hold gently so it doesn't fall right off) and just carefully remove it, the processor - clean both, then try the other method - putting a little dab in the middle.
I thought I put a thin enough layer on the back - but maybe I put too much? I put enough so that none of the chip showed through the gray, which I'm guessing may be too much. Do I need to do a round 2, guys? Going to keep programs at a minimum till I can get this fixed..
-Jen