Does Arctic Silver wear down??

[a13antichrist]

First two weeks I had the chip, it would do 1.5GHz at max of 38ºC. Then it sorta started creeping up a bit.. now @1.5 it gives me BSODs if I leave it running for a long time, & even dropped to 1.45 temps are still around 42º..


.. so should I be recoating & reseating the HSF every month or so??

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The Darkside: OCN Hellspawn - having our way with your daughter's genes

[Maxout]

Are you cleaning the Heatsink regularly? Dust and "grunge" build-up can reduce the thermal transfer ability of the heatsink.



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If you lived here, you'd be home by now...

[ol' man]

Yes AS will lose effectivity depending on how hard you have you HS pressing on the die. Pull it off and you may see a silver pancake which means all the silicone oil has leaked out and left you with simply pure pancaked silver dust which sucks and will not work as good.

[CS-AlCoHoLiC]

Have you got any idea how long it would aprox take for the AS to wear off?
I don't think dust will be a big problem, although I have an open case. I got a Blacklabel Delta.

Normaly I won't have any airflow under the HSF, but now I have a Blue Orb blowing from the chipset under my HSF. Will this affect the AS too(I guess so)?

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Half-Life Counter-Strike rulez the world !!!

[a13antichrist]

It isn't pressed on any tighter than anyone else's... it's a delta plus there's a little portable fan blowing into the case.. although it's blowing directly into the delta so there's no getting under the sides in that sense...

Maxout the portable takes care of any dust & grunge.. last time I moved my cardsa round after about 4 months there wasn't a single collation of dust anywhere...

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The Darkside: OCN Hellspawn - having our way with your daughter's genes

[ol' man]

Maybe it is the electromigration I have heard about. Sounds like maybe you've been giving it a little too much MUSTARD

[cyril1]

If you still have that FOP 38 I would say your thermistor is just starting to read a little more accurate, for unless you live in a freezer it is phisically impossible to running at 38c@1500 with that Heatsink.

With a roomtemp of 21c and cpu voltage of 1.75 I calculate the cpu temp to be 56.3c

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1.1 Gig Thunderbird
Abit kt7 raid
256MB Corsair Cas2
Radeon LE
SoundBlaster Live Value

[a13antichrist]

Well it's back down to 38º now & completely stable @1500.. dunno what's different but she's all good.. the HS is warm, not hot, to the touch.. I've even bent the thermistor up a bit so that it touches the bottom of the chip.. to make sure the 38 was right..

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The Darkside: OCN Hellspawn - having our way with your daughter's genes

[cyril1]

Trust me. I owned a FOP 38 and there is no way that HS can do 1500Mhz @ 38c with just air cooling. Your thermistor is almost certainly inaccurate. I think you are running much hotter than you believe you are.

If you can run stable and are happy that is fine but it is probably shortening the life of your chip. Also when you post those temps with that HS in other threads newbies think they can achieve those speeds at that temp with that HS.

I am not trying to ride your ***. I just do not want to see some other fellow waste his money buying a cheaper HS believing he can achieve such a fast speed at such a low temp with it. If your FOP 38 truly does that speed at that temp in a normal room temp, I would say it is the only one in existence that does.

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1.1 Gig Thunderbird
Abit kt7 raid
256MB Corsair Cas2
Radeon LE
SoundBlaster Live Value

[a13antichrist]

Okay dude I see what you're saying.. so you got any suggestions as to how I can check the actual temperature without spending too much then??

The bottom of this thing is as smooth as a baby's bottom though.. yay for 800 grit wet-dry sandpaper..
Also as the baord is a KT7A, the chip itself is seated right up next to the underside of the PSU.. which being an Enermax has the nifty dual fan intake right there.. so the PSU sucks air straight off the HS at the same time the delta is blowing it in..

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The Darkside: OCN Hellspawn - having our way with your daughter's genes

[This message has been edited by a13antichrist (edited 08-13-2001).]

[cyril1]

I sent you an e-mail with some suggestions. let me know if you get it.

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1.1 Gig Thunderbird
Abit kt7 raid
256MB Corsair Cas2
Radeon LE
SoundBlaster Live Value

[a13antichrist]

Cheers dude, got it.. back atcha..

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The Darkside: OCN Hellspawn - having our way with your daughter's genes

[cyril1]

If you need any more info just let me know.

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1.1 Gig Thunderbird
Abit kt7 raid
256MB Corsair Cas2
Radeon LE
SoundBlaster Live Value