Blinderbomber,
You are correct from a purist standpoing. Maximum DIE temperature is 95C for most t-birds/athlon XPs. Maximum recommended sustained temp is ~70C or so. (taken from amd recommended heatsink C/W for various wattages).
However, 99.99999% of motherboards out there do not read die temp. of these, probalby 99% of them do not even reasonably read die temp well. Even the ones that do read the best are probably 5-10C below actual DIE temperature. The worst ones, especially when coupled with certain heatsinks and other factors, can be up to 25C too low compared to die temperature. AMDs recommendation for obtaining die temp on a t-bird (which lacks an on-die thermal diode) is to take the backside, insulated reading directly behind the core adn apply a formula to correct this reading. Most mb's do not contact the backside directly behind the core, nor are they insulated.
Therefore, there's no reasonable way you can claim that anyone can go up to 85C and have a reasonable shot at surviving. yes, exceptions happen but they are far and few between. The first goal should be to determine hte MB type, and figure what the normal "temp" for that MB is based on its thermistor location, etc. The second goal is to determine what is "too high" for that mb, and for 99.9999% of mb's, 85C is way too high. Throw in an AthlonXP, with the new heat-blocking PCB, and I wouldn't go over 60C on the vast majority of mb's, adjusted for ambient case temp.
Mike
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