Stock Cooling Nolonger sufficient?

[Brett]

So, I previously owned the following rig (before UPS smashed it during shipping to my new place):

AMD A64 X2 4400+ (S939)
Abit AN8 32X
2x1GB OCZ DDR 500
GeForce 7900GTX
74GB WD Raptor
550W Antec True Power PSU
LG DVDRW
Lian Li PC60 Case (2x80mm front panel intake, 1x 80mm top outake, 1x back panel outake, PSU outtake)

Firstly, the system was NOT overclocked at all. Any time the system was put under full processor load (that is to say both cores forced to work at 100%) the following problems occured:

CPU temp spiked close to 75C
the PWM section of the motherboard monitor would spike to over 90C and cause a system shutdown due to overheating. The PWM was also connected to the north bridge via a heat pipe, so its possible the heat was coming from there.

I tried removing the CPU heatsink, cleaning off its initial thermal grease/pad thing and using AS5 and the CPU temperature went down a bit, but still spiked near 73C (I tried one last time with AS5 incase i didnt apply well and again, same problem).

So my question then becomes... Is stock cooling nolonger sufficient with newer processors?

I am forced to replace my computer that UPS damaged, and I think im going with one of the core2duo chips. Am I going to have overheating problems with this? Do I need to move to aftermarket air coolers (not just for the CPU but for the bridges and PWM areas too?)... Should I liquid cool? I likely wont be overclocking, but I do frequently run my systems at full load, and I dont want it overheating or having temperatures getting out of hand.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks,
Brett

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Brett
So my question then becomes... Is stock cooling nolonger sufficient with newer processors?

Never was, IMHO...

Originally posted by: Brett
I am forced to replace my computer that UPS damaged, and I think im going with one of the core2duo chips. Am I going to have overheating problems with this?

Not unless the lid is warped!

Originally posted by: Brett
Any thoughts/suggestions?

Drop that Lian Li case, like a (ahem) hot potato!

Really! This is a blessing in disguise...

 

[Aluvus]

Overheating problems with stock coolers, without overclocking, usually indicate inadeqaute airflow through the system. Note that that doesn't necessarily mean you need more fans, or even more airflow; you may simply need to direct airflow better. Clear out obstructions.

In your particular case, you need to keep air flowing across the video card (a 7900 doesn't produce huge amounts of heat, but enough to matter quite a bit), the area around the processor, the heatsink on the end of the motherboard's heatpipe, and the hard drive. The same can be said of most systems; the processor, northbridge, video card, and hard drives will generally need the most attention.

The Athlon 64 X2 produces less heat than some other chips (particularly the Pentium D), and the Core 2 Duo less still.

If you have airflow problems, you will have overheating problems. The individual components involved are unlikely to change that.

 

[slpaulson]

The stock cooler is perfectly fine for an unoverclocked system. AMD is not dumb enough to provide a stock cooler that can't even cool its cpu. By stock cooler, I am assuming you mean the one that comes with an AMD retail kit.

Your case also looks like it has enough airflow.

I suspect you are having an issue seating the heatsink properly. Or you could have a CPU with an uneven heatspreader.

I'd also make sure that in your bios you have your fan headers set to full voltage.