Hia guys. I run an AMD FX-4100, and upgraded from setock cooler to the Raijintek themis tower cooler.
My load temps went from 50c to hitting thermal margin. I feel this may be because the cooler blows top-botom, while the airflow is front to back. I also used a little more thermal gunk than I think is necessary, how bad would that be?
Any ideas guys?
Try repositioning the cooler to go with your case airflow configuration also completely remove the thermal paste by cleaning with isopropyl alchohol and microfiber cloth. Just use a bit of TIM, just a little pea in the center will do, And make sure the cooler is properly positioned.
Check the fan connector if it's completely connected in the header or you can just the fan speed using smartfan conrtol through the BIOS or any kind of fan control software on your mobo's UEFI.
Good luck.
The orientation shouldn't make that much of a difference, but it would be better if it followed the case's airflow. If you used too much thermal paste that is probably the problem. Try cleaning it off and trying again. You only need a small amount, about the size of a grain of rice. Put it in the center of the chip then put the heatsink straight down on top of it. Give it a couple of small twists without lifting it and secure it down.
You want to avoid using too much or creating air bubbles, so don't try to spread it and try to put the heatsink on without lifting it off once it's made contact.
The mounts for CPU cooler are rectangular, allowing for only one orientation with provided mounting hardware. The fan is fully functional and not near any cables.
I'll try reapplying TIM after looking at the fan speed :)
Thanks, like I say ill give that a try after looking at the fan speed.
The thermal paste I have comes with a spreading card - Do I spread the paste? I heard bad things about that
Okay... Just ran a quick stability test with System/CPU fans at full, and temps max at 20+ degrees below margin
I have noticed that the pinned fan volume is not as high as the fan sound when the MOBO is controlling fanspeed. May this be the problem; that the fan controller is being too conservative?
No, you don't need to spread it. Just use a very small amount in the center and press the heatsink down on top of it, that will spread it out without creating any air bubbles. The general idea is that it fills in all the tiny gaps in the metal. You don't want a think layer of it as the metal is a much better heat conductor.
Now it gives same temperature range with auto-fan control... quirky... I did set the BIOS to PWM instead of auto detect for the CPU fan... but that shouldn't have changed much?
You can change the fan settings in the BIOS. You should be able to disable it and just have it on at full speed if you want.
There are a few ways to go with this one, but the simplest two are reapplying the thermal paste (as has been mentioned, but please don't use a spreading card, just put a small amount on and the pressure will spread the paste naturally) and getting pressure optimised fans.
You have bought a good heat sink, but the fans that come with it are case fans and not radiator fans. That means that you have less air movement through the radiator than you would otherwise have, and thus less cooling. Reapply the thermal paste to be safe and then get yourself some rad fans, as they will be able to do better work at a lower RPM and thus produce less noise - you'll have a generally better experience.
If you can pick up some Noctuas then do that, if you don't want to spend too much then you can get a two-pack of Corsair's static pressure fans for not a lot.
Good call, I heard reference in reviews that the fans have a low minimum RPM. I'll put that on the upgrade list, Once I'm not massively in the red from uni fees, I'll do that :P cheers guise!