Too hot, too hot.

[garethsgotguitar]

I have an athlon 64 3400 using articsilver 5 and thermaltake venus heatsink/fan on the abit kv8max3. I am also striping 2 wd raptors. Why the heck is my idol cpu temp 50c? I ran the torture test in prime95 for like 30 seconds and the temp jumped to 61c before I freaked out and stopped the test. My cables are no where near blocking any air flow... What gives? I saw a test with this exact heat sink and chip with temperatures of 30-41c. What's going to happen when/if my chip reaches 70? Thanks.

 

[warath]

Not sure what the max temp is for the new Athlon 64, but you can check on AMD site. The XPs are in the 90 range... though I've noticed that stability becomes an issue in the 60's.
I would have went with the Zalman CNPS700A-AlCu (or just full copper, Cu), which is great, not too loud, and performes GREAT. I have one on my P4, and it droped almost 10 degrees, and under load doesn't go nearly as high as when the Intel fan was on it.

As for trying to fix your setup: Double, and tripple check that the heatsink is flat on the CPU, and also that you have not put too much Articsilver on (since that can cause more trouble then help). Also, it takes several hours to see the affect of the articsilver, as it needs to settle.
Also, is your fan running at full speed? Do you have it hooked up to a 7v or 12v line? Some power supplys come with a fan only cable, which I've found to be between 5-7V, where as this would probably need a full 12v to run at full speed... just a guess though.

 

[garethsgotguitar]

Whelp, it now idle's at about 46-47, but still gets to about 63-66 when 'torture' testing in prime95... This is lifting my spirits a little bit... One of my employees just built a machine and it is idleing a little hotter than mine and I talked to someone else who says that theirs is too, so I'm starting to think that these things just run a little hotter than I'm used to seeing. I didn't find any averages on AMD's website, maybe you could point me in the right directioN?

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll check out what lines I have connected to my fans when I can get home to my machine.... stupid work...

 

[Xemus]

While somewhat unrelated, MSI has a page which details the specs of AMD's better than AMD does (or at least any page I've found).
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_cpu_support_detail.php?UID=amdcpu
Doesn't include the 64's tho...

 

[PCTweaker5]

Dont bother waiting for the AS5 to settle as its not going to drop your temp 15c+ degrees, get a new HSF and put just a paperthick coat of AS5 and you should be good.

 

[NokiaDude]

You used too much AS5. Take your heatsink off, clean the old AS5 off and put a tiny BB on your A64. Then spread it really thin, so you can almost see the color of the heatspreader.