Poor AS5 application? (12 degree drop in temps)

[DieLate]

So, I just got around to installing my Arctic Cooling Freezer 4 onto my P4 2.4C. I previously had a Zalman 7000AlCu and after installing this, I'm witnessing a HUGE drop in temps. I'm wondering if my previous application of Arctic Silver 5 had been spread too thin.

When I removed my 7000AlCu, here's what the bottom looked like:

And in different light:

Obviously, I'm happy with the new cooler. Before I was seeing around 47-48 load at stock speed & 1.525vcore. Now I'm seeing 35-36. Here's what my setup looks like now:

And before:

By the way, this installation wasn't as easy as I had hoped. It turns out the stock northbridge cooling on this motherboard was too big to be able to install the Freezer 4. So, it's hard to tell from this picture, but I had to remove it and bend some of the pins to the side so I could push that flat metal thing down. Sorry for poor quality, I couldn't get the camera to focus in the tight space.

Well, now I'm wondering about my future watercooling plans. I'm pretty happy with the cooling I've got now.

My case is starting to look like an Arctic Cooling ad though.

 

[KieutNinjah]

nice rig you got there... hmmm that freezer looks prety big!

 

[mathot]

Looks good. I believe the drop in temps is just b/c you upgraded. Thermal paste is supposed to be thin. AS5 is supposed to melt and spread out under cpu heat load and heatsink pressure. All thermal paste is supposed to do is fill microfine scratches.