Problems with my Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme?

[spaztic7]

I have a Thermalright ultra 120 extreme, and I have been noticing that my q6600 temps are starting to go up. If I have it run at stock speed (2.4 Ghz) it idles at 34c but as soon as I over clock it at all it jumps to 44c. It dose not matter at all if the clock speed is 3.0 Ghz or 3.2 Ghz, I get just about the same temps; mid to high 40c at idle and mid 50c at load. I used to idle at high 30s and low 40s when at 3.0 Ghz.

I have been reading other threads about lapping the heat-sink, or possible problems with the q6600 heating issues. I have even thought about buying a water cooling kit (150 quid max) but then after reading many... many reviews, I learned that the Thermalright ultra 120 extreme can give just about the same performance, off by a degree or two. I am going to try using AS5 tonight (I am using the stock thermal grease that the heat-sink came with).

My main question is, will I see a difference running dual fans on this heat-sink? I have the Gigabyte 3d Aurora 570 case, so room is not a problem. I am currently running with two fans but one is the stock fan from the case (which moves about 1 inch of air a minute) so I can not tell if it is helping. The other fan is the Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F. I have two 120 rear fans that blow out (78 cfm each) and then another 120mm fan (a stock case fan) on the bottom of the case to blow air from the bottom up and also help cool the x-fi fatality (the bottom fan is more for air movement so I don't get " stagnant air").

I have been looking around for a while and I can not find a definite answer to my questions. Please help me O Gurus of the computer world!

 

[akhilles]

Quad puts out more heat than duals. Your q6600 is hotter than mine. My buddy's stock q6600 is about 35'c idle. My o/c'ed e2180 is about 30'c idle. He's using TEC.

What I'd do in your situation is to get the highest cfm fans onto the hsf. 78cfm + ultra + 78cfm blowing on the rear fan. Note the idle & load temps. If it's worse, remove the rear one on the hsf & note the temps. Until you see improvement.

 

[spaztic7]

That is what I was thinking of doing but I am trying to get fans that do about 90 cfm or more. Would fans that fast help any?

 

[cd14]

I have 3 100CFM fans...1 case, 2 on the Ultra 120. It helps, but with only 1-2 degrees. I have taken the middle one off and now have a sort of a tunnel design using the case fan and the fan pushing on the Ultra. This setup is pretty loud, but moves a lot of air, like a hair dryer. Of course when I'm benching.

I would lap the Ultra, mine wasn't flat at all. I lapped mine and my CPUs and the temps dropped 7c. You will void the warranties though. Also try remounting it.

http://shop2.outpost.com/%7Bbr+ekSRVDVhhYMcvCvQmxw**.node3%7D/product/4722179;jsessionid=br+ekSRVDVhhYMcvCvQmxw**.node3?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

[akhilles]

Not much, cuz your fastest one is 78cfm. 100-200cfm will help a lot, but may deafen you. The most ideal air cooling would be intake equal to exhaust. Side fans, I find, actually disturb the airflow from front to back. The warm air NEEDS to escape or else your cpu temp will be high.

Right now I like this placement: put the computer on a desk away from the walls, left side facing a bookcase, both the pc & bookcase face you, so that the air won't return to the side vents/fans. It works with case with left side vents.

[bookcase]
_________[PC]
_________[PC]
_________[PC]
_________[PC]

This is pretty good:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220013

Try that first, then if you want, get a ready-made watercooling kit such as the Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultra Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Kit. Should be around 150 quids.

 

[Scotteq]

Before you go too far: The first thing I'd check is where you have your CPU fans set to go on/increase RPM. If it isn't ramping up until you hit 40 degrees, that'd go a long way towards explaining why you idle at that temp when you overclock. Yah, it's dumb/obvious.

 

[spaztic7]

k... Before I answer everyone I would like to let you know what I did do. Last might i did remount the ultra 120 extreme on my q6600 (it is an original... so I guess that is B3 (correct me if I am wrong), not a G0 stepping core) and I used AS5 as the thermal grease. I was going to use Zalmen SG1 (or whatever it is) but no stores carry it around me. I also cleaned the heat-sink as much as possible and I made sure it is as secure to the processor as possible. I got Everest 4.00.976 and am now using that to monitor my temps. The odd this is, that it is the same that speed fan was giving me. Any who, I ran the stress test at stock speed and I don't remember what it topped out at. Then I OCed to 3.0Ghz and I idled at 44c and when I ran the burn in stress test thing it went up to 66c. I tried a 3.2Ghz and received the same results as 3.0Ghz. I then tried at 3.4Ghz and during benchmarks in Everest I got the lovely BSOD. So I am running at 3.2Ghz right now.

OK now for the replies.

cd14:
As for lapping, I have been looking into this but am very nervous about doing this. My heat-sink is flat, I checked that last night when I was cleaning it. On one side it is curved in (like a rounded edge) but it was like this from the factory. I also heard that lapping will only give a 1-2c temp difference but hearing a 7c difference give me hope for it. If I lap at all. I also do not care about voiding the warranty, I am not going to send it back if I break it. I will be a nice paper weight!

akhilles:
At stock speed I was idling at 34c... at one point.

My fastest fan is 78cfm but that is on the rear of the case blowing air out. They are not on the heat-sink. There are 2 of them on the rear blowing air out, 1 in front blowing air in, stock fan on the bottom blowing air up and then another stock fan that I put up top blowing air down. The stock fans do not move any air; well you can not feel the air moving at least. I use them not light the case more and maybe to move some air. The side of the case is a metal mesh with no fans on it. I can feel air being pulled in threw the side. I can turn my case but I have to have it under my desk (it is from Ikea and i have about 6-10 inch of space from top of case to bottom of desk. the rear has enough room to move the air.). I will try piping the rear air out from under my desk. Liquid cooling is a last resort and it must show a reasonable gain in cooler temps. Would using drying machine (cloths dryer) air ducks (the tin tubing they make) be good at piping the air?

Scotteq:
My fans only run at 100%. They are not able to be throttled because of their nature and because I set the motherboard to always run fans at 100%. Thank you for pointing out, double checking is never a bad thing.


Ok... I will probably show the benchmarks and temps I get when this is all said and done. Thank you all for your help so far and I am looking forward from hearing more from you.

This is a tough question and there are no easy solutions to this, I greatly... GREATLY appreciate all you help on this for I am stumped and need help.

 

[cd14]

cd14:
As for lapping, I have been looking into this but am very nervous about doing this. My heat-sink is flat, I checked that last night when I was cleaning it. On one side it is curved in (like a rounded edge) but it was like this from the factory. I also heard that lapping will only give a 1-2c temp difference but hearing a 7c difference give me hope for it. If I lap at all. I also do not care about voiding the warranty, I am not going to send it back if I break it. I will be a nice paper weight!
quotemsg]

I honestly got a 7c change. I'm not trying to push the idea, but my Ultra sure wasn't flat. It wasn't until it was lapped that my temps were better than my previous cooler. The lapping of the CPU didn't help as much though. Lapping isn't hard, you could buy a kit. But, all I did was get some sand paper..one rough sheet and a 1600 sheet. Then I found a glass surface. Next, I taped the sand paper down and started roughening up the bottom of the heatsink. Do this by grabbing the heatsink firmly (near the base) and pull it away or towards you while against the sand paper. End up with the finer grit. Do this for 30 minutes or so. To check flatness, put a flat surface, like a razerblade on the heatsink. The same for the processor...just be careful of ESD. Wear a discharge wrist band or keep in contact with a ground.

As for my B3 Q6600, to give you a reference...at 3.33, under coretemp it reaches 75c with the Ultra 120. To stay around 65c I am limited to about 3 ghz. My stress temp is about 20c over idle with the Ultra and double fans.

 

[spaztic7]

CD14, I do belive you. I am just nervous of lappyin gbecause I have never done lapping before.

I picked up 2 Silverstone fans that push 110cfm. I am at 3.2 GHz and I am idleing at about 44c right now. I am runninng AS5 and soon i will try ZTG1 (zelman thermal grease 1). I am now woundering if watercooling will give me any benifit.

The only problem I have now is how loud it is.....