CPU temps?

[Alaric]

I bought a barebones kit from Tiger Direct last year with a AMD 4 core CPU and an ATI chipset (Radeon 4200). My CPU and MOBO temps run 110 F with the side cover on the case. It came with a big Zalman cooler and fan for the CPU and one in the side blowing (almost) directly on it , plus the one in the power supply. I added a fan on the back of the case (exhaust) and a fan at the front to pull air in. No change in temps. If I pull the side cover off the temp drops to 104/105 and 101 at idle with no programs running. Is this just a lousy case design or just typical of AMD? I recently took the whole thing apart and cleaned all the dust out and bundled the wires out of the way of the airflow and raised the HDD in the rack for better circulation (HDD runs 79 F) with no change. Running multiple programs I've seen 115 F + at the CPU and MOBO. This seems awfully hot. Overclocking makes no difference in temps. I've checked the temps with Speccy and AMD's software and in the BIOS so I'm sure the numbers are accurate. Any ideas?

[Alaric]

And the rise in temps continues. I have tried moving all the wiring outside the mobo tray , then neatly inside the main cabinet. I have a 90mm fan pulling air in the front , bottom and a 90mm fan evacuating the case in the top , back corner. The power supply has a 72mm fan , and a fan in the left side panel blowing cool air directly on the RAM. Finally a big Zalman CPU cooler http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...8163&CatId=493

I have no graphics card , two HDDs , and a DVD burner. All are mounted out of the airstream. Air flows in the front and up to where the side fan blows it into the Zalman on the CPU. It's then sucked out the upper rear. I pulled the CPU cooler and cleaned the dried paste off it and the CPU , then used Arctic Silver. My idle temp is now around 48 C (117 F). All 4 cores maintain identical temps , and the air coming out the back just doesn't feel that warm. I'll probably vent the top of the case or try a different cooler next. Any ideas at all?

[Hdale85]

Don't worry about it at all man, 117F is pretty low for a CPU that's a bit older. Guessing it's a 125w model, so 48C is pretty normal. Mine runs hotter then that because I have a crappy heatsink on it.

One thing you might want to do if you feel like it is to pull the heatsink off and redo the heatsink paste, sometimes it can get hard and doesn't work as well.

Edit: Nevermind you already did that haha! Honestly your temps sound fine to me.

[Alaric]

It is a 125 watt Phenom 9850. It's running at 2750 MHz now , but it makes no difference. It used to run 105 F under a load. Now it hits 120 F to 122 F streaming video. I'm just curious as to why it suddenly started running "normal" temps. And it does run cooler with the side panel off , now. Previously that raised the temp. I'm WTF? trying to figure out why the change.

[Hdale85]

Hmmm, not sure gotta be something though. Maybe fans aren't spinning like they used to due to age? Guessing you thoroughly cleaned the dust out of the fans and what not. Something else is a lot of fans will come apart if you push/pull on the blades. From there clean the shaft and apply some lithium grease to make it spin like new. Other then that not sure what else it could be?

That's the same CPU I have though.

[Alaric]

I have actually added 3 fans in the past couple weeks. The front intake , rear exhaust , and one piggybacked on the outside of the power supply to help draw the heated air out of the case. I'm at a loss on this one. I cleaned everything thoroughly , including between the fins on the CPU cooler. Core Temp 1.0 shows a big discrepancy in load percentage between core 0 and the other cores. Is that normal? (big=8% compared to 25+%)

[Landspeeder]

Alaric, those temps are really not something to be concerned about with that processor.
-Things that may cause the changes you've noticed:
---Aging equipment: A less expensive power supply may not supply as clean a line of voltage... therefore the amps go up. This may accelerate as time goes by until the PSU gives up the magic blue smoke that makes all electronics live.
---Motherboard voltage regulators: same concept as the PSU
---Ambient environment change: Are you checking this when it is warmer, or more humid. Has the location of the tower changed (floor to desk).
---Are you a smoker? Tar has some nasty effects when it comes to coating and clogging heatsinks.
---The change in the thermal paste. Perhaps it is thicker than the old (cured on) phase change pad. You did use fresh AS-5 right? Not something that's sat for 2 years drying out on the shelf.
---Usually adding fans as you've noted helps... sometimes this may actually increase turbulence thereby decreasing consistent airflow across the mobo. (Depending upon case design, location of components, fans used, cleanliness in wire routing, etc).

Please do NOT leave the side panel off. I cannot even count how many computers I've seen fried because of that. The components require airflow across the surfaces to cool it. If suddenly you have the coolest running air cooled phenom in town, but the SB burns up by leaving that panel off... your computer is just as dead.

-If this is warm temperature greatly bothers you... here is the order I would go in (least expensive to most)
---Check the windows task list. See if something is running in the background all the time keeping your CPU throttled up (bot, and overzealous antivirus, your niece's penguin slide game, etc).
---Make certain your wire run is tidy and clean
---In the bios UNDERCLOCK you processor and lower the processor power received. If possible, also underclock your IGP.
---In the bios, turn off AMD's cool' n' quite... but be prepared to listen to a jet engine
---Swap to a quite case with known good airflow characteristics. The fractal design R3 is my personal semi-budget choice. Stick with the 1 front stock intake, the 1 rear stock exhaust... and maybe add 1 rear top exhaust... make certain to keep a clean wire run (i.e. bundled against the mobo tray and out of the airflow path).
---Add a more efficient PSU... with a larger power capacity... modular cables... and a large bottom mount fan.
---That cpu cooler blows all the hot air down, rather than out of the case. Something like the Corsair H80 is silent, more efficient at removing heat, and leaves essentially no heat in the case. Properly installed, you may have even greater airflow (i.e. linear) across the mobo components.
---Swap out the hardware to more power efficient hardware. Fit the hardware to your needs rather than buying the most powerful available. If you go this route, and so desire it, I'm willing to share my opinion.

At work we switched a few years back on 3 machines to an older Athlon Socket with the 3200 ati NB because it was 1) really cheap and 2) fairly powerful for the money. The tradeoff was very high heat and therefore fairly noisy fans. The Integrated Graphics chip in that NB would idle at 78*C (~172*F). They are left on 24x7x364 and still work fine to this day. A quick check shows me that the idle temp on said NB now sits at 82*C on at least 1 rig. In our initial worry and chats with the tech department (Gigabyte), we were told that it was ok to reach 110*C without damage. In other words, we can boil water with the NB and not decrease the designed lifespan. The warranty on this MOBO is 3 years despite the insane heat levels.

[Alaric]

Still running at 40-41C @ idle. Had it OCd to 3000 MHz http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2397428 and it went to 50C but no higher. Replaced my power supply (old one was JUNK) and it will now OC like crazy (for a chip with a lousy rep for OC) but temps are still higher than before. Oh well , seems to be working fine.