Is this really right?

[Ryan]

Ok. I haven't been in here for a long time. But now, I require your expertise.

1. I have an AMD Opteron 146 overclocked to 2.4 ghz, on 1.45 volts. At first, I was getting about 38 degrees idle. Then yesterday, it went all the way up to 60 idle. I re-seated it, and it went down to 57 idle. Is this in some way normal? It's a Zalman CNPS 7700, with a swapped Silverstone FM121 fan undervolted.
2. My Video card, a BFG 6600gt, was getting 47 idle. It wasn't too bad, except that it was loud. I picked up a Thermalright V1 at NCIX (in richmond), installed it according to the instructions, and now it idles at 58. Any way to fix this? It's getting proper contact, a thin layer of thermal paste, and is properly installed.
3. How big of a difference does case dampening make?
4. The OCZ Powerstream 420 I have is spec'd for 22db. It's still a bit on the loud side. Any way short of popping it open to make it even quieter?
5. Thanks for answering.

[Trunks]

3. How big of a difference does case dampening make?
4. The OCZ Powerstream 420 I have is spec'd for 22db. It's still a bit on the loud side. Any way short of popping it open to make it even quieter?

Dampening can make a worth while difference. If you have an ‘elcheapo case then simply adding mass and rigidity to it helps a lot. Floor tiles work great for this.
In my opinion two things are important to be successful if you already have a good case. Pick a good material. Thick foams, or well engineered products. Second cover as much area you can not just around the noisy components.
If you dampen your case then leave a couple PCI slot covers off, well it might not be worth it to keep noise from leaking out the back. If you have a big fan hole in the front you might consider a sound baffle in front of it.

With that power supply given it has a great warranty, I understand why you don’t want to swap out the fans. I don’t know if it has any thermal fan control. If it does ducting to so that it gets cool air may keep its fans quieter. Also you can make / buy a fan muffler to stick on the back.
I use a little rubber thing around the edge of my PSU, and screws with rubber washers. I have not noticed it to be effective, but it has not stopped me from trying.

[gud4u]

From your description of your internal temps, I suspect you have case ventilation problems.

When you add high-efficiency device-coolers and temps rise, it seems to indicate that the coolers are simply dumping hotter air into the case and it's not being swept out with cooler room ambient temperature air.

Things to check:
- Restrictive front intake and rear exhaust case grills.
- Restrictive intake filter media.
- Restrictive front case bezel.
- Short-circuit air flow paths (Side and rear case vents?)

I suggest optimizing front-to-back air flow, eliminating air-flow restrictions and taping off any vents except front intake and rear exhaust ports to assure air-flow over all components (including hard drive). If only a single case fan is used, it should be at front intake, to prevent stalling PS air flow due to negative case pressure.

'Silent' case fans generally accomplish silence by reduced air-flow, which also compromises case ventilation and operating temperatures. We all have to make choices about emphasis on silence, temperatures or tuning for some accemptable combination of these properties.

Hope this helps!

[Christopher]

Hello Ryan, the cpu temperatures you get seems high. But you have not told us your ambient temperatures. If your cpu temp is 25*C over ambient at idle, with your processor and nifty heatsink, then something is wrong. Even considering that you have OC'ed. Maybe you have put to little thermal grease on. Look how to apply it on the manufacturer website.

Case dampening doesn't make any significant difference as long as you don't cover air intake or output with dampening material.

[Ryan]

Thanks for the responses.

From your description of your internal temps, I suspect you have case ventilation problems.
Things to check:
- Restrictive front intake and rear exhaust case grills.
- Restrictive intake filter media.
- Restrictive front case bezel.
- Short-circuit air flow paths (Side and rear case vents?)

I have a Coolermaster Cavalier, with an 80mm intake and a 120 exhaust. The front fan is a low-cfm fan which p rovides somewhat ample airflow. The front grilles have been chopped out. The rear is a 120mm Silverstone FM121, undervolted. No fan grilles, no filters. The airflow goes from the front to the back, with no vents anywhere.

When you add high-efficiency device-coolers and temps rise, it seems to indicate that the coolers are simply dumping hotter air into the case and it's not being swept out with cooler room ambient temperature air.

But how come it would rise from 38 to 57 all of a sudden with nothing changed? Also, I doubt it's problems with the airflow, since it hasn't changed much.

[Felger Carbon]

But how come it would rise from 38 to 57 all of a sudden with nothing changed?

I believe you have a temperature measurement problem, not a temperature problem. 57C is very warm indeed to the touch (65C is actually painful to the touch). You don't report such a problem, so the actual temperature probably hasn't changed.

While there are _many_ ways that a measurement problem can occur, let me suggest one: you are using SpeedFan and at least one of the two reported fan RPMs is zero. SpeedFan has a known bug that the CPU thermal diode temperature is miscalculated if one of the RPMs is zero.

If the CPU thermal diode is used to report temperature, usually the socket thermistor still works. In the real world, the socket temperature tracks the CPU thermal diode with a mostly-fixed offset. For a higher-power CPU, that offset will be in the vicinity of 10C. If you have a 20C or more difference between the two, then one reading is wrong. Good luck!

[Ryan]

I plugged a spare 3-pin fan into the second header on the motherboard (first one is a fanmate + thermalright V1) and temperatures were still the same. I pulled the whole thing out of the case, and idle went from 57 to 54. I reseated the heatsink, new thermal paste, and it dropped to 51.

The GPU dropped from 59 to 56.

the case was very warm to the touch just before i shut it down and pulled everything.

[Christopher]

Felger Carbon can be right, in the post above. It could be a measurement problem. So Ryan, tell us what motherboard and the utility you use to measure temps. Maybe someone around here know if there's a known problem with your motherboard or something.

[Ryan]

Felger Carbon can be right, in the post above. It could be a measurement problem. So Ryan, tell us what motherboard and the utility you use to measure temps. Maybe someone around here know if there's a known problem with your motherboard or something.

Mobo: ASRock 939dual-sataII
Measurment: Speedfan

I plugged fans into both headers, and it seems to still be around the same temperatures.

[Christopher]

I, got a 939dual-sataII myself and I have not seen other people complain about temp sensors not working right on other messageboards for this particular motherboard. But it's still possible yours is faulty.

SpeedFan is a good program but make sure you are not using a erroneous config for it, maybe try another program such as systool. Make absolutely sure the Silverstone FM121 is turning. I think 800 rpm should be enough to cool your cpu if your room temperature is below 28*C, unless silverstone is lying about the fan specification. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, hopefully someone else can be of more service. Good luck.

[Ryan]

Thanks for your help. I got this figured out.

The Thermalright V1 needs to use the Medium sized hooks to install properly. I used the short ones. It wasn't seating properly. The big zalman wasn't tightened on all the way (something was obstructing the backplate). It's been re-installed, and re-seated. My temperatures are now:

CPU: 36 Idle, 45 load
GPU: 47 Idle, 53 load
Mobo: 29 degrees

Ambient: 25 degrees

Not too bad.

Thank you to everyone to your help.