Heat question on AMD CPU and mobo

Trance-Lord-Snyder

I was just wondering what a safe load temperature would be for my AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and the motherboard. The current air temperature is 71F and my CPU temp is at 64C after running at 100% load on both cores for about 10 minutes. Also, the motherboard temperature is 50C. All temps were reported by NVIDIA Monitor.

I have the stock cpu cooler, and my cpu is overclocked to 2.7 Ghz.
The motherboard is the Foxconn C51XEM2AA- 8EKRS2H.

I don't regularly run my cpu at the full 100% load because... well there are 2 cores. Temps are actually around 57C when around 50% of the CPU is used (that's usually where it's at, because I don't run folding@home while gaming).

Thrax

Trance Lord Snyder wrote:

I was just wondering what a safe load temperature would be for my AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and the motherboard. The current air temperature is 71F and my CPU temp is at 64C after running at 100% load on both cores for about 10 minutes. Also, the motherboard temperature is 50C. All temps were reported by NVIDIA Monitor.

I have the stock cpu cooler, and my cpu is overclocked to 2.7 Ghz.
The motherboard is the Foxconn C51XEM2AA- 8EKRS2H.

I don't regularly run my cpu at the full 100% load because... well there are 2 cores. Temps are actually around 57C when around 50% of the CPU is used (that's usually where it's at, because I don't run folding@home while gaming).

64C is a little high. You really need to think about cutting it back into the 50s.

Trance-Lord-Snyder

So anything in the 50s is safe, but after that... I should look into a new CPU cooler? And howabout the motherboard, same thing?

Leonardo

motherboard temperature is 50C

If that temperature read is correct, you've got a poorly ventilated computer case. Unless it breathes better, improving CPU cooling will be difficult. Please describe your case configuration with respect to cooling fans and also provide your case brand and model, if known.

Trance-Lord-Snyder

The model is...
APEVIA X-Navigator ATXA9NW-BK/450 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
I got it off of Newegg but it isn't on the site any longer.

The fan setup:
2 80mm front fans blowing inward
1 80mm side fan blowing inward (onto 8800 GTS, this one is mounted and isn't adjustable as to where it blows)
1 80mm top fan blowing upwards out of the case
1 rear 120mm fan blowing out of the case

The fans do move a pretty good amount of air and they are a bit noisy when turned all the way up. I have a fan controller built into my case so I turn up the fans when gaming or folding.

Trance-Lord-Snyder

Also, I thought I'd mention the CPU idle temp is 39C and the Nvidia chipset idles at 46C with an ambient temp of 21C. Nvidia monitor reports the system temp to be 37C which is air temperature right?

After looking around for a bit... I realized the stock voltage for the CPU is supposed to be 1.3 or 1.35 volts. When I look at the Nvidia monitor, it tells me the CPU voltage is at 1.425 volts. When I use CPU-Z it says anywhere from 1.304 to 1.328. I guess I should believe CPU-Z because Nvidia seems to be a set number that it's reporting. It doesn't update. I'll have to check what the voltage is set to in the bios. Or are the voltage settings different because it's dual core and it's actually supplying 1.425 volts to the CPU but the cores are sharing? O_o What's going on here?

Leonardo

You would probably get a more accurate voltage reading by going into the BIOS.

Your case cooling configuration seems to be good. Perhaps you've got cables hanging down in the case, obstructing the flow of cool air. It just seems to me that your motherboard sensor should be showing lower temperatures. If your computer runs stably at load, I wouldn't be too concerned about the indicated temperatures. 64/50 is a high reading, but it's not outside of tolerance. But again, open up the case door and try to picture in your mind how the air flows through the case. What obstructions are there? Ideally, all cables should be tucked out of the way. Perfect cable management is not possible, but it's fun to try.

edcentric

Sound fishy, Good fan set up. I can see the X2 running hot with only stock cooling, but the mobo shouldn't be that hot.
Do you get the same temps with the side panel off? That mobo chip should be very hot to the touch.
If it is stable it may be temp reading errors.

Trance-Lord-Snyder

After consulting with my bios, it seems Nvidia Monitor is off a bit. The CPU temp seems to be right on, but the motherboard temperature is about 8C higher than displayed in the bios. The system temperature is also 9C lower from what Nvidia Monitor reports.

After playing with voltage settings a bit, I've realized I could drop the voltage on the CPU from 1.425V to 1.4V and still effectively run at 2.7 Ghz. This helped drop the temperatures on the CPU by a bit. Funny thing is, when I set the CPU to 1.4 Volts, the cpu is at 1.4 volts. If I change the setting to 1.425 volts it runs at 1.45 volts. That's quite an increase. I guess the Nvidia monitor is kinda lame. Inaccurate readings, especially the CPU fan speed. Says it's at 49 RPM but it's definately moving faster than that.

Leonardo

What about air flow? How is the inside of your case?

For temperature and voltage monitoring, give SpeedFan a try. Freeware.

Trance-Lord-Snyder

Cables are pretty much bunched up under the DVD drive where there are no fans. The only thing really in the way of any of the fans is 2 hard drives in front of one of the front intake fans. There is another fan there however with nothing blocking it. The rest are obstruction free. I'll go give Speedfan a whirl.

Trance-Lord-Snyder

Speedfan is giving me really high temp readings. It's saying CPU is 51C at idle. Now that just isn't right. It's also telling me my system temp is 51C. The hard drive temperatures seem to be about right.

Unfortunately it doesn't have my motherboard on the list. Too bad I can't use it to OC. The Bios always works though.

Leonardo

The "system" temperature is most likely your motherboard temperature. You'll notice that is nearly the same temperature your Nvidia monitor showed for your motherboard. What temperature is shown for your CPU under load?

Trance-Lord-Snyder

Under load it says 52C. Haha...

Leonardo

Recheck the settings in SpeedFan. It looks like the CPU reading as actually reading off the northbridge or motherboard sensor.

csimon

To think I freak when my sys temp goes to 30C.

Trance-Lord-Snyder

The air coming out of my case isn't really even warm.

The readings at idle (for 4 minutes) from Speedfan with a room temp of 17.8C are...

System: 52C
CPU: 52C
AUX: 53C
HD0: 29C
HD1: 25C
Temp1: 40C
Core: 37C

It also seems to think the system fan is at 11066 RPMs. O_O


Now for under load... (8 minutes of 100% CPU load)

System: 53C
CPU: 52-53C (fluctuates)
AUX: 55-56C (fluctuates)
HD0: 29C
HD1: 24C
Temp1: 40C
Core: 58-60C (fluctuates)

Leonardo

Trance, given the temperature deltas (differences) from idle to load, I would say that the "core" reading is the CPU core, the "CPU." "Temp 1" is probably the system temperature. The 52 and 53C readings - beats me. Maybe that's the northbridge. But I don't know if your motherboard has a northbridge temperature sensor.

You really need to go into the BIOS and check the temperatures there. That will probably be your most accurate reading, given the strange results you are getting with monitoring software.

Trance-Lord-Snyder

Yeah, the bios seems to give numbers that are more realistic. Problem is, I can't see if my CPU or mobo is getting too hot from gaming because... well, by the time you restart and look at the temps in the bios, the parts have cooled off.