Is this a normal CPU temp with (no heatsink/fan)?

[Patman]

This weekend was the time to upgrade my PC, so I bought a Asus CUSL2-C MB and a new Enlight tower case with a 300W PS. The CPU is a Celeron II 566MHz and the RAM is 128MB PC133. (I'm migrating all the cards and drives to the new case).

Originally, before I bought CUSL2-C MB, I bought the Cel2-566 CPU with a Golden Orb heatsink/fan. Well, due to some ill-placed capacitors, I am not able to use the Golden Orb heatsink/fan on the CUSL2-C MB, so I've been running without a heatsink/fan on the CPU for roughly 4-5 hours off and on while rebooting plenty of times in between.

I'm sure you can anticipate where I'm going here: The Asus BIOS tells me that the CPU temperature is in the 95 degrees Celsius range when it boots up (or rebooted), and asks if I want to hit F1 to continue to boot, or Del to change the BIOS. If I go in the BIOS, I have something like 5 seconds before the MB freezes to make any changes. The CPU is running at its nominal value of 8.5x multiplier and 66MHz FSB.

If I boot up to Win98, I can still use my PC without locking up, and after loading the Asus Probe utility, it shows me that the CPU temp starts out around 92 degrees Celsius, but then it tails off to around 50 degrees Celsius. Currently the performance of the PC isn't too great (not any better than my old Cel300A/Abit BH6 combo I migrated from my old PC).

Is this typical of running a CPU without a heatsink/fan on top of the CPU? I do have an 80mm fan blowing from 3-4" away on top of the CPU. I will buy a CPU heatsink/fan, but was wondering if this will solve my CPU temp problem. I would like to overclock this to 850MHz, but I'm afraid I've probably fried any useful overclockness out of this particular CPU.

Any insights? Thanks in advance.

 

[Mark R]

A simple fan blowing air over the CPU is not sufficient. You absolutely must have a heatsink (you might be able to do without a fan, if your heatsink and ventilation is good enough).

Just count yourself lucky that your CPU still works.

 

[Patman]

Okay, let me pose this other question: On the Cel2-566MHz CPU, there is this little bitty square in the middle of the chip, is this where the heatsink needs to make contact with chip with the thermal grease? That's the only place were I could see the Golden Orb making contact with the CPU previously.

 

[IsOs]

You must have a cool room to begin with. That setup usually will kill the cpu in a relatively warm room. I suggest you don't try to overclock without at least a heatsink attached to your cpu. Goodluck.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

The middle portion is the cpu core, and that is the only place you need to apply heatsink grease.

You are unbelievably lucky right now that your chip is not fried permanently. Intel rates 85C max core temp, and even an uncalibrated diode reading, with the temps you're getting, are above that. I would not use the computer again until you get a heatsink/fan.

I would also not be surprised if your overclocking headroom is gone due to sustained high-temp operation.


Mike

 

[Patman]

Thanks for the replies. I went on my lunch hour and picked up a heat sink/fan for the CPU. If I've fried my CPU, well, I guess it's an excuse to buy an even more powerful CPU at a lower price. So ther's always some upsides to bad things, plus, I will have learned a valuable lesson.

 

[RoadRuner]

bleh, RMA the chip.

 

[SirFshAlot]

no sh*t; let the rest of us consumers absorb the cost of a little impatience

 

[Usul]

You can use the TaiSol CGK742 forged hsf, w/out the fan it runs 60Cca with the case open. If you can set the 80mm fan to blow on it even from a small distance you can probably be ok without the fan on the HS.
But the questionis why you should do it?

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Hmmm before runing a computer without a hs/f you must have thought there was a reason for the hs/f in the first place. I dont think your cpu will run more than 12 months I mean you ran it for 5 hours with no hs/f!!!!!

 

[Patman]

Okay, I got the heatsink installed, and that totally fixed the CPU overheating problem. Instead of starting out at around 95 degrees Celsius, at its nominal running speed of 566MHz, the CPU's temp is now 47 degrees Celsius.

Now, since I'm a glutton for punishment, I decided to overclock the CPU to 850MHz be pushing the FSB to 100MHz. Well, I was able to get it overclocked to 850MHz, but I needed to raise the core voltage to 1.70V, and this resulted in a CPU temp of 57 degrees Celsius.

Is this too high of an operating temp for the CPU? If I use any core voltage lower than 1.7V, it doesn't quite make all the way through the Win98 bootup process.

Will I shorten the lifespan of the CPU running at 1.7V considerably?

 

[stonythug]

Haha, I think you've already shortened the life of this cpu considerably. I think it's hilarious that you're concerned about running your cpu with 1.7v, but weren't concerned about running it without a HS/Fan. I wouldn't be worried if I were you, it sounds like you have an unstoppable chip. You should try and break 1 GHZ since you're celeron can obviously take some heat.


[Edit]
(just thought I'd add that I'm not expert and that I know practically nothing about overclocking. Just didn't want you to listening to me thinking you're getting expert advice)

 

[Patman]

Well, I snuck a few fans home from work (they were pulled out of some server cases, and were just junked). I put a 120mm fan on top the power supply blowing outward, an 80mm fan underneath the power supply blowing outward as the heat exhaust for the CPU, an 80mm fan blowing on top of the CPU, an 80 mm fan at the front of the case sucking in. And I renewed my efforts to put on my Golden Orb and was met with success. So with 4 fans and the GOrb, my CPU temp went from 57-61 C to 42-44 C. And I was able to drop my voltage from 1.75 to 1.70 running at 850MHz.

Next up: 952MHz running at 112MHz FSB!