Spacers.

[Maguspk]

Use them.
Use the spacers when you screw in your mobo kids, for real.

Built my PC last night and man was I close to being totally fucked. hi2u short circuit.

[Cephius]

Sound advice...

If you'd lay your mobo directly on the metal tray and think everything is ok, you probably shouldn't be building anything

[Pikarya]

Thermal paste goes on the prongs of the processor.

[Maguspk]

Sound advice...

If you'd lay your mobo directly on the metal tray and think everything is ok, you probably shouldn't be building anything

Hey everybody says building a PC is so easy but I didn't see anywhere anything about using the spacers. We figured out that's why it wasn't working thanks to someone who'd built a PC before and knew, otherwise I probably would have blown out the chips on my mobo, luckily it was grounded at the point where the mobo got power from the PSU and was faulting and the psu was smart and shut off. Luckily...

[SephYuyX]

What case/mobo did you buy >.>? I've never come across one that you could screw the two together without using the spacer screws first.

Just curious, what did you think those spacer screws where there for ?

But yeah, no worries, everyone messes up on their first build.

[Maguspk]

I am at a lan and I noticed my CPU was getting really hot, so we did some tests and at 100% CPU and RAM usage my temp goes up to like 74 degrees celsius and we can't get it lower so we took the side off so now it goes up to like 65 degrees celsius (CPU temp).

I have one front fan and one side fan and no rear fan, I figure putting in a rear fan and leaving my side off will keep it kind of cool but I don't want to just leave my CPU running so hot. There was alot of thermal paste on the Artic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro so that might be part of the problem too.

What do you all suggest? Is it bad if it's this hot even if it doesn't crash or glitch at all running that hot? We tried a bunch of tests and it ran fine with them all even at the high temp, but I just don't feel comfortable with that temperature.

[Cephius]

74 is way too hot, but it's not dangerous unless you constantly run at that temperature. I'd take the heatsink off, and take a razor blade to the heatsink and CPU to scrape off the excess thermal paste. Then go ahead and apply it again, making sure you only apply enough to make a thin layer when you screw on the heatsink.

Make sure your fans are all flowing in the correct direction, too.

[Shuemue]

What CPU and which app are you using to check temps?

[Maguspk]

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz

Using a primes test which I believe generates a list based on calculations then fills the CPU cache figuring them out and checks them against the memory making sure there are no glitches/conflicts. Prime95.exe is the filename; there was also one which was specifically just CPU called ORTHOS.exe, another primes test but it made my CPU hotter I believe, the one that actually caused it to hit 65-70 up to 74. Also, this was during the overclock to like 1600 FSB but I lowered it back to 1333 and it's now showing cooling on the CPU and the max it hits is about 52ish.

For CPU temperature we used a bunch of stuff with all very similar readouts: the software from NVIDIA called NVIDIA MonitorView and also SpeedFan, both report my CPU at about 43 degrees idling, and up to about 50 or so during TF2/Left4Dead with max settings.

Thinking the thermal paste might be a bit messed up, see when we reinstalled the mobo with the spacers the heatsink fell off the processor (wasn't on right, Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro thing sucks and is weird to get on...), and so the paste might have bubbles or be really gloopy in some parts which would mean we have pockets of heat on the CPU which would explain the high temperature readings even if the CPU itself isn't getting that hot, right? Going to take it off tomorrow (just got home and I'm really tired) and rubbing alcohol off the paste and put a nice layer of some good stuff on and apply very carefully to ensure no errors. Then I'll buy a quiet/weak (35ish CFM) 120mm fan for my rear exhaust since my front and side fans are both intake and the outake is just kinda weak at the moment. That should fix my problem I think, I don't know really just going off my limited knowledge.

It's weird, ever since I finally got it to work I've become attached to this thing, it's like my little baby or something, I just want to upgrade it and keep it in good shape and make sure it's nice and chill and not too hot. Man, how odd.

[Kohan]

Considering the scenario you described, I would say that replacing the compound is very important. It doesn't sound like your heatsink is doing its job, and whenever paste is disturbed like that, you should always replace it before proceeding.

Make sure that you use pure rubbing alcohol (nothing that has perfumes or anything of the sort in it), cotton swabs that aren't very fuzzy (to avoid leaving fibers behind), and smooth, 100% cotton cloths. There are fancy applicators and things you can use too, and even specific solvents, but they are not necessary.

Basically, you'll want to use the alcohol to rub the compound off the processor. Try not to let liquid drip off the sides, and if it does, clean it up with the cloth. Make sure there isn't any excess on the sides, too. Then you'll want to use alcohol to remove what's on the bottom of the heatsink, and this is going to take more effort since it'll be in the grooves. Go through a few swab cleaning cycles, wiping it off with a cloth every time, until you're satisfied and know that you've gotten the vast majority of the gunk off. Wait until you're sure the alcohol has completely evaporated on both components before proceeding.

Check the area around the processor (not just the immediate area, but all around it on the motherboard) for any bits of goop that may have somehow run astray. Since it doesn't sound like you were dispensing anything inside the case, I highly doubt this is a problem for you, but it won't hurt to look for foreign substances or objects regardless.

If you're using Arctic Silver, just a small BB-sized dab on the processor will do, and another tiny dab rubbed into the heatsink's contact area is good as well. Then squish it together as accurately as possible and secure it well.

[Pikarya]

First time I ever built a PC this was my biggest and only real issue.

1. Clean heatsink 100% with isopropyl alcohol/non fragranced (some have lemon and weird shit in them) and break/lint free cotton cloths.
2. Put less than a piece of rice in size of the Thermal compound on the center of the CPU.
3. Spread in a thin layer across the CPU, back-and-forth evenly to the edges of the heatsink.
4. Repeat, cleaning any excess off the edges (sometimes can occur if too much pressure is given on the first few swipes).
5. When you have a 70% thermal/30% you can see the heatsink metal combo. You will be good to go.

Especially with Arctic silver, its critical that you don't spread the thermal paste in large amounts across the CPU in a peanut butter & jelly fashion since it will act as an insulator instead of a passive bond like it should be working.

On my main gaming PC I currently run a constant 27 degrees celcius, 36/39 max on load all air cooled. So yeah those numbers are definately high in my opinion @_@.

Anyways hope if that info helps, I remember the first time I really built a PC worthy of shit and this occured. My temps were through the roof.

[mootsfox]

For future reference, they are called standoffs.

[Shuemue]

For future reference, I'm a huge nerd.

ohay

would be called risers here anyway

[mootsfox]

SORRY FOR KNOWING THE CORRECT TERMINOLOGY OF COMMON COMPUTER COMPONENTS.

[Shuemue]

Correctness is relative!