nothing can cool my cpu, help!

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peanotation

New Member
my old setup was my P4 3.2ghz with my tornado fan pointing straight at the cpu's heatsink. i had a tunnel from the fan to the heatsink, so it was just getting blasted with air.

it would idle at 100F/37C
under load it's at 145F/62C - never went over 145 ever.

then i switched cases and motherboards, and used a water cooling system. i hated the water cooling system because it didn't work and after two days of screwing with it i just ditched it. the processor would idle at 140F/60C. i then bought a zalman cpu cooling fan(click here)(i got the all copper version, not the hybrid) and threw it on my cpu. while playing Counter strike (single player to remove internet lag element) it's jerky as hell. i have about two fans on the zalman cooler, so there's 3 fans total on my cpu.

i idle at 120F/48C
full throttle its 150F/65C - and goes higher sometimes.

i miss my counterstrike too much and i'm tired of dealing with it. what the hell am i doing wrong that's making my cpu run so hot. i always put a thin layer of arctic silver 5 thermal paste, treat all the components right, etc etc. i'm totally helpless at this point. WHY IS IT SO HOT?!??!

P4 3.2ghz
Gigabyte mobo
1.5GB ddr ram

nothing overclocked.
 
Is it a Prescott (P4E) or a northwood? S478 P4Es run quite hot, my friends S478 3GHz runs at around 50C. If it's an LGA775 perhaps you didn't put enough thermal paste?
 
Yeah, 65C is defiently higher than I would like, you might have some air pockets between th CPU and heatsink, try putting a little more paste in there.
 
Isnt the fan supposed to pull air from the heat sink, not blow it onto it? Might be somthing there...
 
Should have gone AMD :)

And sorry but I can;t really help you with your problem...Are you sure its not OCed check on start up, because i had a CPU OC'ed once i did it with a jumper while trying to change a FSB and i didn;t even know it.
 
i stuck with the northwood when i picked up my p4, just cause i new of the heat issue, and i really wanted to oc hard.

I have the same fan as you peanotation, its bloody huge! Did you use the fan mate (variable fan controller) attachment that came with it. I had this controller in for a while, but for me it seemded pointless since i always ran at max cpu fan speed anyway. But when i removed the controller my max fan speed increased by 180rpm (from 1620rpm to 1800rpm). I'm sure it not the complete solution to you problem, but it worth noting.
 
Try fitting an "exhust" fan to your case... preferably at the top somewhere so that it sucks the heat out. And also put another fan one near the bottom of the case but make it blow fresh air into the case.
 
well.. the zahlman coolers arnt very good. (a frien of mine has one,. and his pc makes really a lot of noise.)

well, i had the same problem with my cpu. (ok, mine is an AMD. but were talking about heat here.) my CPU was idle at 75*C and when playing doom 3, my mobo shutted the cpu down at 84*C. (ok, i was able to play CS:S normally) i used the same cooling block, just bought an other fan.
1ed98bdac74334114415551dc7a28ed0.jpg

this fan did the job for me.

but before you do anything. look at your old case. where dit the air come from in your old case (what hole in the case), and where did it leave the case.
also make shure the fan doesnt blow the air to the grafics card. because when it does, the airflow resistance is much higher, and your grafics card heats up (and this causes jumpy screens in games, at least it did with my fx-5200 )
 
yah, i removed the fan controller, it seemed pointless. also, all resistor-based fan controllers limit the top speed. basically, when you have the fan controller on max setting, the fan isn't spinning as fast as it could. some power is lost through all the circutry.

as for the exhaust fan idea, i have two fans on the way from new egg. one to push air in, one to suck out. hopefully with some airflow i can bring these temps down a little bit.

as for my old case, it was one of those butterfly cases that split open from the back, pivoting on an axle in the front of the case. i always had it cracked about 2-3 inches, just because i couldn't close it because my zalman cooler for my geforce would get in the way, and the case temperature got too hot, thus increasing the CPU's temperature.

haha, i never knew you could have a (truly) turbocharged fan.

thanks for all the input guys. hopefully with the input/exhaust fans, i can stay below 145F.
 
well.. the zahlman coolers arnt very good.
Click to expand...
So your claiming an entire brand is bad because your friend had a noisy cooler?
also make shure the fan doesnt blow the air to the grafics card. because when it does, the airflow resistance is much higher, and your grafics card heats up
Click to expand...
What airflow resistance and why would that heat up the graphics card?
haha, i never knew you could have a (truly) turbocharged fan.
Click to expand...
That's not turbocharged.

Basically three things that govern how well the HSF performs:
1) Ambient/case temperature - solved by adding more, well placed case fans, or, more dramatically, by adding some sort of powered chiller
2) Contact resistance between the CPU heat spreader and HSF - solved by applying the correct amount of thermal paste
3) Just a crappy HSF - could be past the heat sinks design power, could be the fan isn't pushing enough air or isn't pointed in the optimum direction, etc
 
HAH! nothing can cool it? then get a zalman cool, i think zalmans are pretty good. so thats my opinion. just check demensions if u do... cuz its the size of a cd if u get the best one. another way is water cooling........ but too much work for that.
 
Yeti said:
So your claiming an entire brand is bad because your friend had a noisy cooler?
What airflow resistance and why would that heat up the graphics card?
Click to expand...

i was only refering to the cooler he pointed at, so im not claiming an entire brand as bad.
second, if your cooler blows the air vertically, it blows the air against the vga card. (wich is placed usually under the cpu.). well, for the air to continue the, it has to make a 90 degree angle (cuz of the card standing on the mobo.) and it hits the back of your vga card. cuz the air has to make an angle, the resistance is much higher. and because it hits the back of the vga card, that one heats op.
 
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well.. the zahlman coolers arnt very good. (a frien of mine has one,. and his pc makes really a lot of noise.)
Click to expand...
wth? While they may not be the best of the best (Thermalright's got that mostly taken care of) but they are certainly up there.


Now back to the original topic, perhaps too much thermalpaste? :)
 
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