AMD 4800+ temps in P180 - are they "good" or not?

spiffy102 · Post by **spiffy102** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:47 pm

Hey folks.

For those with AMD X2 chips in a P180 - I need to know your temps.

I'm running passive (Ninja), with a YL 12cm x 25mm fan in the rear vent, top vent open except for the spoiler and an AC foam filter under the spoiler... Top drive cage removed, with another 12cm YL fan in there... Both fans running at a full 12v. There is no fan on the Ninja itself.

I started two instances of Prime95 and took random temp measurements using Speedfan and a digital desk clock that happens to have a temp reading on it.:

5:24 24.0 63C
5:33 23.7 67C
5:52 23.5 68C
6:02 24.2 70C
7:16 25.1 69C
7:28 25.3 69C
7:55 25.0 70C
8:08 25.0 69C

~8:09 Turn off both instances of Prime 95

8:10 24.9 61C
8:29 24.5 54C
9:24 23.8 52C

I know these temps aren't dangeous - but I'm trying to determine based on the ambients and the load temps - if my HS-CPU "mating" is good or poor. I don't want to rip my A8N32 out of the case, but if it is heat transfer really is poor - which of course leads to the rear fan constantly running at 12v and thus more noise... Well I will have no choice to rip apart.

But if the temp rises are reasonably good, and I do not have a poor heatsink mount... I'll be more than happy to leave as it - maybe using Speedfan to reduce 1 or 2 fan speeds a lttle.

Thank you so much

Locklear · Post by **Locklear** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:07 pm

I just put together a system much like yours, a X2 4800+ w/Ninja HSF on a ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe MB in a P180 cabinet. I'm running nexus fans at 12v in the back and top slots. Right now i'm running the distributed.net client (eats all cpu cycles and then some on both cores) to check my temp readings, and the highest i've seen so far is from this is ~60C.

If i fired up a game of Gothic2 at the same time the temp crawled a little over 60C because of the added heat from my GF7800GT card.

Edit: Idle temps are ~40C

spiffy102 · Post by **spiffy102** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:41 pm

Locklear wrote:I just put together a system much like yours, a X2 4800+ w/Ninja HSF on a ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe MB in a P180 cabinet. I'm running nexus fans at 12v in the back and top slots. Right now i'm running the distributed.net client (eats all cpu cycles and then some on both cores) to check my temp readings, and the highest i've seen so far is from this is ~60C.

[Snip]

Edit: Idle temps are ~40C

Ok now I"m depressed. I have to rip apart my rig to hopefully get down another 10 degrees. Ugh. I wish I could pay someone (locally) to mount that damn heatsink.

wundi · Post by **wundi** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:25 pm

Are you sure your fan/airflow design is optimal? I believe you'd get better results by e.g. blocking the top vent, removing the front fan, lowering its speed and attaching it to the Ninja.

I got the impression that as it is, a lot of the air that the rear fan exhausts from the case is coming straight from the top vent. And the front fan is well-known for not being much good for anything. But of course, if there's a problem with the heatsink mounting, it's good to get it fixed.

Elixer · Post by **Elixer** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:26 pm

Your temps may actually be the same. The temperature that motherboards report can very by as much as + or - 10C. Also one easy thing you might try is leaving off the "spoiler", and having a fan blowing down into the ninja from the blowhole and the other fan blowing out. 70C is out of my comfort range for a processor, so I would encourage you to remount your heatsink until you can get load temps at least down to the mid 60s.

spiffy102 · Post by **spiffy102** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:08 pm

wundi wrote:Are you sure your fan/airflow design is optimal? I believe you'd get better results by e.g. blocking the top vent, removing the front fan, lowering its speed and attaching it to the Ninja.

I got the impression that as it is, a lot of the air that the rear fan exhausts from the case is coming straight from the top vent. And the front fan is well-known for not being much good for anything. But of course, if there's a problem with the heatsink mounting, it's good to get it fixed.

Hey

1) Mounting a fan on the Ninja would be very hard - I used Corsair XMS RAM - the kind that is "designed for use" in my A8N32. Damn RAM is huge - I currently can only use 3 sticks instead of 4. I might have to mod the ninja to get the fourth in there.

2) Interesting. You're suggesting air is coming from the top, right out to the back without touching the Ninja. Perhaps I should rig up a way to "block that".

spiffy102 · Post by **spiffy102** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:09 pm

Locklear wrote:
Edit: Idle temps are ~40C

Oh I meant to ask you - what is your ambient? The room my PC is in is the warmest in my place. I guess it isn't likely your place is 60F, but I guess it is possible?

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:40 pm

either way, there's a high likelihood that most of the air circulating through your case isn't actually passing through your HS. Personally I'd either:

1. stick the front fan on the Ninja somehow - even a little directed airflow makes a huge difference on a HS

2. stick the front fan in the top slot blowing in - you should then have a nice air flow circuit going in the top side of the HS and out the back side

3. create a duct (cardboard?) connecting the front fan, HS and rear fan or even just the rear fan and HS, which will force the air to be drawn over the HS fins instead of around them

you can always try remounting the HS, but unless you've truly cacked it up (unlikely) it won't make as much of a difference (IMO) as one of the above.

Locklear · Post by **Locklear** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:39 pm

spiffy102 wrote:Oh I meant to ask you - what is your ambient? The room my PC is in is the warmest in my place. I guess it isn't likely your place is 60F, but I guess it is possible?

during the night it dropped to 37C. I don't have a thermostat in my apartment, but i'd guess somewhere very close to 21C(70F).

Both my nexuses are sucking out of the cabinet atm. might try reversing one of them when i get a bit of time and/or putting in a tricool in the front to see if that makes any difference.

And i do have the AMD cool'n'quite driver installed and active.

spiffy102 · Post by **spiffy102** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:06 am

Locklear wrote: Both my nexuses are sucking out of the cabinet atm. might try reversing one of them when i get a bit of time and/or putting in a tricool in the front to see if that makes any difference.

And i do have the AMD cool'n'quite driver installed and active.

Ok I don't have CnQ turned on yet - but that should make no difference in the load values I would think.

wundi · Post by **wundi** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:23 am

spiffy102 wrote:1) Mounting a fan on the Ninja would be very hard - I used Corsair XMS RAM - the kind that is "designed for use" in my A8N32. Damn RAM is huge - I currently can only use 3 sticks instead of 4. I might have to mod the ninja to get the fourth in there.

2) Interesting. You're suggesting air is coming from the top, right out to the back without touching the Ninja. Perhaps I should rig up a way to "block that".

You do realize that using 4 ram sticks will cause you to have to use 2T timings, right? That decreases overall system performance somewhat, maybe 5%. Using 2 bigger sticks is generally the better solution with AMD.

Have a look at this thread. In the picture you can see an example of a piece of cardboard set to block the airflow where it's not wanted. Maybe you could try a similar approach, except of course having the duct on the other side of the HS.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:52 am

2T timings are not that bad compared to running an un-even amount of modules, as you will only be running in single channel mode.

I would have thought that the ideal solution, and a design feature of the P180 is to use both the top, and back fans blowing outwards without the need for any fans at the front, as the case has ample space for airflow from the front.

Andy

pcweltz · Post by **pcweltz** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:31 am

Tcase Max on the 4800+ is only 59C, so be careful.

Locklear · Post by **Locklear** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:17 am

Seems the Arctic Silver 5 has done it's job and gone into it's final state. Temp has dropped another 2C down to 58C under 100% dual-core load.