About 20 minutes ago I removed my old heatsink and fan from my mobo and intalled a Ultra X-wind cpu cooling fan. I was going to apply artic silver but my friend told me that would be a permanent bond. I didn't like the sound of that, what if I want to re-use that heatsink/fan again? So I used the thermal compound that the X-wind came with. Anyway my idle temp is 68c, that seems a little high to me and I was a moron and forgot to record my cpu temp with my old fan/heatsink.
The fan/heatsink is huge and heavy and I thought it would work very well but now I am a little worried. Do I need to wait for the thermal compound to cure before I see temps come down or should I take it off and just apply the artic silver?
68 degrees Celsius is running pretty hot, although I've heard of some P4 mobos running into the 70s and working for months before problems start cropping up. How are you measuring your CPU temps? Haven't had any personal experience with Arctic Silver but I've heard that it can reduce CPU temps by as much as 25-30 degrees.