High Idle Temp?

[diablo900t]

I just built a new machine:
Athlon 3500
1 GB OCZ Rev 2 Plat
Nforce 3 MSI Neo 2 Plat
36GB Sata WD
200GB Sata SeaGate

My machine is running at 47 C at idle, and about 16 C for the system temp(this according to CoreCenter, the software that came with the Mobo). I haven't overclocked ANYTHING and the case I have is a Raidmax case with 7 fans in it. From what I've read, 47 degrees seems pretty high at idle, i'm guess its close to 60 at a full load(I haven't really tested).
Did I do something wrong in my installation? I didn't put thermal grease on the processor; I never did on my last build which was a P4. I just put the heatsink on top of the processor, as per the instructions. It seems kind of hot to me, and I even wonder if CoreCenter is accurate. Ideas?

 

[Kninetik]

I have a 3500+ Newcastle 939 on a Soltek motherboard giving me 52 idle 58 load stock hs/f arctic silver 5 according to speedfan and everest. With the program given to me by Soltek, just bump by temps up by 3-6 degree celcius. Speedfan tells me my Watercooled setup is running 42 idle 46 load so it just might be the motherboard reporting awkward temps. Either that or my heatsinks must have had the worst lap job in the factory.

 

[Mrvile]

Something is wrong for both of you. Idle temps should be 30 - 40 (no more than 42), and load should be no more than 50.

Diablo what cooler do you use? I use the XP-90 with a nice beefy Panaflo on top and I'm even complaining about high temps, 35 - 38 idle, 42 - 45 load.

 

[Sparky19692]

Something is way Wrong. I have been running Prine 95 for the better part of the day about 11 hours doing a modist O/C check and I'm crusing @44c idle @33c. with stock HSF.
Kninetik wtf lap job? don't you have thermopaste laping will not inprove heat transfer very much the alum that they use for your heatsink is so porouse that AS5 or what I'm using the cheap stuff that was on the HS from AMD is there to fill the voids therefor inproving heat transfer.

 

[lockmac]

My 3500+ runs at about 29 celcius idle and about 42 celcius under load. I have 2 fans, stock HSF and all are throttled down to the lowest settings, yet Cool n Quiet is enabled. I am very pleased with the temperatures im receiving, and I have probably the quietest computer ever. Can barely even hear the thing with the SilenX fans running

 

[Kninetik]

The lapping on a heatsink can make a difference, but I just added that tidbit to say that it can't be the lap job cause both types of cooling sinks report unusually high temperatures. I use the recommended amounted as per Arctic's instruction manual... no more than a grain and a half. Once again, it is my belief that the motherboard is incorrectly reporting temperatures. No way in cold arctic hell should a waterchilled athlon be over 40 idle.

Edit: Btw, if you're STILL worried about those temps, go check out tomshardware's AMD vs INTEL stress test. The AMD 3500+ winchester is reporting temperatures similar to mine. It has been going full stressful load for at least 5 days straight with no faulty powerdowns or systems crashes. Dont worry about the temps, it just might be the difference in mobo's that are giving people the good lows, and the frightful highs. Unless you purposefully smudged the thermal paste and decided to carve the base of the heatsink into concrete, the stock hs/f is doing its job fine. Just get those case fans in thier proper position and youre set.

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
Something is wrong for both of you. Idle temps should be 30 - 40 (no more than 42), and load should be no more than 50.

Diablo what cooler do you use? I use the XP-90 with a nice beefy Panaflo on top and I'm even complaining about high temps, 35 - 38 idle, 42 - 45 load.

lol I agree. My idle temps are 33-35C oc'ed to 2.42 on AIR (3500+) Load is 43-47C. Mrv idle temps depend mainly on 2 things (besides your oc): case cooling (fans and rpms) and more importantly, ambient temp in the room. Room temps make all the diff in the world along with tower location (on floor or up on desk). YES Diablo you have done something wrong during installation. USE AC5 and reseat your HSF. As far as Corecenter chances are it is wrong but not by much 2-4C maybe.

 

[eyeballkid]

AMD Temperatures at Tomshardware.com

Idle temperatures of 35-45°C and load temperatures of 55-65°C are perfectly alright with air cooling. The differences are often related to motherboard models and bios versions.

- - -

Originally posted by: JBDan
As far as Corecenter chances are it is wrong but not by much 2-4C maybe.

Corecenter can display temperatures wrong by more than 10 degrees (Celsius). I have found MBM5 to give fairly accurate readings at least on the Neo2 but software is never exact.

- - -
If you have a adequate heatsink and fan for your particular CPU, decent airflow through your case and room temperatures are not exceeding 25°C (~77°F) you have absolutely nothing to worry about, even if you give your CPU up to 0.1V more juice than spec.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[diablo900t]

I just downloaded MBM5, and now i'm showing 36 degree idle, and around 48-55 degree load. That sounds more like it. I'm only using the stock cooling options. I had a feeling that the CPU numbers were off in CoreCenter, MBM5 shows the same temp for the system 16 degrees. Thanks eyeballkid for your input, 10 degrees is a big difference.

Merry Christmas!

 

[WAZ]

Glad I found this thread. I'm running:

Athlon FX-55
MSI Neo2 Platinum
Thermalright XP-90 cooler (using Arctic Silver Ceramique and Panaflo 57 CFM fan)

Motherboard Monitor, Sandra Lite 2005, and my BIOS all said my idle temps were about 42 degrees for the past few days (the first few days after building my PC). Then suddenly today, they're showing 48 degrees idle.

If 42 was borderline too high, 48 idle is ridiculous. All the XP-90 reviews I've read put it at mid-30's idle and low to mid 40's at load.

Is the FX-55 this much hotter, or is something very wrong? What can I do to improve/fix this?

 

[WAZ]

Ugh.... my idle temp is sitting at 50 C now.... :disgust:

How can I knock 10-15 degrees off of this thing? There's no way an XP-90 with AS Ceramique should be this hot...

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: WAZ
Ugh.... my idle temp is sitting at 50 C now.... :disgust:

How can I knock 10-15 degrees off of this thing? There's no way an XP-90 with AS Ceramique should be this hot...

Yes that is too high. You fan is spinning at correct rpm's? You oc'ing and is this a new build? If so then just pop your HSF off and look at the paste pattern see if its making good contact. Apply paste agn and reseat- all I can think of right now Is your HS fan pushing or pulling air?

 

[WAZ]

Originally posted by: JBDan
Yes that is too high. You fan is spinning at correct rpm's? You oc'ing and is this a new build? If so then just pop your HSF off and look at the paste pattern see if its making good contact. Apply paste agn and reseat- all I can think of right now Is your HS fan pushing or pulling air?

Yeah, the fan is fine -- right around the 2850 RPM as advertised for my Panaflo 57 CFM.

This is a new build -- popped the FX-55 in a new Neo2 Plat. about a week ago. I'm not OC'ing, however, so this is at stock speeds until I get everything working, cool, and stable.

I'll take the HSF off and look at it. What "pattern" am I looking for to tell if it's making good contact?

An interesting side note: after rebooting, MBM5 is now showing 40C idle. The BIOS shows anywhere from 42 to 50 (was fluctuating while sitting there watching it), and SiSoft Sandra seems to agree with MBM and hover around 40 as well.

I'm okay with 40 idle and 50 load (though I would like it a little lower, it would be okay, I think). But what's up with these weird fluctuations -- anything from 40 to 50 showing up for idle?

 

[WAZ]

Ok, today I'm getting 43 idle and 61 load (when running Prime95 torture test 1).

I'm okay with the 43, but I don't like that 61.....

 

[afropuff]

anyone got a good article on lapping??

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: WAZ

Originally posted by: JBDan
Yes that is too high. You fan is spinning at correct rpm's? You oc'ing and is this a new build? If so then just pop your HSF off and look at the paste pattern see if its making good contact. Apply paste agn and reseat- all I can think of right now Is your HS fan pushing or pulling air?

Yeah, the fan is fine -- right around the 2850 RPM as advertised for my Panaflo 57 CFM.

This is a new build -- popped the FX-55 in a new Neo2 Plat. about a week ago. I'm not OC'ing, however, so this is at stock speeds until I get everything working, cool, and stable.

I'll take the HSF off and look at it. What "pattern" am I looking for to tell if it's making good contact?

An interesting side note: after rebooting, MBM5 is now showing 40C idle. The BIOS shows anywhere from 42 to 50 (was fluctuating while sitting there watching it), and SiSoft Sandra seems to agree with MBM and hover around 40 as well.

I'm okay with 40 idle and 50 load (though I would like it a little lower, it would be okay, I think). But what's up with these weird fluctuations -- anything from 40 to 50 showing up for idle?

As far as "pattern" your looking for solid contact from CPU to the base of the HSF. There should be no "dry" spots (where paste is not applied). Best way to do it is to put your AS5 (or preferred paste) on the heatspreader and seat your HSF as you would if you were completing your build then remove the HSF and see if paste is making contact with the entire HSF. Mainly want to focus on the "center" of the heatspreader as this is the source of the most of the heat (obviously the chip itself is much smaller than the heatspreader below it). AS5 website gives good instructions on this. They say NOT to spread the paste out as I use to do on previous builds but rather apply your "rice" sized dab of paste and seat the HSF. Maybe you are not getting enough tension against your cpu, but be very careful as to not crush the core. I forgot to ask what HSF you using?

 

[WAZ]

Originally posted by: JBDan

Originally posted by: WAZ

Originally posted by: JBDan
Yes that is too high. You fan is spinning at correct rpm's? You oc'ing and is this a new build? If so then just pop your HSF off and look at the paste pattern see if its making good contact. Apply paste agn and reseat- all I can think of right now Is your HS fan pushing or pulling air?

Yeah, the fan is fine -- right around the 2850 RPM as advertised for my Panaflo 57 CFM.

This is a new build -- popped the FX-55 in a new Neo2 Plat. about a week ago. I'm not OC'ing, however, so this is at stock speeds until I get everything working, cool, and stable.

I'll take the HSF off and look at it. What "pattern" am I looking for to tell if it's making good contact?

An interesting side note: after rebooting, MBM5 is now showing 40C idle. The BIOS shows anywhere from 42 to 50 (was fluctuating while sitting there watching it), and SiSoft Sandra seems to agree with MBM and hover around 40 as well.

I'm okay with 40 idle and 50 load (though I would like it a little lower, it would be okay, I think). But what's up with these weird fluctuations -- anything from 40 to 50 showing up for idle?

As far as "pattern" your looking for solid contact from CPU to the base of the HSF. There should be no "dry" spots (where paste is not applied). Best way to do it is to put your AS5 (or preferred paste) on the heatspreader and seat your HSF as you would if you were completing your build then remove the HSF and see if paste is making contact with the entire HSF. Mainly want to focus on the "center" of the heatspreader as this is the source of the most of the heat (obviously the chip itself is much smaller than the heatspreader below it). AS5 website gives good instructions on this. They say NOT to spread the paste out as I use to do on previous builds but rather apply your "rice" sized dab of paste and seat the HSF. Maybe you are not getting enough tension against your cpu, but be very careful as to not crush the core. I forgot to ask what HSF you using?

I'm using a Thermalright XP-90 in push configuration. Pull temps were similar (as they should be, according to Thermalright). On the Neo2 board, with its DIMM slots running horizontally above the CPU, the XP-90 overlaps them nicely and a push configuration helps blow air down on to my RAM.

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to re-apply my Arctic Silver, double-check the contact, and see if I can't bring this thing down 10 degrees.

 

[imported_neptune]

I am at a loss here. Please help. Keep in mind I have reseated, tried applied more and less AS5, but I still get outrageous load temps. My case has been left open and closed; room temp about 68F. I am using the Winchester 3000+ @ anywhere from 2400 - 2600MHz and the temps seem about the same. I am getting about 37C idle and about 60C under load. With the case closed I have seen it go as high as 65C and shut down the system while running toast or Prime95. The seating between the CPU and the HSF seem fine. By the way, the stock HSF gave me about the same results. I find it hard to believe that the XP-90 with AS5 and a Panaflo fan would be no better. What am I doing wrong here? Current specs below, ignore signature:

K8N Neo2 Plat 1.41mod
A64 3000+ 90nm @ 2529 1.5V + 10%
XP-90/M1A/AS5
DC (512MB x 2) OCZ 3200 Plat R2
DDR562 1:1 2.5 4 4 10 1T 2.85V
Raptor 74GB SATA 3
6800 GT @ 404/1110
XP Pro SP2
Tt 560W PSU
Lian-Li case with plenty of fans

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: lockmac
My 3500+ runs at about 29 celcius idle and about 42 celcius under load. I have 2 fans, stock HSF and all are throttled down to the lowest settings, yet Cool n Quiet is enabled. I am very pleased with the temperatures im receiving, and I have probably the quietest computer ever. Can barely even hear the thing with the SilenX fans running

29C on air cooling with fan on lowest settings... yeah right! :disgust:

Neptune make sure you have a VERY thin layer of thermal paste. Sounds like it is too thick. Also make sure your case fans are pointing the right way.

-Kevin

 

[imported_neptune]

See that's the thing Kevin... I have tried it with lots of AS5 and very little, current I have it razor thin (literally sheered with a razor) and case fans are situated appropriately (fronts sucking in, backs blowing out. Panaflo blowing down on HSF. Any other thoughts? Anyone else? Thanks

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well knock the fans down to 4 fans two front intake and two rear exhaust. If you have one a top exhaust is fine as well, but that many fans might be making a sort of vacuum. Also what kind of HS are you using... might have missed it. If it is a clip make sure the ridge is on the side with the ridge, not vice versa.

-Kevin

 

[Duvie]

I have done testing on just that thing....pressure balance is a must....I have seen where higher pressure (with lots of intake and not much exhaust) equaled higher temps....I have seen where a lot of exhaust and one intake fan was higher temps....

Instaed now it is a blance 2 intakes, 2 exhaust...seems to get best results...

Also too many fans xcan actually cause turbulence, trapped air pockets, dead zones, overly compete with the cpu fan....

I mean it really takes some studying on how to do this....

I really like front to back motion with blow holes in the top of the case to vent trapped air between the PSU and the IDE drives....

 

[imported_neptune]

Another thing is that I am noticing that the HSF is not even warm to the touch... Could this mean that the reporting of the board is just wrong? Granted, it clearly indicates a significant increase in temp while the cases is fully closed proving that it works on some level, perhaps it is based off of temperatures that are far too high? Says the system temp is only around 15-20C which seems more realistic as it is cool in the room, and this is considered to be a good HSF

 

[Gamingphreek]

Your HS i guess is not making proper contact.

It is supposed to be very hot to the touch. Make sure it is on properly.

-Kevin

 

[imported_neptune]

I have reseated again and the clips are tight so it is making good contact.. I am perplexed... I tried the AS5 instructions and it did not improve temps any... This is really bizarre. I can't believe that the stock HSF is better than the xp-90 with AS5 and an M1A