AMD Overheating

Compman55

Golden Member
Feb 14, 2010
1,241
0
76
Swapped out a Athlon 64 3200+ with a nice used Opteron 180. The problem is I used the heatsink from the 3200+ just like the one here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-...ler-/121278474101?pt=CPUs&hash=item1c3cc2a775

I try to watch a 1080p video on youtube and it goes to 108c and shuts off. I triple check the HS is mating with the CPU properly, and the white paste I am using is indeed showing perfect contact.

I went into the bios and adjusted the VCORE to 1.300v, which is showing 1.328v in windows and in the hardware monitor of the bios. When left at default the VCORE is at 1.375 but in windows shows in the 1.38x or 1.39x

Not sure if the bios programmers made a mistake and this board does support opterons up to 190's with version 1003.

Board is an asus A8N5X.

Any ideas on how to keep it cool? After adjusting VCORE, I got it to idle at 56c and peak at 64c under load. Better than 68c idle and 108c peak.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,379
126
That is an absolutely terribad heatsink.

Cool the beast :

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-...sink%2Ffan+amd

The other thing that you could do (that would be wise, imho, and given your sig it looks like you have the competence to do this for sure) is :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-A8N5X-...US_Motherboard_CPU_Combos&hash=item2ece7ad68b

Sell the Mobo, CPU, and Ram off.

Mobo and CPU will go for ~$100-110, sell them both and maybe get $125.

If it's 2GB DDR1 (2x1GB) that's $20
If it's 4GB DDR1 (2x2GB) that's $45
If it's 4GB DDR1 (4x1GB) that's $40
If it's 512MB sticks, don't list them, but throw them either in the trash or in the box with the mobo/cpu for free.

Okay, middle estimate, let's call that $150 for mobo/cpus/ram sales.

Now :

Celeron G1610 $50
Gigabyte H61 Mobo $38
8GB DDR3-1600 $42
PCIe x1 USB 3.0 Card $8

Boom. This will be dramatically faster in every possible way, use about 1/10th the board/cpu/ram power draw, put out a fraction of the heat, give you modern PCIe/SATA/USB support, and offer the drop-in support for i5s/i7s as upgrades down the line (scoop a cheap Sandy quad sometime!).

Used 939 Stuff is irrationally expensive $/perf. Heck, depending on how much you run this thing, the power savings could be substantial. I built a Pentium Dual-Core 1155 Ivy for someone as a media server, and it pulls about 35-40w from the wall when in use (slight undervolt).
 

Compman55

Golden Member
Feb 14, 2010
1,241
0
76
Why are 939's so expensive?

I will be building a new haswell soon, and will go up to $1000 as my limit.

This computer was free, and the CPU I acquired dirt cheap for the heck of it.

So bottom line is the cooler is just not capable of 110w vs 67. I understand completely now. Back in the P4 days, I could use a northwood cooler on a Prescott with no issues at all. Actually some would cool better.....
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
I was gonna say you messed up and didnt put it on right but yeah it might well be overloaded. Ones a dual core the others a single, IIRC those old K8 duals could get toasty!
 

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
P4 was only a single core. Even with HT it could generate nowhere near as much heat as two entire fully loaded 90nm cores. Most of the pentium D chips were at least shrunk to 65nm before being unleashed on the public. The pentium D 805 was a 90nm dual core. And wow could it put out some serious heat, especially when overclocked. Check this out:

load_all.gif
 

SlowSpyder

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
17,305
1,002
126
If I remember right, the lower TDP AMD CPU's came with the cooler you have, OP. The higher TDP CPU's used a cooler more like this one. Actually, back then the cooler only had two heat pipes, the Phenom/FX coolers have four, so they should be a small upgrade. But for a few dollars more an aftermarket cooler is probably best (but I wouldn't spend very much on an old machine).

*edit - Just thought, I don't remember if socket 939 had a different mounting system or not. But regardless, I'm pretty sure the factory AMD heatsink for CPU's with a high TDP had some heat pipes, I don't think the one being used will work for the Opteron, it is overloaded.
 
Last edited:

Compman55

Golden Member
Feb 14, 2010
1,241
0
76
That is an absolutely terribad heatsink.

Cool the beast :

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-...sink%2Ffan+amd

The other thing that you could do (that would be wise, imho, and given your sig it looks like you have the competence to do this for sure) is :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-A8N5X-...US_Motherboard_CPU_Combos&hash=item2ece7ad68b

Sell the Mobo, CPU, and Ram off.

Mobo and CPU will go for ~$100-110, sell them both and maybe get $125.

If it's 2GB DDR1 (2x1GB) that's $20
If it's 4GB DDR1 (2x2GB) that's $45
If it's 4GB DDR1 (4x1GB) that's $40
If it's 512MB sticks, don't list them, but throw them either in the trash or in the box with the mobo/cpu for free.

Okay, middle estimate, let's call that $150 for mobo/cpus/ram sales.

Now :

Celeron G1610 $50
Gigabyte H61 Mobo $38
8GB DDR3-1600 $42
PCIe x1 USB 3.0 Card $8

Boom. This will be dramatically faster in every possible way, use about 1/10th the board/cpu/ram power draw, put out a fraction of the heat, give you modern PCIe/SATA/USB support, and offer the drop-in support for i5s/i7s as upgrades down the line (scoop a cheap Sandy quad sometime!).

Used 939 Stuff is irrationally expensive $/perf. Heck, depending on how much you run this thing, the power savings could be substantial. I built a Pentium Dual-Core 1155 Ivy for someone as a media server, and it pulls about 35-40w from the wall when in use (slight undervolt).

Can you help me locate that motherboard for that price. I will go this route instead of buying a $20-25 heatsink.
 

tweakboy

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2010
9,517
2
81
www.hammiestudios.com
Why are 939's so expensive?

I will be building a new haswell soon, and will go up to $1000 as my limit.

This computer was free, and the CPU I acquired dirt cheap for the heck of it.

So bottom line is the cooler is just not capable of 110w vs 67. I understand completely now. Back in the P4 days, I could use a northwood cooler on a Prescott with no issues at all. Actually some would cool better.....


Because its hard to find. gl
 

Compman55

Golden Member
Feb 14, 2010
1,241
0
76
Took the plunge based on your suggestion:

Intel Pentium G2020 $35-40 (what should I offer? Its a friend that has this as a spare.) I have a good heatsink off a socket 775 that is nice.

Asus H61M-A/USB3 $44.79 after rebate

8GB Kingston HyperX Black KHX16C9B1BK2/8X $64.99

Asus SATA DVD-RW $19.99 (all mine are IDE)

So will this be faster than an opteron 180 w/ X800 GPU?
 

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
Took the plunge based on your suggestion:

Intel Pentium G2020 $35-40 (what should I offer? Its a friend that has this as a spare.) I have a good heatsink off a socket 775 that is nice.

Asus H61M-A/USB3 $44.79 after rebate

8GB Kingston HyperX Black KHX16C9B1BK2/8X $64.99

Asus SATA DVD-RW $19.99 (all mine are IDE)

So will this be faster than an opteron 180 w/ X800 GPU?

It will pretty much be faster than any opteron ever made, for most uses anyway.
 

Compman55

Golden Member
Feb 14, 2010
1,241
0
76
And that is an understatement. Got it installed and operating last night. Aside from making the wires look nicer, it was a super easy swap and takes up half the room inside the case.:$

The performance blows the doors off the Opteron. And does so at a iceburg temp of 34c full load with an intel cooler.

Thanks for recommending this build. It was so cheap the curiousity won me over. Next a haswell build............