Yet another "Are my temps too high thread"

[NeoHavoc]

Ok, I finally have my new system built and most of the normal patches and software updates and what not done. What worries me is I think the system is running a little hot. With just a few things running like explorer and AIM and the normal little things like that, I am sitting around 40c. I would have thought that with a zalman 9500 and being in a stacker case (which is supposed to be a great cooling case) I would be seeing lower temps. Nothing is over clocked (yet.. ) so that shouldn't be an issue. And yes, before someone throws a "use the search button" comment at me, I have already. But most the posts on the topic deal with OC'ed systems.

Thanks for the help!

 

[mechwarrior]

Some questions other people might need...How many and what type of fans are you using? Do you know the case temp?

My Opteron 148 @ 2.8 in a Antec P180 using a Ninja and stock fans is running at 42C at idle 29C Case. At load it gets as high as 50C. Mine also seems a little hot, but acceptable.

 

[Zim]

40C does seem a bit high at what is, essentially, idle. I would suggest trying to enable CnQ. Failing that (or indeed better IMHO) use RM Clock Utility.

 

[NeoHavoc]

Ok, well quick update first. In my eagerness to get this comp together....I failed to look at the direction of airflow for the 9500......so essentially I had the rear case fan and the 9500 blowing in opposite directions. So I just ran to Compusa and got some AS5, cleaned off the cpu/hs, spun it around, put the new compound on there and reset it. Temps now float between 35-38c. Still not really happy with that but I am unsure if the AS5 takes a little while to set before working properly.

As for fans all I have is what came with the stacker. There is the single 120 rear and top fan for exhaust. Then the front 120 (IIRC) built into the HDD cage for intake. I will prob be ordering the cross flow fan from CM in the next week or two.


**EDIT**

Oh, and I am not sure if this is case temp or not, but the only other temp provided by the ASUS Probe tool is the MB temp which is sitting at 37c. Now I do live in Florida, so it does get warm here, but I keep my apartment between 75-80 degrees.

 

[NeoHavoc]

Ok, temps went back to 40 after running for a bit so I went ahead and ordered the cross flow fan and I will prob order a second 4-in-3 hdd enclosure with fan and dual fans for the second ps location in the case. LOL I am determined to get high 20's or low 30's idle temps on air. I am about ready to run a duct from my ceiling fan to the tower!

**EDIT**
Didn't want to post another post in my own thread so here is an update.

Since my idle seems to be running high I wanted to see how scary it got at full load. So I ran two instances of prime95, one set to each core and after running for like 30 min (and still running) with both cores at 100% it is sitting at 47c. Is it normal for temps to only rise 7c from idle to full load?

 

[Zim]

If you enable CnQ your temp will go down to 30C.

 

[NeoHavoc]

Originally posted by: Zim
If you enable CnQ your temp will go down to 30C.

Turned on CnQ...and while it didn't crash the system like I heard has been a normal problem, it also didn't affect the temps at all. Any other ideas from the great minds of this board?

 

[potato28]

U have a OC on that chip? And whats your airflow like inside the case? Could u post :camera: 's????

 

[Zim]

Originally posted by: NeoHavoc

Originally posted by: Zim
If you enable CnQ your temp will go down to 30C.

Turned on CnQ...and while it didn't crash the system like I heard has been a normal problem, it also didn't affect the temps at all.

Then it isn't enabled. Have you set your power scheme to "Minimal Power Management"?

 

[NeoHavoc]

Pictures are on the way. I haven't done a whole lot of cable management yet. I am waiting till everything has settled in the system before I bother to zip tie everything....but, for the most part I tried to make sure all the air flow paths were open.

As for the power management suggestion I am a little unclear as to which setting you are referring to. I didn't see anything like that in the bios, and windows has power options, but nothing that says minimal. Please provide me a little more detail as to what you want me to do.

 

[NeoHavoc]

Pics.....be kind, still a work in progress. Watch out, I didn't resize them, so they are pretty big.

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
Pic 4
Pic 5
Pic 6

 

[Zim]

Originally posted by: NeoHavocAs for the power management suggestion I am a little unclear as to which setting you are referring to. I didn't see anything like that in the bios, and windows has power options, but nothing that says minimal. Please provide me a little more detail as to what you want me to do.

LINK

 

[NeoHavoc]

Zim, you're gonna hate me, but even after following the directions in that link you gave me nothing has changed. I have the driver, set the power sceme to minimal, but yet the proc still shows full clock speed. Any other idea?

 

[imported_rod]

Zim's link explains it better than I could, so I wont try. Just follow the link.

RoD

 

[mechwarrior]

Since you live in Florida with apartment temps in 75-80, I believe that may be part of the problem. Your Asus Probe tool shows the MB temp sitting at 37c. If you remove the side panel, do you see any temp change?

 

[NeoHavoc]

Being stubborn as I am, I was up till 3am trying to drop temps. I read the link zim provided, plus did my own search for different versions of the same topic with no luck. CnQ just wouldn't turn on. I then tried to route my wires better and while it is still not as clean as i want it, there are very few wires in any airflow path now. Still no temp changes. Then I thought maybe my bios was buggy (0903), so I flashed to 1009 and nothing changed other than now my keyboard isn't always found during post which makes it difficult to get into bios. But it did that sometimes with 0903 also. Now this morning, I tried removing the side pannel as suggested and temps are dropping...not by much, and very slowly, but they have dropped. MB temps are now 34c and CPU is at 38c. These are pretty much at idle with Azureus being the only resource hog running.

Being in Florida, assuming my case is getting proper airflow, how much above ambiant should my MB/Case temps be? I am thinking high 20's shouldn't be unrealistic for case temps. I am really starting to think it is just an inaccurate temp monitor because I can stick my hand between the zalman and exhaust fan and the air actually feels cool. Knowing that these sensors aren't the most accurate things in the world, are there any stand-alone temp monitoring tools you would recomend?

 

[Zim]

Originally posted by: NeoHavoc
Zim, you're gonna hate me, but even after following the directions in that link you gave me nothing has changed. I have the driver, set the power sceme to minimal, but yet the proc still shows full clock speed. Any other idea?

Make sure you are using the latest BIOS for your board. If all else fails, use RMClock (see sig.), which does the same thing as CnQ. I actually prefer RMClock to CnQ because you have much greater control over your cpu. The documentation is thin on the ground, but suffice to say you should install RMClock and create two P-State entries: one for idle (4X, 1.1v), and one for load (9X, 1.35v). The CPU then flips between these states in real-time as required. The big advantage is that when the cpu isn't doing a great deal of work (i.e. most of the time) it's sitting at about 1GHz and 1.1v. This enables the temps to drop considerably. My X2 4400+ used to idle at around 30C with mediocre cooling.

 

[NeoHavoc]

Zim, stock for my chip is showing 10x, is there a reason I should set it to 9x for load?

 

[NeoHavoc]

Finally got CnQ to work! The Q-Fan bios option was turned off. So anyway, that dropped the cpu temps down to 36, which I feel is still a little warm but better....however, the mb temps jumped to 40. I wish CnQ would let the fans stay on full speed while dropping the clock speed down. I may have to switch to rmclock like suggested if it will let my fans stay on full speed.

 

[Zim]

Originally posted by: NeoHavoc
Zim, stock for my chip is showing 10x, is there a reason I should set it to 9x for load?

Isn't the 3800+ 9X ? If it's 10X then use that.

 

[Unkno]

Originally posted by: NeoHavoc
Finally got CnQ to work! The Q-Fan bios option was turned off. So anyway, that dropped the cpu temps down to 36, which I feel is still a little warm but better....however, the mb temps jumped to 40. I wish CnQ would let the fans stay on full speed while dropping the clock speed down. I may have to switch to rmclock like suggested if it will let my fans stay on full speed.

CnQ only drops your clock and voltage, it's Q-Fan that lowers your fan speed

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Wow...
CPU1 = 132F
CPU2 = 116F
system = 122F

I was seeing how hot I could get my machine. Load @ ~ 100%, side panel on, all fans on low.

 

[NeoHavoc]

Originally posted by: Unkno
CnQ only drops your clock and voltage, it's Q-Fan that lowers your fan speed

Hmm, I will try to turn off Q-Fan when I get home, but for some reason CnQ didn't activate until I turned it on.