temp monitor & stress test apps

DamoKen

Hi, just took delivery of a CPU & graphics card cooler as well as some braided cables. Before I removed the old fans and cables though would like to record temps on graphics card, mobo and cpu at idle, full load etc and then compare when I install the new parts.

any recommendations out there?

cheers

PogMoThoin

Specs?

DamoKen

AMD64 3500 (stock cooler), Asus AV8 Deluxe, Antec TruePower 480W, X800XT PE (stock cooler), Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2 Pro CAS2, Audigy 2 ZS, Raptor 75GB Primary, Barracuda 200GB Secondary.

PogMoThoin

There are a few, speedfan, motherboard monitor & systool. Dunno which will work best to suit your specs, try systool 1st, its specially for amd, motherboard monitor only works if your mobo is supported. Speedfan should work, but you gotta figure out which temp is which.

DamoKen

cheers, will check them out. is there any apps in particular you'd recommend using to do a simulated full load test. Was thinking of using 3DMark. Any other ones that you can think of to put it through it's paces?

PogMoThoin

Ya 3dmark06 for gpu (cpu tests not bad either) & prime95 for cpu. They really get the temps to max out.

DamoKen

cheers mate! ran 3DMark06 last night and have to say think my new artic cooler couldn't have arrived a moment too soon! standard tests pushed the GPU temp up to a max of 93 C and running the game with all bells and whistles got it up over 100!
I knew from problems lately in Fear and now Prey that my card was probably overheating, but didn't suspect it was going that high. Be interesting to see what effect the new cooler has on it.

PogMoThoin

Use arctic silver 5 thermal paste on the cooler if ya have it to hand.

savemejebus

As far as I know arctic coolers (freezer 64 etc) don't work as well with arctic silver 5 as they do with the paste that comes with them. The mx paste that comes with the coolers is supposedly specially designed for the rough bases of the Arctic coolers and is (from what i've read and experienced) more effective so you might actually be better using that.

DamoKen

yeah I think I got a tube with either the processor or gpu cooler. just a question on cleaning the gunk left from the original coolers, I've got a bottle of pure acetone in the house, seem to remember reading somewhere that this is fine for the job, just a little on a lint free cloth and carefully rub away the original paste. Then let any acetone residue evaporate before applying the new paste. Is that ok?

PogMoThoin

DamoKen wrote:

yeah I think I got a tube with either the processor or gpu cooler. just a question on cleaning the gunk left from the original coolers, I've got a bottle of pure acetone in the house, seem to remember reading somewhere that this is fine for the job, just a little on a lint free cloth and carefully rub away the original paste. Then let any acetone residue evaporate before applying the new paste. Is that ok?

:rolleyes: Yep.

The tube ya got is probably Zalman paste, comes in a tube, its ok but Arctic silver 5 is better, can lead to 2-3' lower temps than Zalman stuff. Will make a difference if you oc. Here: http://www.hitide.ie/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/245

DamoKen

savemejebus wrote:

As far as I know arctic coolers (freezer 64 etc) don't work as well with arctic silver 5 as they do with the paste that comes with them. The mx paste that comes with the coolers is supposedly specially designed for the rough bases of the Arctic coolers and is (from what i've read and experienced) more effective so you might actually be better using that.

just remembered, the thermal paste is already pre applied to the heatsink on the gpu. A tube of zalman paste comes with the cpu cooler.

savemejebus

hang on, what types of cooler did you get. If they are Arctic coolers then the MX-1 paste that came with them is perfect to use and will perform as well if not better than arctic silver 5.

If they are zalman then use the Arctic silver 5.

My 2 cents

Edit: was under the impression that the cpu cooler was arctic too. If zalman then AS5 is much better

DamoKen

yeah it's an Artic

savemejebus

What coolers did you get? Do you have links?

DamoKen

yep

Arctic Cooling ATI 4 Rev.2 (X800 Series) VGA Silencer http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=5

and a Zalman CNPS9500-AM2 Aero Flower (Socket AM2/939/754)http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=202

Note: I'm not as concerned about the temps on the CPU as I am with the GPU, even with the stock cooler on full load it didn't go over 50C

PogMoThoin

mx1 is even better than arctic silver but doesn't justify the whole 1' difference at twice the cost of arctic silver. Go with arctic silver if you didn't get mx1 with the arctic cooler. Throw away the zalman stuff.

savemejebus

The gfx cooler will be fine with the paste that came with it, as PogMoThoin said the stuff with the CPU cooler probably wont' be the greatest so it would be worth replacing it with Arctic Silver 5.

When fitting the gfx cooler be extra careful as they can be finickly buggers

DamoKen

cheers for all the helpful advice guys. yeah will be careful with the card, last thing I want is a good cooler and a broken card .

just wondering, do PCWorld or Dixons sell thermal paste? Planning on installing the coolers before the weekend if I get the chance, the above are about the only pc related places within reasonable distance of me. I'd go to Maplins in Blanch but need to be close to the house over the next few days.

PogMoThoin

Doubt if pcworld ever even heard of thermal paste, wouldn't buy a toaster off them anyway. Order off hitide, the link i posted above above, you'll have it in 3 days. Maplin will rip you off, if they even have it. Zalman stuff will do for the mo, just replace it when you get something better.

DamoKen

cheers, will do. just didn't want to be hanging around waiting for a delivery. PCWorld is not a place I'd normally frequent for a mulitude of reasons

L31mr0d

Maplins sell Silver TIM and it isn't that much more expensive than online. Its Antec formula 5 which from reading reviews is just as good as the Arctic Silver stuff. Also Peats sell the Arctic Silver stuff but never seem to have it in when I looked, so ring in advance.

Also back OT, i've recently come across a plethora of stress test apps and monitors for OCin my Opteron system.

These are:

1. Speedfan
2. Systool
3. cpuz
4. A64info
5. A64memfreq11
6. A64 Tweaker
7. Core temp beta 0.9.0.91
8. GCPUID
9. Orthos Beta (better than running 2 instances of prime95 for dual core)
10. Prime95
11. memtest
12. OCCT
13. Super_PI

sorry about the lack of links, i'm on dialup atm so its a bit of a hassle , but as syxpak might say "eh search engines! heard of them?"