AMD Athlon CPU heats up, fans screaming like there is no tomorrow

[wayne128]

"it's actually made to withstand much higher temperatures, and yet still retain it's viscosity and heat-transfer abilities"

it could be harmful to the processor, it could release minerals that can cause problems on the components

the thermal paste properly applied should last for 3+ years on most processors and since you buy lots of it to put on almost 10 processors, the thermal paste still sounds good to me

What minerals might that be exactly? Any proof of that statement? It seems a bit implausible since wheel-bearing grease is specifically formulated to not only be used on metal parts on a daily basis, but is specifically made to prevent damage to them.

You check out a processor thats had that crappy paste applied after 3 years, it will be STUCK to the processor, think that it's still performing the job it was intended to do?

I just replaced the processor in my motherboard after 5 years of daily use, because I wanted to upgrade to a dual-core, not because of any failure, the old processor still looks brand new and works great, and the heatsink was not stuck to the processor like thermal paste will do, it slid right off and the grease was STILL in great shape and doing it's job...let me just re-state that: 5 years.

I can provide a picture of the old processor if you like, even magnified if you want so you can see there is no "mineral" damage, whatever the heck that is.

Grease is grease. Some is better than others. The stuff they foist on consumers as being "thermal paste" specifically for computers, is just plain old white lithium grease, available at your local auto parts store for a FRACTION of what you pay for "thermal paste".

Save the propaganda for the sheep brother.

hi,
I find your method so interesting and is likely for me to use it next time.
I had a old mother board with soldered on Celeron 2G CPU, very slow when compare to other computers, even slower than that of the 1.8G P4 machine.
Not long ago I did clean up on CPU fan, and other areas, actually there is nothing between the CPU fan and the Celeron, it is so easy to just lift up. I must guess all along I am running it without a proper heat dissipation.
I have been thinking I should change this to become a file/server.

So I have some old grease, the can said Mobilgrease Special . Is this suitable?

[Dragynn]

"it's actually made to withstand much higher temperatures, and yet still retain it's viscosity and heat-transfer abilities"

it could be harmful to the processor, it could release minerals that can cause problems on the components

the thermal paste properly applied should last for 3+ years on most processors and since you buy lots of it to put on almost 10 processors, the thermal paste still sounds good to me

What minerals might that be exactly? Any proof of that statement? It seems a bit implausible since wheel-bearing grease is specifically formulated to not only be used on metal parts on a daily basis, but is specifically made to prevent damage to them.

You check out a processor thats had that crappy paste applied after 3 years, it will be STUCK to the processor, think that it's still performing the job it was intended to do?

I just replaced the processor in my motherboard after 5 years of daily use, because I wanted to upgrade to a dual-core, not because of any failure, the old processor still looks brand new and works great, and the heatsink was not stuck to the processor like thermal paste will do, it slid right off and the grease was STILL in great shape and doing it's job...let me just re-state that: 5 years.

I can provide a picture of the old processor if you like, even magnified if you want so you can see there is no "mineral" damage, whatever the heck that is.

Grease is grease. Some is better than others. The stuff they foist on consumers as being "thermal paste" specifically for computers, is just plain old white lithium grease, available at your local auto parts store for a FRACTION of what you pay for "thermal paste".

Save the propaganda for the sheep brother.

hi,
I find your method so interesting and is likely for me to use it next time.
I had a old mother board with soldered on Celeron 2G CPU, very slow when compare to other computers, even slower than that of the 1.8G P4 machine.
Not long ago I did clean up on CPU fan, and other areas, actually there is nothing between the CPU fan and the Celeron, it is so easy to just lift up. I must guess all along I am running it without a proper heat dissipation.
I have been thinking I should change this to become a file/server.

So I have some old grease, the can said Mobilgrease Special . Is this suitable?

I love it! This thread has gone so redneck!

I would have to say yes, Mobilgrease is lithium based with a little bit of moly, probably work great!

The reality is, that it's the heatsink we are concerned with, the processor is squished flat up against the heatsink mechanically, and the layer of grease/paste is only microns thick at most, and really only used to fill the irregularities in the metal structure which are so minute as to be impossible to see with the naked eye.

[vjeko]

dragynn, you know you need to bow to the elderly here, even if 25 yo kids but having 3k or more posts.

i dont say that tribute has to be done, BUT, the post count in no way says of ones knowledge, nor gives him right to say to a new comer to the forum to buzz off.

@t6
thanks for helping others and sharing your experience/knowledge, but only universe is absolute, all the rest we can accept more or less or completely deny, its up to us. as you are free to state your ideas, so are others, and there is no op, jaydot or tex to change that, since, in case that happens, this forum is no longer something it promised and actively advertised to be, but a pure private playground for mocking new folks and earning 25 cents a piece.

t6, i hope youre good on the above

[Was_Just19]

Grease is grease. Some is better than others. The stuff they foist on consumers as being "thermal paste" specifically for computers, is just plain old white lithium grease, available at your local auto parts store for a FRACTION of what you pay for "thermal paste".

I don't know about others, but I have no need for axel grease so do not have any.
I have a small tube of "thermal paste" which has lasted years.
It is easy to handle, store and use.

I know it is sold for a purpose and thus am aware that it will not be harmful.

If I purchase a can of grease from my local hardware store the salesperson will not be able to advise me about the best product for the intended purpose.
Neither do I know the proerties of the CPU surface that comes in contact with the heatsink, so have no idea what 'could' be damaging to that surface. Last CPU I recall seeing did not appear to have a metal surface ....  but I could be mistaken I guess.

So, all in all, I find it more convenient to use what is known to work and sold for the purpose.

Just a thought .......  if the grease you write about is so good at the same job, and so much cheaper, why do commercial entities not sell that grease in tubes as thermal grease for use on CPUs?

Is it maybe because it is not as thermally efficient at the temperatures that CPUs normally work at?

regards.

[John Bee]

.... since wheel-bearing grease is specifically formulated to not only be used on metal parts on a daily basis, but is specifically made to prevent damage to them.

I also only use wheel bearing grease for my cpu's. It works, does not shift, does not dry out so no reapply ever x months thing.

And as Dragynn says, cheap. I have a 200gram tube (smallest I could find) for 2.95 can. I can probably do half the city with it.   

[wayne128]

.... since wheel-bearing grease is specifically formulated to not only be used on metal parts on a daily basis, but is specifically made to prevent damage to them.

I also only use wheel bearing grease for my cpu's. It works, does not shift, does not dry out so no reapply ever x months thing.

And as Dragynn says, cheap. I have a 200gram tube (smallest I could find) for 2.95 can. I can probably do half the city with it.   

HAHA, sound like this will be my next project when I clean up this computer and will add grease.

I have a can of 500g, use for greasing bearing, moving parts, until today I did not know I can use it as a heatsink compound.

thanks for your info also.

[ElCuervo]

lol - and I'm going to use thermal paste to lube my front axle bearings!

For years I've been amazed at how many people think that with some great flash of inspiration, they can out-think the engineers that spend countless hours researching, experimenting, and designing stuff. And more often than not, it is a simple parroting of misinformation. If you want some data about using thermal paste, start here and follow some of the reference links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease. Also, here is one guy's experiment: http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm

The bottom line is that many things will cool your CPU. Not all of them will do it as efficiently as thermal paste. It also appears that 4 degrees C is about the max improvement with any of them, and if you have a severe cooling problem, you would probably be better off investing in better (or bigger) fans.

One more thing: a G-search reveals that there are many, many locked-down forums posts regarding this issue. I don't quite understand how such a simple thing can cause such flare-ups of temper, but please, let's don't let that happen here.

[Dragynn]

Grease is grease. Some is better than others. The stuff they foist on consumers as being "thermal paste" specifically for computers, is just plain old white lithium grease, available at your local auto parts store for a FRACTION of what you pay for "thermal paste".

I don't know about others, but I have no need for axel grease so do not have any.
I have a small tube of "thermal paste" which has lasted years.
It is easy to handle, store and use.

I know it is sold for a purpose and thus am aware that it will not be harmful.

If I purchase a can of grease from my local hardware store the salesperson will not be able to advise me about the best product for the intended purpose.
Neither do I know the proerties of the CPU surface that comes in contact with the heatsink, so have no idea what 'could' be damaging to that surface. Last CPU I recall seeing did not appear to have a metal surface ....  but I could be mistaken I guess.

So, all in all, I find it more convenient to use what is known to work and sold for the purpose.

Just a thought .......  if the grease you write about is so good at the same job, and so much cheaper, why do commercial entities not sell that grease in tubes as thermal grease for use on CPUs?

Is it maybe because it is not as thermally efficient at the temperatures that CPUs normally work at?

regards.

Good questions! The only part I don't understand, is why anybody wouldn't have use fer a can o' grease! (Checked yer wheel bearings lately, they can and do run out of grease occasionally, the obvious symptom being that yer wheel flies off the car as yer rollin' down the road).

My friend, the grease they sell you in those little tubes, IS a type of the same grease i'm speaking of, the cheapest most basic stuff they can buy with pretty much none of the addtitional processing and materials that make up a better quality grease, that's why that stuff hardens up after a couple of years.

Once it hardens up, it is no longer a conductor of heat, it becomes a dielectric, what you also might call an INSULATOR. That's right, once it hardens up, it's actually HARMFUL, insulating your heatsink from your processor to a small degree, making it run hotter, which wears it out faster (so they can sell you another one sooner, planned obsolescence, keeps the manufacturers and the techs ringing that cash register $$$ as you buy into their BS and wear out your own stuff right about the time the warranty runs out).

Good quality synthetic auto grease, takes literally decades before it will harden, the stuff I use works from
-40 degrees f, to over 300 degrees f ( 150 celsius). Automotive greases all come with a product data sheet, and an MSDS (material safety data sheet) by U.S. law that you can request from the manufacturer or look up online. So if you have a question about how the product is formulated, it's all right there.

Every CPU i've ever used, has had a sturdy metal back, they have to pretty much, to withstand the high temperatures, and begin the process of heat transfer. And as i've stated, the grease is just a teeny tiny fractional layer, that more effectively couples the CPU to the heatsink.

Think about it, wheel bearing grease is meant to work at high high temps, with constantly rotating metal parts of varying composition, and is designed to protect those parts from degradation due to heat and wear and tear from a huge amount of friction, it also couples the innermost rotating parts to the outside of the axle shell which is how an axle bleeds off the tremendous heat generated from the rotating mass.

It's not a big deal, i'm just saying if ya got some laying around, ya might try it.  

[Dragynn]

lol - and I'm going to use thermal paste to lube my front axle bearings!

For years I've been amazed at how many people think that with some great flash of inspiration, they can out-think the engineers that spend countless hours researching, experimenting, and designing stuff.

And i've spent decades as a tech, making a lot of ill-conceived nonsense that an "engineer" hastily spewed out, actually WORK in the real world. My father was an engineer/geek/systems guy for his entire career, and he will be the first one to tell you, that it's technicians that make the world run smoothly, not engineers. Engineers very seldom experiment with anything, they draw it up on paper, then insist that THEORETICALLY it should work in the real world, techs are the people who do all the testing, and give the feedback that actually designs the finished product.

But if'n somebody wants ta think them thar smart people, like say Bill Gates fer instance, ought ta be trusted implicitly, then by all means, never dare ta question them....'cause they's smart folk don't ya know, and always has yer best interests at heart they do, they are NEVER just out to take yer money, nosirree!

[Was_Just19]

Think about it, wheel bearing grease is meant to work at high high temps, with constantly rotating metal parts of varying composition, and is designed to protect those parts from degradation due to heat and wear and tear from a huge amount of friction, it also couples the innermost rotating parts to the outside of the axle shell which is how an axle bleeds off the tremendous heat generated from the rotating mass.

It's not a big deal, i'm just saying if ya got some laying around, ya might try it.  

Yes such grease is designed to reduce friction and thus reduce heat generated.
It must indeed be able to operate in high temperatures, because it is not perfect .....  there is still friction and thus heat generated.

The main purpose of that grease is not to trasnfer heat from one part to another.

Thus I cannot envision how it can be more thermally efficient than a grease that is especially forumalted for the purpose of transferring heat from one item to another.

Maybe you would care to post the thermal transfer properties of the grease you are suggesting so that it can be compared to the thermal paste in common use.

regards.

[ElCuervo]

lol - and I'm going to use thermal paste to lube my front axle bearings!

For years I've been amazed at how many people think that with some great flash of inspiration, they can out-think the engineers that spend countless hours researching, experimenting, and designing stuff.

And i've spent decades as a tech, making a lot of ill-conceived nonsense that an "engineer" hastily spewed out, actually WORK in the real world. My father was an engineer/geek/systems guy for his entire career, and he will be the first one to tell you, that it's technicians that make the world run smoothly, not engineers. Engineers very seldom experiment with anything, they draw it up on paper, then insist that THEORETICALLY it should work in the real world, techs are the people who do all the testing, and give the feedback that actually designs the finished product.

But if'n somebody wants ta think them thar smart people, like say Bill Gates fer instance, ought ta be trusted implicitly, then by all means, never dare ta question them....'cause they's smart folk don't ya know, and always has yer best interests at heart they do, they are NEVER just out to take yer money, nosirree!

FWIW, it is the four decades I spent as a certified master automotive tech that makes me guffaw at such comments. If that's what you believe, I can only conclude that you really only know one engineer well enough to watch him in action. For my part, I met a great group of them back in the '90s when we were all members of a grassroots electric car club. They had all built their own electric vehicles, and along the way demonstrated machining, welding, soldering, and other mechanical skills far beyond those of many of the "techs" I worked with every day. In fact, I could see this conversation just as easily turning to the topic of how many times a car has been screwed up by some technician wannabe.

I know it's easy to believe that a few screwed up practical applications of engineering mean that ALL engineers are mentally challenged, or that we should not trust anyone because Bill Gates took your money, but please, reconsider. Without engineers, there would be no technicians.

I'm sure there are even some talented engineers on this forum, too, so you may want to consider your audience - we aren't all greasemonkeys!

[Dragynn]

lol - and I'm going to use thermal paste to lube my front axle bearings!

For years I've been amazed at how many people think that with some great flash of inspiration, they can out-think the engineers that spend countless hours researching, experimenting, and designing stuff.

And i've spent decades as a tech, making a lot of ill-conceived nonsense that an "engineer" hastily spewed out, actually WORK in the real world. My father was an engineer/geek/systems guy for his entire career, and he will be the first one to tell you, that it's technicians that make the world run smoothly, not engineers. Engineers very seldom experiment with anything, they draw it up on paper, then insist that THEORETICALLY it should work in the real world, techs are the people who do all the testing, and give the feedback that actually designs the finished product.

But if'n somebody wants ta think them thar smart people, like say Bill Gates fer instance, ought ta be trusted implicitly, then by all means, never dare ta question them....'cause they's smart folk don't ya know, and always has yer best interests at heart they do, they are NEVER just out to take yer money, nosirree!

FWIW, it is the four decades I spent as a certified master automotive tech that makes me guffaw at such comments. If that's what you believe, I can only conclude that you really only know one engineer well enough to watch him in action. For my part, I met a great group of them back in the '90s when we were all members of a grassroots electric car club. They had all built their own electric vehicles, and along the way demonstrated machining, welding, soldering, and other mechanical skills far beyond those of many of the "techs" I worked with every day. In fact, I could see this conversation just as easily turning to the topic of how many times a car has been screwed up by some technician wannabe.

I know it's easy to believe that a few screwed up practical applications of engineering mean that ALL engineers are mentally challenged, or that we should not trust anyone because Bill Gates took your money, but please, reconsider. Without engineers, there would be no technicians.

I'm sure there are even some talented engineers on this forum, too, so you may want to consider your audience - we aren't all greasemonkeys!

I hear ya! And yeah, i've known a whole lot of "certified master auto techs" as well, well enough in fact that I learned to fix my own cars back in the 70's, and still do, and build my own motors, and design my own suspensions, fabricate parts and build show quality custom mobile electronic systems for Ferraris, Porsches, Lambos and occasionally million dollar boats, and win awards and trophies doing so, and have them in 7-8 different magazines over the years for different disciplines, and own several patents on such things that allowed me to retire before I was 40. I built my first electric vehicle in 1983. I built one out of a Chevy suburban and dyno'ed it at close to 600 rear wheel horsepower. yada yada yada. It's the internet my brother, I wouldn't go around assuming that everyone that talks cars is a simple greasemonkey, or a hick redneck jest on accounta they like to slouch when they talk sometimes...lol.

My father is not just an average engineer, he holds the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work as part of the missions operations team at NASA during the Apollo 13 crisis, he worked there on 10 different Apollo missions, also at GE, Lockheed, and LittonPRC, his last project was completely re-vamping the current U.S. space surveillance system. When he says that it's technicians that make the world run smoothly, you might want to take that as a well-informed opinion.

Can we all be done with this thread yet and move on? Gosh I never figgered a lil bit of ol' country advice would be tha equivalent of sticking my privates in a hornet's nest, hooo-wheee! I take it all back, i'm wrong, don't do it, don't listen to me! Ever!

[scoundrel]

well I am glad you guys figured out the pros and cons of lubrication  and I am sure the OP has got it straight up the spout.. lets show some decorum here guys..  (knock it off)

[vjeko]

i ll say only one and once:

anyone with a least bit of brains should have recognised the level of this zombie, just merely by reading the signature words, and thats long time ago.

even then, the posts are excuisite.

you got my bows, mister

[SilentSoul]

Now since you've all stopped fighting with each other, I can tell you the latest episode of this adventure.

Yesterday I took my laptop to a company to be blown with the compressor. No dust came out. Thankfully this didn't cost me a dime. But opening the case and dusting it then would have cost me about 80 euros if I wanted to do so. I choose not to take that option.

Now, I have been wondering. Would it have anything to do with the fact that I cannot control the CPUs from the PowerDevil? Because that would be an ideal solution for me since the Konsole-thing doesn't really feel much attractive right now...