Question about temps

[TemjinGold]

My bro and I have systems in the Antec Sonata cases (mine is a Sonata 1, his is a Sonata II.) I have a 3800 X2, 7800 GT, 2 HDs (1 raptor). He had the same and recently upgraded to Q6600, 8800 GT, and the like. Neither of us OC and cooling is stock (AC5 on cpu and the like). We each use 2 120mm fans in the Sonata case.

My question is, the bios tells us our temps are around 47-52C (machines turn on at ~30C after being off a day but quickly ramp up to the 40-50 range)! How is everyone getting under 40C when under load (and OCing to boot)? Are the Sonata cases just THAT bad or is there something we're missing?

 

[wanderer27]

I'm assuming you're talking about your CPU temp. I think the highest I've ever seen mine is 47C, and that's after a long time at extreme load.

I was under the impression that the Sonata's were supposed to be pretty good cases. Are you using the 120mm fans for intake, or to exhaust the hot air? Obviously, make sure the air flow direction is correct for whichever application you are using them for - don't suck cool air from the back of the case and don't exhaust hot air out the front. Not trying to be a smart a**, it's not hard to accidently do this.

My real suspect it that the Thermal compound wasn't applied correctly between the CPU and Heatsink/fan. Don't over apply the compound, and try not to get any bubbles or air pockets.

FYI, my CPU idle temps are generally around 33-34C. I think this is about normal, though I have seen better. Another factor is ambient air temps. If the operating room is quite warm, then it's going to be harder to get lower idle temps on your CPU.

I would expect to see about the same temps on your 3800 X2 as my 3700, and probably lower on the Q6600, but I'm not real familiar with the Q6600 operation temps.

 

[TemjinGold]

Thanks for the reply. We have both fans in each case facing the same direction (exhaust fan came with label side facing out; intake fan has label facing towards the back as well.) Fans are both 120mm. Bro even invested in Scythe S-Flex (20 dba; 49CFM) for both intake and exhaust in his.) Is that the right way? I think the Arctic Silver should be applied correctly (very thin layer spread carefully with a piece of a napkin.)

 

[cozumel]

I've just finished my build today (except for a new monitor). Lapped the Thermalright Ultra Extreme and CPU this afternoon but will probably relap as I'm not too happy and am using a Cosmos case. With a gentle overclock currently I'm at 28c on idle but all the cores vary in temp from 25-30c which is why I will relap some more as I got bored earlier and just put it together. MX-2 thermal grease.

Your temps are nothing to be worried at idle but what are they like on full load? I don't really know the Sonata case so can't comment on it's cooling abilities but definitely think that a big case with plenty of space for good airflow is better. A after-market cooler would definitely improve your temps. Lapping will also drop 5-10c off your temps.

 

[TemjinGold]

We haven't had stability issues thus far but I was worried that the numbers were high.