New Zalman Coolers do nothing?

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discochan

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Messages
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I just installed a new 9500 for my cpu and a vf900 for my vid card, my temps havent gone down at all.

Does it take some burn in time, or did I mount the HSF wrong
 
What were you using before? It does take a few days for the thermal paste to cure and all.
 
Make sure you used good thermal compound and cleaned the heatsinks and surfaces well too.
 
in addition to the compound questions, what kind of original heatsink were you using? Some of the amd stock heatpipe sinks are quite nice. Plus, Zalman hsf's are designed more for silence than performance, though they still typically outperform most stock hsf's.
 
For the compound I used Artic Silver 5

The HSF I was using before was the original AMD cooler

To be fair to the Zalmans they are running on the lowest settings, but I'm seeing people on the forums getting huge temp drops when they install their Zalmans
 
I have the Zalman 9500 on a P-4 630 3gig overclocked to 3.3 and idle is 28-29c and under full load hasn't gone over 41c with as and lapped the face of HS because upon checking with machinst rule it had a bump in it which wouldn't of let it get full contact with the face of the chip this is something a couple other people have run into in builds i have read elswere on the net good luck
 
another thing to remember (especially with the 9500) is the air flow inside the case
 
I think my case has some pretty nice airflow, its a Coolermaster Praetorian 730

I think I'm going to try and remount it, maybe it wasnt tight enough. Am I supposed to tighten it like crazy, or just snuggly?
 
_Korruption_ said:
Snug. You sure you applied the thermal compound correctly?
Click to expand...

I put a small amount in the middle of the cpu and put the heatsink on

Is that right?
 
discochan said:
I put a small amount in the middle of the cpu and put the heatsink on

Is that right?
Click to expand...

That usually works... I tend to preffer to spead a thin thin layer across the entire CPU using a razor blade.
 
as someone mentioned before, Zalmans are more of a same cooling with less noise kind of cooler, they aren't alot better than stock that is......they are just alot quieter than stock and cool the same or better

if you really want a huge drop in temps you need to look at the Scythe or Thermalright offerings
 
^I disagree. I have the CNPS9500 and VF900 and my temps dropped a ton. My CNPS9500 dropped my CPU temp by about 5 degrees over the 7000-Cu, and my VF900 dropped my temps on my 7900GT by 12 degrees. Those are also the idle temps, it dropped my load temps even more. And both coolers are quieter than stock.
 
nobody_here said:
as someone mentioned before, Zalmans are more of a same cooling with less noise kind of cooler, they aren't alot better than stock that is......they are just alot quieter than stock and cool the same or better

if you really want a huge drop in temps you need to look at the Scythe or Thermalright offerings
Click to expand...

it really depends. if you're looking at the old AMD stock coolers, those didn't have heatpipes. Newer AMD stock coolers have heatpipes and are actually even comparable to the Thermalright XP-90 offerings. plus, many of these stock coolers use thermal pads, whereas if you're going with an aftermarket HSF solution, you're more likely to use quality thermal grease like some AS5.
 
iJeff said:
it really depends. if you're looking at the old AMD stock coolers, those didn't have heatpipes. Newer AMD stock coolers have heatpipes and are actually even comparable to the Thermalright XP-90 offerings. plus, many of these stock coolers use thermal pads, whereas if you're going with an aftermarket HSF solution, you're more likely to use quality thermal grease like some AS5.
Click to expand...

actually the compound amd put on their stock coolers is quality stuff... Shin Etsu
 
ElMoIsEviL said:
That usually works... I tend to preffer to spead a thin thin layer across the entire CPU using a razor blade.
Click to expand...

Isn't that what you're suppousta do every time?
 
actually, that's wrong. You should put a little dab, about a bb size, in the very center. Squish with heatsink, give it a wiggle, and lock it in. That's so no air bubbles get in it, since when you spread it, some does, and so the contact ins't absolutely perfect.
 
On CPU's with exposed cores (AthlonXP, PIII, P4/A64 w/o IHS, recent GPU's) you should place a BB sized amount of thermal compound on the core and use a razor blade or credit card to spread the compound out to completely cover the core.

On CPUs with a heatspreader you should use the 'drop, plop, and squish' method. Drop a rice sized amount of compound onto the center of the heatspreader, plop that heatsink/fan onto the core and wiggle it a little, and then lock the cooler down.

Really though there are so many theories on the best application of thermal grease it's fucking unreal. Apply it any way you want but remember you want as little thermal compound as possible between the CPU and heatsink. You're not buttering bread here, you just want enough compound to fill in the microscopic peaks and valleys in the heatsink and core and provide thermal transfer.
 
Are you sure you put it in the right way? usually the fan should be facing the front of the case (towards the optical drives, etc) for the best airflow.
 
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