AMD AM2 X2 4200 running hot?

[CoasterGuy]

When I look at the CPU temp in Asus Probe it says my CPU is running between 55 and 70 degrees just doing normal things like surfing and HD backup.

Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
AMD AM2 X2 4200+
XFX GeForce 7800GT
2GB 800 Corsair Mem
Front and rear 80mm fans
2 300gb WD SATA2 HD's
Antec Smart Power dual fan PS

Should it be reading this hot? Or maybe the motherboard is reading it hotter than it is?

 

[starwars7]

yeah, that is too high. my dual core Opteron runs around 30 ish to 34 for routine stuff like that. I figure that your X2 should be around the same thing.

what temps are your room and how are you cooling the case?

 

[CoasterGuy]

My room is 72 degrees and I have an 80m fan in the front and one in the rear. The PS also has two fans, but the rear fan on the PS rarely comes on because it only comes on when the internal temp reaches a certain (unknown) temperature.

 

[Furen]

I think most AM2 bioses are extremely inaccurate at reading the CPU temperature.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=103639
This program supposedly reads the temperature directly off the CPU without relying on the BIOS' interpretation of the data. I havent tried it myself so I cant say if it works or not but you could give it a try if you so desire.

 

[CoasterGuy]

That program shows core 1 at 45 degrees and core 2 at 40 degrees. Is this an acceptable range? I certainly hope so, 'cause I've done all I can to lower it.

 

[Griswold]

The problem with this little tool is, most people (everybody I've seen numbers from using this program) seem to report a rather significant temperature difference between the two cores, which is not really plausible at idle. Heat, as we all know, always moves from the higher level to the lower level and since the die is so small, there should really be not that big of a difference at idle.

In my case, it reports an average difference of 6°C. Sure, there can be a difference, but this is a bit too much in my book.

 

[starwars7]

Is that your idle temp of 40-45?

Also, how new is the rig? Did you just install the CPU yesterday? Because it does take a little bit for thermal past to start working well.

 

[CoasterGuy]

40 - 50 are my idle temps with this new tool.

I built this new system from scratch about a 2 weeks ago and initially got temps in the 70's. A week later I removed the cpu heatsink, cleaned off all the preinstalled goop from it and the cpu and reapplied new white silicone grease in a thin even layer.

My temps dropped about 10 degrees, but I still think 60 is too high.

 

[starwars7]

yeah, idle at 40-45 is too high unless you are overclocking the heck out of your PC, and even then in the long run it's not healthy. I'm OCed and my idle is around 28C if my room is cool and when running dual Prime 95 it may reach low 40's

There are things you could do to cool down your CPU, but the thing is, if you are using the stock cooler and the rig is not OCed, I don't see any reason why you should idle around 40C. Even if you employ different cooling methods it seems like you may have just gotten a bad chip.

You may want to contact AMD and let them know that you have a chip idling at those temps with everything set up well. Perhaps you can send them the chip and get a new one.

One last thing, you have booted to your BIOS to see what you BIOS says your temps are at right? That would be the most accurate way to see your temps.

 

[CoasterGuy]

The BIOS says that it is around 60 degrees.

 

[CoasterGuy]

I just called AMD and they said that 60 degrees is too high but if the heatsink is cool to the touch then it is probably the motherboard reading it improperly.

Gonna call Asus now and see what they say.

 

[CoasterGuy]

Asus said that they have not had any reports of high temp readings from this MB and that it must be the CPU.

So Asus says it's AMD and AMD says it's Asus.

Any suggestions?

 

[starwars7]

man that sucks, do you have a friend that could let you borrow his MOBO for a day?

 

[CoasterGuy]

With AM2 socket boards so rare, no one I know has one to test. I'm pretty sure it is the board. The heatsink isn't even remotely hot when I touch it. And since I got this new RAM (I initially used Elixir 667 DDR2) I haven't had anymore lockups. I thought maybe the CPU was over heating, but it was the RAM.

I guess I will wait at least until a new BIOS comes out to see if it iss corrected.

 

[996GT2]

I don't know about ASUS boards, but my MSI K9N platinum AM2 board reports the correct temps as far as I'm concerned. I have a 3500+ overclocked to 2.66 GHz on stock voltage, and with cool and quiet turned on it idles in the low 30C range and when I'm priming it doesn't break 42C. However, when I am in the system BIOS, my temps under "Hardware monitoring" actually come out to be a lot higher than my temps when I'm running Prime95, so I've just ignored that reading.

BTW I am running a Freezer 64 Pro, so if you are on the stock heatsink, I would advise you to get an aftermarket one such as the Freezer 64 Pro. In addition, if you don't choose to get a new HSF, I would suggest some aftermarket thermal paste (not the generic white silicone kind) like Arctic Silver 5 or Ceramique. And if you do get a Freezer 64 pro, use the MX1 paste pre-applied on it.

 

[CoasterGuy]

How do you lke the MSI board? I've read some conflicting info about it. I was thinking of trying that board if this one doesn't work out for me.

Any other boards I should consider?

I don't need SLI or anything, even though I already have the Corsair RAM that supports nVidia's SLI.