Getting warmer...

[RW]

Hi, new member here.

I built my computer about 16 months ago: Abit KN9 Ultra, Athlon 64 X2 4600+, Zalman CNPS9500 and passively cooled MSI GeForce 7900GS in an Antec Performance One P150 case.

I've been trying my best to keep it clean. So far I haven't even seen any visible dust inside the case as the case has dust filters, which I clean regularly. I've also vacuumed inside the case, just to get those invisible dust particles out. Still, in the past year the average CPU temperature has went up almost 15 degrees. It's now around 40C, which of course isn't alarming at all, but anyway I'm wondering where these extra 15 degrees come from (as new the idle temperature was <25C). Is there some more advanced maintenance I could do to reach the low temperatures I used to have? I know I'm not in a hurry yet, but if the temperatures keep rising, I will want to cool it down again.

(All temperatures are read from the AbitEQ software supplied with the motherboard.)

RW

 

[cube_]

We're near summer time and temperatures are rising. That has a big impact when it comes to cooling.
You'll notice that during the winter time temperatures are much lower.
I'm using an ASUS V72 CPU Cooler cooling my Q6600 at 40C as well. During the winter my temps were around 35C.

Don't worry, there are still many ways you can achieve better temps. You can purchase some better thermal paste or add more fans to directly cool your CPU cooler. I'd recommend this thermal paste, it lowered my temps by 5C! Any other Arctic Silver thermal paste would be good too...

 

[RW]

Thanks! I might consider replacing the thermal paste. If I do, should I just detach the CPU cooler and add the new paste, or should the old paste be cleaned off in some way?

I don't want to add more fans, I use it mostly for making music and want to keep it as silent as possible. The Zalman in combination with a Papst case fan does a great job at that! :)

Oh, it seems I counted the years wrong btw., it's not 16 months old but 28.Time flies...

 

[Pimp]

Thanks! I might consider replacing the thermal paste. If I do, should I just detach the CPU cooler and add the new paste, or should the old paste be cleaned off in some way?

Clean the paste off my friend then add the new paste, to clean just buy some alcohol and rub it in, with a lint free cloth.

Hope that helps

 

[cube_]

Thanks! I might consider replacing the thermal paste. If I do, should I just detach the CPU cooler and add the new paste, or should the old paste be cleaned off in some way?

No problem ;)
And yes, clean it off like Pimp said