Tempature Readings

[jdw2]

Hey guys I have a question for ya. I just installed a P4 3GHz Prescott and am not sure if its running too hot or not. When I boot into the BIOS setup and check the temperature there the CPU reads at 45C. In Windows I installed Motherboard Monitor and SiSoft Sandra and the temperatures in there both read 70C. I am not sure which temperature is the accurate reading, the one from the BIOS or the one from inside Windows. Any help would be appreciated.

Here are my specs:

SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 V1.0 motherboard
Pentium 3.0ghz Prescott
2x512MB Corsair RAM
300 watt power supply(motherboard recommends 350 watts).

 

[akira34]

Soyo boards, from everything I've read, seen, and heard, are one of the cheapest brands out there, and it really shows. Everyone that I know, that has used a soyo board, quickly regrets it due to problems of one type or anther and dumps it in favor of a better board (not hard to do).

As for your temps, check for a bios update from soyo to see if it's a reporting issue or not. Also check for updated drivers for the mobo since that could also be it. Of course, you could just be encountering what's typical of soyo boards (crap that's not worth what you paid for shipping on it).

Personally, I wouldn't build a system with a soyo board even if it was going to my worst enemy. OR, if they had the only mobo out there that supported the processor. I'd wait whatever it took until I could find a board by a company I can trust (MSI for one). If they had the very last mobo on the planet, I'd look into making my own boards before buying one of theirs... They ARE that bad.

 

[kamranziadar]

Soyo Motherboards are not that bad. I bought few months back it is working fine with P4 3.2 Overclocked to 3.5GHZ with out any problem.

 

[jdw2]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I got this mobo free from newegg a while back when they were giving them away with the mail-rebates. Its been 3 months and still haven't gotten the rebate :/ . Well my BIOS is an older version than the latest on the website but one thing I don't like. On the SOYO website they don't even tell you what the BIOS updates do in each revision. That angers me !

 

[Spike]

With a temp disrepency like that there is definitly something wrong. I tend to believe the BIOS more, but thats just me. 70c seems way too warm, try to open up your case. If the temps stay up there then either you need to remount your CPU or those programs are full of BS.

-spike

 

[jdw2]

Hey spike, I actually already tried that. I wound up scraping the original compound off the heatsink because I thought that was the culprit and put some other thermal compound on it I had. That didn't seem to fix the problem. It was still reading 70C. I'm really hoping that the BIOS temps are right because 45 degrees is acceptable.

 

[Spike]

Try opening the case for max airflow. If there is still a problem then the readings are probably off. Also, I would check artic silvers website to make sure you removed the compound and re-applyed correctly. The only other option is to make sure the HSF is mounted properly on the CPU. If there is good contact, then those programs seem to be wrong...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I find it odd that the BIOS temperatures are so low and the OS-monitoring-program temperatures are so high, when they are reading the same sensors. I'd try for an upgrade on both the BIOS AND the monitoring software.

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: jdw2
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I got this mobo free from newegg a while back when they were giving them away with the mail-rebates. Its been 3 months and still haven't gotten the rebate :/ . Well my BIOS is an older version than the latest on the website but one thing I don't like. On the SOYO website they don't even tell you what the BIOS updates do in each revision. That angers me !

I wouldn't get it even at 'free'... Especially since it's been 3 months without getting the rebate funds back.

As for the site not telling you what the bios changes/updates fix... I'm NOT surprised...

My opinion of soyo holds the same...

 

[jdw2]

Yeah the case has been open the whole time and its actually quite cool in here. I also got rid of the original compound using alcohol. The HSF also seems to be mounted properly. I suppose the readings are wrong.

Yeah maybe I will have to try updating the BIOS then. I'll give that a try later on.

 

[akira34]

Originally posted by: jdw2
Yeah the case has been open the whole time and its actually quite cool in here. I also got rid of the original compound using alcohol. The HSF also seems to be mounted properly. I suppose the readings are wrong.

Pray you are right... but, be prepared in case you're not... Start saving now for a new mobo and [possibly] processor. When you have enough cabbage together for a new mobo look to the large makers that have many good years behind them... Personally, I like the ones with longer warranties (3 years), such as MSI.

Also, get at least a 350W PSU ASAP... ESPECIALLY since it's 'recommended' by the board.

BTW, what else do you have inside your case?? What case do you have? How many fans and what sizes??

 

[jdw2]

Well this motherboard was for my brother and he wanted to spend as little as possible on this upgrade. I personally have a ABIT in mine.

In that case is :
floppy drive
cd-rom drive
network card
SB Live card
Geforce 2
1 fan in front
1 fan on side
1 fan on rear

Yeah I was pondering weather or not to upgrade the PSU...but right now it seems like its stable. He is playing a game on there right now and seems fine. Also the temperature on the cpu has gone only up to 72C while in the game. I would of figured it would of gone up much more.

 

[akira34]

What games does he play where a geforce 2 is enough??? Tetris??

 

[jdw2]

heh heh...Counter-Strike 1.6. The game runs flawlessly on it. Waiting for the new AGP mainstream cards to come out before we get that upgrade

 

[BonzaiDuck]

When I build for friends or family who don't want to spend a lot, I usually insist that they at least get a minimal Intel motherboard. For over-clocking, "don't want to spend a lot" is not a viable choice. The choice is "want to spend as little as necessary." For instance, you CAN overclock an $85 Intel D865PERL mobo without the ICH5 RAID controller built in as an option. But you can also over-clock a $113 ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe much better. That's not too much of a difference in chump change to choose the ASUS board for over-clocking, and the Intel board for a family member with a limited budget.

I can't fault anyone for trying to spend the least amount of money, but the difference between buying a SOYO mobo and a no-frills Intel board may be less than half a carton of cigarettes.

 

[akira34]

I'm not an intel person (as shown in my sig), but you can also get different levels of AMD boards... You can get a few different flavors of the MSI boards, depending on how much you want to expand on it. Personally, I like having the 4 SATA ports on a single RAID controller. Allowing me to put all four drives on a single array (if they were the same size). I did some research before going with my first MSI mobo... The one I picked was taking top awards everywhere it was being reviewed. There were other boards that had more features, but those had issues with the onboard stuff conflicting with itself... The MSI boards I've used simply work each and every time exactly as promised and expected. Hell, they even include a floppy with the RAID drivers on it for a fresh OS install. This is very handy for people that only have one computer/pc and don't want to hunt down someone to help move the drivers from cd to floppy JUST to install the OS. It's the extra steps like that, and including a pair of SATA cables (looks like the soyo only came with one) and more that keeps me going back to MSI time and again.

I have family members that avoid certain brands of chipsets... Such as sis and via. I've had decent results with via, and great results with the nforce chipset.

BTW, Most of the builders I [personally] know refer to soyo as 'suck on your own' brand... 'nuf said?

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: akira34
I'm not an intel person (as shown in my sig), but you can also get different levels of AMD boards... You can get a few different flavors of the MSI boards, depending on how much you want to expand on it. Personally, I like having the 4 SATA ports on a single RAID controller. Allowing me to put all four drives on a single array (if they were the same size). I did some research before going with my first MSI mobo... The one I picked was taking top awards everywhere it was being reviewed. There were other boards that had more features, but those had issues with the onboard stuff conflicting with itself... The MSI boards I've used simply work each and every time exactly as promised and expected. Hell, they even include a floppy with the RAID drivers on it for a fresh OS install. This is very handy for people that only have one computer/pc and don't want to hunt down someone to help move the drivers from cd to floppy JUST to install the OS. It's the extra steps like that, and including a pair of SATA cables (looks like the soyo only came with one) and more that keeps me going back to MSI time and again.

I have family members that avoid certain brands of chipsets... Such as sis and via. I've had decent results with via, and great results with the nforce chipset.

BTW, Most of the builders I [personally] know refer to soyo as 'suck on your own' brand... 'nuf said?

Agreed, Soyo boards are "the suck". I personally perfer Abit to MSI as my first MSI died on me. I don't hold that against them as all companies have duds, I just have been wary ever since. Plus the abits I have had have been awesome boards.