Core Contact Cpu Cooler

[dirkpitt45]

I've had terrible luck with coolers, finally got one today and it doesn't seem to do much. The core contact 120mm was a b**ch to get on. I had to get my sister to hold it while I put the second clamp thing down.

Anyways I put about two pea sized drops of tx-2 evenly spaced apart on the cooler, but it got moved around a bit while I was struggling to put it on. It didn't do anything to improve my idle temp, still 31-32 stock. It also seems to spike up then cool down quickly whenever I open a program. It did that before, but only to about 34-35, now its 36-37. Haven't run prime95 or any games yet to test load.

Just from the reviews I'd read people were saying they'd idle in the mid-high 20s with a 940 then loads up to 40. It really didn't improve my temps at all, unless I'm just being overly optimistic.

Would it be something I'd done? or just thats average. Another thing, the fan on the heatsink is almost perfectly lined up with my back case fan. The case one pulls and the heatsink blows, I assumed that was fine but I really don't know much; my first build.

 

[hikaricloud]

I had great luck with my Core Contact. Brought my temps down around 20c at higher clocks and voltage...to give you an example:

Stock cooler: 3.3ghz @ 1.375v = 65c full load.
Core Contact: 3.7ghz @ 1.55v = 38-44c full load.

Did you clean off the old thermal paste?

 

[dirkpitt45]

Yeah, wiped it off with a paper towel and used one of those sun glasses cleaner clothes once I got the majority of it off. I think I'll re-seat it tomorrow or this weekend.

I have the same mobo as you as well, (Newegg.ca - BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards) just wondering but did it take you a lot of force to put it on to the orange bracket? I thought the stock one was hard, but this one I actually struggled with a bit. I'm keeping the little dial about half of the way around as well. Should it be more?

 

[dirkpitt45]

Ahh can't edit... Anyways I got a chance to take off the cooler and take a couple pics.

I was thinking that it might of been the paste, so is that too much? not enough? I could upload a super-detailed one if someone wanted. Took with on RAW-Fine with d-90 by accident so they were horrendously huge files. Just looking for some more help, kinda dissapointed in the core contact so far, but its probably my fault.

 

[philbar71]

that does look like a little much. you ideally want just enough to cover it with a very thin layer. a drop about the size of a pea is good. then spread it around. till it's smooth.

 

[dirkpitt45]

The instructions said two peas I'll try mounting it again with less. Thanks.

Oh another quick question, the way it was before I had the fan blowing directly into another fan at the back, would it help at all to switch sides and blow the air towards the front drives?

 

[dirkpitt45]

I hate to double post again but I think I might have found an answer. Anyways I reseated the heatsink after bending the tabs a bit and spreading the tx-2 with a credit card. Without the side panel of my case on I was idling around 26-28 and going up to 32-33 browsing and playing with photoshop. Figured I'd solved my problem, so I popped the side panel back on. Turned the computer back on and I was idling at 35-37 in a matter of minutes. Thought maybe the paste just had to set some more or something so I went and watched a movie.

Came back just now and it's down to 30-32 while I'm typing this. No improvement over the stock heat sink really, 1-2 degrees. Could an airflow issue be what's causing my higher temps? I though maybe it would effect them by 1-2 degrees but not 6-7 or more. I'm gonna pick up another 90mm fan on monday and put it in the front and see if that helps.

30c idle is fine with me, just a little bummed I spent $50 almost for 2 degrees....

 

[zedman3d]

Yeah idle temps dont matter as much as you think. Get Prime95 and leave it for like 15 minutes and see what the temps are.
And that cooler is infiniticimaly better than the stock cooler.

And yes that was too much paste.

 

[Slaymate]

What fan are you using?

 

[dirkpitt45]

Well I just ran prime95 for 30 mins with the middle option (sorta forget what it said) and it got up to around 45c-46c max. Which is a huge improvement actually. Saw my temps reaching to the 60's playing games (never tried prime with the stock). Guess I'll try a bit of over-clocking now.