How are my temps?

Cooling Processors quietly

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Tyrdium
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How are my temps?

Post by Tyrdium » Fri Jul 02, 2004 10:53 am

I've been doing a bit of monitoring, and I was wondering if these are safe temps. I'm using an Athlon64 3000+ (CG stepping) in a Antec SLK3700-BQE with Zalman 7000A-AlCu (as well as a Samsung SP1614C).

Normal: 53-62 deg. C CPU, 38-44 deg. C case
Full load (Prime95): 66-70 deg. C CPU, 40-44 deg. C case

Right now it's running at 57 and 42, according to Motherboard Monitor. Are these good temperatures for my setup? Also, I'm using Ceramique for my thermal grease...

Oh, another thing I noticed. The 120 mm fan in the case is pushing a lot of air, but it's relatively cool. The fan in the power supply (stock) isn't pushing as much air, but it's noticeably warmer. Should I try running it without the 120 mm fan? Would putting a new fan (aluminum Evercool or Panaflo?) in the power supply help my temperatures and speed?

Update: I tried disconnecting the 120 mm fan. Temperatures have gone up to (at the moment) 61 CPU and 46 case, under non-load conditions. Would it help if I blocked the disabled fan's outlet to direct more air through the PSU fan?

burcakb
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Post by burcakb » Fri Jul 02, 2004 11:21 am

Whooopss !! I haven't had direct experience with A64s yet but those temps look WAY TOO HIGH !!!

Guess #1: Improper application of ceramique
Guess #2: Improper seating of Zalman

How's the ambient temps btw?

PSUs usually heat up a lot themselves so it's normal that the air is warmer. A PSU duct might bring those temps down.

dasman
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Post by dasman » Fri Jul 02, 2004 11:24 am

I don't have any experience with A64's, but 70c load seems rather high. What voltage are you running the z7000alcu at? I assume you have it hooked up to the fanmate that came with it?

Don't disable the 120mm fan, all it's going to do is make your PSU hotter/louder as now all of the hot air in the case needs to go through the PSU.

You may want to try slowing down the 120mm fan (assuming your running 12v) and speeding up the fan on the z7000alcu (assuming you've got it slowed down on the fanmate.

I used to run a P4 3.06 (hot chip) with a z700alcu and a 120mm exhaust and, IIRC, I had to run both the z7000alcu and 120mm fans around 9v to keep things acceptably cool and somewhat quiet...

Dave

Tyrdium
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Post by Tyrdium » Fri Jul 02, 2004 11:36 am

The 120 mm fan is hooked directly into a Molex connector, and appears to be running at 12 volts. I thought I had the Ceramique improperly applied and the Zalman improperly seated, so I redid both of them, but it didn't help temperatures much...

Edit: Also, the Samsung's temperature appears to be 47 deg. C.

kesv
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Post by kesv » Fri Jul 02, 2004 11:57 am

Tyrdium wrote: Edit: Also, the Samsung's temperature appears to be 47 deg. C.
That's way too hot. It's not on the dangerous side yet, but you should be able to easily run the Samsung < 40C.
I'm betting something is restricting the airflow from the front of your case.

Oh, and do not try to make the psu-fan do all the work. If you insist on removing the case-fan from the back, try adding one to the front to push air into the case.

Tyrdium
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Post by Tyrdium » Fri Jul 02, 2004 12:07 pm

Hmmm... There's the air filter in the front that came with the case, but it's not very restrictive at all, so it shouldn't have much of an impact... Argh... -.-

Update: An hour and lots of cable ties later...
I decided to tidy up the cabling a bit, and now my idle temps are 50-55 CPU and 40-45 case... Time for Prime95...

Update (2): It appears to hold steady at 68 CPU and 42 case when Prime95 is running... Also, Active SMART is reporting my Samsung's temperature to be 37 deg. C...

AstroCat
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Post by AstroCat » Fri Jul 02, 2004 4:01 pm

I have the same case and an FX-53...

Case: Antec SLK3700-BQE with 1 120mm stock fan outake and 1 AcoustiFan 120mm intake
PS: ENERMAX Noisetaker 470W "EG475AX-VE-SFMA"
CPU: AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 FX-53
HS: Thermalright Copper Heatsink "SLK948U" (with Artic Silver 5 compound)
w/FAN: AcoustiFan™ AF92CT always running at around 2200 rpm (shorted sensor)
Mem: CORSAIR 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 TWINX1024-3200XL
MB: ASUS "A8V Deluxe Wi-Fi" K8T800 Pro
GC: Geforce 5900 (Soon to be 6800ultra!!)
SC: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2
2 WD EIDE drives (100 and 200 gig 8meg cache)
1 DVD-ROM (Lite-On)
1 DVD+/- R (Plextor 8x)

I get around 50C on boot, 55C - 62C when running apps and it peaks as high as 66C when using Prime95 or lots of heavy gaming.
The MB goes from 29 to about 34C depending on what I'm doing, usually around 30-32C.

Everything is totally stable and I have no problems I can see.

I use the BIOS, SpeedFan and Asus Probe for the readings and they all are in sync with each other.

Jordan "AstroCat"

NeilBlanchard
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70C is quite hot for an Athlon 64!

Post by NeilBlanchard » Fri Jul 02, 2004 6:14 pm

Hello:

I've built 3 Athlon 64 machines:

Athlon 64 3000+ with the Retail HSF undervolted to ~7v, in an Evercase 4252, and it ran at about 48C while Folding@Home. I used stock Zalman paste.

Athlon 64 3000+ w/ Zalman 7000Al/Cu and the fan running at ~5v, in a BQE, and the temps were ~ 46C while Folding. Again, the Zalman thermal paste.

The third one was a 2800+ underfolted to 1.375v at stock speed, with the Alpha, an Enermax thermally controlled 80mm (running at or very near to minimum), and AS 5 -- this one barely peaked to 42C while Folding! :shock: 8)

My ambients may be lower than yours, but that isn't the only thing going on here! What are your case temps?

Tyrdium
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Post by Tyrdium » Fri Jul 02, 2004 6:57 pm

Those were the case temps, not the ambient temps. I agree, something is definitely screwy... :?

Jan Kivar
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Post by Jan Kivar » Sat Jul 03, 2004 10:14 am

After running Prime95 for 15 mins or so, does the base of the heat sink feel burning hot? If not, maybe your motherboard interprets the temp reading wrong. I've read that this is the case with some motherboards, at least the P4 variants. Here's a link to a test which illustrates this point.

BTW, what motherboard are You using?

Cheers,

Jan

Tyrdium
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Post by Tyrdium » Sat Jul 03, 2004 2:35 pm

I'm using a K8N Neo Platinum. I did some Googling, and it seems that the BIOS has a bug where it reports incorrect temperatures with the stepping I have. Some people are saying that the real temperatures are about 20 deg. C lower, but I'd like to find out for myself... Thanks, Jan Kivar! :)

*sits and waits for MSI to release a BIOS update*

Jan Kivar
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Post by Jan Kivar » Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:19 am

Tyrdium wrote:I'm using a K8N Neo Platinum. I did some Googling, and it seems that the BIOS has a bug where it reports incorrect temperatures with the stepping I have. Some people are saying that the real temperatures are about 20 deg. C lower, but I'd like to find out for myself... Thanks, Jan Kivar! :)
Did You use the original MSI HS backplate, or the one from the Zalman package? I've read that some of the backplates used in MSI K8N Platinum are "incompatible" with Zalman. What makes it worse is that apparently MSI decided to glue the HS backplate to the motherboard. Should come off when heated with hair dryer though.

Cheers,

Jan

Tyrdium
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Post by Tyrdium » Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:30 am

Nah, I took off the backplane and put the Zalman one on when I noticed that the cooler was really loose...

Jan Kivar
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Post by Jan Kivar » Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:41 am

Tyrdium wrote:Nah, I took off the backplane and put the Zalman one on when I noticed that the cooler was really loose...
Was it glued or not? What did You use to remove it?

Cheers,

Jan

Tyrdium
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Post by Tyrdium » Mon Jul 05, 2004 8:58 am

It was glued on, but I took it off using a plastic card.

Deheinx
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Post by Deheinx » Mon Jul 05, 2004 10:38 am

Tyrdium,
I was running a 3GHz Prescott and the temps were out of line for that processor. I too was using Ceramique'. I cleaned off the Ceramique' and used Shin Etsu instead. I got a 10c degree drop. I posted this on another forum and received numerous responses from other users relating the same experience. If you have some standard HSC try cleaning off the Ceramique' and using a sparing application of the regular stuff just to see if your temps improve.

Good Luck!!

Tyrdium
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Post by Tyrdium » Mon Jul 05, 2004 10:43 am

Hmmm... Well, I was going to go over to Micro Center later today anyway, to see if I can get some parts to run my case fan at 5 V (oh, and pick up FF XI :D). Would it be worth it to get a syringe of Arctic Silver and try that instead? Also, I was under the impression that Ceramique was a relatively good grease to use... Is this not the case?

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Post by Anodyne » Sun Jul 18, 2004 7:28 am

Tyrdium, can you or anyone else give me some specifics on how you removed the MSI backplate? My K8N Neo Platinum has the incompatible type that appears to be glued on, but I haven't tried removing it for fear of ruining a $130 motherboard. Therefore, I am currently running the stock AMD cooler while a perfectly good Zalman 7000 sits here on my desk staring at me. If there is a good (and safe!) 'method' for removing the MSI backplate, someone please walk me through it!

illgibson
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Removing the stock backplate from the MSI Neo...

Post by illgibson » Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:56 am

I used the recommendation from another board. This is how I did it:

1. Use a hairdryer to slowly heat up the backplate.
2. At the same time, slowly work a thin piece of plastic under the plate starting at one of the corners and working around the plate and towards the center.
3. Eventually you should be able to pull it free -- I didn't have to force it, as the glue gradually gave way.
4. Once the plate is off, you should be able to easily peel the black backing tape off as well.

BTW, I too am seeing temp readings of ~62C with the stock bios. I'm hoping that it is a BIOS problem, and not an installation problem. Planning on updating the BIOS to find out.

fluxu8
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Post by fluxu8 » Mon Jul 26, 2004 5:58 am

It's a bios problem......flash it to the newest one MSI offers...1.2 maybe.

illgibson
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BIOS and temps

Post by illgibson » Mon Jul 26, 2004 7:55 am

I flashed to the latest official bios, 1.2, and the problem goes away somewhat. I am experiencing the problem that others have reported -- the temperatures are ~45c after a warm reboot, but after a cold reboot, they are back at ~62c. I have heard reports that the 1.3.1b BIOS is possibly better, but I haven't tried it yet...

thegrommit
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Re: How are my temps?

Post by thegrommit » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:33 pm

Tyrdium wrote:I'm using an Athlon64 3000+ (CG stepping) in a Antec SLK3700-BQE with Zalman 7000A-AlCu (as well as a Samsung SP1614C).

Normal: 53-62 deg. C CPU, 38-44 deg. C case
Full load (Prime95): 66-70 deg. C CPU, 40-44 deg. C case
FWIW, those are the CPU temps I get for my CG revision 3200+ on a MSI K8T Neo cooled by a Swiftech MCX-64V. It does seem the MSI BIOS' aren't correctly reading the temps from Newcastle cores.

villa_joe
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Post by villa_joe » Sun Aug 01, 2004 10:08 am

Tyrdium - I have the same processor MSI K8 Neo Fisr2 MB and am sitting at 31C for CPU 33C for Case as I type. After 10 minutes running CPUBurn, 41C on CPU 35C Case.

My biggest drop in temperatures were due to running Cool N Quiet on the Bios and then loading the Cool N Quiet Drivers for XP from amd.com.

The Zalman was the second biggest change in CPU Temp.

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