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Water cooling temp issues

obviouslytom

obviouslytom

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Feb 24, 2005
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Last night I changed the mobo in my system and when I was done, rehooked up the WC system. Now I run into some tempature issue.

With the old motherboard, I would only see a few degree C difference from when it was Idle to when it was under a heavy load.

With the new motherboard, under a load it increases by as much as 20 degree C.

There wasn't much thermal paste left on the cpu, but just enough to cover it. I am wondering if I should go out and get some new thermal paste and clean off the block and cpu and redo them. Yes?

And how tight should I make the block on the cpu itself? The block moves a very small ammount but should i get it to the point where it doesnt move at all and should I worry about damaging the CPU if I do?
 
You need to clean and redo the thermal paste every time you remove the block or any heatsink air or water from the cpu. Most big electronic stores carry some kind of thermal paste these days even finding Arctic Silver 5 is not uncommon.

I'm no expert on tightening waterblocks down, but I believe you tighten each post down a little bit not all the way and keep rotating around(this is to even out the pressure on the cpu) until it's tight by hand. I'm not sure if another quarter turn after that is necessary or harmful but someone else can anwser that.
 
Yes you need to reapply thermal paste every single time as stated. Also, make sure you thoroughly clean the bottom of the waterblock and the top of the processor. There should be no old thermal paste left on it before you reapply the new paste. To do this cleaning get the highest % isopropyl alcohol you can (usually 91%). Use some lint free cloth with the isopropyl alcohol to clean everything. Then apply the thermal paste per the instructions.

I dont know what waterblock you have so it is hard to provide you advice with the tightening. However, the block should not be moving.
 
Thanks for the advice, I will let you know what happens.

I have to go and exhcange the motherboard because it stoped working this morning.
 
I agree with everyon else, but I would like to know where you are your temps from. A 20 degree swing seems a bit strange.
 
theseeker said:
I agree with everyon else, but I would like to know where you are your temps from. A 20 degree swing seems a bit strange.
Click to expand...

Well I didnt have the block on as tight as I should have and the thermal grease was almost non-existant, but enough that was covering the cpu.

once I get everything back in, it should become a more reasonable temperature swing
 
Yeah... it's also possible that your Motherboard was reporting temperatures differently than from your original mobo. No two sensors are the same, and some try to compensate for the temp difference between the processor die and the temp sensor... reporting a higher number.
 
Got the motherboard replaced along with some new thermal compound.

Cleaned off the water block and the cpu with the Isopropyl Alcohol. I made sure that everything was tight enough that nothing was going to be moving and now the system when at idle runs at 27C and under a load with 3ds Max 8 rendering is at 37C.

Thanks everyone for the tips, and BTW, the water cooling system I have is a Thermaltake Bigwater SE. Hopefully I will be getting another radiator for it soon and quite possibly get it even cooler.

**Ninja Edit**
I also replaced the coolant that thermaltake gave me with a 50% Distilled Water/50% Antifreeze mixture and a reserve tank that is at least 3 times bigger then the one that comes with the kit
 
*doh*

You shouldn't use more than a 10-15% antifreeze mix tops. 50/50 is far too rich.
 
While it's too rich, It's not going to cause any problems... especially if his temps are below 40c. Re-filling the system with a lower concentration of AF, will probably result in a minute temp change. I mean, even when my loops half full (Read: still at least 50% foam) my temps are identical to the fully bled system.
 
Erasmus354 said:
*doh*

You shouldn't use more than a 10-15% antifreeze mix tops. 50/50 is far too rich.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tip, I will keep this in mind if I have to refil it, which I don't think I will have to do for a while
 
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