Need Help Just got new HSF

[Skypilot]

Hey i just got a Thermaltake Venus 12 HSF. But my temps got higher! I dont know what the deal is. Im using arctic silver, but should I use the compound that came with the HSF? Should I wait for it to break in or something? The sink does FEEL cooler, so maybe its my temp monitor. If you could recommend a program to monitor my temps thatd be great. Thanks for the help.

PS I used your site to help me OC, thanx a lot.

[FunkZ]

Undoubtedly the Artic Silver will perform better than the thermal paste that comes with any heat sink.

I am not familiar with the Venus, but it appears that it is held on by spring clips? Is the heat sink seated firmly and evenly on the processor? Have you pulled the sink back off and examined both the top of the cpu and bottom of the sink to verify from the pattern of thermal compound that the base is touching the entire surface of the heat spreader?

Also, how do you have the fan configured? Is it jumpered to run full speed, operating off the temperature probe (and where is the probe located) or wired to the adjustable knob?

[Skypilot]

The fan is set to run on full speed, and i checked and its running at 5500rpms which is full speed. What do you mean by examined both the top of the cpu and bottom of the sink to verify from the pattern of thermal compound that the base is touching the entire surface of the heat spreader? Thanks again.

[FunkZ]

If you remove your heat sink and look at the top of your cpu you should see that the thermal paste is completely covering the top of the cpu. Likewise, the bottom of the heat sink should have a complete square "print" of where the cpu was touching.

What you want to look for is bare spots or places where the texture changes indicating either not enough paste was applied or the heat sink was not resting evenly on top of the cpu.

As for monitoring temps, either MBM5 (Motherboard Monitor) or Speedfan can do this from Windows. I prefer the MBM5 as you can customize the dashboard display on the desktop.

[Skypilot]

Ok last night I took off the sink to see what the problem was, and for some reason the arctic silver had a bunch of cracks in it, and it looked like a dryed up lake. So I applied a new fresh sheet. Booted up this morning my temps were 5c lower than when it was stock, on idle and full load. According to the arctic silver site, the temps will go lower after some use. Is that true? Thanks for the help.

[FunkZ]

You might see a very slight drop within a few days of applying the artic silver. Did you clean the old paste off before applying the new stuff?

[Skypilot]

Yup.