Heat and how to cope with it

[urvieh]

Just a short question: Is there anything better than a Zalman 7000 for a 3.2 GHz Prescott (540)?

My machine turns off after five minutes of BZip2-multithread compression (temp. at 81 °C).

Will a cooling system with heat pipes be better? I appreciate any proposal.

P.S.: An external water cooling cannot be applied. I have three cats, and their eyes start shining at the very thought of it. :)

[Gehenna]

Thats quite an insane temp for a CPU to get to, something cannot be right.

Is the Heatsink/Fan securely attached to the board?
Did you use a thermal compound between cpu & heatsink?

The Zalman 7000 is a very good HS/F combo,it should be fine for your system..

[CWR03]

I have seen a water cooling system which is completely internal to the case. Instead of an individual block, pump and external radiator, it has one unit which contains the pump that attaches to the CPU, with a radiator which can mount anywhere (I believe it was intended to mount to a standard 80mm fan opening in the back of the case).

[Gerard V]

Your other avenue of investigation is to make sure that there is adequate airflow through the case itself. Without good airflow into and out of the case, your CPU cooler cannot be completely effective. I have had similar problems with a Pentium D chip - and in the end I cannot say I have a good solution. One thing that did help was to install additional case fans. Whatever model fan, cooling of the CPU can only keep the CPU at the temperature of the incoming air plus some number of degrees, so getting plenty of cold air into the case is a good place to start. The incoming air might be being heated up by your hard drives etc (many cases are organised this way) with the result that the air is already warm by the time it reaches your CPU. A more up market case will put the PSU and the Hard Drives in a separate chamber from the motherboard, reducing this shared heat problem.

When you find a good solution please let us know what it is.

[Pookie]

Those Prescotts are hotter than the sun. The Thermalright XP-90 is a great heatsink, and you can attach it to the stock retainers on the CPU mount without having to remove your motherboard - here's an in depth review

http://www.heatsinkfactory.com/ThermalRight-Heatsinks-p-1-c-251.html

http://www.systemcooling.com/thermalright_xp-90-01.html


Remember to purchase a fan with it.

[BigDid]

Hi,

If we are on air cooling possibilities, there are other Thermalright, if your case is wide enough, like the SI 120, Ultra120 and a new one: SI 128. Check if all are Intel compatible but should be :)

A test on a silent config (german) here: http://www.hartware.de/review_597_8.html

Did

[UofC]

I would increase the air flow as much as you can in the case.

XP-90 and Zalman are very good for air cooling. If you have never installed a new HSF take allot of care and time as it can be a large job.

Zalman has a fan. The XP-90 needs a fan, panflow is one of the best. If you get a high speed make sure you get a power adapter as the motherboard header is not designed of that much power draw.

If you buy after market thermal paste it can help lower the temps by 2-4c. OCZ ultra5 or artic silver are good.