The (new) Official PC building thread!

how quickly did you check the temps. it needs quite a bit of hours for any TP to "settle" in.

 

Believe it or not, they were about equal to start with. I used it for several months, and as time progressed the temps got higher and higher. By the time they reached 78C at load, I decided to call it quits and do something about it. When i removed the heatsink, the application of the paste they provided looked perfect, so I've no idea what happened. When I put coolermaster paste on, the load temps instantly dropped back to about 55C.

 

Let me just clear this up for my own sake.

For the overclocker, it's better to get something "more powerful" to cool the cpu such as a zalman or whatever.

For the average pc builder(such as myself) or even someone buying a pc from a shop, the stock intel cooler i get with the processor will be sufficient.

Are there any programs to check CPU temp?
Or for that matter, GPU etc?

 

Which mobo do you have? Sometimes they include a monitoring progie in the software.

Everest
PC Probe (ASUS)
SpeedFan

There are others but I'm not at home. Be there later for all the links that I have.

Someone will post some links I'm sure.

......gm

 

yes but almost all aftermarket performance cpu hsf's will cool better and cooler is always better and will extend the life of the component. you can buy a much better than oem hsf for only $20 - $25 (artic freezer 7) so why not and it's there in the event that you want to OC to some degree at a later date.

I always use AS5 as opposed to the oem thermal pad even on oem hsf's for 2 reasons: 1) AS5 cools better, even if only a couple of degrees C 2) the oem thermal pad sticks to the cpu and when you try to remove the hsf it usually pulls the cpu out of the socket which is even worse on socket 478 cpu's because it usually damages/bends some pins.

there are several. I like everest ultimate edition. some others are sis sandra and pc wizard. most mobo's come with a utility on their driver cd-rom too (asus probe).

 

I used speedfan, seems nice and easy. Got these reuslts on my old p4 machine after startup.




Edit - after like 5 mins each of these temps went up 2-3 degrees.

 

He_Man: That's correct. As for measuring CPU temps, Speedfan and Hmonitor will check the temps of your CPU, Motherboard chipset and Hard drives. You can use programs like ntune or ATITool to check your graphics card temps. These programs are all free. If you want something more comprehensive, you can use everest, which is a paid-license program.
Mort81: I'm sorry I can't agree with that statement. Whilst keeping microprocessors cool could potentially extend their lifetime, as long as they are not exposed to temperatures outside their normal operating range, their lifetime will anything between 15 and 20 years, plenty long enough for anyone's CPU. If an overheating problem was occurring then yes, a better cooler would be wise, but stock coolers nowadays are good enough to be perfectly acceptable. I think it's unnecessary to ask people to spend extra money when it's unnecessary.

 

sam,

whatever. to each their own. I've got a closet full of oem cpu hsf's I'll give ya all I ask is that you at least scrape off the oem TP and use some AS5. then again I've got to remember that you're the guy that prefers quiet over cool.

 

just ran speedfan 4.33 and got these results. just how bad is it?

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i196/Cincrob/smartfan.jpg

 

Mort I've got a bunch of them too! I wonder how many orphaned Intel heatsinks are sitting around on shelves. Too bad we can't come up with another use for them.

If folks want to lower their temps they should just keep the cooler clean. Almost every PC I work on has a cooler packed full of dirt.
Would an aftermarket cooler really make the typical web surfing, e-mail sending PC last longer?
Most of the millions of PC owners won't have the same PC 5 years from now, many should not even be allowed to open the case.

 

Rob, You should apply a load to your cpu. Orthos is easy.
I don't know if you set up speedfan for your application. It doesn't look like like it. If Temp 1 is your CPU it looks a bit high for the load that's indicated.
Everest Ultimate has a 30 day free trial and doesn't require you to configure it.

 

Oh and i also forget, im pretty lucky when it comes to cooling.Due to location on earth. That's why im currently enjoying room temperatures of -3 degrees

SCOTLAND FTW!!!!!!!

So if i open my window (my room is agood 70 feet up from ground) the wind blows straight in.........it's a mini hurricane LOL

I should be getting extremely low temps.

 

Works awesome right? At my old apartment I had my tower backed right up to a low-height window. I just used to keep it open an inch or two and the power supply fan was right there, suckin down all the cool air. It really helped out a lot.

So much in fact that I got fooled. This tower has a Pentium 4 3.4ghz "Prescott", it runs about as hot as cpus can get. When I moved to my new place, I forgot I had this extra window cooling at my old place, and my video card failed after having the computer on for an hour or two.

To be safe, I have to keep the window off my case in the summer.

I miss that window!

 

With DDR PC3200 RAM is it better to get 4x512MB or 2x1GB sticks? Looking at getting some GOOD RAM from the EGG. This is what I'm looking at for choices.



....gm

 

greensman,

what are you going to be using DDR 400 in?

edit: forgot to answer the question. 2 x 1gb would be better.

 

@jtan189
Will the stock cooler work...Yes absolutely...will the thermal pad work...Yes...would I ever use the thermal pad...NO WAY...NEVER...

Is the AC5 better...absolutely...No Question about it...Will your Computer fail if you use the stock cooler and pad...No...

All I suggested was that instead of spending $6 on AC5...You could spend $4 more...get a very Good CPU Cooler with the same Cooler Master Silver based paste that Sam mentioned...for Free with the Cooler...

I never saw what CPU and Stock Cooler you are using...did not even know if it was a AMD or Intel...Some OEM coolers have a Thermal Pad...which in my opinion are Garbage...Thermal Pads are extremely inefficient in transferring heat...absolutely the worst way to go...

Some OEM Cooler provide a white thermal paste in a packet...much better then the thermal pad...but not as efficient as a...metallic based thermal paste like AC5...anyway the choice is yours...I just wanted you to know your options...

 

Right, feel like helping out a desperate man?

My mum just said......well basically, help my bro out and she will buy all my parts for me!!!!!!1

Trouble is, helping my bro is gonna be a bitch. It's about flash animation. He needs to create an 11 sec animation in Flash MX on the theme of "Keep Britain Tidy"

Can anyone use this and make it for me(well Brother)?

There's a £10 bounty in it for anyone.

 

Antec 900 case.
http://www.hardware.info/images/news/antec_900_overview_goed.jpg

m2n sli deluxe mobo. (current) (Gonna get a better one when I find it. One with better sli)
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=301&model=1160&modelmenu=1

Eight gigs of ocz gold edition ram (current, 2 gigs of crap ram)
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_6400_vista_performance_gold_2gb_edition

amd phenom quad core (not much known on it, very new) (current, blown amd 6000+ dualcore)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amd_phenom

Two 8800 nVidia Ultra (current, one 8800 nVidia gts)
http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_8800.html


4-5 five months and it's built.

 

@Funk4000

Windows XP only recognizes 3GB of ram...Just thought you might want to know...If that was your choice for an O/S..

 

Good Lord Funk, What are you trying to build here...
The 780i boards will be out soon so wait for one of those. Those two Ultra video cards... What kind of resolutions are you after? Seems like way overkill to me. A pair of 8800 GTs would work as well at most gaming resolutions and use a lot less power and generate a lot less heat... For a lot less money.
Antec 900 case. I don't like where the big PSU you will need is located, below the video cards. Heat rises. I don't like the way cables route from a bottom mount PSU. Also this is a mid tower. SLI setups need room to breathe. Get a Coolermaster Cosmos or Gigabyte Aurora 3D full tower. Just my opinion. I know folks like these cases, I don't.

Phenom CPUs are slow at this point in time. If you are trying to build a fast PC, I don't know why you would want to use one of those. If you are stuck on AMD then do so. You may have to wait awhile before they catch up with Intel. With the money you save by buying 8800 GTs instead of Ultras, you could get a fast Intel quad core.
Of course you may want to wait for the new Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX cards...