Question About PC and CPU Cooling

Awhile back I had decided to upgrade from my old Athlon XP 1800+ system and ended up building a AMD64 3200+ system. Now I didn't install the CPU and heatsink+fan. But ever since I've had the system, it tells me that the CPU temperature is rather ridiculus...

Like right now it says it's at 60C/140F. Whenever I do anything where cpu activity spikes shortly or goes up a bit, it will jump up quickly to like 65C and then go back down when it idles. If I run a game or an intensive emulator, it can reach as high at 75C. Unfortunately I don't remember the exact CPU model so I can't look up the maximum operating temperature but I don't think any AMD64 has a higher one than 70C.

Update: I tried a different program that measures CPU temp, it reads the temperature lower than the other. Right now it idles around 52C - 54C. It still did read around 74C under full load.
Now I've suspected there's a difference between max operating temperature and "die" temperature. I think my Athlon XP was 70C/90C for max and die. I've told a friend about my reported temperature before and he suggested the readings are just plain wrong. I'm not sure what to believe really. But it's concerning me now that I've actually looking to put a new video card in this machine. I actually did this once before with a Radeon X800. It died in maybe an hour or so, but I thought it was defective and never thought that it could have been related to insufficant cooling.

So I've thought I should get one of those PCI slot coolers that exhausts air from under the video card. And perhaps something for a fresh air intake. I'm lookign to put a card like a NVidia 7600GT in this. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

Why didn't you and why don't you install a heatsink and fan?

 

If I'm reading that as 'there is no CPU fan/heatsink installed', then put a fan assisted heatsink on that CPU ASAP! Those things generate a lot of heat & you'll kill the chip by running it too hot. (Somehow, I can't imagine that this is really what you did, as I remember watching a video from one of the computer mags where they ran an athlon without any heatsink & watched it explode...)

If I'm reading that as 'I didn't personally install the CPU fan/heatsink', then you might want to invest in a better fan/heatsink to keep the temperatures down - I'd personally recommend Zalman's ones, if you have the space, as they're quiet & effective.

As you suspect, you might also have poor air flow inside your case - if you can, arrange/add some case fans so that there is a clear flow of air into & out of the box. Also, tidy up the wire clutter, so that's not blocking the airflow. If your case airflow is good, you should be able to feel noticibly heated air being blown out of the back of the box.

 

That should read, that I wasn't the one whom installed the heatsink and fan. As in I have no clue if the installer did it properly. I do understand that it was the stock cooling kit, whatever AMD included with the CPU chip.

A friend of mine suggested a copper Zalman heatsink and fan. I'm not sure the airflow is very good on my case. I have noticed the temperatures are better when the case side panel is off.

There's a single I think 80MM exhaust fan in the back. There's no real front intake. There are no vents in the side panels or the front. I don't really think the airflow is very good but I have no idea how to improve it really.

 

The stock heatsinks are usually just good enough, but you'll normally run cooler with something like the Zalman coppers. It is possible the stock heatsink isn't fitted well - you might get an improvement by refitting it with new thermal grease.

For the case, you could drill some holes to allow more air in, or if you're not using all the 5.25" slots, get one of those little fan units that fit in there. One of my cases had an air intake right at the bottom on the front, which usually got oscured by the carpet - it ran cooler once I put the thing on a stand, away from the floor.

 

An A64 system shouldn't get that hot. I have an Orleans core 90nm AM2 3500+, and the stock cooler (with Asus Q-fan) limits it to around 1500rpm and a temp of around 30-40C. Make sure your case has intake and outtake fans, enable Cool n Quiet, remove any dust from the case and feel the heatsink (carefully) here and there.

 

The Cool n Quiet I looked into and it seems to help the idle/non intense situation as it seems to automatically clock down from 2ghz to 1ghz. My stock cooler runs up to 2100rpm. Obviously it will go slower if the cpu temp is low. I did dust and there is an exhaust fan, though there is no intake but I plan to add one of those pair 40mm fans that go in the drive bay.

 

I've had a stock sink and fan on my 3800+ for a year, it sucks, I get around the same temps and I'm going to try to get a Zalman sometime.

 

Oh so I'm not alone in those high temps? What temps would you get under load (80% cpu usage or more)? Today I started my PC from a cold state for the first time with Cool n' Quiet enabled and it was very cool (no pun intended) seeing my temperature not climb up into the 40s with barely doing anything. It's still only the upper 30s. I wish I had known you had to install something to enable CnQ!

When I can install a drive bay intake, I'll test the temp under load and such again.

 

You have to install something to enable CnQ? I didn't know that...I guess that gives the CPU a nothing instruction when it's not doing stuff? I thought XP/Vista had something like that built in.

In my system, I have a fan on my GPU, CPU, and a 120mm exhaust, and after blowing the dust out I think I idle at 43C, and full load goes to 57C, around there. It might be higher. I think the fan is going out on the HS too.

 

Before Cool n Quiet, I'd idle around 50C. Full load would reach 75C. Now I idle at around 40C, but full load still makes it get up there. But I have no intake fans yet. The exhuast is only 80mm. Spins around 3300rpm or something like that.

Google "how enable cool quiet" or something like that. There's a page that details everything. You have to update/install a driver for your processor and then alter the power management settings. It's really easy to do and worth it. It seems like whenever it's not doing anything at all significant it will clock your cpu way down. When I'm idling it cuts the clock rate in half going down to 1ghz.

 

Only thing I've found with Cool and Quiet is, if you use SSF, it ruins the frameskip\limiter in fullscreen mode.

Does for me, anyway.

 

Do you go into Power Management and change the scheme to stop that then? Supposively CnQ is enabled by that one power scheme.

 

Yup, just set it back to Home\office desk. There are tools to tell you what your current clock speed is anyways, like Asus Probe. That'll tell you if your CPU ever throttles.

 

I tried to use the MSI tool for that some time ago but I had to uninstall it because the procssor heat alarm was damn annoying, even when everything was ok...
Maybe this is because of my great processor, which remembers a lot to an old diesel car we used to have: there's no way to keep it working well when it's cold. It starts working normally when it's over 60ºC. so I had to put a really thin piece of rubber between the CPU and the heatsink, so it works at 60º but the heat doesn't raise (if it works until I get a new mobo and CPU tha's all I need). I just can't explain myself what happens with it...

 

You put a rubber shim on your CPU? Try a copper coin, sanded down so that the designs gone and you've got a really smooth surface. Thermal grease on both sides, wedge it in. Aluminium foil could also work, just make sure it doesn't short, and that it's packed tight and got thermal grease in between each layer.

 

Ok, so I was gaming tonight and had speedfan charting my cpu temp. It maxed out at 102C. It averaged 95C to 98C. Um... is that even possible? And within 3 minutes it had dropped to 49C or less. What's up with that?

 

Check the warning beeps on your BIOS, and set it to beep at 70 or 80C. I think all systems cut their own power at 90 or 100C with a series of beeps (not that most comps have speakers anymore).

Check for a BIOS update, maybe the software that runs the sensor is bad.

 

I think the bios has a shutdown option, and the BIOS was updated just a few days ago. I don't think anything will help if the motherboard's sensor is just plain fucked up though. I've heard people say the motherboard temperature readings aren't always reliable.

 

Nope, they're often placed a few cm away from the CPU, and they're often just crap.

If you've got some spare $$, try going to radioshack and getting an infrared heat sensor, and shining that on the heatsink.