Atom D525 & M350 Case- Temperatures

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eyedeebee
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 10:29 pm

Atom D525 & M350 Case- Temperatures

Post by eyedeebee » Mon Sep 26, 2011 4:23 am

Hi,

I've got a gigabyte D525TUD board and I have looked at putting this in an M350 enclosure. However I'm concerned about the system temperatures when housed in the case, I understand the Atom has a maximum thermal threshold of 99c. However my issue is the board reports 60-65c for various non CPU related sensors (the highest being temp 3 in speed fan). Is there any way of finding out what temp 1/2/3 relates to (chipset, VRMs, etc) so I can ensure I'm not cooking this board to death?

As it's a Gigabyte board the Intel tool refuses to run I've also looked at some other monitoring tools but none are very clear.

It might be worth stating in a well ventilated case temp 3 is 62c.

Any help much appreciated as I love the size of the M350 case but have already up sized my Mini-Itx Sandy Bridge i3 2100T build to an ISK 300 due to better thermal performance.

HFat
Posts: 1753
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:27 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: Atom D525 & M350 Case- Temperatures

Post by HFat » Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:48 pm

Your board comes with a fan, right? I'm surprised you get temperatures like that with a fan. Can you provide some details (are these load temperatures, what's the ambient temperature)? Have you performed a sanity check like touching a couple of chips on the board (careful there!)?
You better ask Gigabyte what temperatures are safe. Intels' documentation does touch on that for their Atom boards. But unless Gigabyte did a bad job, the board shouldn't fry itself in a case like the M350. It's not the best case for temperatures but it's far from the worst obviously.

eyedeebee
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 10:29 pm

Re: Atom D525 & M350 Case- Temperatures

Post by eyedeebee » Tue Sep 27, 2011 11:43 am

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not sure on the ambient, I'd say it's at least 20c. The CPU does have a fan but as I have no idea what Temp1/2/3 relates to hard to know what the issue maybe. The heatsinks can be touched they are warm/hot but no unbearable. I'll drop gigabyte an email to see what there opinion is.

HFat
Posts: 1753
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:27 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: Atom D525 & M350 Case- Temperatures

Post by HFat » Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:01 pm

Obviously the heatsinks won't burn you.
Let me give you an example: on the Intel boards, the southbridge chip hasn't got a heatsink. It's near the CPU, the VRM and stuff (heat sources). It gets real hot without a fan. You can touch it without hurting yourself but I wouldn't want to press my finger against it for more than an instant when the board is under load.
65C is enough to give you serious burns after only a few seconds. It's not just warm!
I don't want to encourage you to damage your board by sticking your fingers everywhere but if you're careful you can in principle touch the chips without damaging the board (at your own risk! this isn't professional advice). If there's nothing hot enough to burn, the readings may be off.

Unless Gigabyte put something on that board that heats it up, it shouldn't run as hot or hotter than a fanless board... and yet according to your readings it does.
In any case I wouldn't worry too much. If Gigabyte chose not to put better heatsinks on them, the components must be able to handle the temperature. Low-power boards shouldn't fry themselves in such an open case at 20C ambient... especially not if they've got a fan to move air around a bit. Boards which fry themselves in such a situation should come with a clear warning from the manufacturer.

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