First Computer I've built...

mightyfish

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Oct 17, 2006
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So I got together this rig:

DFI INFINITY 975X Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - SAPPHIRE 100168L Radeon X1900XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model pqi TURBO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PQI25400-2GDB - Retail
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
ARCTIC COOLING Accelero X2 Fluid Dynamic Bearing VGA Item
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler - Retail


I had a buddy to ask questions of when I needed them and I havn't had any crashes or anything of that sort.

Everything is fine but my only concern is regarding the temperature of my GPU under load. It creeps up to 90 C from an idle of 47, that seems like quite a leap. I've installed the Accelero X2 in place of the standard cooler, and now I'm thinking in my inexperience, maybe I made a mistake in the installation. Is 90 C very high for a video card? From what I'd read I expected it to be a bit lower than that with the seperate cooler (although I mostly bought the accelero for noise issues).

My Cpu is idling at 25, havn't seen it top out over 34 yet. I removed old paste and added artic silver 5 to both the accelero and the freezer 7, in a very thin layer.
 

muffins

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Aug 2, 2006
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if you had the stock cooler id say 90C isnt that bad...i get that alot with mine.....but with that cooler you installed on there its definetly too high
 

UC7

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Aug 31, 2006
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The most common mistake is adding too much conducting paste to the metallic plates between the CPU and heatsink. It takes far less than most people think. I believe most temperature problems arise from this issue (as long as everything is seated correctly.)
 

mightyfish

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Oct 17, 2006
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Okay, so I pulled out the card, unscrewed everything, and tried to remove the cooler to reattach it. Its on there firm still, no screws attaching it. The only other thing on there are the little sticky pads (sticky side were put on the cooler) and the thermal paste. I'm weary to simply force the cooler off the card. I checked all the screws, held the card in front of a lamp to see if I can see any light between the gpu and the cooler, it looks solid. I made sure all the screws were tight, put it back in the computer and I'm still getting temperatures of 85+. Ugh.
 

IcY18

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May 1, 2006
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you should not have applied thermal paste in addition to the pads, those are thermal pads, you need to either use one or the other, and in this case you should just use the thermal paste since i'm sure you ruined the pads, this would explain your high temps
 

mightyfish

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Oct 17, 2006
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Well, I put the accellero on the same way the other one came off. The basic cooler had the pads along what I think would be the ram chips (sticky side on the card), and thermal paste on the copper block in the middle that sits up next to the center of the card chip. There is no thermal paste touching any of the pads.