94 Degrees!

[Brad]

That's the temperature my CPU got to playing Dragon age.

It's O/Cd to 4.5GHz. I have a Corsair H60 cooler.

Anyway, I switched the O/C off and rebooted and even at idle it's almost 40 degrees. I reckon the heatsink isn't seated properly. Bought some arctic silver cleaner and paste and will try seating it again.

Any tips other than what I'm already doing?

[speedlolita]

Get a higher static pressure fan, maybe even go for a push/pull config.

Lap the CPU and cooler.

Make sure the cooler is seated properly.

Get some Arctic Cooling MX-4, ever so slightly better than AS5 - few degrees, and cheaper.

I'd be mortified if my CPU hit 94c. Don't like it hitting 60c as it is..

[Brad]

Ta.

I've got some arctic silver on the way (and some cleaner to get the old gunk off). I have it set up as an exhaust at the moment so I'll switch that around and make it push air through. I have 3 spare fans too so I can do a push/pull and put the other two on the roof of the case to exhaust.

'Lap' the cpu and cooler? whatyoutalkinboutwillis?!

[speedlolita]

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=433

Might be a bit extreme for you, in terms of warranty voiding or whatever. My Q6600 is lapped under my lapped TRUE. Although my new case doesn't fit my TRUE so I'm having to get something else, an original Scythe Ninja.

[Brad]

You want me to SAND DOWN MY PROCESSOR. You lunatic ;-)

[speedlolita]

Haha, yeah I wouldn't do it to a processor still worth something.

Also, I just realized that the reason my CPU was getting so hot idle is due to the fan drawing in hot air from the GPU. Think I'll get the new cooler anyway, so I can have the flow straight through.

Nice 7c CPU drop by dropping my GPU down two slots.

[Brad]

There must be a market for pre-lapped CPUs and coolers.

Anyway, I have a plan. Screw the silent PC business, I'm putting 6 case fans in, a push/pull on the radiator and everything turned up to 10. I'll hunt for a new energy provider to compensate.

[speedlolita]

I'd recommend the Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000. Excellent fan - bit brutal on the ears though.

Using the stock Lian Li fans at the moment - I think they're based on the Yate Loon / Nexus fan model.

[Brad]

CPU and heatsink gunk cleaned off and new applied.
Rear fan turned round so it's pushing air through the radiator.
2 more Fans fitted to top of case as exhausts.
1 Fitted to side as exhaust (sits next to GPU) :-S

CPU voltage dropped to 1.15v.
4 hours of Dragon age = max temp of 64.
Prime 95 couldn't push it over 60 (I only let it got for an hour and it hit 60 but when I checked it it had dropped to 57/58 on all cores).

Think I'm happy with that.

Airflow is not optimal as I have 2 intakes at front of case, one at the back and then 3 exhausts, 2 at the top and one at the side. Must be a right mess of airflow in there but the H60 Rad setup means I can't have a straight flow from front to back. If anyone has any ideas of how to improvie firther then I'm prepared for one more session of messing about.

[speedlolita]

Run LinX for CPU testing. Prime95 is ancient, you'd have to run an instance per core for accuracy.

[Brad]

Not much in it in my experience. LinX can push it a degree or two higher but Prime95 seems to spot bad Overclocks more reliably e.g. a success in linpac but a fail in Prime. Also my previous tests were with Prime and I needed a comparison so Prime95 does the job.

You'll see from my results too that Dragon Age is actually able to get my CPU temp higher than Prime. I wonder if this is because DA pushes my GPU temp up as well, thus heating up the inside of the case a bit.

Thanks for all the advice speedlol :-)