Scythe "CPU Cooler Stabilizer" for 775 - question

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:59 am

Hi ppl,
i was planning on getting this back plate for my ninja rev.b (that comes with the weird connectors) -
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/0 ... etail.html

does anyone have it?
it comes with thermal grease, and i wanted to know if i should use it or get something else (if so, what?)

i hope you can help,
thanks,
Dan.

lodestar · Post by **lodestar** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:21 am

Maybe this will help http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/produc ... merreviews

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:24 am

thanks!

what about the scythe Thermal Grease? how is it for cooling?

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:38 am

what thermal grease should i use?
thanks.

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:34 am

Pick one (tested on Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 @ 3504mhz - 1.408 vcore and 21Â°C ambient).

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:35 am

AFAIK Scythe's thermal grease is standard silicon grease. If you don't have anything else, it should be fine. If you want slightly better cooling and psychological peace of mind, Arctic Silver Ceramique and Arctic Silver 5 are popular choices, but do need considerable curing time. With AS 5, you have to be especially careful as it is conductive and may play havoc with your components if not applied correctly. Arctic Cooling MX-2 comes in a 4g tube, is pretty cheap, is non-conductive and doesn't need the curing time. There's no need to go crazy and spend a lot of money on thermal compound. If you don't upgrade or swap out parts much, a 2-4g tube will last for years.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:06 am

thanks a lot!

as the chart shows, the Scythe grease is 74c and arctic cooling (which is my alternative) is 73.5c. is it really half a degree cooler? my ambient temp' is higher though.

btw, what is the (best) way to clean the chip before applying. and what is the (best) way to apply the paste on the chip?

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:54 am

Lt_Dan wrote:thanks a lot!

as the chart shows, the Scythe grease is 74c and arctic cooling (which is my alternative) is 73.5c. is it really half a degree cooler? my ambient temp' is higher though.

There are lots of reviews and comparisons of thermal compounds on the web claiming how great this compound is over the other etc etc. Most of the graphs end up giving me a headache. At the end of the day, 1-3 degrees C isn't much difference, but as I said before, it does give psychological peace of mind that your chips aren't "burning". Sorry to use a culinary pun. Get it? Chips (fries), grease, burning. Okay, let's move on.

Lt_Dan wrote:btw, what is the (best) way to clean the chip before applying. and what is the (best) way to apply the paste on the chip?

The most common way to clean the surface of the heatsink and chip is with pure alcohol as close to 100% as possible. You can usually pick this up for a few dollars in a chemist or hardware store. If you don't like handling alcohol or harsh chemicals like me, you can try Arctic Silver ArctiClean. It usually cost a few dollars also but you obviously don't get a large bottle as with the pure alcohol. It's a bit of a fancy product and not commonly used but it's quite safe to handle and has less chance of making you sick. Works pretty well too. A.S. has the directions on their website as the product doesn't ship with any documentation.
If you aren't affected by alcohol or harsh chemicals, then that is the cheapest method. A small amount rubbed on a clean lint free cloth/paper towel/coffee filter paper to clean the surface of the heatsink and chip is enough to do the job. Clean off any excess (this time with another clean cloth/paper towel/coffee filter paper) before applying the grease. I'm not a seasoned expert on the matter, but I have changed heatsinks a few times before. Maybe someone can back my comments up and give you their experiences also?

As for best way to apply the grease on the chip, there is no ideal way even though some people will tell you otherwise. Different manufacturers will suggest their own way to apply it and this is usually a good practice to follow. Get the directions from both the heatsink and thermal compound makers' websites. If anything goes wrong, report back to the forums and someone should be able to help you.
It will also depend on the design of the heatsink in question as different contact surfaces require less or more grease for better filling of the air gaps. With Arctic Cooling MX-2 it is pretty simple. They have the directions on their website which is quite straightforward. No need to get a razor's edge or credit card to spread it perfectly. A bit if trial and error helps to see what works best for you and with experience it's not such a worry after all.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:15 am

Thanks a lot! it was very informative.

i got the Stabilizer and an MX2 - which arrive in 14 business days.. (how i hate that!).
i will update later.
thanks again,
Dan.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:42 am

update - got the kit today.

i saw this site about applying thermal grease, but i'm not sure about the amounts and how should i spread it -
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/274/10
i'm asking because i did my scythe when i got it kinda of bad. (i spread it too much i think).
hope i could do it well this time.

thanks,
Dan.

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:41 am

In contrast to that article, I like to spread the paste as much as possible. I use less than the size of a grain of rice, and use a credit card or plastic to spread a thin layer all over the CPU. Keep spreading it around until it is quite even. It should be thin enough that you may be able to read the writing on the CPU.

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:52 am

Lt_Dan: glad to hear your gear finally arrived.

I would suggest looking at this article and AC's installation instructions for MX-2.

This is the way that Arctic Cooling says to apply their thermal grease and the way that Noctua says to apply theirs. It is an easy "foolproof" method of applying it, taking away the complicated methods of the past. Scythe do not give specific instructions for the Ninja other than to say, "Evenly apply the thermal grease onto the entire surface of the CPU core.". So I would go with the thermal grease manufacturer's instructions. It actually works quite well as long as you don't apply too little or too much.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:03 am

Thanks! the article is great (but my god - 25 hours to wait for the AS?? - or 200 for the ocz!) i saw the instructions in AC site - and they weren't very good for me.
i will inform of my success.... (hopefully)

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:43 am

Yes, AC's instruction pdf is quite a let down. A kindergarten student could probably publish a better manual than that. The Hardware Canucks article does a better job at explaining things.
Hope it all works out fine.

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:59 am

Thanks for the link Shamgar. I've been using Ceramique, but I think I will get MX-2 next time.

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:16 am

Arctic Cooling is one of my favourite companies. Many of their products are very affordable and they don't use bling or extravagant packaging.

PC Case Gear has AC MX-2 for AUD$6. It's normally $12 which is what I paid for it from CoolPC. Even at $12 it's not bad considering you get a 4g tube. Noctua NT-H1 sells anywhere from $9-15 and you get 1.5ml tube. I looked at Ceramique, Noctua and others, but decided on MX-2. I thought I would treat myself to a brand product after using generic grease for years.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:37 am

finished.... took some time because i tried to arrange the insides...

it's pretty strong although the instructions for the stabilizer are bad.

i think i put too little, but whatever.
so far the temp are low (31c) , and the fan is at 600 but i'll see how it goes.

i tried to connect my rear fan to the cpu_fan on the mobo'. but i couldn't control the speed so it was too noisy - do you how i can do it? (scythe s-flex 1200)

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:05 pm

For CPU_FAN you need a PWM fan if you want control over it. Otherwise it will run at full speed.

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:13 pm

burebista wrote:For CPU_FAN you need a PWM fan if you want control over it. Otherwise it will run at full speed.

Are you sure that is true for his particular motherboard? It is an older chipset Intel 965 board. So it may still have 3 pin header and non-PWM control. I am not sure however.

Lt_Dan wrote:i tried to connect my rear fan to the cpu_fan on the mobo'. but i couldn't control the speed so it was too noisy - do you how i can do it? (scythe s-flex 1200)

Let me get this right. When you say rear fan, do you mean the exhaust fan or another fan on the heatsink in push-pull config? If you are trying to run the exhaust fan on cpu_ fan header, why don't you run it off a chassis_fan header instead?

If the BIOS has some form of fan control, allow it to run. Gigabyte doesn't have intricate fan control as far as I know. It may not be the best fan control system but it's better than running at full speed. I will have a look at the manual for your motherboard later off GB's site but right now I have some things to do.

You can also use Speedfan on Windows startup to control the fan speeds. Until it starts up, the fans will run at full speed, but that will be at most a minute or two, depending on how fast your OS loads. I haven't used Speedfan much, but if you need help with it, there are plenty of users here who do. I suggest doing a search for Speedfan (and whatever keywords that might help you) first and if you don't find what you need, post in the Fans and Control forum as there will be more specific help there. Speedfan takes some time to learn how to config it.

31C is pretty good IMO. I think the Stabilizer is helping out there and worth the effort in the end to install.

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:59 pm

Shamgar wrote:Are you sure that is true for his particular motherboard? It is an older chipset Intel 965 board. So it may still have 3 pin header and non-PWM control. I am not sure however.

Old-old, but not so old.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:42 am

that's my mobo'.
i connected the rear fan to the cpu_fan, because only it has a control tab in the bios. and set it to voltage, but i don't know how to control it.

my cpu fan itself is connected to the 3 pin sys_fan and i control it with fanmate, its details aper in speedfan, but i can't control it from there.

ps - my cu still runs at around 39-40 when idle at 1000 rpm

Shamgar · Post by **Shamgar** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:26 am

Lt_Dan: Ah, I see. The mobo has only 3 fan headers and BIOS controls the CPU one only. How to control both fans, then? Hmm, that's a bit of a headscratcher for me. If you're still having trouble sorting it out, try getting some help in the Fans and Control forum and add a link to this topic so people can have some kind of background to your problem. I was glad to help you till now, but this is where I have to bow out.

burebista: Good investigative work. I concede defeat to you, sir. Actually, not really.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:28 am

thanks a lot everyone!
true my bios can control only the cpu_fan but it shows the rpm of the others.
but this is a question to the fan section. -
- i wouldn't have posted it here but it was part of my assembling of the backplate and grease.

really, finding the pic of the mobo' was impressive.
i'll open a new topic in the fans - because there's nothing about my mobo there.