Innovation Cooling's Diamond 7 TIM test results

[littleowl]

yeah tasty I looked at the color chart but still not really sure what to make of it other then my 6002 has a hell of a lot harder clamp then my fuzion.

looking at your charts (more then I got with my free sample kit) my humidity was D 60%
looking at color my PSI would be about 80 because my chart for the fuzion shows it at about .5??? sound right??

[tastymannatees]

yeah tasty I looked at the color chart but still not really sure what to make of it other then my 6002 has a hell of a lot harder clamp then my fuzion.

looking at your charts (more then I got with my free sample kit) my humidity was D 60%
looking at color my PSI would be about 80 because my chart for the fuzion shows it at about .5??? sound right??

This is the reason I opted for the full digital analysis. The white Areas are where you are not making any contact. You have to do a kind of mental averaging I would agree on the 80PSI reading in the darker areas although about 1/4 looks to be < 30psi so the 80 would drop with the digital analysis.

The first image has most of the pressure reading at the edges little or no contact in the center so something,... IHS? is a little on the concave side and looks to me < 30PSI in that center part.

The mounts both look like the have a higher pressure on the right side than on the left.

Like I said it is subjective and why I would like to put together a library with raw and digtital pics 50 or 60 samples probably will cover most variations in mounts.

[littleowl]

This is the reason I opted for the full digital analysis. The white Areas are where you are not making any contact. You have to do a kind of mental averaging I would agree on the 80PSI reading in the darker areas although about 1/4 looks to be < 30psi so the 80 would drop with the digital analysis.

The first image has most of the pressure reading at the edges little or no contact in the center so something,... IHS? is a little on the concave side and looks to me < 30PSI in that center part.

The mounts both look like the have a higher pressure on the right side than on the left.

Like I said it is subjective and why I would like to put together a library with raw and digtital pics 50 or 60 samples probably will cover most variations in mounts.

well this was there free sample SPI sent me and when I get yours I will do it on the bench top and see what the different mounts look like. after I get them I will label each of them before i scan this time! I did send my samples back in today so I am excited to see what they tell me.

[Jaco]

Tried the IC diamond compound today. (Thanks to David_L6 ). Must say i'm pretty impressed

My 'razor blade' style method didn't work very well . I'm using the 'blob' method now. Also the mount of my TRUE wasn't optimal. I've put an old credit card under the metal bracket. Seems to work better , gives more downforce.

Sorry, don't have very reliable scientific data here , but I'm seeing a solid 5&#176;C degree drop in coretemp But you gotta factor in the better TRUE mount and better TIM method.

Q6600 B3 @ 3.4Ghz 1.45vcore
TRUE + 1500rpm Antec fan
Asus P5Ke Wifi

before 72-72-68-69 (23&#176; ambient)
now 67-67-63-63 (23&#176;C ambient)

[Martijn]

The testing system:

CPU: P4 630 @ 3.6Ghz, 1.35v in BIOS, 1.37v measured.
Mobo: Asus P5AD2-E premium
Mem: Some crappy 2x512MB sticks I still had. DDR2-533.
GPU: ATI Radeon HD2400pro
HD: Seagate 7200.7 80GB SATA (not in the picture)
TIM: Arctic Silver 5


Original AS5:


The cooler mounted. This is a stock Conroe-L/Wolfdale heatsink.


The system as it is running right now. Yes, that is my trusty old Matrox Mystique PCI laying there.


The cooler after removal:


The CPU after removal of the cooler. It didn't have proper contact, after a remount temperatures were better.


Updated temperatures from an improved mount:

Temperatures:
Idle: 50C
Load: 70C
Ambient: 22C


More ICD7 results up tomorrow. So far the temperatures are 44C idle, 65C load with a 20C ambient.


Update:

ICD7 on the CPU:


The cooler after removal:


The CPU after removal of the cooler:



The final ICD7 results:

Ambient 19C
Idle: 41C
Load: 62C


That is a 6 degree drop in idle temp, and a 5 degree drop in load temp.


EDIT:
I had a quick chat with Andrew over PM. He asked me to post this since I noticed this while mounting my heatsink. The stock Intel heatsink, as we all know, uses push-pins to tighten the cooler to the board. Obviously, no motherboard is perfect. One of these small manufacturing errors can mean that the board has slightly larger mounting holes, or mounting holes that are slightly off-center. From time to time I have seen boards that are bent around the CPU area, obviously because the cooler applied a lot of pressure on the board. This can either be a cooler or a motherboard manufacturing error.
When mounting the stock Intel cooler on this P5AD2-E board, it took me much, much longer to mount than on my Striker Extreme (say 5 minutes vs. 1). On the P5AD2-E mobo, it seems the cooler is much more firmly attached than it was on my Striker Extreme. From the looks of it, it seems the mounting holes on the Striker are slightly bigger as well. Also, when using push-pins rather than a backplate, it could be that the cooler isn't touching the CPU perfectly, something which is less of an issue when using a backplate. This can result in different load temperatures.

[tastymannatees]

I had a quick chat with Andrew over PM. He asked me to post this since I noticed this while mounting my heatsink. The stock Intel heatsink, as we all know, uses push-pins to tighten the cooler to the board. Obviously, no motherboard is perfect. One of these small manufacturing errors can mean that the board has slightly larger mounting holes, or mounting holes that are slightly off-center. From time to time I have seen boards that are bent around the CPU area, obviously because the cooler applied a lot of pressure on the board. This can either be a cooler or a motherboard manufacturing error.
When mounting the stock Intel cooler on this P5AD2-E board, it took me much, much longer to mount than on my Striker Extreme (say 5 minutes vs. 1). On the P5AD2-E mobo, it seems the cooler is much more firmly attached than it was on my Striker Extreme. From the looks of it, it seems the mounting holes on the Striker are slightly bigger as well. Also, when using push-pins rather than a backplate, it could be that the cooler isn't touching the CPU perfectly, something which is less of an issue when using a backplate. This can result in different load temperatures.
__________________

This was a great observation by Martijn. I Have not been getting great results with push pin configurations on the whole, usually equal or +1 or 2C which I was attributing to low mounting pressure due to hardware fatigue and other factors and never relating it to MB mechanical differences that was causing a pressure issue. Something to take note of and see if we can get further confirmation.

This is the kind of stuff that we can use in our troubleshooting guide. You Guys are doing great work, above and beyond what I expected. I'll have to work out a (modest) bonus for the group when we get to completion.

[Emerica]

This was a great observation by Martijn. I Have not been getting great results with push pin configurations on the whole, usually equal or +1 or 2C which I was attributing to low mounting pressure due to hardware fatigue and other factors and never relating it to MB mechanical differences that was causing a pressure issue. Something to take note of and see if we can get further confirmation.

This is the kind of stuff that we can use in our troubleshooting guide. You Guys are doing great work, above and beyond what I expected. I'll have to work out a (modest) bonus for the group when we get to completion.

If you are looking for better mounting pressure with the stock intel coolers with the LGA775 push-pins you can get one of those Thermalright LGA775 bolt-through kits.

[SiGfever]

Two Week Cure:

I had posted my Final Results after one week of cure time but I find this interesting that my temps are degrading.

Ambient = 22.7c


Idle:
Core 0: 34
Core 1: 34
Core 2: 32
Core 3: 31

Load:
Core 0: 45
Core 1: 45
Core 2: 46
Core 3: 44


I am going to pull the mount, inspect, and reapply TIM according to coverage pattern.







I am wondering if I have too much pressure forcing your TIM off the mount? I will remount using the kit that came with the FuZion which has "limiters" in the springs to prevent over tightening. I will re-run for one week to test.

[David_L6]

Here's one that I ran three times (yes, 3 times! That's why it has taken me so long to get these results) because I didn't believe the results the first time. This Diamond 7 is a very good TIM.


Q6600 @ 3.4GHz with a Zalman 9700 heatsink.

with AS5

59, 58, 58, 53

with Diamond 7

54, 54, 54, 49