TC-4 bad temps..
 

Hiya all.. i'm using a Tc-4 (old version.. da one wif da copper top) with a Aqua Coil Radiator and a Delta Fan churning out 80+ CFM... with Water and water wetter as coolent... i'm using a Athlon XP 2100+ with a soyo Dragon kt333 Lite mobo.. and getting temps from the bios i'm getting 48 C Idle... so i guess its a pretty bad temp isn't it? and also i tried reseating it a few timez and its still as bad ... anyone can help? oh ya.. i'm not using da springs as Dtek apparantly sent me da wrong ones... so i'm juz screwing da bolts down as hard as my fingers can twist... is dat enough pressure? or shld i use pliers to screw it down more? cuz da last time i tried it i crushed my T-bird... not a very good experience.. so ya.. any help would be appreciated.. ;)

What's your water temp?

If you're screwing that hard, I don't think it has anything to do with your mounting. Did you use AS3? Too much maybe?

Hum a Delta @ 80 CFM ? That's a 80mm or 92mm right ? I think the weak point in your setup is the rad. A 120mm fan shrouded to a heatercore will perform better...
Oh and as always verify block lapping, polishing, and use *fluid* thermal paste...

hm.. i'm using a very thin layer of AS 3... and i'm using a 120 mm fan... yeah.. its pretty loud.. ah well.. anywayz i used a pair of pliers and turned da nut by 1/2 round(cuz i'm scared to crack da core) and i got a 3 C decrease in temp.. so i guess its the pressure? anywayz anyone noe how hard i should screw it down? cuz i'm not using springs....

Here is what I am wondering....

The nice things about those springs is that it applyes even pressure on all sides of the blocks until you flatten them out. It could be that one side is being overtightened and it is slightly displacing the block.

Try this: reseat your block one last time but screw down the block using diagonal pressure. AS in, tighten down the lower left screw at the same time as tightning down the right top screw until you get some resistance. Then tighten down the other diagonal screws until they are snug as well. Then go back to the originals and give them both a 1/4 turn at the same time, then switch to the other diagonals for 1/4 turn. Keep doing that till it is finger tight on all screws and then see what happens.

Make sure that you are tightning the diagonals at the same time, not one then the other.

My 2 cents..... worth a shot if you havent tried it yet. I would still find some replacement springs though.

so finger tight is enough? i dun need to use pliers or anythinG?

how about no more words like "dun" "da" and "wif"

No, you don't need to use pliers or anything to tighten the nuts. Finger tight is more than enough.

Using pliers would risk unnecessary stress on the MB.......possibly damaging it. An extra 1/4 turn would probably not do anything major BUT anything more than that I would NOT recommend.