CPU Temp and voltage for Athlon 64 X2 processors?

[jough]

Hi,

I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (Manchester) dual-core processor and have Cool and Quiet enabled in both the BIOS as well as the driver installed in Windows.

However, others have mentioned here that their CPUs idle around 35C, whereas mine tends to idle around 46-47C.

There's a setting in my ASUS 6150 BIOS to set the CPU temp, but lowering it seems to make absolutely no difference in either the CPU temp or the CPU fan speed.

Screenshot:
http://www.jough.com/images/monitor.jpg

If I do video encoding both the CPU temp and the fan speed remain about the same as they are when idle, too. It doesn't make any sense. The CPU speed and fan speed do fluctuate in the monitoring software but not by that much. The CPU always remains between 46-49C, and the CPU fan speed goes from around 3300-3500RPM.

Is there something special that I have to do in either the BIOS or Windows XP SP2 to make the CPU idle cooler?

Or do I have a bad processor?

 

[Bobthelost]

Are you using the stock heatsink or a 3rd party one?

Those temps are high.

 

[letdown427]

could just be a bad temp sensor? that makes more sense, if your temps aren't fluctuating much between idle and load. erm, i'd say idle anywhere between 30 and 40 is prob normal, depending on room(/case) temps and then load tends to go towards 40-50 there's probably a graph/table somewhere. Voltage should be less than 1.45 definately if you aren't overclocking

 

[jough]

I'm not overclocking. I also notice that CPU-Z says that the frontside bus is only 200Mhz. Shouldn't it be 1000Mhz?

It seems to run at 46-47C right from a very very cold boot, even in the BIOS reporting. Is there a way to tell if the sensor is bad?

I'm using the stock heatsync and CPU fan that came with the CPU's retail package.

 

[Bobthelost]

You did remove the plastic from the bottom of the thermal pad? I only ask on the off chance that i can laugh cruelly at you.

Those temps do seem high, try opening the case up so there's fresh air getting to the CPU, could be airflow and it'd be best if we can rule that out now. If your temps are that high at stock settings i'd expect a rather high load temp, pushing 60*C. What are you getting?

 

[jough]

Yes, yes, of course I removed the plastic from the thermal pad.

That's the weird thing - under a very high load, like say when encoding video, the CPU temp only goes to around 50C while the CPU fan only spins up another 100RPMs or so, to around 3400-3500.

The X-QPack case that I have has a very large 120mm fan that's inline with the HD and CPU, and seems to be venting pretty well. The case has built-in monitors and the CPU temp (which I realise isn't that accurate) rarely goes above 30C - even with some load it's only in the mid-20s.

I've had other problems with the motherboard so I'm thinking it's just bad and the sensor is wrong, as letdown427 suggested. My laptop has an Athlon 64 3200+ Clawhammer chip and it idles around 60C, going upwards of 80C under load.

I think I'm going to get a new mobo and see if that makes a difference. Otherwise I could replace the fan that came with the QPack case, but it really seems to be moving a LOT of air, and the air coming out the back of it is fairly cool, as opposed to the heat that my dad's 3.2Ghz P4 puts out.