HEAT -- please recommend a heat sink

[Sawdusty]

I'm having a little overheating trouble with my Athlon XP 1900. It is not overclocked and the heatsink that came with this system appears to be good; no documentation on it. Its got a fan and a fair number of cooling fins and made of aluminum. Any way I can get better information on that?

I just installed a case fan (I was a little dumber when I bought this system than I am now and I assumed buying one custom-built would result in a good system... why they didn't put a fan in I will never know. I'm building my own systems from now on), and its cooled down the system tempurature considerably. The CPU temp isn't really any lower though. I assume this means either my heatsink or heatsink fan is at fault. Are there other options?

The heatsink seems to be absorbing heat; it burns my fingers if I touch it. Doesn't sound very good, does it?

My tempuratures are:

System temp: about 33-35 Celcius
CPU temp: about 63-66 with average load

(The System fan is running at about 2000 RPM and the heatsink fan is at about 4500)

I'm having frequent system crashes which I suspect are due to my CPU tempurature climbing above the threshold of 70 degrees that I've set in my bios. Rather than raise that threshold, I'd rather cool the CPU!

I've done a few searches, but I can't find a heatsink/fan at standard computer stores that look any better than what I have. However, I don't really know what to look for or where to look. Can somebody with experience and knowledge recommend a specialty heatsink to dissipate heat faster or some other solution?

Thanks,
Dusty

PS: I'm intending to lower the system temp a little more by installing a second case fan for intake, but I doubt that will cool the CPU any faster...

[Hayl]

take a look at the ones here. besides being good ones, they are also made for low-noise emission.

www.quietpc.ca

they ship their products quickly too :)

[hard candy]

Take a look at this thread, I run an Athlon XP 2500 which has a slightly different die and it runs around 44 with the mfg heatsink and fan.computing net (http://www.computing.net/cpus/wwwboard/forum/2817.html)
And if your power supply has a fan plus your case has a fan that should be all you need unlees you really overclock or jam in the components. Some newer systems just use convection without any fans.
Good luck.

[hard candy]

Hayl, I was saying that is an expensive place! Then I realized it's Canadian funds.:o

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by Sawdusty
(The System fan is running at about 2000 RPM and the heatsink fan is at about 4500) :eek: :eek:

2000 RPM? That sounds to me like it's your problem. 2000 RPM fans aren't going to cool anything off, not much...

I used to like my Thermaltake Volcano 6 Cu+, but it ran at 7000 RPMs, and was therefore extremely noisy. I got a Vantec Aeroflow after that, though, which only runs around 5000 RPMs, and the noise level is at least two orders of magnitude better. Plus the cooling is about the same.

One thing to realize, though, is that if your Athlon 1900 is a Palomino core, then it'll run a bit hot any way you try to cool it. My XP1800 Palomino ran at 60C with the Thermaltake, and 58C with the Vantec (of course, both those numbers were under 100% load, too, FWIW). My new 2500 Barton runs at about 40C under load, in the same case with the same CPU fan (the Vantec).

[Gertrude]

I have a VANTEC AeroFlow VA4-C7040, and it seems to due the job on a XP2600. It stays around 40 degrees Celsius


http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?style=album

[ricstr]

I have a Thermaltake Volcano 10 on an Athlon 2500+. And its about 20C above room tempreture.

All the AMD stock fans that i have used have worked quite well, I dont think you need another heatsink/fan.
Instead try re-fitting the current heatsink and make sure you are using thermal compound. If your using thermal compound make sure your not using too much of it.

[dkeav]

i really dont think your fan is gonna matter as much as the airflow in the case itsself, that matters the most, if you have a 80cfm fan blowing hot air in circles thats just a waste of time and money, spend a lil more money and time on your cables inside, get rounded cables if you can and get them as organized as possible, preferrable one central bundle very tightly bundeled together, second learne a little about air flow dynamics and work on your case fans if you have two in the front pushing 75cfm a piece and 2 in the back pushing 50, then your pooling air again, try to match your fans on both ends, another little helper is heat rises so put a single blow hole in the top, and last, clean it, it will run a lot cooler if all the dust and what not is not filling fan filters or fans and the case its self, i run a thermaltake volcano 7+, with two 80mm fans in the front, two in the back, and one 120mm on top, all cfms are matched, and the inside of the case runs only two degrees over room temp

[dalek]

I use a Thermaltake Volcano 11+. It's about $30.00 US. I run about 28C at idle and about 35C to 40C when at full load. I have mine set up with the sensor. The hotter it gets the faster the fan runs.
You may want to try running with the side off the case and a fan blowing at a angle into the case. See if it runs hot then. If it does the CPU fan needs help. If not the case needs more fans or better fans. Thermaltake and some others make temperture sensative case fans that run quiet when idle but crank up when needed.

Good luck.

:D :D :cool: :cool:

[Sawdusty]

This is getting more confusing! ;) I know a lot of people take their cooling really seriously... I should too, but it seems to me that since I'm not doing anything fancy there shouldn't be any problem with what I have.

The first advice I'm going to follow is to take the heatsink off and put it on again to make sure it has a good seat and there isn't too much thermal compound. I'm not certain what is too much; I've been told that it should be very thin.

I will also get one more fan to draw some more cool air in. I have been running the system with the side off for the past few months; it brought the tempurature down from about 80 (:eek: ) to 60. When I put the case fan in and put the side up, the system tempurature went down from there, but the CPU temp rose a bit.

If this doesn't cool the system enough, I was interested in this heatsink; I'm not worried about the sound of the system, but this is from that quietpc site above:

http://www.quietpc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Product_ID=217&CATID=23

As I said, I don't really know what I'm looking for, just something to stop the system from crashing! If I let this thing get up to full load, that's what happens. :(

Thanks again for all the advice, its much appreciated.

Dusty

[ricstr]

This is instructions for Arctic Silver compund but the same instructions should apply for most other compounds.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

[CrashTestDummy9]

http://www.fannerusa.com/product/5F286B1M3.asp I have this one on my 2400+.Does a decent job but There are better ones.I got it because it was 9 bucks from newegg.com.Dropped my temps about 5 degrees celcius from stock one.

[Sawdusty]

Oopsie...

Just for the record and because I didn't see anything like this in any of my various quests for solutions to this problem ("Why was my computer running cool for a year and then it wasn't anymore"), here's the conclusion for this thread.

It seems like a really simple thing to check, in fact something that should be really obvious, but I didn't see it until I had the heatsink off the motherboard.

The space between the heatsink fan and the top of the heatsink was chock full of dust and lint and stuff. There was no way that fan was cooling anything! I pulled the fan off the heatsink, cleaned out the dust with compressed air and then isopropyl alcohol and then reattached the fan. I scraped off the old heatsink gunk and put some thermal grease I had on hand in its place. After rebooting and testing the computer, I found the CPU temp had dropped from 62 to 40 Celcius... much better. The system tempurature has also fallen slightly.

So for the next person who doesn't know as much as s/he should about cooling, check for a little dust in the fins of the heatsink. I'm not in a particularly dirty room, but this thing was literally packed with dust, and its only been running for a year.

Dusty

[freakmn]

Was it... SawDust?

Sorry, Couldn't resist...