I've had my PC for almost two months now. Decided to OC it recently. Gelid Tranquilo, i7 920 D0, Gigabyte X58UD3R Rev2 with the new Bios and a Xigmatek Utgard with stock fans. Although while the CPU ran at stock speed the machine was already more than capable to grind through all my normal usage scenarios effortlessly, I decided I just want to try OCing just to tinker with the hardware. That and with Sandy Bridge as the next gen Intel platform this might be the last chance to OC easily and get huge return for a modest cost. Anyway, as this was my first PC build, I made some mistakes. The biggest one was aplying waaaaaay too much TIM on the CPU. I pretty much used the whole tube that came with the Gelid cooler. The guide I was using said "use a small amount" and well... that tube sure seemed very small to me. Next time I should remember that "small amount" is not exactly an SI unit, will stick to grams and mililitres.... With the hardware listed above a 4Ghz stable OC should be pretty much guaranteed with the right BIOS settings. Under Prime one of the cores reaches 99-100 degrees and others hover around 95. When I take it down to 3.8 the max temp under prime is 94-95 for the hottest core and 88-90 for the other ones. Using Core Temp. I'm pretty sure my BIOS settings are ok, but I will repost them later after I get home just to double check. I'm pretty sure the massive amount of thermal paste acts as a insulator rather than conductor... I have no idea what to use to remove the excess amount. Also, IRL usage temps are generaly much, much lower since the most taxing CPU task for my machine is gaming, so only 1-2 cores are doing some minor excercise while the GPU is sweating. My point is that practicaly the temps are well within safe, but it just bugs me a bit when I know I screwed something up.
I believe you are correct in saying too much TIM acts as an insulator instead of a conductor of heat, especially considering the temps your are reporting. You only want a very thin layer of the stuff between ur CPU and the heatsink. There are a multitude of guides and suggestions for applying TIM, from using a credit card to spread it to just squashing it down when you place the heat sink. Personally I like to put a tiny blob in the middle and stretch a piece of cling film over my finger and spread it with that. As for cleaning fluids, there are plenty on offer, some are citrus based, which is what I used but I read somewhere that apparently these aren't so good. I'm sure Arctic Silver have a good TIM cleaning fluid, just run a quick Google search.
your temps are extremely high something is definately wrong. I wouldnt say a 4Ghz overclock is guanteed. id say 3.8Ghz is 100% but 4Ghz on a D0 should be 80-90% of all D0 sold. whats your VID report back as ? my i7 920 D0 under a H50 is 65-70C under prime 95. as for TIM i use the rice grain method with a push and slight twist to ensure good contact.
Firstly, the issue is more than likely to be the amount of thermal paste that you used. The spreading or the rice grain method both work fine, the rice grain method should be evenly distributed provided the pressure is even; I use the spreading method personally, as the TIM is thick enough after spreading to distribute itself evenly and a little more under pressure. Good TIM removers, the Akasa stuff, nail varnish remover containing acetone, or isopropyl alcohol.
Whilst probably not on the recommended list of stuff, i've always used clean/unused white spirit & kitchen roll to remove TIM/bits of thermal pads/etc from cpus, chipsets, gpus, etc, etc - well, it's dirt cheap, readily available, evaporates quickly & i've never had the slightest problem with it...
I was actually going to include white spirit, and I'm sure that we have all thought of using it. It does work, and nothing says you can't; the only issue is it's oily and greasy, that's all. Use it if you want though, by all means, it's a good one Get the least oily stuff you can (I know there are different grades, but I'm no expert on the stuff xD).
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Akasa-TIM-Clean-CPU-and-Heat-Sink-(Pad-Grease)-Cleaning-Solution I'm guessing you are talking about this guys. Since I used up the tube that came with the Gelid, I will also need new TIM to go together with this order. Any recommendations? I'm guessing the performance difference for the average user between the TIMs is negligible and I'm far from a power user trying to get every single Mhz so please suggest something within a reasonable budget. I'll probably return the rig to stock settings for now and OC again while I have everything installed properly. I think the most taxing CPU task atm is playing Borderlands anyway XD.
That's the stuff mate, yeah. Personally I'm now using Thermalright's Chill Factor III. Review of the pastes here.
I think I picked up some isopropyl alcohol to clean away TIM. Evaporates quickly and seems to cut through the "gunk" fairly easily.
DO NOT USE the centre blob/grain of rice method with an i-series cpu. Best method for i7s is a line of TIM, but the lines have to go the right way. Use the AS guide, they have tested it hundred of times. http://www.arcticsilver.com/methods.html Also if you want a good TIM cleaner then nail varnish remover is perfectly fine. Best TIM is MX-3 i found anyway. No matter what anyone ever tells you, never use the spreading out method. Its been proven that spreading the TIM out is awful and causes air bubbles, meaning a really bad overall temp. Watch this video to see why spreading is a nono. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXLu1Ms-q4
