Thermalright TRUE 120... 51 degrees!!??

charlie-j

New member
Hey,

Got my TRUE 120 today with the silent fan by noctua and my CPU is 51 degrees idle!!

Is it really bad or is it just me? What can I be doing wrong?

Thanks for your help,

Charlie.
 
Well it can be two things:

1. It's not seated properly.

2. It's defective.

Point 1 is clear... point 2 is much more interesting. I sent SI-128SE back because it wasn't working in a tower case, but it was working in a desktop case. Meaning, if the mobo was vertical, the heatpipes didn't work, but once the mobo was horizontal, surprise, the heatpipes worked.

Can you check if the contact plate on the CPU heats up and the heatpipes and the fins remain cold? If yes, it's a number 2 problem.

If the whole cooler gets warm (the plate will always be warmer then the fins and heatpipes) then it's a number 1 problem, so re-seat it.
 
wow 51c :o

hmm let me remember the basic questions, hmm, here goes:

did you applied the thermal paste right?

did you took off the plastic that protects the heatsink? (sorry but that's one of the questions :rolleyes:)

wich voltage is set at your mobo?

did you set it right letting all it touch the cpu uniformly?
 
Its QX6700, only overclocked a bit, I bought it as I was hoping to go higher. I took the plastic bit off, the voltage is on auto (only 1.28 volts), I put a bit of thermal paste on the CPU and heatsink as per instructions - neither the heatpipes or heatsink are hot, this is what happened with my last fan.

Maybe it's the way I put the thermal paste on - any help?
 
hmm the way i put thermal paste is like this i clean both cpu / heatsink then put a drop at the cpu and use my ID card to spread it (lol its the only soft card i have so i use it :rolleyes:) then i set it using the thumbscrews with my hands, to set equaly at all sides, also i set the thumbscrews in a way that i can only describe its like a X since i dont like to put both down then both up or vice versa, also if this isnt helping maybe the heatsink isnt working :(
 
Yeah it's just weird that the Intel stock fan was crap (but that was expected), then the new (but quite cheap) one was, and now this one which is meant to be really good isn't aswell... I'll take it out and try again. BRB.
 
name='Sihastru' said:
(...) it wasn't working in a tower case, but it was working in a desktop case. Meaning, if the mobo was vertical, the heatpipes didn't work, but once the mobo was horizontal, surprise, the heatpipes worked.

Can you check if the contact plate on the CPU heats up and the heatpipes and the fins remain cold? If yes, it's a number 2 problem.
You have said the cooler did not get warm, right? Then you could try laying your case on its side with the motherboard pointing down. If you have the same problem as Sihastru had, the heatsink should be working that way.
 
Well, can you reach the plate at the bottom? where the heatpipes start from... hope you get the idea. If that's not hot (51 is not that hot, it will be warm-ish) then you should reseat the thing. If you want a difference use something (OCCT, you can set a maximum temp for it to stop) to get it to 65-70-ish (Celsius) and then feel for it.

With paste, I usually put some in the middle, then squeeze it with the actual cooler, keep that in place and secure the mounting screws. Don't use too little, don't use too much. The actual dies (two on a quad) are somewhat in the center of the whole thing, there's a little gap between them.
 
hmm but still 51 isnt a good temp, afterall charlie lives in UK, and having a temp like that isnt good, i have a q6600 at a place when its freezing is something near 26c :rolleyes: and my idle temps are: Core0 = 39 core1 = 37 core2 = 37 core3 = 37 and im with the cpu OC'ed and my version of the ultra 120 is the old one (not the TRUE) since it has only 8 heatpipes, also my fan is a stock coolermaster 120mm. but this cant be taken too serious as an example since his CPU is a different model.
 
Sorry, I formulated wrong.

51 degrees at idle is very much, I agree. What I meant was that the cooler will not get that hot at 51 degrees, when you feel it by touch. It will just feel just a little warmer (since there will be a small difference between the human body temperature and the cooler actual temperature). It would be colder at the top (the fins) and warmer at the bottom.

I suggested to get it to 65-70 just to test if the heat exchange was happening properly, that's all. If the CPU was at 70 and the cooler was still cold, then he would test the contact plate as I suggested, and if that was cold or hot, he would take it from there.
 
name='Sihastru' said:
Sorry, I formulated wrong.

51 degrees at idle is very much, I agree. What I meant was that the cooler will not get that hot at 51 degrees, when you feel it by touch. It will just feel just a little warmer (since there will be a small difference between the human body temperature and the cooler actual temperature). It would be colder at the top (the fins) and warmer at the bottom.

I suggested to get it to 65-70 just to test if the heat exchange was happening properly, that's all. If the CPU was at 70 and the cooler was still cold, then he would test the contact plate as I suggested, and if that was cold or hot, he would take it from there.

no problem man, i was just giving a rough idea about the temps, anyways your idea is good aswell since doing a stress test and seeing if the heatsink got hot or not would find if the heatsink isnt working. :)
 
Ok, I have laid it on it's side, reseated and re-applied thermal paste. Still the same... how much paste should I use, and should the plate which you put the screws through (not the ones on the motherboard) be touching the motherboard? Should you use the long or short screws? The instructions are quite crap :|

I''l try and get it warmer now. I'm just surprised it's at the same temp as the crappy stock cooler that sounded like a hoover.
 
775 - long screws

AM2 - short screws

Anyway, they have different threads so they shouldn't cross-fit.

The two plates that form the X (not the black backplate) shouldn't touch the motherboard once the screws are tight. There should be about 1mm clearance. See that all screws are tight and that you do screw them in at the same time, little by little, so that they remain parallel to the MB all the time.
 
I can't seem to get it above 54 using full CPU :(

I used the long screws and they arn't touching - just checking. They are parallel and tight as they go (the whole thread is in, not overdone)... They are lined up too, just like a normal thing I would screw up, carefully and bit by bit making sure it's lined up.
 
That's just not possible, something is fishy, a 3 degrees delta between idle and load is unheard of on air. You must have a very efficient cooler :)

Use OCCT, it reads the temps of the individual cores and can also full load the CPU until a preset max. temp.

Motherboard BIOS based readings may be far off, or be the Tjunction and not the actual cores temps.
 
I just said, OCCT. Direct download link: http://www.ocbase.com/download.php?fileext=exe

Be sure you don't get over 75 degrees, I don't want you to burn your CPU, press the config button and set the maximum temp. Choose an infinite loop, if you see any of the cores exceeding 75 just stop the test.

I used it myself on a 45nm Quad that reached 90 during a max OC test, but if I burn mine, I don't care, I just go and buy another one.

screen-officiel-v2.0.1-en.png
 
Temps are 48,49,59,44 now at 98.95% CPU and 59,59,59,54.

Yeah, I don't have that luxury, I cant believe I even bought this CPU in the first place I can't even overclock.
 
name='charlie-j' said:
Temps are 48,49,59,44 now at 98.95% CPU and 59,59,59,54

Third core seems to have a stuck sensor, so ignore it. Can you make an estimate of the room temperature? Can you tell us the motherboard/northbridge temperature?

Are you using the ULNA adapter with the noctua?
 
Ok ambient temp is around 26 degrees in the case and the room... mobo heatsink is like 70 degrees :( current temps of cpu are 58,59,62,54.

Oh, the Noctua is just the normal 3 pin straight into the CPU socket on the MOBO... I tried it using the fan controllers and putting them to max with no difference.
 
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