Zalman Reserator problem

[TAAnderson]

Hello there! I'm new to these forums. I'm not even sure if I'm posting to the right place.

I have a problem with my new Zalman Reserator 1 water cooling system. I've bought it recently and it is up and running, but its efficiency is troubling me.

My config is an ASUS A7V600 Motherboard with an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Barton CPU at its default speed of 2166Mhz. I also have a GeXCube Radeon 9600XT videocard. I have a Zalman CPU water block and a water block for the GPU.

I have ASUS probe (v2.24) installed. I can monitor my CPU temperature with it. After I turn on the system it shows around 30°C. Then I leave my computer as it is (Windows desktop) with no CPU activity and after an hour or so it heats up to about 65°C. I think this is already abnormal... When I start using it for 3D applications like 3D games then the temperature keeps getting higher to about 76°C and even 80°C. Sometimes the system freezes at this point (in a figurative sense ) and that's no surprise.

If I'm right then this is not as it is supposed to be. If I understand it correctly the CPU should not be allowed to work at a temperature of 60°C or higher for a long period of time. This shortens the life of the CPU dramatically (as I've heard).

The Reserator circulates 2.5 liter destilled water.

What did I do wrong? What can I do to fix this?

Thank you for your answers in anticipation!

 

[Him]

You might not have your block on there sufficiently. Maybe you used too much thermal paste when applying your block. 60ºC is not THAT high, it's not really enough to cause concern, unless it goes alot above that. I would look at your thermal paste application.

 

[aspire]

you did use thermal paste right?

 

[TAAnderson]

Yes I used it. Well.... back when I had a CPU fan I used too much thermal paste. Now I was more careful. I only applied a minimum.

There is something I forgot to say: I think that one of the component was faulty. I couldn't screw one of the two bolts in completely that clamps the CPU water block to the CPU. As a matter of fact, I could hardly screw it in at all. Something was wrong with the screw-thread. I used pincers to force it into it's place (I'm aware that this was not a good idea, but I was desperate But I checked it afterwards and it seemed to be quite stable. I couldn't move it vertically. The only difference is that the water block is not clamped to the CPU with too much force, but I would say that it is as close to the CPU as it can be. It is possible however that the thermal paste was somewhat cleared from the CPU's surface during the "clamping process".

So the constant 65°C would be acceptable if it was the maximum when I use the CPU at 100%.

 

[Nubius]

How is 60C not 'THAT' high for a 3000+ barton him.....

60C and up to 65C on full load is way too high especially for water cooling even though I know that this particular system isn't the best. A stock heatsink should be producing nothing higher than 55C

Your block needs to be making a good amount of contact to the CPU....quite a few pounds of pressure is acceptable....the new AMD64's can withstand like up to 70lbs of pressure on the CPU and be ok...however with your XP since the core exposed it's much less than that.

If your block isn't making good contact you need to somehow fix it or get it replaced.

 

[TAAnderson]

OK. Thanks! I'll try to tighten the screw even harder... I hope my mb won't crack. If that doesn't work I will add more thermal paste to see if it helps.