Worried about temperatures

[bunky5020]

I just built a new system with an Abit Fatal1ty motherboard, 1gb of geil pc4300 ram, and a pentium 4 550 with a very mild overclock to 3.5. Anyways, I am using the stock intel heatsink that came with the processor and the included heat transfer pad on the bottom of the heatsink. I bought a tube of the artic silver paste because i intended to use an old aftermarket heatsink I had but it doesn't fit on the new LGA 775 socket. When installing the heatsink I had some troubles. It wouldn't sit right on the processor and was really hard to get the mounting pins to stay put, so mounting it was a little rough and i'm afraid the heat tape got all bunched up or somthing because my temperatures, for example all im doing is watching tv right now (on the computer through media center) and my temps for the cpu are consitently 50-53 degrees celsius. Isn't this too high? should i try to take off the heatsink and remove the tape and use the artic silver paste? BTW after running 3dmark 05 all the way through my computer without a hitch, i checked the temperatures and it got up to 62, which seems pretty high. What should I do or is this ok?

 

[fishmahn]

I'm not a P4 expert, but it seems that your temps are a bit high.

First thing to do is open the side panel and blow a house fan on it while you run a 100% CPU load for a while. If the temp goes down you need to work on airflow in the case so the HSF isn't forced to recycle hot air.

If not, and maybe even if so, I would try replacing the stock thermal tape with some AS and see if that will help. If its bunched up it probably isn't making good contact.

The Prescott series is a hot-running cpu, and if it was one of the first ones (last year) I would have said 62c under load is pretty good. But recent cpus are much cooler (still very hot, but better), so I think its a little warm.

Mike.

 

[scottchen]

Your temps are fine, in fact they're very good considering you're using stock with moderate overclocking.

 

[bunky5020]

Ok, I adjusted the fan settings to high and now idle is around 46-47, but under load it reaches low-mid 60's. If I did remove the heat sink tape and use the artic silver paste how should I go about it? Should i use a razor blade to srape it off and then clean it with rubbing alcohol? Also I have heard a number of different ways to apply the artic silver paste: Should I put one tiny drop in the center of the processor and then press the heatsink down? Should I spread a layer of the paste on the processor with a razor blade? Should I put any on the heatsink itself? I would rather just keep the tape because one of the mounting pins for the heatsink seems to be stuck in the motherboard and I don't want to break the motherboard (that thing was expensive), so If i could leave it on that would be good, but I also don't want my processor to be overheating either. THanks again for the help guys.

 

[fishmahn]

If you remove the tape scrape and wipe with alcohol.

2 Schools of thought: 1) dab in the middle and press HSF to spread; or 2) spread with credit card/knife/something flat.

Both get good results by the people that use them. So... Either approach seems fine. Only need to put compound on 1 side.

If you fear breaking the mobo, don't do it. Prescotts are made to run hot, and they self-throttle at about 70 (or was it 75? I forget) to keep from overheating.

Mike.

PS: I would listen to ScottChen on the temp being OK - I'm an AMD guy so I like things below 60.

 

[mozzartusm]

Those temps are about par for this cpu with the stock cooling. You need to either stop OCing or get a good cooling solution. Thermal compound should be spread very thin it does matter if some places are a bit thciker than others its going to spread when the HS is mounted.

If I would have shot you when I had the chance, I would be out by now
Intel P4 550(3.4)@<font color=green>5Ghz</font color=green>

 

[bunky5020]

Ok thanks again guys. I guess i will just leave it. The performance is fine, so I don't really need to overclock it anymore. Ill just turn up my fans when doing something processor intensive. Thanks again.