Phenom ll X4 955BE C3 Temps

[JoJoBoy]

I just built a new system with:
AMD Phenom ll X4 955BE C3
Asus M4A785T-M (785G)
Antec P180 mini
Im using the stock cooler for the Phenom and am using asus Smart Q-FAN to control the cpu fan speed.
What are the highest cpu temps that you can safely sustain for the life of the computer? Right now I get temps between 50 & 56 C when the system is at full load. The thing I hate is when the stock cooler fan revs to about 4600rpm at these temps which is way to loud. Could I safely allow the temps to go any higher than the 56 C I am already seeing?
On a side note I use Asus Probe ll to monitor the temps but AMD Overdrive always says the temps are 4 deg C higher than the Asus Probe, which one is more accurate?

 

[schneiderguy]

Max temp for Phenom II's is 62c. I have an identical system to yours (well, the case, mobo, and processor at least) and I could only deal with the stock fan on my 955 for about a week before I gave up trying to keep it quiet. I got a Xigmatek s1283 and it keeps my processor at around 50c when OC'd to 3.8ghz, all while being nearly silent.

AFAIK AMD Overdrive reads the temp directly off of the CPU's temp sensor, while PC Probe will read it from the motherboard's temp sensor, so AMD overdrive should be more accurate.

 

[deimos3428]

I have a similar system, PhII 955 on an M4A78T-E. I just checked both apps' output so we're on the same page. Personally, I prefer CPUID's Hardware Monitor, but they all provide the same information if you're reading the same sensors -- sometimes individual programs label things weirdly.

AMD Overdrive is monitoring the individual core temps on the "CPU Status" tab. There are four of them; one of each core. You'll note sometimes they aren't identical, but they're usually close.

PC Probe II is measuring the case temp as "CPU". This has nothing to do with your computer case; the sensor is within the processor, underneath the internal heat spreader which forms the top of the processor's case. This is the one you don't want reach the maximum, which 62C for your processor.

For an additional safety buffer, many people don't let the core temps reach the maximum either. The core temps will always be higher than the case temp if they are being reported correctly, as they are closest to the furnaces that are the CPU cores.

Actually in AMD Overdrive on the "Board Status" tab, you can see both the four core temps and the case temp, which is labelled as "ASUS_CPU_TEMPERATURE". Both programs also graph an additional sensor labelled "ASUS_MB_TERMPERATURE" or "MB" located on the motherboard near the CPU socket. (You'll notice that one tends to warm up/cool down much slower than the rest. It might even be higher than the case temp on idle, but should be lower than it on load.)

 

[konakona]

dunno... my C2 starts locking up / crashing / quitting OCCT when it reaches 55C or so...

 

[soccerballtux]

dunno... my C2 starts locking up / crashing / quitting OCCT when it reaches 55C or so...

Mine is stable to 71C (haven't gone higher) on 1.45v @ 3.5ghz.
I can go to 3.8Ghz but not past about 58C, no matter the voltage.

schneiderguy: It's fine to go past 62C as long as your voltage is within spec. You won't be able to keep it stable at that high of temps with a very high voltage anyways; too much electron tunneling with AMD's process apparently. I say it's fine because I'm about 95% certain AMD has limited the temps to 62C because of the unpredictability of what happens afterwords-- not that anything gets damaged (I'm pretty sure there isn't anything AMD is using in their processor that Intel isn't; Intel is the one using Hf02 instead of Si02 like AMD, etc), but that the valence band of electrons is sufficiently excited that enough of them have an average energy greater than E-intrinsic in the silicon to jump into the conduction band and turn a 1 to a 0 or a 0 to a 1.