AMD 64 CPU temps(how do I get them lower)?

rc1974

I am a bit worried about my CPU temps. I have an AMD-64 3400+ socket 754 running at stock speeds. Under normal load, the temps average around 60C and under load, such as running F@H the temps climb to near 75C. What can I do to cool it down? Is 60Cto 75C normal for these processors?

Specs- Fans & CPU HSF

Thermaltake Silentboost K8, using silver thermal compound.
Front Fan- 120mm blowing in
Rear Fan- 80mm blowing out
Side Fan- 80mm blowing in/facing CPU
I have spots on my case for two more 80mm fans, one in the rear and one in the top of the case. I have added more fans, but the temps seem to stay the same.

As far as other stuff in the case,
Antec 550w PSU
Nvidia GeForce 6800 128MB
SB Audigy2 ZS
WD 250GB HDD
DVD-RW

Currently running F@H at 50%, Motherboard Monitor reports that CPU is at 69C and case temps are at 40C and 46C. Room temp is at 24C.

TheLostSwede

And the mainboard is?

GnomeWizardd

i was running at 155*F which is 68*c until i went WC I was trying everything from new heatsinks ( 5 of them ) to diff cases ( 4 of them ) and couldnt get the temps down. So i went with a Zalman reserator ( first experience with WC ) and they sit at 99*F aka 37*C

mmonnin

Make sure the HS is seated properly and is making proper contact with the CPU. Thats prolly not as much of a problem with the A64s but just make sure.

rc1974

Mackanz wrote:

And the mainboard is?

sorry, didn't realize the time when I was writing the message and had to go to work, was almost late.

for your info the mainboard is a DFI LanpartyUT NF3 250GB

rc1974

GnomeWizardd wrote:

i was running at 155*F which is 68*c until i went WC I was trying everything from new heatsinks ( 5 of them ) to diff cases ( 4 of them ) and couldnt get the temps down. So i went with a Zalman reserator ( first experience with WC ) and they sit at 99*F aka 37*C

I'm looking into other cooling solutions, but I'll try the free stuff first. Even leaving the windows in the room open with an outdoor temp of -5C/20F, lowering the room temp to 15C/60F did not have much of an impact of CPU temps. WC may be something I will look into.

Jimborae

Your case temps are very high too, have you tried leaving the side of the case off & seeing if this makea any difference?

It could be that your motherboard is falsely reporting high temps but I don't know if thats a problem for this board or not. Mackanz will be able to advise on this one as he has the same board.

rc1974

Jimborae wrote:

Your case temps are very high too, have you tried leaving the side of the case off & seeing if this makea any difference?

It could be that your motherboard is falsely reporting high temps but I don't know if thats a problem for this board or not. Mackanz will be able to advise on this one as he has the same board.

I'll try that. My computer does not seem unstable at all. With previous CPU's I have used over the years, 40C not under load and 55C under load was what I had been used to. 60C to 75C seemed awfully high to me and that's why I asked about it.

muddocktor

Yeah, see if your temps go down with the side cover off. Those high temps do sound kind of suspicious, like the mobo is reporting them high but I have no experience with any A64 board besides my Epox 9NDA3+ and my Winchester 3000+. The temps with my Winchester 3000+ are running around 50 C folding with the stock retail hsf and running at around 2350 MHz. I plan on installing a Thermalright SLK 948-U with a TT SmartFan 2 when I get back in from work on it.

lemonlime

75 degrees is much too high. I believe the core maximum for the A64 is somewhere in the range of ~85C. I would refrain from loading up the CPU too much until you get those temps sorted out.

As mentioned above, it could be incorrectly reporting temperatures.. Is your cpu heatsink hot to the touch? I know that that is quite subjective, but at 75C core, your heatsink should be quite hot to the touch.

Incorrect readings aside, you may want to ensure that there was not too much silver compound applied, as that can sometimes have some negative effects.

I wouldn't start looking into extreme cooling methods yet, as people with stock HSF's and A64's are getting temps ~50C. I dont know too much about the silent boost, but I know that quite a few people are using those, and have pretty decent temps. Anandtech uses them on many of their test machines, even for overclocking, so I dont think that your cooling is insufficient by any means.

Good luck!

Omega65

Have every fan other than the front 120mm Blowing Out! Add a top fan blowing up/out also.

Get a Thermalright XP-90 with a 50+ CFM 92mm as a last resort.

rc1974

lemonlime wrote:

75 degrees is much too high. I believe the core maximum for the A64 is somewhere in the range of ~85C. I would refrain from loading up the CPU too much until you get those temps sorted out.

As mentioned above, it could be incorrectly reporting temperatures.. Is your cpu heatsink hot to the touch? I know that that is quite subjective, but at 75C core, your heatsink should be quite hot to the touch.

Incorrect readings aside, you may want to ensure that there was not too much silver compound applied, as that can sometimes have some negative effects.

The heatsink is not hot, I had my finger on it for at least 30 seconds and had no desire to pull my finger off because of the heat. It could very well be not reporting the correct temps. I'm going to check the HSF seating, but I've had this setup since the end of October and had the same temps without thermal paste, with the regular thermal paste, and with the silver thermal paste.

I did add another rear fan last night and right now under no load and a room temp of 22C, I am running at 57C for cpu, and 36C and 40C for the case and the side is off of the case.

TheLostSwede

My guess is that you are still on the stock bios or? The first bios have false readings. If you are on the new bios, there must be a bad contact between the cpu and the heatsink. If you touch the heatsink and it's cold/not very warm, you definitely have a bad contact. Check the post screen at the bottom for the bios version. It's named in date form. 8/27 is the first bios and has temperature reading problems.

Edit again: If the heatsink still feels cold, you can still have bad contact as well as running the first bios. Check both. Did you apply AS5 on both the heatsink and the cpu? Clean it off and apply on cpu only. Then remount the heatsink, press gently on it. Boot up and read temps. Still bad? Remove the heatsink and check if the AS5 is on both heatsink and cpu now. As long as you have contact in the middle of the cpu it's ok because the core itself under the heatspreader is much smaller and you won't benefit having goop all over the cpu.

GrayFox

rc1974 wrote:

The heatsink is not hot, I had my finger on it for at least 30 seconds and had no desire to pull my finger off because of the heat. It could very well be not reporting the correct temps. I'm going to check the HSF seating, but I've had this setup since the end of October and had the same temps without thermal paste, with the regular thermal paste, and with the silver thermal paste.

I did add another rear fan last night and right now under no load and a room temp of 22C, I am running at 57C for cpu, and 36C and 40C for the case and the side is off of the case.

did u load the thermalpaste on or use ocz thermalpaste

rc1974

Mackanz wrote:

My guess is that you are still on the stock bios or? The first bios have false readings. If you are on the new bios, there must be a bad contact between the cpu and the heatsink. If you touch the heatsink and it's cold/not very warm, you definitely have a bad contact. Check the post screen at the bottom for the bios version. It's named in date form. 8/27 is the first bios and has temperature reading problems.

Edit again: If the heatsink still feels cold, you can still have bad contact as well as running the first bios. Check both. Did you apply AS5 on both the heatsink and the cpu? Clean it off and apply on cpu only. Then remount the heatsink, press gently on it. Boot up and read temps. Still bad? Remove the heatsink and check if the AS5 is on both heatsink and cpu now. As long as you have contact in the middle of the cpu it's ok because the core itself under the heatspreader is much smaller and you won't benefit having goop all over the cpu.

Checked the BIOS and it was the 8/27. I upgraded to the newest BIOS, but finding a decent floppy disk was the had part. BTW- Floppy disks made today are crap. I have ones from near 15 years ago that are still working.

Right now under no load, the CPU temp is at 48C, with a room temp of 22C and case temps of 32C and 41C. This seems far more normal for not being under load. After running F@H at 100% the CPU jumps to 63C. This is much better than before, but still hot. Shutting F@H down, the temp does drop right away to about 54C and the slowly drops to around 48C.

As for how much paste I put on, all I've ever used is a small dollop on the tip of my finger and then spread on a thin layer on to of the CPU. However, cooling seems to be the same if I don't use paste and if I do use paste.

anyhow thanks for the info. My next check is the HSF, but I will do that later this week, I have four finals (college) this week.

mmonnin

Uhhh you shouldnt use your finger to spread the paste around. Oils from your skin could come off onto the CPU which doesnt help the thermal properties of the AS5.

rc1974

mmonnin wrote:

Uhhh you shouldnt use your finger to spread the paste around. Oils from your skin could come off onto the CPU which doesnt help the thermal properties of the AS5.

thanks, however with the new BIOS temps are lower, so it's my guess that the BIOS was misreporting. When I do check the HSF, what do you recommend that I use to clean the old paste off of the HSF and what should I use to apply it, other than my finger?

TBonZ

I use something soft to wipe the majortiy of the paste off the cpu core being careful not to spread thermal paste on the waffer. Then I spray a small amount of WD-40 on my cloth to clean whatever is left over.

For applying the AS, I use saranwrap and wrap my finger with it making the surface of my fingertip smooth, apply a small thin layer on the core and also on the HS/F. Usually there are marks on the HS/F where the core makes contact to guide you.

Tex

My temps have varied WILDLY from one bios version to another. Make sure you have the latest bios for the motherboard.

I have a msi neo and a amd64 3200 running the big zalman cooler and I idle at 38 with sys temp of 34. Full load it only goes up like 6 degrees. But with other bios versions I was idling in the low to mid 50's. I have several case fans but they are turned way down for lowest noise.

Tex

Jimborae

TBonZ wrote:

I use something soft to wipe the majortiy of the paste off the cpu core being careful not to spread thermal paste on the waffer. Then I spray a small amount of WD-40 on my cloth to clean whatever is left over.

For applying the AS, I use saranwrap and wrap my finger with it making the surface of my fingertip smooth, apply a small thin layer on the core and also on the HS/F. Usually there are marks on the HS/F where the core makes contact to guide you.

I don't know what WD-40 is in Canada but in the UK its very light weight oil used for lubricating & loosening nuts & bolts, comes in an aerosol can to. If you're in the UK I wouldn't recommend you use our version of WD-40, it'll leave a nice oily residue I use alcohol or meths for cleaning off old paste & gunk from the cpu & heatsink.

TheLostSwede

Fingernail varnish remover and a lint-free cloth to clean. A little dab of goop on the cpu and the creditcard to spread it thin. No need to apply on the heatsink even if the instructions on arctic cooling says so. Those instructions is just so that peeps should use more of it. Temps looks more normal now at least, but you could still improve them but in my opinion, if it's stable, don't change anything.

rc1974

Jimborae wrote:

I don't know what WD-40 is in Canada but in the UK its very light weight oil used for lubricating & loosening nuts & bolts, comes in an aerosol can to. If you're in the UK I wouldn't recommend you use our version of WD-40, it'll leave a nice oily residue I use alcohol or meths for cleaning off old paste & gunk from the cpu & heatsink.

As far as I know, WD-40 is the same stuff here in the US as it is in Canada and the UK, lightweight lubricating oil in an aerosol can. I use it to lube the chain and gears on my bicycle. I've thought about using rubbing alcohol(isopropyl) to get the paste off of the heatsink and CPU.

TBonZ

I overlooked that AMD-64 chips are different than the XP type for which my method works well. Although, I have never personally played with a 64, I can see that my advice is definitely not applicable here, I apologize.


But....if you have an old **Athlon CPU hanging around with some really old perma goo still on it, spray a little WD-40 on your rag/cloth/whatever you use to clean and you will see how well it takes the gunk off the core. Please note that I stated to not make contact with the waffer, only the core itself, and you'll see it works great with no side-effects to the chip.

** Not AMD-64

Jimborae

Well that's a new one me TBonz, but I'm always up for a new trick so i'll try that on one of my old XP's next time I clean it. Thanks.

rc1974

Update: took a few of everyones' recommendations and tinkered with the cooling setup of my computer. I added another rear fan and a top fan as well as taking the HSF off of the CPU, cleaning it, re-gooping it, and reseating it.

It's still hotter than what I was used to with the Athlon XP and K6-2 chips I've owned, but it is better than before and will do for now.


Thanks

NiGHTS

I have used Isopropyl Alcohol 70% in the past to clean AS5 of my processor.

rc1974

Update #2: This time, since I am still not satisfied with the temps of my CPU, I decided to take off the Thermaltake HSF and re-install the stock HSF that came with the CPU. Guess what. The stock HSF actually does better than the Thermaltake HSF. Temps with the stock HSF are about 3 to 4 degrees(C) cooler.

Geeky1

That's odd.... the SilentBoost should do better than the stock hsf...

rc1974

Geeky1 wrote:

That's odd.... the SilentBoost should do better than the stock hsf...

I find it strange as well. The stock HSF is all aluminum, no copper at all and it, even under load is still 3C to 4C cooler than the SilentBoost. Right now I am running F@H at 100% and the CPU temp is right at 67C, but with the SB HSF it was about 70C. Still, I think that is way too hot, but oh well.

So far, the best fan I have ever used was the Volcano 9 with my old XP 2000+. That thing sounded like a vaccuum cleaner on crack when running at full RPM, but it worked very well.

Geeky1

i wonder if the silent boost you have might be fux0red somehow. Like a really, really, REALLY bad base or a subpar fan or something. I also wonder if MBM is right... Doesn't DFI have some hardware monitoring software of their own? Try that (don't have both it and MBM running at the same time tho).

I mean just from a physics standpoint. You have an all aluminum hsf with a crappy little fan that pushes like 20cfm vs. a solid copper hsf and a fan that should push about 25cfm... and the aluminum heatsink is outperforming it. Something's not right here.

The Silent Boost heatsink will take a standard 80mm fan, yes? What kind of airflow are the 80mm case fans you have rated for?

rc1974

Geeky1 wrote:

i wonder if the silent boost you have might be fux0red somehow. Like a really, really, REALLY bad base or a subpar fan or something. I also wonder if MBM is right... Doesn't DFI have some hardware monitoring software of their own? Try that (don't have both it and MBM running at the same time tho).

I mean just from a physics standpoint. You have an all aluminum hsf with a crappy little fan that pushes like 20cfm vs. a solid copper hsf and a fan that should push about 25cfm... and the aluminum heatsink is outperforming it. Something's not right here.

The Silent Boost heatsink will take a standard 80mm fan, yes? What kind of airflow are the 80mm case fans you have rated for?

I'll look to see if the DFI came with any monitoring software. I did check the temps in the BIOS with both the stock HSF and the SilentBoost HSF and even there they were 3C to 4C lower. The fan is working on the SilentBoost and was running at the rated RPM's, at least according to MBM. Bad base might be what the problem is.

I agree, something is not right. I was expecting the stock to do worse than the SilentBoost.

As for the fans in my case.

120mm- front case- thermal controlled inwards
80mm- top rear- thermal controlled outwards
80mm- bottom rear- not thermal controlled outwards
80mm- top- not thermal controlled outwards
80mm- side- thermal controlled outwards


I still have the box for one of the 80mm thermal controlled fans and it's ratings are.

20C 1650RPM 24CFM
25C 1800RPM 26CFM
30C 2000RPM 29CFM
35C 2400RPM 35CFM
40C 2700RPM 39CFM
45C 2800RPM 40CFM
50C 2850RPM 41CFM

The 120mm is from the same manufacturer, Antec, and the only thing that would be different are the RPM's. The other 80mm fans were out of old computers and the only thing on them, if anything, is the wattage or voltage.