Temperature issues?

[Shiriko]

Hey all. I seem to be having some rather odd heating issues. I built this computer about two months ago. Using an ASUS A8R32 Deluxe motherboard, an X1950 Pro for a video card, 2 gigs of corsair PC3700 RAM, and an AMD Athlon64 FX-55 2.6ghz CPU.

For some reason, my computer kept restarting. I ran all sorts of virus programs and such, and eventually reformatted it. That, of course, didn't really fix it. I finally checked the hardware monitor, and my CPU has apparently been getting up to almost 90 degrees C. It has a Thermaltake heatsink, and I have three fans. I really dunno what the issue could be, unless it's just a really bad heatsink. I'm thinking of getting a better one (This was some cheapy I got off the self at Compusa), or something of the sort. I made sure it was on there... anyone got any advice, for someone who isn't all that great at this?

Any help is reeeally appreciated!

 

[MonocleCat]

This is a good heatsink/fan and it should work with your processor (though im not that familiar with AMD cpus: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118019

It should help lower temperatures significantly, but most likely your current heatsink is improperly mounted or you don't have adequate heat transfer. If you want to keep your current HSF you should take it off, clean it and the processor throughly with some isopropyl alcohol and remount it using some arctic silver thermal compound. If you want to upgrade your HSF then get that Zalman or some other high quality one and mount it with the arctic silver compound; should solve your problems.

 

[Shiriko]

Yeah, it says it works with socket 939, and that's what my CPU is. Thanks a ton, I'm gonna try the cleaning thing first (I might have put too much thermal compound on), and see if that helps. If it does, then no need. If it doesn't, I'll get the Zalman. (Damn, that thing looks huge )

 

[MonocleCat]

Yeah it's big, make sure you check the dimensions to be sure it will fit. The 9500 is smaller with a 92mm fan. Either one will probably show a large improvement for you.

 

[techgeek]

Which model of Thermaltake do you have? The AFX's could put out the heat, but unless you got a really cheap Thermaltake, I would think it should be sufficient. What did you use for TIM (thermal interface material)? I am not really familiar with S939's HSF retention system, but it seems to me the pictures I have seen of it, they look pretty well designed (unlike the LGA775 pins). So if I am am correct that should eliminate a poorly held down HSF.

 

[Shiriko]

The thermal compound is really cheapy, and I prolly put too much on or something. Once I'm out of work, I'm gonna go try cleaning and re-mounting it with some better thermal compound. That should work quite well, it's a nice heatsink.