ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro not lowering CPU temp. from stock cooler

[youngflyer12]

Thermal Paste takes time to "cure", Re-seat the HS just to be sure, use an alchohol substance to remove left over residue from the old thermal paste, slap that baby on then wait around (well dont literally wait ) and that paste should be cured and your temps should be lower, what paste are you using?

I read about the curing time of thermal paste. But I thought that 17 days would be long enough to cure. I use Arctic Silver thermal paste remover and emulsifier and I use Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal compound.

 

[900RR]

How long should you let thermal paste set before you fire your system up?

Should I lap my cpu and HSF right out of the box? What grit sandpaper should I use?

 

[Trotter]

You can fire it up immediately, but it takes a week or two of use for the paste to cure.

 

[youngflyer12]

How long should you let thermal paste set before you fire your system up?

Should I lap my cpu and HSF right out of the box? What grit sandpaper should I use?

It is ok for you to turn on your system immediately after everything is assembled. The paste "sets" from the heat of the CPU and over time.

 

[veedubfreak]

I wouldnt bother lapping unless you are doing very high overclocking and find that temps arent where they should be. I only lapped my setup because i had as much as 14C variance between cores.

 

[900RR]

It is ok for you to turn on your system immediately after everything is assembled. The paste "sets" from the heat of the CPU and over time.

You shouldn't use sandpaper to remove thermal compound. I use the Arctic Silver remover, but there is certain types of alcohol you can use.

^^ I don't mean use sandpaper to remove comound, just to flatten the surfaces of the cpu and HSF to get a good contact... isn't that what lapping is?

I just googled it, looks like you're suppose to use 600 grit sandpaper and some machine oil...
Guide To Lapping your CPU - FrostyTech.com

not sure if i'm gonna do that to mine or not, I don't see what it can hurt besides the warranty, and I'll be OCing it anyway, so why not...?

I wouldnt bother lapping unless you are doing very high overclocking and find that temps arent where they should be. I only lapped my setup because i had as much as 14C variance between cores.

right but pulling off your cpu and removing all the old paste has got to suck. I think I might just do it when putting everything together. I don't really see what it can hurt if you just do it a little, and not tooooo much

 

[Peter.Cort]

it takes like 5 seconds to take everything out and clean it off. it comes right off with some 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol and a paper towel.

 

[youngflyer12]

Update: I went into BIOS and changed the Smart Fan Control. It was on Auto and I changed it to PWM. After this change, I noticed that the fan speed went up to 1,000 RPM under full load. Temperature hovered around 45 C.

I then decided to disable AMD Cool and Quiet. I noticed no differences in speed or temperature. Finally, I decided to disable the Smart Fan Controller altogether. The result, my fan speed is now at 2300 RPM. Under full load, my CPU is hovering around 40 C. With temperatures as low as these, I doubt that I will reapply the heat sink and fan. I am also happy to say that I was barely able to hear a difference with the doubled fan speed. I want to thank everyone for their help and hopefully this article can help others in the future.

 

[900RR]

it takes like 5 seconds to take everything out and clean it off. it comes right off with some 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol and a paper towel.

oh ok, LOL, so you think it's not worth doing straight out of the box since it will void the warranty? Overclocking it voids the warranty too through right, or is there no way they can tell you've done that?

I don't see what you can hurt just by polishing it a little...

 

[SapperX]

I don't remember where, but a website did a test with different heatsinks and fans under the same setup in the same conditions. The test showed that the stock heatsink/fan for the X2's is better then all aftermarket coolers except zalman, tuniq, and one other I can't recall. Just a heads up, but seeing no change is what I would expect.