Cpu Cooler
 

I just replaced the stock CPU heatsink/fan that came with the Pentium 4 3.2GHz (Prescott chip) with the Arctic-Cooling heatsink fan.

While the sound difference is night/day, the temperatures have not been as good. While before during no-low activity, the temperature was 50-60ºC, and after the new cooler, it is 60-70ºC, even hitting 72ºC. Could I not have used enough thermal paste, would that cause the temperature to rise that much?
Heatsink website:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/cpu2.php?idx=22&disc=

make sure it is mounted correctly. most of the time heatsinks don't work as well because they aren't making contact properly with the cpu/gpu etc.

You may have used too much. if the layer is to thick it will insulate the CPU from the heat sink.


Some other things to check:

The fan is on.
The heat sink is properly seated, fully touching and level.

if the fan is on full try removing the heat sink and checking to see if the paste is spread thin and that is has been spread as if it has had pressure on it from being mounted (if it was not level the paste will not be uniformly spread.

(just in case DONT REMOVE IT WHILE THE SYSTEM IS ON)


further I checked out the heat sink and its rated for 3.06 not 3.2, 3.2 makes me think it is on the 800mhz FSB, where as 3.06 is on the 533Mhz there is a difference L2 cache is accessed more often with a higher FSB that will give you more heat. Also the heat sink is kind of small, and aluminum. I don’t think this cooler is appropriate for this CPU, it is keeping it with in the specs, but that seems way to hot for me.

I’d go zalman or swiftech

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/...t.asp?code=009

http://www.swiftnets.com/

Yes they are HUGE make sure they will fit your mother board, but holy hell do they work great. I have a CNPS7000B-Cu in my system. At a full load case closed in a hot room, I sit at 123F, case open its 104F at a full load, idle it’s around 89F best yet, it’s on low and its silent, I can get it colder if it is on high and there is a slight hum to it. I also have a similar sink on my video card, g6800 ultra.

Don't go with Zalman. Zalman heatsink comes with its own backplate which if you were to remove the backplate that came with the motherboard, it'll void its warrenty. I'm pretty sure that if something fucks up your motherboard, I don't think you'll wanting to shell out another 200 bucks for another board when you can get it simply replaced.

I’m pretty good at getting things replaced even though I’ve voided the warranty, be assertive and firm.

if you are not comfortable with voiding the warranty, dont replace stock parts.

Er.. that depends on his processor. If he has a pentium 4, socket 478, he will not have to do anything with a backplate. At least, that's my experience with a Pentium 4 and a Zalman 7000A cooler. (It's quiet, it's good, and I had no problems mounting it.)

The problem, in my opinion, is a combination of the thermal paste and case fan flow. I took it off because I thought I had used too much perhaps, so I put the recommended amount, a small capsule size, then mounted the heatsink. Well that did not work and the processor heated up to 85ºC and the computer shut down to prevent damage. So i added a bit more and put it on and the temperatures went back to how they were when I first applied the thermal paste. The temp also cools down a bit when i take the side case off for open air to flow in.
I ordered Arctic Silver 5 thermal grease the other day from Newegg.com so I am going to see if that helps, and maybe a rear exhaust case fan (the current one is unplugged becaue it sounds like a damn vacuum).

Well, prescotts get hot, really hot. At idle, they should be over 50 degrees C (using stock coolers). If you remove the cover, and the temperatures go down dramatically, it would definately be a good idea to install extra case fans.

I have an older northwood processor, which is about 20 degrees cooler than your prescott, and I *still* use one 92 mm case fan in the front and two 80 mm fans at the back.

As for case-fans making lots of noise: that depends on the fan. Try looking around for slower-moving "silent" case-fans (Papst, Panaflo, etc). You might even want to buy a fan-controller, to adjust the fan speed to your needs.

FYI: I have changed the stock cooler on my CPU (now Zalman) and videocard (Arctic). I have a "silent" PSU using a 120mm papst fan, and I have silent case fans. Furthermore, I have put silencing material on the sides of my case (carpet, in case you were wondering...). The end result: a very quiet PC. :)

Oh right, *smack head* I was thinking AMD.