Difficulties Keeping AMD Temps Down....

[cardiac]

I would appreciate any assistance you guys could lend here:

I have an AMD 1.4 (266) mounted on a Gigabyte mb, and using a Thermalright SK6+ YS Tech 7000rpm, Copper heatsink to cool it. Arctic silver is used also. This is mounted in a generic mid-tower case, with a 400 watt AMD approved supply. The case has 2 80mm fans in it: one at the bottom front blowing in, and one in the rear middle blowing in, and the PS fan sucking out. The CPU is at default voltage and not overclocked.

My temps run too high. The chip temp is 52-54 degrees C at idle, and runs upward of 56-58 C while doing almost anything. Inside case temps are 37-39 C. Ambient room temp is 70 F. I got these temps from 3 different sources: Gigabytes own health monitor in the BIOS, CPU-Cool, and Motherboard Monitor.

I have everything clean and free of dust and dirt. The heatsink has been removed. cleaned, and re-installed with fresh arctic silver. I have tried it with and without a copper shim plate.

Anyone have any ideas on how to lower the temps? Thanks a bunch,

Bob

 

[Cosmo3]

Boy that should cool better than that. I would have the rear fan blowing out and maybe put a blowhole on the side of the case blowing in. You may also check and see what the temps are with the side of the case off if they are lots cooler then you need a blowhole. I have a Antec 1040 case with a 1800+XP and a Alpha 8045 heatsink and I am at 31C right now and during 3D games it goes up about 4C when it is hotter in the house my temps are about 35C.

 

[IMO]

Temp range in the 50's to low 60's for Amd !.xxG is "normal" temp range, why do you worry about it when there is nothing to worry about! different cpu have different temp range, just because Intel cpu have a range inthe 40's doesn't mean Amd have the same range!
so don't worry about it!

as for the guy who say his cpu idel in the low 30's, that's great! but so what? why waste money to achieve that? what purpose does it serve?

 

[PCHPlayer]

The problem is the case. Yes your temps are within specs, but what is going to happen in the summer when your room temp goes up to 80 F (assuming you live in the northern hemisphere)? A good case can keep the temp within 5 F of room temp. You may want to change the direction of the rear fan to blowing out. That way you have air flow from lower front to middle/upper back. Since hot air rises, having the exhaust near the top of the case is preferred.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Turn the fan at the back of your case around so it's blowing out, that will give you a lot more 'cool' air inside the case.

If you don't mind doing a little case modding, you may want to consider putting an 80mm blowhole in the top of the case to remove stagnant air. I would be inclined to do this first as opposed to the blowhole on the side of the case as this would only be trying to cram more air into a case that only has one exhaust fan.

 

[joecool]

i agree, turn the rear fan around to exhaust the hot air out of the case. this should make a big difference in the case temps, which will in turn lower the cpu temps. you might also consider getting a bigger hsf - i've got the alpha pal 8045 & love it - even with a slow-running 80mm fan my cpu temps are high 30's - low 40's, and that's with a case temp of 30.

one other thing to consider is that those temps might not be very accurate. the case temp depends largely on where on the mobo the thermistor is located. on my ecs board it is right next to the front case fan & that system always shows a case temp only 1-2 degrees above room temp. my msi board, on the other hand, show's 30, which is 14 of room temp! still haven't been able to identify the thermistor on this board but i bet it's near one of the hotter components.

as far as cpu temp goes, since the thermistor is just located in the cavity below the cpu, you can get a build-up of hot air in there that is actually hotter than the core temp!

bottom line, i wouldn't worry about it too much. switch the rear fan & i bet you'll be satisfied with the results,

 

[clarkmo]

Seems like the typical SK6 scenario. Ther are two things to consider.
1) Is the heatsink aligned correctly? There is a groove cut into the side to provide space for the cpu socket handle.
2) Is the clip oriented correctly? The bend in the clip is not in the center od the clip. It is off center. The bend must be above the cpu core for good results. From memory that would put the bend in the lower half but with your mob, I don't know. I am fairly certain your solution lies here somewhere.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

JoeCool, you said:



<<
as far as cpu temp goes, since the thermistor is just located in the cavity below the cpu, you can get a build-up of hot air in there that is actually hotter than the core temp!

>>



Wow. I"ve never heard a more WRONG statement about socket-a temps before. Let me point out a review with watercooling (hence, no airflow/allows socket-cavity to supposedly fill with hot air as you believe): ProCooling Water Cooling Roundup.

The actual thermistor readings they use is the kt7-socket-thermistor. The Backside cooling is what is sanctioned by amd (search the site for the 24288.pdf file) to gather "die" temps in conjuction with a formula from amd.

Let's take the results from the Cool Computers Socket-cooler. Socket-thermistor = 42C max. Tceramic (from the amd pdf) = 45.7C. If we apply the amd formula of Tdie = (1.209(TCeramic-Tambient) - 1.3778) +Tambient , we figure a "die" temperature of around 49C.

The results are similiar throughout: The socket-thermistor well under-reads the "die" temperature, and even varies from a thermistor that has direct placement behind the core. Since this is an airless solution, there's no air conflict (to see air conflict up close, see the reviews at www.voidyourwarranty.net, especially the latest "article"), and socket-air can sit and heat up, even then the socket-thermistor is still off.



Mike

 

[Jen]

this is reason why i went to h2o.............its the only way i made it through summer



Jen

 

[cardiac]

Thanks, folks, I appreciate all of the ideas. I turned the rear fan around and now it blows out along with the PS fan. It dropped the average temps by 1 degree or so. But, that is a start! IMO, I know what you mean, but I would still like to get things a little cooler......I am going to install a 3rd 80mm fan right in the very top of the case blowing straight up. In fact, I just found a grill for it.....Now, where is my Dremel tool....

Thanks a bunch,

Bob

 

[Jen]

<< Thanks, folks, I appreciate all of the ideas. I turned the rear fan around and now it blows out along with the PS fan. It dropped the average temps by 1 degree or so. But, that is a start! IMO, I know what you mean, but I would still like to get things a little cooler......I am going to install a 3rd 80mm fan right in the very top of the case blowing straight up. In fact, I just found a grill for it.....Now, where is my Dremel tool....

Thanks a bunch,

Bob >>



how about a case fan on the case door ?........


just a thought


Jen

 

[kmmatney]

It sounds like you've dome just about everything you can do. I mean you have 2 case fans and the PSU fan. This should give you decent enough airflow. Much more than My old Athlon 1400 had, and it was very stable. You can also try adding a slot fan, and.or a front mounting hard drive cooling fans. Then you wouldn't need to perfrom any case mods.

Out of curiousity, you should see what the temps are with the code case cover removed. If the temps don;t go down, then it may not be worth adding more fans (I honestly think you have enough cooling as is, especially without overclocking).

My temps dropped a heck of a lot when I switched to an Athlon XP. 🙂

 

[ku]

make sure the clip is on the right way. It's not uncommon for people to flip the clip around so the bend isn't directly over the die. just make sure the bend in the clip is directly over the die.