It's Not The Heat, It's The Humidity

[Avi]

Hi guys. I'm new to the forum.

Been having some issues with my PC and I thought I'd drop a line here to see if some old pals can help. Daddyo has been giving me advice via e-mail, but I'm starting not to trust him.

I bought a GTX560 card for my PC (running a Q8300 quad processor) and noticed that during certain games, the processor fan would go into overdrive and wake up people across the street. I decided to apply a new coat of thermal paste to the core to see if that would help distribute the heat. After removing the fan, I noticed that the bracket for the heat sink was cracked, which was causing the contact plate underneath it to sit on an angle (which was causing the processor to heat up considerably). I bought a Rocketfish Universal CPU cooler from Best Buy, which has heat pipes running through the heat sink. It took a while to install (had to remove mobo), and now that it's in there, I notice that the fan sits about an inch and a half from the underside of the GTX560.

I ran Bad Company 2:Vietnam (which usually causes the fan to kick into high gear) and it remained at a considerably lower temperature. Instead of 75C-80C, it maxed at 65C...but the temperature of the GTX560 hovers at around 60C instead of 50C-55C under a full load.

Do you think that this will present a problem with the graphics card over time? It's not much of a difference, but it is noticeably hotter.

[TronFAQ]

Hi guys. I'm new to the forum.

Gotta love that sense of humor.

Your video card should be fine. If it's 80+ celsius, then it's starting to get toasty. If it's hitting 100, time to worry. A temp of around 60 is average for most modern video cards.

It's possible your new heatsink/fan combo is creating more warm air, now that it's cooling the CPU properly. Which is raising the temp of everything else inside the case slightly.

[Avi]

I just took it all apart again and applied the thermal paste more liberally between the heat sink and the CPU. The heat pipes run across the contact plate, so there are slight gaps in it where the CPU doesn't make contact with anything. I filled in those crevices with the paste and it seems the heat is being more evenly distributed now. Even my idle temp has dropped about 5 degrees.

It seems that everyone has different opinions on which temps are safe and which are not. The one common statement I have been running across is "80C is hot". I guess as long as I stay far away from 80, I'll be okay.

Apparently, most people have these issues with Bad Company 2, especially the Vietnam DLC which I have been playing constantly. Most forums discussing the Vietnam expansion have a thread or two about high core temps. So much rice to be rendered.

[Daddyo]

Hard to believe your CPU survived a separated heat sink. GPU's can handle alot more C's, who knows why.

Your CPU I think is rated 72 C otherwise bad things happen. You want only enough paste to conduct the heat away, put too much on and it will not work as well, must be as thin as possible.

Paypal is the accepted form of payment for answers rendered:

[Avi]

OH yeah? Tell that to Core Temp 1.0, which is currently telling me that slathering the CPU with paste was a GOOD thing to do!

[Daddyo]

Then my professional opinion would be to run a garden hose through you pc for maximum cooling potential

[Avi]

I just put enough to fill in the crevices on the contact plate and make sure that the majority of the surface of the processor would be covered. It's not dripping off of the heat sink or anything.

Layer told me that within a few days, the temps should be even better after the compound sets up. I'm going to keep a close eye on everything for a week or so. This is actually the first time that I ever stripped a PC down to the case and put it back together. It was the only way to install the heat sink, since it has these plastic clips that go through the mobo and the old one screwed into a backing plate.

My next project is to build a case for everything that allows better air flow. I already have a nice sized plexi-glass case with sliding doors for it.

[deeahchur]

Pimp it out with glowy Tron strips-like strips!

[Avi]

Someone beat me to it:

http://thecoolgadgets.com/wp-content/up ... ddaker.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[deeahchur]

That's impressive, if not awkward.

[Avi]

Yeah, I think it's kind of lame, actually.