Athlon/heat sinks 1

[Sylva]

Hello,

One of my computers is running at 36°C, another at 54°C.
Both are Athlon TB/900MHz. I think the hot one has a problem with the thermal sheet between the heat sink and the processor. May be ripped, too heavily pressed, etc. Because of strict specs about heat exchange, I am not sure whether thermal (white) paste can be used in stead. Can it?

Opinions appreciated. Thanks,

John

 

[Stretchy]

I cant see why not. You need to carefully remove whats already there though and make sure the surfaces are clean before you apply thermal paste. You will probably find that's whats causing the higher temp. Thermal paste drastically improves the heat movement between cpu and heatsink. _______________
Stretchy

 

[Sylva]

Thanks Stretchy, so I thought, but it never hurts to ask for a second opinion

John

 

[Stretchy]

nps, i had the same problem not so long ago _______________
Stretchy

 

[paparazi]

The thermal heat transfer pad that comes attached on the new heatsink is a use once only item and must be cleaned off completely and a quality paste applied.
Answer to your question is that a good quality paste is far supperior anyway to that original pad, infact many people take the pad off straight away and use paste.
Arctic Silver II is best but any quality non silicon based heatsink paste is better than a pad.
Only a very small amount of paste is required on the raised core only (size of a mouse dropping) the paste is only there to fill in the surface inperfections betwwen the heatsink and processor core (it is NOT supposed to be an insulating layer)all the excess pushes out just leaving the paste in the microscopic divets and grooves.
One last note* Think case fans (they can have a very beneficial effect on bringing down overall system temps including the processor) Martin Just trying to help, sometimes falling short, I am only human after all.

 

[paparazi]

The thermal heat transfer pad that comes attached on the new heatsink is a use once only item and must be cleaned off completely and a quality paste applied.
Answer to your question is that a good quality paste is far supperior anyway to that original pad, infact many people take the pad off straight away and use paste.
Arctic Silver II is best but any quality non silicon based heatsink paste is better than a pad.
Only a very small amount of paste is required on the raised core only (size of a mouse dropping) the paste is only there to fill in the surface inperfections between the heatsink and processor core (it is NOT supposed to be an insulating layer)all the excess pushes out just leaving the paste in the microscopic divets and grooves.
One last note* Think case fans (they can have a very beneficial effect on bringing down overall system temps including the processor) Martin Just trying to help, sometimes falling short, I am only human after all.

 

[garwain]

>The thermal heat transfer pad that comes attached on the >new heatsink is a use once only item

Interesting. I was told by a contact that those pads are fine as long as there is still a fine pink layer over the core. I'll taking out my heatsyncs and using some Arctic Silver III on my dual CPU system when I get home! (have to open the case anyway and install a couple more fans now that summer is finally arriving in my area...) I had been putting off applying the Artic Silver because I didn't have any on hand when I built the system and the last time I cleaned off the heatsync it took forever to clean off the old pad...

 

[BChumie]

Sorry this post is a question rather than a solution. I was just wondering how people cleaned off the pad material after it has been on the cpu (ie when you are replacing the heatsink).

Thanks,
Brad

 

[cluj]

Many thanx for all your comments.

As long as your machine's processor core temp is in the 30s or 40s, it's fine, no need for remedy. Yeah... if one has 2+ exhaust fans in the box it's better, but not by a whole lot, unless they're capable of moving lots of air. Much bigger problems arise with the XP and MP processors which border on the 70W+ dissipation range. So with the P4s. The main tenet here is to remove the hot air raising from the processor (and having a tendency to get settled there because of the ceiling of the box) as fast as possible.This is why a powerful fan on the heat sink will outperform any number of box fans.

However, no amount of air removal will work efficiently, unless there's good heat exchange between processor and heat sink. This is why I asked the question.

John

 

[Tbarney]

I have never used the pink pads that come on the heatsinks. I always clean that stuff off first-- I use standard alcohol on a q-tip and some tissues to rub it off the processor and a razor on the heatsink. I have used different pastes but I am using Arctic 3 now. Really good stuff... just make sure you get the compound and not the adhesive --which is good for video memory chip heatsinks . And re-read Paparazi's advice about case fans. I get the best results from those cases where I can mount a case fan fairly close to the processor drawing air out of the case.

Good luck!

 

[paparazi]

The fact that these pads (not all of them) can often stay as a complete pink membrane keeping apart the metal base of your heatsink and core surfaces is why they are so poor at transfering the heat.
Even though the pad substance is a fairly good heat transfer material it is very poor when compared to an ideal metal to metal contact, So I hear some of you ask why do we have it in the first place?
Because it is virtually impossible to create two metal surfaces that perfectly contact eachother, under a microscope the surfaces look like a mountain range and when put together air is trapped in the valley's and peaks between the surfaces, these air pockets are extremely poor at transfering heat and that is where the heat transfer paste comes in, it literally fills the holes and expells the air allowing the metal to metal contact where it can but giving the second best thing where the surfaces carn't touch, so you see rather than being a layer between the contact surfaces the paste is just a filler of gaps.
Once you have picked off the old pad with you finger nail then I find a small amount of thinners on a cotton cloth is best to remove the remainder.
Note* to everyone that doesn't already know.
As of 10/6/2002 AMD have released new guidlines for heatsinks for the new XP thoroughbred core.
Which will find it's way onto the market at the slower XP1700+, XP1800+ etc as well as the new XP2200+
Only AMD recommended, COPPER based heatsinks (or special plate) will be acceptable for the much smaller core, this is because it has been reduced by 40% from the Palemino XP core so there will be a much smaller contact patch by which to transfer the heat. Failure to fit a recommended cooler will void AMD warranties. (note* no all Alluminium heatsinks) Martin
Just trying to help, sometimes falling short, I am only human after all.

 

[mistanapesis]

Need to get jets to cool these babies soon......lol If your unsure....Dont do it!

 

[Sylva]

Well, last evening I took the heatsink off, cleaned it to shine, cleaned the die and put paste on. The temperature went down to 52. Either there's an excess of paste, or there is some paint on the die (it's light pink), and if so, it may need a different but benign solvent, or the cause is somewhere else, maybe the voltage regulator is not up tu snuff, or the heat sensor is not very good.

Any other?

By the way, when I started this thread, in my wildest dreams wouldn't have thought of getting so much input. Thanks guys.

John

 

[GoLdFiNgeR]

OK what about this, the pink pad has been "melted" off the heatsink, onto the cpu, and parts of the heatsink that dont touch the cpu, but i cleaned up the heatsink really good like your supposed to , and just so im clear on this, i can use a q tip and some alcohol to clean it off of the proc. And that is just the cpu core correct, but on my proc around the core the pink pad seems to be frozen, basically it is hard, but it isnt covering the core, is this ok, and if not is there a way to remove it, Thnaks

 

[paparazi]

It really doesn't matter too much if there is some pink material around the sides of the core, the most important thing is that the surface of the core and the bottom of the heatsink are spotless.
Personally I don't like to see the pink stuff around the sides and I try to remove as much as possible, by running a finger nail into the corners most can be piddled off but there is really no detrement either way.
I also have found that a chrome cleaning paste called Solvol Autosol is particullarly effective at removing this pink stuff from cores (be warned not to overdo use because it is a mild abrasive) but a small amount on a cloth works brilliantly with the minimum of effort. Martin Just trying to help, sometimes falling short, I am only human after all.