Question Correct CPU temps for an AMD 8350?

[Assoul]

I have an AMD FX 8350 with a Thermaltake Water 3 dual-fan cooler on it and Artic Silver 7. The fans are vertically mounted behind the hard drive case with two 120mm fans blowing behind the radiator and two 200mm front case fans blowing air into the case from 5 inches further behind. One 120mm fan at the other side of the case acts as an exhaust fan. I also have a GTX 970. Everything is stock speeds.

HWMonitor at idle read at 33, 27, 22, and the lowest was 16 celcius; max with Prime 95 and FurMark 3D running was 41 for the CPU. Is that good? My case is an NZXT H630.

 

[Phaaze88]

What is your motherboard make and model?
How are you cooling the motherboard VRMs?


Check temps with AMD Overdrive. Other programs aren't as accurate - that 16C definitely isn't accurate.

AMD Overdrive reads temps a little differently. Instead of 'current temp', it reads 'distance to TJ Max.
In other words, as long as Overdrive stays over 10C, the cpu isn't overheating.

 

[CountMike]

I have an AMD FX 8350 with a Thermaltake Water 3 dual-fan cooler on it and Artic Silver 7. The fans are vertically mounted behind the hard drive case with two 120mm fans blowing behind the radiator and two 200mm front case fans blowing air into the case from 5 inches further behind. One 120mm fan at the other side of the case acts as an exhaust fan. I also have a GTX 970. Everything is stock speeds.

HWMonitor at idle read at 33, 27, 22, and the lowest was 16 celcius; max with Prime 95 and FurMark 3D running was 41 for the CPU. Is that good? My case is an NZXT H630.

That's actually very good, double check with AOD (AMD OverDrive) it's most accurate with FX chips.

 

[Assoul]

I did install overdrive. Under CPU Status -> Thermal Margin is reads 35 - 45 C and it still jumps around. Is that the correct temperature to read?

 

[Phaaze88]

Yes.
So the cpu isn't overheating, but how's the motherboard holding up?

Since you're liquid cooling the cpu, I'm concerned as to whether the VRMs are keeping cool.
Is the cpu's clock speed steady while running Prime95?
What's the motherboard make and model?

 

[TJ Hooker]

I did install overdrive. Under CPU Status -> Thermal Margin is reads 35 - 45 C and it still jumps around. Is that the correct temperature to read?

Under full load? Yes, that's very good for thermal margin.

Are you having any issues or were you just curious about temperature?

 

[Assoul]

"Under full load? Yes, that's very good for thermal margin. "

That's not under full load - it's under idle. Don't know if that's a bad sign. I'm running Prime 95 now and it's at 24°C....wtf? HWMonitor is stable at 47°C with 100% Prime95.

"Are you having any issues or were you just curious about temperature? "

I'm curious about temperature because I never really had that under control. I bought these B-grade coolers / fans and then replaced them with A-grade coolers but my case has really poor cooling if you install the radiator on top of the case (NZXT really screwed this tower up, btw). This time I installed the radiator in front of the hard drive cage so the CPU radiator is the first to touch room-temperature air. That makes a huge difference.

I'm starting to get back into gaming, so cooling the PC is important in that respect. Namely, I'm playing X-Plane 11 which can be really heavy if you max everything out.

It's still alluding as to how exactly I should build a cooling system in the PC. I have two 200mm fans in the front but wondering if I should mount two more to the top of the tower. And I have two 120mm fans on the bottom of the case for intake.

My motherboard is a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 R5. Clock speed seems steady at 4119 MHz during Prime95.

 

[Assoul]

And even other considerations were where to connect the fans. Is there a way to make them automatically run faster during load? Can I put a splitter on one of the fan headers and make them in sync with that regard? Some fans only came with three-pin connectors which I read was inferior to 4-pin. The questions just keep piling up. I think I just ended up settling but it isn't the best option.

 

[TJ Hooker]

That's not under full load - it's under idle. Don't know if that's a bad sign. I'm running Prime 95 now and it's at 24°C....wtf? HWMonitor is stable at 47°C with 100% Prime95.

As I said, thermal margin is how far you are from overheating. The hotter your CPU gets the lower the margin will be, so higher is better. If it's 24 C while running P95 that means you still have plenty of margin left under full load. You have nothing to worry about as far as CPU temp goes.