Thermal grease on CPU question...

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If I've applied it the wrong way, should I really be worried?

 

Old grease got completely dry and it was really time to change. With old grease my recent CPU temps were idle 38-41C and under heavy load 57-60C. CPU is Core i5-2400 by the way. Now I have checked temps again and those were the same in idle and about 59-61C under the load, so basically my screw up only added like 1-2C on top of it. Could it really hurt me in a long run? If yes, how long I theoretically have until I gotta change grease again?

 

On a good side though I finally managed to drill the plastic on CPU fan to oil it and it doesn't make a noise like a freaking circular saw under the load anymore...

 

 

[JaYmZeE311074]

Seriously, I'd take it to bits and do it properly.

 

The orignial fan cooling for my 8 core AMD was a complete joke - I kinda thought that the fan that came with the processor would probably be good enough to stop it from overheating under load but that was so completely insufficient I ripped it out and installed a Hyper 212 - was very careful with my application of the thermal coating only to find that the fan that came with the 212 was worse than hopeless - bought 2 replacements - one to suck in from the front and one to blow out at the back before my issues were resolved. Even at full load processor peaks at 52oC and I've stress tested the thing for an hour - never above 52.

 

I monitor it almost constantly though - because I can't be buying new processors every 2nd month.

 

If I was you - I'd do what you already know - this need to be done properly, patiently and with a degree of care or it'll literally blow up in your face.

 

Edit:- I would say - your idle doesn't look too bad - mines varies dependent on room temperature from 28-38oC at idle.

 

Also, I ripped the old processor cooling fan from my dual core AMD that spins at over 5000 rpms - got it "JaYmZeE engineered" to my chassis plugged into the the motherboard and blowing directly across my ram into the intake fan on the 212 - that makes a massive difference.

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Thing is, I was dumb enough not to check thermal grease tube, I've used it before recently and I thought it has enough, turned out it hadn't, so my CPU has very thin and uneven layer now...

 

As for the cooling, I think stock does well enough. My CPU is pretty old anyway and would be good idea to swap it for some Core i7 already but ain't got money for that yet, blown my savings for 970 GTX because my old GPU finally fried after 5 years of exemplary service. Whoever I asked all said my CPU can take up to 80C in high loads no worries, but I'm getting 61C max, and not planning on overclocking this gig, though I'm really worried about future. I mean I have no experience with badly greased CPUs and curious if temps won't go overboard in a short term.

 

Another problem is, I'm using specific thermal grease, and local stores don't have it, so I'm ordering it, and delivery takes a week or two (yes, I know this service sucks, but no way around).

[JaYmZeE311074]

Yeah - quick flick thru some pages suggest 72-73 recommended max for your current cpu - at the end of the day - if there was an issue - you'd know immediately with massive drop off in performance before something went bang. I see no reason for your CPU to suddenly make a huge jump - any decline in protection provided by the grease would likely be gradual unless you inadvertently blew it (the grease) clean off with a can of pressurised air or the like!

 

Just replaced my 970 with a 1070 - 970's a great card - doesn't need overclocked - in fact I've found overclocking leads to more instability than is worth having in relation to performance gain - in relation to memory/cpu & vcard. I'd rather work close to the original specs - again - unless your rolling in it - I personally can't justify the risk.

 

I had a 8600GT for years - the fan went on it like they did on so many of that era - had an old processor fan strapped to it with wire & elastic bands for a couple of years before finally replaced that - it never gave up the ghost and I had that for 7 years - 2 with the JaYmZeE engineering.

 

My 970 blew a 750W single rail PSU - playing skyrim - bang bang - lucky it was just the PSU that went. Had a 850W dual rail for a bit after that and now I've got a 1300W fully modular EVGA PSU that could probably power my house.

 

Stock cooling had always done on every PC since my first pentium 100mhz 8MB ram bought back in 94-95ish right up to the dual core. For the latest one - it was completely inadequate - it's something I hadn't considered that the manufacturer would sell a chip with a cooling unit woefully unable to keep it within recommended limits. Something I'll be personally wary of in all future builds.

 

Yeah - my livingroom has carcases of machines past and present lying everywhere - enjoying having a decent machine just now - I appreciate it because it's rarely been the case - but whilst I don't care for material goods that I don't use - I always want faster, better PC's - if I had money I'd happily waste every penny I had on them because I know I'd always get the use out of it.

 

I digress, turning into borey storey time with James.

 

Suffice to say - I love my current PC and all it's predecessors - I used to think I'd grow out of it or something - but no - I just get worse and will undoubtably be gaming when I die.

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On most AMDs overclocking is like a must, on Nvidia and Intel, not so much, unless you're really lack power and need more "juice" out of old hardware.

 

And why the hell you need that powerful PSU? Mine is 600W now, and I have no idea what must be inside my rig for me to need more...

[JaYmZeE311074]

I'm yet to run into anything I'd need to overclock my AMD for. Witcher 3 & Fallout 4 are about as advanced as it gets on this machine - and neither is pushing it that hard. The install of the 1070 seems to have lestened the strain even more - I'm guessing saving it doing a few loops when the GPU was bottlenecking.

 

I got the PSU because I could and after the 750W blowing up when I installed the 970 I decided having a top PSU was worth the investment.

 

I have 4 drives, two SSD & two old school, 32MB Ram - a 140W processor, a 1070 gtx with the possibility of SLI and my extensive list of USB sticks & devices + external drives + charging devices for my leccy cigs, occasionally phones and my car all running from it.

 

More to the point - all running from it without me worrying about it blowing up - so far at least, I don't think it's been tested.

 

For my green streak - it's also ridiculously efficient.