Athlon X2 overheating?

[Marty502]

Just got my new A64 3800 939 X2. (Will update the signature... )

But damn, this thing idles at 45ºC and goes well past 60ºC when gaming! And it's at 2.4 Ghz and 1.3v Vcore (yup, below spec) Is it supposed to be this hot??

I'm using the A64 stock fan that came with my old processor, and some generic thermal compound with it. Is this fan/heatsink combo supposed to work OK with my X2? Or it's actually underpowered/not efficient enough?

I will probably buy a TT Max Orb for it anyway, but still I'm puzzled.

BTW, I first tried it at 2.6 Ghz, stock vcore and straight to Windows it went! Got a good chip. Will push further when I resolve this issue.

 

[MarcVenice]

Buy a arctic freezer 64 pro ? It keeps my x2 3800+ at 2.6ghz idling around 37-40c depending on ambient, and under large fft's it stays below 60c. When gaming, the fan will rev up, and that keeps the CPU below 55c all the time. Same for video-encoding.

 

[Marty502]

Actually, I mentioned the TT Max Orb just because it seems nice and has good reviews. But I'm open to suggestions, I don't know crap about CPU fans.

Price shouldn't be an issue, unless it's something ridiculously expensive. Oh, and if it's very quiet, so much better. How loud is that fan you have?

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Buy a arctic freezer 64 pro ? It keeps my x2 3800+ at 2.6ghz idling around 37-40c depending on ambient, and under large fft's it stays below 60c. When gaming, the fan will rev up, and that keeps the CPU below 55c all the time. Same for video-encoding.

I agree. My X2 4200+ idled at 40-45, and got so hot that it would shut down at load. I replaced my Zalman 7000 with a Freezer 64 Pro, and used MX2 Thermal compound, and the idle temp went down to 20-25C (15-22C on the second core), and the load temp stays around 40C. The amazing part was that changing from the MX1 that come with the cooler to MX2 lowered my temps by 10C! It may just be that MX1 takes longer to cure, but it was a nice change and I will continue to buy that Thermal Paste from now on.

 

[shamans]

Mine's @ 2.3 ghz and with cool n quiet enabled idles at 30 C (Stock cpu fan used).

the 65 nm x2 chips are better for lower temps though....I had a few AM2 x2 4000+ 65 nm chips. Overclocked to 2.8 ghz from 2.1 ghz (no voltage changes).

 

[ClayN]

I had something like this happen several years ago. Somehow I had gotten the fan and heat sink on backwards. I unclipped the heat sink and fan, turned it 180 degrees, and reclipped it. I'm not sure how putting it on one way was different then the other, but it was turned it worked fine.

 

[MarcVenice]

The fan is inaudible when you have cool n quiet enabled. Once my CPU reaches 50c or so it revs up ALL the way though, to become inaudble again for some time, then it revs up again, etc etc. When revved up, you def hear a wooshing sound. But all HSF will do that. For normal usage its dead quiet, which is what matters, right ?

 

[Marty502]

Originally posted by: ClayN
I had something like this happen several years ago. Somehow I had gotten the fan and heat sink on backwards. I unclipped the heat sink and fan, turned it 180 degrees, and reclipped it. I'm not sure how putting it on one way was different then the other, but it was turned it worked fine.

I'll try that. Stay tuned.

And thank you MarcVenice. I'll consider that fan too.

 

[google01103]

newegg has a cooler master tx2 that's decent and has a rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/...mm%2bHyper%2bTX2%2bCPU

note: most of the crappy ratings are for the socket 775 connectors

 

[Marty502]

I'm from Chile, Newegg is kinda hesitant to ship stuff to this side of the planet. I'll still check out that fan man. Looks powerful.

 

[Mondoman]

I like the suggestion that the fan is not quite properly installed (or that too much thermal compound was used). Another possibility is that you don't have good case ventilation (internal case temp should be within 1-2 degrees C of room temp with good case ventilation). Just some things to check out before getting a more powerful CPU cooler.

 

[Marty502]

I used a well spread, very thin layer of thermal compound. I hadn't applied thermal compound to anything before, but I'm pretty confident it was OK. I'll try and reinstall the heatsink the other way, re-check the compound layer and see what happens.

But on the case ventilation subject I'm a bit torn. It's a Centurion 5 with a 80 mm fan on the front, a 120 mm fan on the back, and neat cables inside it. But it has a x1950 Pro inside (gets really hot) and it's summer here.

I'll check when the temps go a bit lower tonight.

 

[VERRY]

try applying MX-2 + third party HSF

 

[Marty502]

Something else: I'm stress-testing right now and Everest gives me 58~60ºC in Core 1 and 66~68ºC in Core 2. What the hell? Think I got it wrong on the HSF installation. Any other reason why there should be such a big difference between cores?

 

[VERRY]

maybe, the thermal grease on your processor IHS is not balanced, where left is to much thermal grease and right is to few thermal grease.

so flat it whit ID card

 

[Marty502]

Not good. Took the HSF, cleaned it and the chip with alcohol, carefully applied the thermal compound with a credit card, put everything back in place and now I'm stress-testing again with 2 instances of Prime95: After 5 minutes, 63ºC and 69ºC on each core, with no overclock (2 Ghz) and undervolting (1.275 vCore), and the fan at 100%. What the...?

I give up. I think I'll just buy a Zalman 7700-Cu. Got anything to say about it, people? Local store ran out of Max Orbs...

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Marty502
Not good. Took the HSF, cleaned it and the chip with alcohol, carefully applied the thermal compound with a credit card, put everything back in place and now I'm stress-testing again with 2 instances of Prime95: After 5 minutes, 63ºC and 69ºC on each core, with no overclock (2 Ghz) and undervolting (1.275 vCore), and the fan at 100%. What the...?

You never said which socket your CPU uses. If it's Skt. 939, completely forget about the reported "core" temps, they're utterly useless. Just go by the socket temp, which is Temp 1, using SpeedFan. As a matter of fact, AMD doesn't even mention core temps anywhere on their site. Want to know why? Because their processors don't have temperature sensors inside of them, like Intel processors do; they rely on the motherboard's socket temp reading. As long as your socket temp stays below 55C, you're fine.

I give up. I think I'll just buy a Zalman 7700-Cu. Got anything to say about it, people? Local store ran out of Max Orbs...

Those suck, if you want to know the truth. An Arctic Cooling Freezer 64, while nowhere near the best heatsink you can buy, loads at least 10C lower than they do.

 

[Marty502]

Yes, it is Socket 939. I never read anything about the temperature readings being bad on this breed of processors. I'm surprised to be honest!

I have two "Temp 1" on Speedfan, and both give ridiculous numbers. What would this be in Everest? Processor diode? If so, that goes a bit over 50ºC on load at both cores and stays a bit under 40ºC in idle, which sounds pretty cool. Is that it?

EDIT: It's gotta be it. Anyway, even with stock speed and undervolting, it hit 55ºC now. So I still need something more to cool this thing down... but I don't see any Arctic Cooling products on any stores here in Chile. It's just CoolerMaster, TT and Zalman everywhere.

Anyway, I'll take it from here. Consider this topic closed. Thanks a lot to all of you!

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Marty502
Yes, it is Socket 939. I never read anything about the temperature readings being bad on this breed of processors. I'm surprised to be honest!

???

Originally posted by: myocardia

As a matter of fact, AMD doesn't even mention core temps anywhere on their site. Want to know why? Because their processors don't have temperature sensors inside of them, like Intel processors do

I have two "Temp 1" on Speedfan, and both give ridiculous numbers. What would this be in Everest? Processor diode? If so, that goes a bit over 50ºC on load at both cores and stays a bit under 40ºC in idle, which sounds pretty cool. Is that it?

How exactly are those "ridiculous" temps? BTW, the reason you have two is because the one closest to the top is your CPU temp, and the one closer to the bottom is your GPU temp.

EDIT: It's gotta be it. Anyway, even with stock speed and undervolting, it hit 55ºC now. So I still need something more to cool this thing down... but I don't see any Arctic Cooling products on any stores here in Chile. It's just CoolerMaster, TT and Zalman everywhere.

Then get CoolerMaster's version of the AC Freezer 64 Pro, the Hyper TX2.

 

[Marty502]

One of the Temp1 rambles between 40, 10 and 20ºC every 5 seconds regardless of idle or load, and the other is locked at 17ºC. No clue what they're about. The "Remote" temp is the same as the "Processor diode" temp in Everest, and raises with the core temps, but it stays around 55ºC after some heavy load, while the reported core temps are well above 60ºC.

And I read wrong, sorry. Lesson learned, all current AMD chips are like this. Is Phenom the same way too?

I will check that CM fan. Thanks again man.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Marty502
And I read wrong, sorry. Lesson learned, all current AMD chips are like this. Is Phenom the same way too?

Unless I'm mistaken, it doesn't apply to the current AMD chips, only the Skt. 754 and Skt. 939 versions.

I will check that CM fan. Thanks again man.

Well, if you're interested in a Freezer 64 Pro, you might as well buy a CoolerMaster Hyper TX2, they perform almost identically. The only real difference is that the Freezer 64 only fits AMD chips, and the TX2 fits both AMD and LGA775's, so to me, it's slightly better.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: myocardia

Originally posted by: Marty502
Not good. Took the HSF, cleaned it and the chip with alcohol, carefully applied the thermal compound with a credit card, put everything back in place and now I'm stress-testing again with 2 instances of Prime95: After 5 minutes, 63ºC and 69ºC on each core, with no overclock (2 Ghz) and undervolting (1.275 vCore), and the fan at 100%. What the...?

You never said which socket your CPU uses. If it's Skt. 939, completely forget about the reported "core" temps, they're utterly useless. Just go by the socket temp, which is Temp 1, using SpeedFan. As a matter of fact, AMD doesn't even mention core temps anywhere on their site. Want to know why? Because their processors don't have temperature sensors inside of them, like Intel processors do; they rely on the motherboard's socket temp reading. As long as your socket temp stays below 55C, you're fine.

I give up. I think I'll just buy a Zalman 7700-Cu. Got anything to say about it, people? Local store ran out of Max Orbs...

Those suck, if you want to know the truth. An Arctic Cooling Freezer 64, while nowhere near the best heatsink you can buy, loads at least 10C lower than they do.

I don't know about you, but all of my S939 chips do have working DTS, readable by coretemp. CoreTemp was designed to read the DTS in BOTH Intel and AMD chips.

 

[crisium]

If you're using the old stock cooler from a single-core AMD, that's why. I've heard of users reporting this problem. I ordered an OEM 4200 X2 to replace my 3800 single core, and after hearing about ppl's problems, went with the cheapest HS&F that people said worked. I went with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835186010

As you can see, it's cheap. But it works for me, I have never seen 60 (although I have reached 58-59 on long gaming binges). And it's even OCed to 240fsb with increased voltage to 1.4v. I recommend you get something a little more quality, but just letting you know of a cheap solution. Though it did have free shipping when I got it. And I did use Arctic Silver for the compound.

 

[gmofftarki]

I realize that this is the CPU & Overclocking forum, not the Cooling forum, but if anyone has experience with the Arctic 64 Freezer:

How are the motherboard clips for it? Currently I'm using a Thermaltake TMG-A2, which seems to do the job and get heat away decently when it's attached properly, but has the mounting clips oriented in such a way that even day to day that's not a 100% guarantee (it's slightly loose, can wobble in its slot, and even the installation is a little 'sketchy'.

From what I can see so far, the Arctic has a clip that's actually attached the the heatsink, which should be a humongous improvement in terms of 'ease of use', but any first-person installation stories would be helpful.

(What ever happened to the 'Good ole days' of S478 HSFs. Literally a 30 second install, rather than 45 minutes finagling the heatsink to turn the right way, then making sure the clip is lying properly between the brackets, then trying to clip onto the motherboard prongs while knocking the clip out of the brackets, etc).

Is there really any advantage to the new PITA mounting schemes?

 

[skillyho]

I've used the HyperTx2 on a 3800X2@2.7GHz with 1.375vCore, and 1 hour prime only got it up to 48-49C (core 1 & core 2)....something definitely isn't mounted properly or your board is reading too high. I had an old ECS 754 board that added 15C to CPU Temp (not core, just CPU Temp) no matter what I did to help in cooling.

Either way, it's a great excuse to pickup a better cooler!