CPU paste a good solution?

[Consumer]

My summer has been very humid and normally my system is cooler (usually
55-60 C) in the winter and never reboots. I have an Athlon XP1800+ which has
been about 60 C at idle. I can't even play a modern game without an error or
reboot. Last NIGHT it went up to 78 C, which made starting my OS impossible
without a shutdown for 10 minutes. I opened the system to check all fans,
and they're fine. I periodically clean my case inside and out, so there
isn't a layer of dust anywhere, and all wires are properly situated with
ventilation in mind.

The CPU is using a stock fan, but I've read reviews at Newegg with customers
claiming good results from simply applying thermal grease like Arctic Silver
3 and keeping their stock fans. How much would thermal grease actually help
in my situation? Is it worth five dollars alone, or is it only effective
with another accessory? Also, I read that the 3g of paste is enough to use
for many systems, but how long does it last on one?

 

[Consumer]

How much of a difference might I see from the application of Arctic 3
thermal paste?

 

[booster]

that's unusually hot for an 1800+. I have a 2000+ and it was 40-45 winter,
50-55 this summer. You need to take some immediate steps to run the cpu
cooler or you're just asking for trouble. Get the thermal paste and a nice
big fan, and probably some case fans too as harddrives can cause the
internals of your case to heatup

 

[Interesting Ian]

My summer has been very humid and normally my system is cooler (usually
55-60 C) in the winter and never reboots. I have an Athlon XP1800+ which has
been about 60 C at idle. I can't even play a modern game without an error or
reboot. Last NIGHT it went up to 78 C, which made starting my OS impossible
without a shutdown for 10 minutes. I opened the system to check all fans,
and they're fine. I periodically clean my case inside and out, so there
isn't a layer of dust anywhere, and all wires are properly situated with
ventilation in mind.

The CPU is using a stock fan, but I've read reviews at Newegg with customers
claiming good results from simply applying thermal grease like Arctic Silver
3 and keeping their stock fans. How much would thermal grease actually help
in my situation? Is it worth five dollars alone, or is it only effective
with another accessory? Also, I read that the 3g of paste is enough to use
for many systems, but how long does it last on one?

I've got an XP1800. Mine was getting to 78C/79C when playing certain games
and my motherboard was switching itself off. I applied some paste about 2
months ago and my max temperature is now 61C.

 

[Guest]

My summer has been very humid and normally my system is cooler
(usually 55-60 C) in the winter and never reboots. I have an
Athlon XP1800+ which has been about 60 C at idle. I can't even
play a modern game without an error or reboot. Last NIGHT it went
up to 78 C, which made starting my OS impossible without a
shutdown for 10 minutes. I opened the system to check all fans,
and they're fine.

The CPU is using a stock fan, but I've read reviews at Newegg with
customers claiming good results from simply applying thermal grease
like Arctic Silver 3 and keeping their stock fans.

If you're not overclocking, then changing the thermal paste shouldn't
make a difference unless the original paste wasn't applied correctly
(even slightly too little or far, far too much) or it was of unusually
poor quality and was lumpy or gritty and made the layer very thick.

If the fans were fine, then they would be operating in a way to
maximize cooling. But this isn't always so, especially when there's
more than one case fan and some aren't blowing in the right direction.
The right direction can be found only by trial and error and careful
measurement, meaning running the computer for at least an hour,
preferrably 2, each time a fan's direction is changed, and measuring
the temperature difference between the outside and inside.

Check for cards or cables causing hot air blowing out of the CPU
heatsink to be sucked right back into the CPU fan. You also don't
want the CPU fan to be only 1/2" from the power supply or, worse, a
close-by power supply fan fighting the CPU fan.

 

[Consumer]

I didn't get any thermal paste. That's why I wanted to know if it works
well.

I don't know how to determine a proper positioning of the fans, but my point
was that the fans were working and I never tried to modify anything. The
blades were spinning and a utility says they spin normally. Air comes out of
the vents. I never tried changing their positions. I think this should be
simple to describe, because it's a basic case.

Sorry for the artwork, but you should get the idea. This is scaled decently:

(top)

------------------------------
| | fan |
| | |
------------------------------

(back) (left side)

| PSU | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | | fan | |
| | | |
| | | |

 

[Interesting Ian]

Well it's good to know that my system isn't the only one that's warm. What
brand/type of thermal paste did you use? Was there anything else you
added/changed?

Just applied the paste. I also cleaned all the dust off the fan and heat
sink. Nothing else. A friend brought the paste around. Don't know what
type it was, but he said it was good stuff.

 

[Interesting Ian]

"Consumer" <[email protected]> wrote in message


If you're not overclocking, then changing the thermal paste shouldn't
make a difference unless the original paste wasn't applied correctly
(even slightly too little or far, far too much) or it was of unusually
poor quality and was lumpy or gritty and made the layer very thick.

Mine already had paste on, but the temperature has reduced by about 18C

 

[Guest]

I didn't get any thermal paste. That's why I wanted to know if it works
well.

I don't know how to determine a proper positioning of the fans,
but my point was that the fans were working and I never tried to
modify anything. The blades were spinning and a utility says they
spin normally. Air comes out of the vents. I never tried changing
their positions.

If you want to see if your temperature problem is due to poor case air
circulation through the case, remove the side panel, and if the CPU
cools down significantly then you've found your problem. But if the
CPU runs almost as hot, then its heatsink or fan is the problem.

The positioning of the fans isn't that critical, but you want to avoid
having one fan almost directly next to another fan. The fan direction
matters because if it's backwards it'll reduce rather than increase
the air flow through the case, and the only practical way to determine
the best direction is by trying the fan both ways and taking
temperature difference measurements. But generally if the case is
very leaky, it's best to have the fans blow outward, while having case
fans blow inward is better for a relatively well-sealed case.

 

[Interesting Ian]

"Consumer" <[email protected]> wrote in message

If you want to see if your temperature problem is due to poor case air
circulation through the case, remove the side panel, and if the CPU
cools down significantly then you've found your problem.

Mine reduces by about 10C on taking the side panel off.