Thermal paste issue

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Pyromaniacghoul

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Oct 9, 2013
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I'm pretty sure I didn't mount it correctly, only this time round did I notice markings on my motherboard showing how it should be positioned and have mounted it to fit within these markings. Is this fine for now if I don't have any thermal paste handy?
 
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HavocXphere

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Yes thats a problem.

Are you sure all the clips were on? The pattern suggests the lower right clip wasn't securely attached.

Also...I hope that copper heat sink looks crap purely because of the camera...

Though given the distribution of the thermal paste in the middle I'd inclined to think we're dealing with a properly sht heat sink in addition to a cell camera here.

The colour of the paste in pic 2 looks fk'in dodgy...what is that stuff? Semi-translucent? Spend 100 bucks on some arctic silver or something. AS isn't directly worth it in terms of temp improvements but its worth it in terms of troubleshooting. i.e. "OK - the thermal paste is def not the problem".

The paste is meant to even out micron level gaps. Not this...thats fk'in multiple milimeters never mind microns:
micron.JPG

Also OP...posting about high temps, thermal paste issue...and then not a single temp mentioned...weak style.

You might want to google "lapping heat sink"...do note that you'll be void'ing your warranty.
 
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Pyromaniacghoul

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HavocXphere said:
Yes thats a problem.
Click to expand...

Sorry about the not posting temps, still learning. Anyway, my CPU while in idle was hitting around 41 degrees which I thought was quite hot but while running the aida64 stress test, it only went up to around 72ish.

Well the photo was taken with a Note 3 but with poor lighting so it might be that.
All thermal paste etc etc is the stock stuff with the Corsair H100i I bought.
 
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HavocXphere

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72ish is hot but not yet dangerous.

If you fix the sketchy thermal distrib you'll manage 65 i think

Idle 40 is perfectly fine..mine is idling at 40 too and thats with undervolting and ok thermal

First pic top of heat sink...is it as rough as it looks in that pic? In the pic it looks like it has fkin canyons rivaling the Great Canyon so if the pic is an accurate representation then its either lap it or toss it. I think the pic makes things look worse than it is though.

Buy some arctic silver, get cotton buds, get some rubbing alcohol (pharmacy) and sort it out. Google for good guides on doing thermal paste step by step. And remember...less is more.
 
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Pyromaniacghoul

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HavocXphere said:
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Click to expand...

Yep just checked, the pic does make it look worse than what it is, but should I lap it anyway?

Also could I use surgical spirits to clean it off or is there a certain type of rubbing alcohol I'm looking for?
 
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HavocXphere

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>the pic does make it look worse than what it is

Well thats good news.

>should I lap it anyway?

Unless you absolutely need it I'd advise against lapping...its something I'd hesitate to do myself and clearly I know more about this than you - you'd be nuking the warranty at a minimum and frying the gear at worst. If the sink is as bad as it looks in the pic then I'd say go for it but somehow between Corsair generally being quality and you saying its not as bad as it looks I'm inclined to say no lapping.

Rather buy proper thermal paste & re-do the paste like a boss. After that you can re-evaluate the situation.

See link below - wootware is generally trusted...the price is a hint on the hectic side esp after shipping but it'll get the concerns regarding thermal paste off you back. Try and buy it locally if you can instead.
http://www.wootware.co.za/arctic-mx-4-4g-thermal-paste.html

You'd do well to read up on lapping anyway...the okes in that field tend to have a superior understand of the whole CPU thermal thing so reading there is time well spent even if you don't lap.

>Also could I use surgical spirits to clean it off or is there a certain type of rubbing alcohol I'm looking for?

Its the same thing. Essentially you want to purest methanol/ethanol you can find...so that it evaporates nicely and doesn't leave sht on your heat sink (sht on heat sink = bad thermal conductivity). Try not to use the blue methaled spirits sold in PnP...those won't evap cleanly. Anything labeled surgical spirits / rubbing alcohol should be OK though...though I'd favor the low volume type bought from a trusted pharmacist.
 
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Yotch

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Be very careful when purchasing alcohol for cleaning purposes - surgical spirits usually contains wintergreen and castor oil as additives - it smells like Wicks bubblegum and is not suitable for cleaning purposes as it leaves an oily residue. Rubbing alcohol may contain 70% isopropyl alcohol without additives but you need to make sure before you purchase it. I usually just purchase 50ml of isopropyl alcohol from the Dischem Dispensary for about R10 - just make sure that the cap is screwed on tightly otherwise it could leak and damage something.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...g-CPU-Thermal-Paste?highlight=surgical+spirit
 
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garyc

garyc

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Dischem sell a rubbing alcohol which is 91% isopropyl alcohol with no strange stuff added. I have used this for cleaning heat sinks and it has worked well. Trichloroethylene is the best if you can find it. Just avoid inhaling the fumes.
 
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Rudimental

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If you're worried about screwing up with the paste, then go for something like the Arctic MX4 mentioned earlier, which is not electrically conductive.

If you can find Arctic Silver Ceramique, then you could also use that. It is also not electrically conductive and is also extremely easy to clean up, but it is a little thick for some people's liking.
 
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Pyromaniacghoul

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Alright well I will go get some artic silver tomorrow and reapply some... but to report back for now, after just remounting the water cooler correctly to the cpu block and make sure it's nice and secure, I saw a idle temp drop from 40ish degrees 24 degrees :) So I'm happy again:D
 
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nelis

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All I can say is the 4770K does run hot. That's why I'm holding a bit off till haswell refresh or broadwell. you can always ask landmarkpc to delid the processor and get 20C cooler temps under load. They call it ultracooled cpu. I'm running 3770K although at stock speds when playing bf4 on 64 man server or even crysis 3 that's even more demanding on quiet mode my cpu goes to about 50C.

I bought myself some arcric silver 4 from titan-ice and it's amazing. Another thing you can do is check if your h100i is making proper contact with cpu. I noticed there is a few people online complaining about the h100 sitting a bit loose. So what they do is have washers/spacers between the motherboard and backplate. Try that aswell should drop your temps by about 5-10C.
 
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