Dual Opteron Cooling Problem? *PICS*

[gt07]

I built a dual opteron workstation and I ordered a case that was too small (mistake) but made it work anyways.

When mounting the processors i had to lift the heatsink off of processor 1 (the one located under the drive bays) therefore breaking the thermal compound seal. I remounted immediately to avoid any major separation. I have a tyan thunder k8w board and am not quite sure if the temperature/fan readings are correct in the bios. My room is relatively warm (approx 80 degress F)

Here are the temp details: situation/cpu1/cpu2/system
1.5 HRS Powered OFF/39/33/31
Stablized after Power ON/50/43/43
Light Load (Browsing Internet)/50/44/44
Gaming (Far Cry)/52/46/48

The Fan Speeds are as follows:
Fan 1 - CPU 1 - ~5375RPM
Fan 2 - CPU 2 - ~3850RPM

It seems that the temp readings MAY be off by ~6 degrees from one another as shown by powered off temps (going straight to bios upon power on). Could there really be that big of a temp diff based on location in the case? Could have lifting the heatsink momentarily off the cpu when mounting cause that difference?

Also, why would the fans have those speed differences. The only thing i can possibly think is that the readings are incorrect as they are both in the "max 1.2 amp CPU fan" connectors.

Well, to the pics! Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

http://www.pruddy.com/misc/IMG_0138s.jpg
http://www.pruddy.com/misc/IMG_0139s.jpg
http://www.pruddy.com/misc/IMG_0144s.jpg
http://www.pruddy.com/misc/IMG_0145s.jpg
http://www.pruddy.com/misc/IMG_0146s.jpg
http://www.pruddy.com/misc/IMG_0147s.jpg
http://www.pruddy.com/misc/IMG_0148s.jpg
http://www.pruddy.com/misc/IMG_0150s.jpg

Now the final question: if the case just proves to be too small (not enough air inside therefore causing higher ambient temp) I'm going to have to spend ~$200 regardless to get a new case. Would water cooling in the current case have as good of results as getting a larger case? Doesn't matter what i get, larger case or water cooling as it'll cost either way.

THANKS!!!!

 

[SneakyStuff]

Those temps are fine, don't worry about it. My Barton 2800+ reads 48' C CPU / 56' C diode when idle, and 54/62' C when gaming. As long as your system is stable, everything'll be fine. By the way VERY impressive setup

 

[gt07]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
Those temps are fine, don't worry about it. My Barton 2800+ reads 48' C CPU / 56' C diode when idle, and 54/62' C when gaming. As long as your system is stable, everything'll be fine. By the way VERY impressive setup

Thanks

Full Specs:
Thermaltake Tsunami (yes, a Cooler Master ripoff )
Tyan Thunder K8W
(2X) AMD OPTERON 246 2.0 GHz
(2X) Corsair 1GB Kit DDR400 XMS3200 ECC w/Platinum Heat Spreader
(2X) 200GB 7200 RPM 8MB Buffer Serial ATA HDD
Leadtek A350XT - FX5900XT
CDRW/DVD COMBO SONY CRX320E
DVD+/-RW 8X Sony DWU18A

 

[gt07]

Well, I guess here's a follow up question. Things do seem stable....most the time but not sure if the VERY OCCASIONAL explorer crash is caused by heat or what.

I'm looking at a Corsair Hydrocool 200 and I was wondering if it'd be easy/effective in cooling dual processors? wouldn't the 2nd processor in the line run a little warmer? After seeing my pics are there cpu waterblocks that would be able to fit in under that drive bay that i have now?

 

[Degrador]

High temps wouldn't cause a single program to crash - the whole system would shut down / restart. Also, the fans are probably temperature controlled, hence the different speeds.

 

[gt07]

ok, that's what i thought about the software. i was pretty confident that it'd be hardware shutdown if instability occurred.

your fan speeds explanation makes sense as they seemed to gradually increase as i watched.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: gt07
Well, I guess here's a follow up question. Things do seem stable....most the time but not sure if the VERY OCCASIONAL explorer crash is caused by heat or what.

I'm looking at a Corsair Hydrocool 200 and I was wondering if it'd be easy/effective in cooling dual processors? wouldn't the 2nd processor in the line run a little warmer? After seeing my pics are there cpu waterblocks that would be able to fit in under that drive bay that i have now?

IMO water coolings just not worth it, you've got a nice rig there, and if it's stable just enjoy it! (And BTW those IE crashes, happened to me ALL the time, goto windows update, and update IE, that fixed it for me )

 

[Moltres]

I have a dual Athlon MP 2600+ running in a Koolance PC2-C case, which is very small for this setup. With watercooling, the size of the case only matters for having everything fit. The temps stay very low regardless of space. The second CPU in the line usually goes 1C above the first CPU, but that is after the water travels through the video and harddrive heatsinks. I would suspect that with the Hydrocool, the CPUs would stay the same temp as it is a much higher flow system than Koolance.

My dual Opteron is headed for a PC2-650 case next week. Both CPUs hover around 69C under full load and 65C while idle. That is with 4 120mm fans pushing air. The system is stable but it always smells like something is cooking. I have to switch out motherboard and memory since the MSI board only uses the proprietary heatsinks, and the Tyan board doesn't like the aggressive memory timings of the low latency memory.

Specs:
Antec SLK3700AMB w/4 120mm fans (being replaced with Koolance PC2-650BK)
AMD Opteron 250 2.4Ghz (x2)
MSI K8T Master2 FAR (being replaced with Tyan Tiger K8W)
1GB Corsair TwinX PC3200 ECC Reg Low Latency (being replaced with XMS3200 Server Memory)
WD 10000RPM Raptor 74GB Serial ATA HDD (x2)
eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra

 

[otispunkmeyer]

also u have a case fan directly over CPU 2, so thats probs helpin it a bit