Temperature Question

[Guest]

I am running a 900mhz Thunderbird (not overclocked) on an Asus A7V w/ 256mb RAM, a GeForce2, and 3 PCI cards (winmodem, NIC, and SbLive). My Asus Probe program always reads my CPU temperature at 55C/131F and my motherboard temperature at 37C/98F. Now, it has been running like this for almost 6 months with few lock-ups, but I have been told those temperatures are very hot. Are these numbers normal? Any problems? Thanks.

 

[bsprawka]

55C is some what hot. You are probably using the crappy fan that came with it. If you never plan to overclock or do anything really processor intensive for a long time (ex. ripping a DVD), you should be OK. If you want to do either of those, then you need to get a better fan or some artic silver thermal compound. Tom has an article on fans for the socket A AMD (what you have) and everyone in the Cooling and heatsinks section has their own opinion of what you should get. I personally got a Thermaltake Chrome Orb, its not that great but most of the good ones are much louder and I sleep right next to my computer.

 

[bsprawka]

Now that I think about it your processor temp is OK, but your motherboard temp is high. How is your case fan working? Make sure there is nothing obstructing the path of air through the computer and consider getting a case fan for the front. As long as you aren't experiencing any lock ups or blue screens you may want to just leave it. There are horror stories about the crappy fans they give people frying new Tbirds. So I guess I would say you should play it safe and get a new proccesor fan.

 

[Lexington]

Is the temperature you refer to your idle temperature or your temperature under full load? I have a 900 as well, and my idle temp is usually around 5 degrees celsius above my system temp. Right now my system temp is 28, and my cpu temp is 34. under a full load, my cpu has gotten as hot as 55, but not often. The only time I have seen it get this hot, is when I had the computer inside the cpu compartment in my desk. When I have it outside where the air is cooler, it normally doesn't get hotter than 45 celsius. I have the fan that came with the cpu from AMD, and have tried other fans, but didn't get any better performance from a Global-WIN Fop32. As long as you have a decent fan, and are using thermal paste, you should have that area pretty well covered. Case ventilation can be a big factor too. If you have poor ventilation, your system temp will stay high, and it is hard for any fan to do a good job when trying to cool with hot air. But, I guess to answer your question directly, I did not have any problems when my 900 hit 55 celsius. It does seem a little warm, but athlons are known to run rather hot. As long as it did not get any hotter than that, I wouldn't worry too much, as long as it was stable.

 

[Bubba]

Try posting your question in the cooling section. Mike will be able to answer your question better than anyone I think.

 

[TheAntipop]

Quick question, my chip runs at arond 45deg C just after a good work out (half life, very CPU dependent game) and around 42 idle. I just got a FOP 32 and am using the thermal tape that came with it. Do you think that some Artic silver will bring that temp down by about 5deg C? Cause if not, I don't think it's worth it because I plan on overclocking my CPU tomorow so I could be gettin a little hotter.

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