My first AMD processor, question about heat sink

pdp76

Weaksauce
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Jan 31, 2006
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I just purchased my first AMD CPU, a Athlon II x4 630. Pretty sweet so far! Anyway, one thing I'm a little concerned about, I'm using the stock heat sink/fan and it seemed WAY too easy to put on. The little plastic lever you push to lock down the HSF barely had any resistance when I pushed it down. Coming from Intel 775s where you have to jam down much harder to get those spring loaded plastic pins into the motherboard, it seems like the AMD HSF doesn't have tight contact with the CPU. Is this normal? I thought these CPUs were supposed to idle in the low to mid 30s, but my idle temps are in the low to mid 40s with ambient temp around 24. No overclocking either and I'm using the thermal paste that came with the stock HSF. I'm using HWMonitor to read the temps by the way and I'm running a Biostar A760GM2+ mobo.
 
40's aren't terrible. If you start to get anywhere north of 75C during load you may want to be concerned. Also the BIOS is program to shut down the computer if the CPU overheats. If you develope hot spots on the CPU because of lack of a good seal it should shut the machine down. Also lga775 does suck with those pins. I have a celeron machine that is lga775 and it was SUCKY to mount a new fan on it.
 
So the seemingly looser (compared to Intel) HSF is normal? After I locked the HSF on last night, it would actually still slide around a bit, but that could be because the thermal paste hadn't cured yet...
 
Intel HSF's are a PITA...AMD's by comparison are works of engineering art!
 
the last three am3 cpus (x3,x4 BE) that i installed, i remembered using quite some pressure to get the stock coolers on. they shouldnt be sliding around. maybe you can wiggle them a tiny bit, but not slide around.

also, the last 955 x4 BE cpu i installed gave me some high temps (45+ @ idle and 63 @ load with prime) with the stock coolers.

whats your load temps?
 
your temps are a little high, but no where near outside the acceptable range....however, you may not have enough thermal paste on it(they cheap out on the paste for stock HS), but your heat issue may just be the case flow.....

also, you shoulda needed quite a bit of pressure(not as much as for each pin on the LGA 775 boards), every AMD fan i've done has required me to push very hard on it to have it securely be attached....


40's aren't terrible. If you start to get anywhere north of 75C during load you may want to be concerned. Also the BIOS is program to shut down the computer if the CPU overheats. If you develope hot spots on the CPU because of lack of a good seal it should shut the machine down. Also lga775 does suck with those pins. I have a celeron machine that is lga775 and it was SUCKY to mount a new fan on it.



if you get anywhere north of 65 C turn your dam computer off, if your at 75 C, go shoot it with water(figuratively) and AMD chip will start to burn up 10C above its max rated temp(65C).....you shouldn't get temps near 75 C on an modern AMD machine EVER, 50s are even pushing it for my own preferences(however my folding rig is at 57 C constant, don't like it but its the best I can do with what ive got for it)
 
As others have said, it should have needed a bit of force to get on there. I've always preferred the AMD stock coolers to intels push pin design. Once it was locked down, it shouldn't be wiggling at all. Make sure your retention bracket is screwed down all the way.
 
Thanks for the info everyone. I'll see if I can reseat the HSF when I get home later, and I'll test out the load temps with prime95 too (once I finished installing the OS again...) Maybe it's the motherboard's plastic HSF bracket that is loose...
 
if the mobo bracket is loose, it will wiggle...otherwise your clip on the HSF may be bent a bit....but ya, little/no movment should be possible when fully installed
 
My stock heatsink came with way to much thermal paste. When I replaced the heatsink thermal paste was all over the sides of the cpu. Like others said it should take some force, I was afraid I was going to break it, maybe because mine had to squeeze all the thermal paste out. I get 30c idle on stock heatsink and 50C load for an x4 955, I think 40c idle is a little high.
 
munkle....if his case has only one exhaust fan, then 40C would be low....hard to make judgement on if the temp is high in a scenario if you don't know what the case's air flow is like....
 
munkle....if his case has only one exhaust fan, then 40C would be low....hard to make judgement on if the temp is high in a scenario if you don't know what the case's air flow is like....

which is why I said "I think"
 
munkle....if his case has only one exhaust fan, then 40C would be low....hard to make judgement on if the temp is high in a scenario if you don't know what the case's air flow is like....

I had the cover off, when i put it on, it got even a little warmer. I only have a 80mm case fan if you're curious
 
Ok so I took a closer look at the HSF and motherboard after getting home. The plastic retention bracket is screwed down to the mobo tightly. I tried bending the metal bar that runs across the heat sink to maybe get it tighter, but damn, that thing is pretty strong so unless it came "unbent" from the factory, I don't think it could have warped on its own.

It's a little warmer now in the computer room, probably near 30C and I decided to leave the cover on the computer, still idling around 45. I ran prime95 for about 10min, about how long it takes to get the CPU to max temp and it hit 64. Normally I wouldn't be so concerned since I'm comfortable running Intels all the way to 70 when stress testing, but seeing how the max temps for these AMDs are 71, I think there could be some room for improvement here. I was thinking of padding the metal bracket that runs across the HSF with something so that when I lock it down, it's tighter... hopefully that might help dissipate the heat better. Any other suggestions?
 
Ok so I took a closer look at the HSF and motherboard after getting home. The plastic retention bracket is screwed down to the mobo tightly. I tried bending the metal bar that runs across the heat sink to maybe get it tighter, but damn, that thing is pretty strong so unless it came "unbent" from the factory, I don't think it could have warped on its own.

It's a little warmer now in the computer room, probably near 30C and I decided to leave the cover on the computer, still idling around 45. I ran prime95 for about 10min, about how long it takes to get the CPU to max temp and it hit 64. Normally I wouldn't be so concerned since I'm comfortable running Intels all the way to 70 when stress testing, but seeing how the max temps for these AMDs are 71, I think there could be some room for improvement here. I was thinking of padding the metal bracket that runs across the HSF with something so that when I lock it down, it's tighter... hopefully that might help dissipate the heat better. Any other suggestions?
30C (86F) in your computer room? That's pretty hot its only 68F in my house, I would say thats why your temps are higher.
 
i would be going with the single 80mm case fan as the reason myself... and of course then ur 30C doesnt really help either tho...
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
dam, thought my iphone posted my response last night....

anyhow, that 80mm fan being your only exhaust is a huge limiting factor in your cooling.....your room temp isn't that bad, and not a huge factor...(dont flame me on this, my room is constantly in the 90's F, and my cores on my x6 run at 45 load, which was roughly the same temp my x2 was getting in the same scenario)
 
You did not say, do you have Cool N Quiet enabled. I can tell you that with my Antec Three Hundred case, (2 extra tricool fans in front) and all fans set on low using a Stock AMD Heatsink, my 1055T with CnQ is running right at the toom temp. (25C)
 
You did not say, do you have Cool N Quiet enabled. I can tell you that with my Antec Three Hundred case, (2 extra tricool fans in front) and all fans set on low using a Stock AMD Heatsink, my 1055T with CnQ is running right at the toom temp. (25C)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I searched all through the BIOS for a CnQ setting, I could not find it... Would it straight up say "Cool and Quiet" somewhere or might it be disguised as another label? Again I have the Biostar A760GM2+ with the latest BIOS.
 
never used a Biostar board, i know on all the Asus boards ive used its only been labeled as Cool and Quite


just download AMD Overdrive, you can enable/disable with that.
 
Oh wow! I just got a 635 and the stock cooler is giving me about 45c Idle, and it's a little irritating. I've always used AMD up until my last board which had a 2.5GHz dual core Intel, which I hated, then bought this bad boy which I love (understatement.)

I ran Prime95 and am getting 63c load, 60c with all my fans at 100% (Case fans) my RC690 provides plenty opportunities for good cooling but I hate this stock cooler. Anyone have any luck with the H50? I may be picking one up soon.
 
Oh wow! I just got a 635 and the stock cooler is giving me about 45c Idle, and it's a little irritating. I've always used AMD up until my last board which had a 2.5GHz dual core Intel, which I hated, then bought this bad boy which I love (understatement.)

I ran Prime95 and am getting 63c load, 60c with all my fans at 100% (Case fans) my RC690 provides plenty opportunities for good cooling but I hate this stock cooler. Anyone have any luck with the H50? I may be picking one up soon.

How difficult was it to push down on the plastic clamp level on the stock HSF? If pushing down on a LGA 775 stock HSF is a 10 and no resistance is 0, I would say the AMD stock cooler resistance was about 3 or 4.

I padded the metal bar on my AMD HSF with some paper and it seems to have gotten it a little tighter but the temps don't seem to be that much lower, maybe 1 or 2 degrees under prime95 load. Maybe it's time to try some AS5 thermal paste, I'm not really interested in getting an aftermarket cooler since I won't be OCing.
 
How difficult was it to push down on the plastic clamp level on the stock HSF? If pushing down on a LGA 775 stock HSF is a 10 and no resistance is 0, I would say the AMD stock cooler resistance was about 3 or 4.

I padded the metal bar on my AMD HSF with some paper and it seems to have gotten it a little tighter but the temps don't seem to be that much lower, maybe 1 or 2 degrees under prime95 load. Maybe it's time to try some AS5 thermal paste, I'm not really interested in getting an aftermarket cooler since I won't be OCing.

your temps still arnt bad....however, i would suggest getting OCZ Freeze, its cheaper than AS5 and keeps stuff a few deg cooler(from my experience)......however, you can pick up something like the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer, or the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ for ~$25 , so that may be another alternative(even if your not interested in OCing, it could help to have a better cooling setup)
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I searched all through the BIOS for a CnQ setting, I could not find it... Would it straight up say "Cool and Quiet" somewhere or might it be disguised as another label? Again I have the Biostar A760GM2+ with the latest BIOS.

I just read some info about CnQ on AMD forums. Looks like for XP (yes, my dad still wants to use XP, doesn't want to upgrade to Win 7 yet) you need to change the Power options to "Minimal Power Management" to enable it. So after doing that, my idle temps are consistently in the mid to high 30s. I suppose that is better, but eh... not a big deal... load temps still get to mid 60s. Anyway, I guess I'm ok with everything now after processing all the info I've gotten from this thread and otherwise. Thanks everyone.
 
your temps still arnt bad....however, i would suggest getting OCZ Freeze, its cheaper than AS5 and keeps stuff a few deg cooler(from my experience)......however, you can pick up something like the Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer, or the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ for ~$25 , so that may be another alternative(even if your not interested in OCing, it could help to have a better cooling setup)

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0315397

Good investment !
 
overpriced I personally think....its cool, works well by all accounts, but i get just as good of temps using a $20 Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer(thank god for sales :p )......honestly its all up to what you want to spend you wont have to dust it as often as I dust my HS, and it is going to take up less space in the case
 
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