[Alien]

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Well I'm in a small room and have a 17" CRT that kicks out a lot of heat, this room DOES get warm quickly if I have the door closed and the curtains drawn at night, even with the window open.

Must be really small for a 17" CRT to heat it up quickly!

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

I don't think It's wise to try and trap the sensor between heatsink and cpu though!

LOL, true. Before on-chip sensors became common, I recall reading a number of accounts of either milling a groove in the base of the heatsink, or more commonly drilling a hole in the side of the base of the heatsink that runs parallel to the bottom & as close as possible to it, then put thermal probe & a dollop of thermal paste in the hole.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Vcore is showing 1.33v, so that's right!

Cool.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Already installed the Dual Core Optimizer and enabled Cool n Quiet, although the Processor driver is showing 1.3.2.0 and there is a 1.3.2.16, so installed that but it's still showing the same version in device manager after a reboot?

My processor driver shows the same version [only had the default MS 1 installed before].

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

One thing I have done is use the EPP of the RAM to set it to performance in BIOS, this changes the timings to 4-4-4-12 and increases the DDR voltage from 1.8v to 2.38v and DIMM VTT from 0.9v to 1.18v according to PC Probe and Everest. although I can't explain why it's showing CPU Hypertransport at 1.39v when it should be 1.20v, not overclocked the CPU unless it's tied in with the SLI memory? Those are the only 3 voltages showing RED in PC Probe.

I was going to play around with my RAM settings to get the timings I paid for, but my graphics card &/or monitors have done that thing again where they remain blank between re-booting & Windows login screen, which means if I want to get into the BIOS again I've got to power off & take the graphics card out & put it back in again. [can't be bothered at the moment]

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Installed the Power Monitor, why does everything need a sodding reboot ,

LOL, anything that works in a driver-ish sort of way usually does with Windows.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

but just shows the power as 1 red bar on the graph for each core!

My understanding of that is that it would [in theory] go up from red to yellow to green the longer you leave your system on & the more it's idle.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

I turn all power saving options off in XP, always have and Vcore is showing 1.3v so that ties with PC Probe and Everest.

Well, hopefully that should mean your mobo isn't trying to fry your chip.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Installed Dashboard too, jeeeesus another sodding reboot , but I think it's broke, CPU is showing 40°C no matter what I do and the fan speed is always showing MIN!!

I couldn't get Dashboard to load. I just get an error message.

Failed initializing, make sure the AMDTools Driver is installed and that this system has a PSS or PST object.

Hmm... having googled, apparently it's because I have Cool'n'Quiet disabled in the BIOS. I remember leaving it disabled, & that I had a reason... I just can't remember what the reason was!

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

AF64 arrived this morning!

First problem was the clamping lever was on the wrong side, it looked like it would interfere with the fins on the mobo heatpipe and be awkward to get at when in place. Unscrewed the retention assembly and re-assembled it 180° now the lever is the correct side, fan is still pointing to the front of the case!

That's as it should be, fan pointing to front of case, airflow going towards rear exhaust fan[s].

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Second problem is the base of the heatsink is dog rough and concave! Scraped all the gunk off and used the edge of a SKY card to see if it was flat, in one direction it's concave and 90° to it it's nearly flat, but the finish is very rough! So either I leave it at that and hope it's OK or try to lap it flat and get a better finish, should I lap it? More damn work

Mine isn't concave, but I have to say after looking at it again it's definitely the roughest heatsink base I've ever seen. I'm not looking forward to lapping it either. It's probably going to have to wait a while anyway, as I think I had to chuck my decent/fine sandpaper out a while ago [it suffered an unpleasant fate ]. I'll have to see what I've got left, otherwise it's going to have to wait until after next weekend, as I've only got just enough money for food until then.

Originally Posted by keithwalton

I'm surprised the AF64's surface was so rough, perhaps they are cutting corners these days

None of the review pictures looked anywhere near as bad, I wonder why.

Originally Posted by keithwalton

Edit - Having checked wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon) There was the palomino in between the thunderbird and the thoroughbred, the palomino was the first 'Athlon XP' and raised the clockspeed compared to the tbird (b/c) and was made at 180nm.

Yeah, my 1900 was a Palamino.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Aye, surface is very rough, you can see the milling marks on the block! In fact it looks like it's a piece from a surface roughness scratch guage

I had to look that up, as I didn't know what you meant, but yeah, having had a closer look I have to agree.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Brother is up town and is going to see if he can get some wet or dry paper, between 400-2000 grit according to lapping guides I've read, we'll see what abortion I can make of this, better put your tin hats on this could get messy!

sorted.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

One problem I had with the lapping was the copper bottom kept vibrating on the glass/sand paper if I pressed on too hard? Tried immersing fully in water while lapping and by just wetting the sand paper and gently rubbing back and forth, still vibrated if I pressed too hard! But, managed to get a decent finish in the end by not pressing too hard

IIRC, you're supposed to move it in small circles, not just back & forth. And yeah, it is supposed to be done fairly gently.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Fitting the AF64 was tricky, the retention clip is so damn stiff even with one side clipped onto the lugs you really have to press down on the other clip to get it to mate plus it was extremely hard to flip the clamping lever and you could feel the force it was exerting when it clamped home. The lever was actually pulled sideways a bit the strain was so great!

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Used the OCZ Ultra 5+ paste, spread it over the CPU but the block of the AF64 does not cover the whole of the CPU, rather it fits flush on 2 adjacent edges of the CPU and the other two edges have a 1 - 1.5mm gap exposing the CPU and paste!

I remember seeing that mentioned in a review. The important part is that it more than covers the area where the core is [in the middle]. On the plus side, as you've discovered, it makes sticking an exernal thermal probe on a bit easier. I used to have 1 of the probes for my DigiDoc 5 pressed up against the side of the core of my XP3200, & getting it to stay there, up against the not-very-tall side of the core wasn't easy [even with the supplied bit of sticky tape].

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

CPU: 36°C
CPU Fan: 2300rpm
Mobo: 31°C
Sensor 1 - CPU: 36°C
Sensor 2 - case temp: 28°C

The onboard mobo sensor is probably somewhere warm, which would explain the difference in mobo & case temps.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Ran Othos in 'Blend - stress CPU and RAM' mode for 10 minutes and noted PC Probe readings:

CPU: 53°C
CPU Fan: 2300rpm
Mobo: 33°C
Sensor 1 - CPU: 47°C
Sensor 2 - case temp: 30°C

CPU still looks high! Turned off the only overclocking feature enabled in the BIOS, SLI Memory, and re-ran Othos for 10 mins and no change on temps! Either this CPU runs hot or I suck at fitting heatsinks, I think I know which one people will opt for!

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

53 on orthos is fine imo much better temps

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img] It's certainly an improvement over the temps you were getting.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

System temp seems fine with the 120mm fan blowing in through the front and 2 x 80mm fans exhausting at rear, disconnected the 2 side fans! Just spent an hour on GTA: San Andreas and Sensor 2 is showing 30°c for system temp and 45°C for CPU so it's better than the duct I made (with stock cooler mind!) as I was getting about 43°C idle with that!

Much better.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Cheers Zing, Alien and Keith and other contributors for all the help and advice, can we really put this thread to bed now?

Awww, I was enjoying this thread. <pout>