Hot CPU

I understand this is one of the most debated topics among PC builders and gamers, and I just want to see whether I can get a consensus, just among SnarkPit members.

I have an Athlon 3200+ XP on an ASUS A7N8X-E mobo. The ambiant case temp is around 25 Celsius, and the CPU idle temp is 47 Celsius. After playing HL2 for an hour, the CPU temp is 49 Celsius (as reported by SpeedFan).

Do I have anything to worry about? I noticed that some people's PC are running at much lower temperature. I did not overclock anything, and I don't want to shorten the lifespan of my processor. This machine is the first PC I built myself in the past ten years. I have a Antec heat sink with Arctic Silver thermal paste.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

how hot is to hot?

"When it quits."

For the record, the numbers you seek are easilly found via google.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Nope - 49 isn't an issue at all as far as I'd be concerned. The Athlon
XP's in both my own PC and my family's PC idle around 50 and go up to
about 58 under load, with system temps going from about 30-40. I'm
aware that I'm running both at the upper end of what most overclockers
deem reasonable working temps, so I could probably do with improving my
cooling a bit, but I don't think you have anything to worry about.
Athlon XP's have a max operating temp of around 90 or something, and
while obviously running anywhere near that would shorten the life of
your CPU, I doubt the upper 40's are anything to be concerned with.

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Your CPU temps are the same as mine (I have 64 3200 as well). You really don't have to worry about heat unless your overclocking or your fan breaks.

Too hot is my video car (geforce 6800). It idles at 60 Celcius, and ive seen it up at 75 Celcius after playing CS:S, although I suspect it gets really high (maybe even teh core slowdown temperature which is 135 C) in game.

Thanks guys.

the numbers you seek are easilly found via google

Of course I googled before posting, but there are many varied opinions. Many techies obsessed with temperature start to worry about their CPU when the temp is higher than 40 Celsius.

But now I know that they are just being paranoid.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

I have a Athlon 3200+ XP on a MSI KT6V and it usually averages between 40 C-55 C but before Imoved it into my room which is usually the coldest in the house it was usually about 2 or 3 degrees higher

---

Tinterweb site
Deviantart

Human knowledge belongs to the world

I had an heat issue as well. I was ideling at 59 degrees cel. CPU and
40 degrees CEL case. I called AMD, and they said between 0-80 we are
fine.

I got errors at 72 degrees CEL. and had it set to shut off at 70
degreees. The temp should be in the 45-50 range so your right in that
target number. Your good.

A good temp program to have is Motherboard Monitor 5.. ( http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ )

70 degrees C is where you have to come to terms with the fact that your own crippled attempt at installing your CPU has failed... If you ever experience above 60 then you need to re-paste that sucka with some good ol' "quick-silva" I believe its called, and get yourself a cpu sink with a copper or even gold contact.

---

-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

satchmo said:
Thanks guys.

Of course I googled before posting, but there are many varied opinions. Many techies obsessed with temperature start to worry about their CPU when the temp is higher than 40 Celsius.

But now I know that they are just being paranoid.

Well first off, you need to determine "WHO" manufactured your CPU. Mine is a 939 pin 3500+.. A very good processor. But I found out that 2 companies manufacture the chip, one is a cheapy, and the other less so. As you may figure, the cheapy one is the hotter running of the two, and sadly that was the one I ended up with.

Secondly, I would say take the average opinion. Meaning, the most commonly mentioned temperature. I think 55c is about average upper end.. but I am not in the know so...
Anyways, I wasn't being an ass, but there are much more well informed sites than Snarkpit to get your specs analyzed from.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

a cpu sink with a copper or even gold contact

I believe the Antec heat sink I installed has copper contact. And the thermal paste--Arctic Silver--is a premium compound. I am happy that I stuck with quality parts when I purchased from newegg.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

70 degrees C is where you have to come to terms with the fact
that your own crippled attempt at installing your CPU has failed... If
you ever experience above 60 then you need to re-paste that sucka with
some good ol' "quick-silva" I believe its called, and get yourself a
cpu sink with a copper or even gold contact.

First off Bite me. You assume I dont know what I am doing. I happen to
use Quick Silver and had more than enough on my cpu.. Second bite Me
fan boy.. I happen to have one of the top of the line themal heatsinks
and fans. I have been building top of the line gaming machines for over
5 years now, owned my own cyber gaming center.. So how about you take
your smug attitude and shove it up your smugg ass... and then bite me.

All this biting sounds perfectly arousing.. can i play too. :heee:

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

First off Bite me. You assume I dont know what I am doing. I happen to
use Quick Silver and had more than enough on my cpu.. Second bite Me
fan boy.. I happen to have one of the top of the line themal heatsinks
and fans. I have been building top of the line gaming machines for over
5 years now, owned my own cyber gaming center.. So how about you take
your smug attitude and shove it up your smugg ass... and then bite me.

No offence, but I think its a fair assumption for him to make that if
your CPU is running at over 70, you've got something wrong there. 99
times out of 100, temperatures like that will be down to poor
installation - whether or not it was the reason for yours, theres
nothing wrong with him suggesting it could be the cause.

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I was in no way aiming that advice at you, it was mainly just an over enveloped comment :razz: But as Reno said, its poor installation or poor parts, and if its new, its more likely poor installation than parts, cus they wouldn't have got past testing.

But as I say- just because you have a top of the range guitar and amp, doesn't mean you can play like Van Halen.

---

-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

Myrk- said:
But as I say- just because you have a top of the range guitar and amp, doesn't mean you can play like Van Halen.

But it never hurts to point at that big nice Rickenbacker with pride now is it :biggrin:

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

70?C and upwards is no mans land.

Around 50?C should be normal tempurature unless you're needlessly cooling the CPU. Although most people will try to tell you it should be at 25 (which by the way is only 3?C hotter then room tempurature :rolleyes: )

But, you can set BIOS to power down your computer after the core reaches a certain temperature, 70 is a good target.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I want to water cool my PC, then the over clocking can really start :smile:

rs6 said:
I want to water cool my PC, then the over clocking can really start :smile:

Why not invest that cash into a more modern comp? I mean seriously, what gain will you get that you cannot get better with a bigger PC?

I have yet to reach my new PC's limits without overclocking it.. If I reach that point, it will be time to move on to the next model..

shrugs

still, when you do it, I want before and after reports.. I wanna see what you gained..

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

sorry to ..kinda make people feel sad..bad.. i build computers for a living. ..soo i know lots

first off.. a rule for most cpus is anything under 60 and your in
the clear (60 load.. use prime 95 to find load tho the torture
test)

i am runing at 53 load, and i have a 2600+ mobile amd at 2.3 ghz (overclocked)

for the thermalpaste, look for artic silver 3 or artic silver 5 ..both the best you can get.

my friend has water cooling, and another has a phace chage
cooling.. -20s easy.. sick eh? check out
cryo-laboratory.com my site.. got a few pics of some cold stuff
on there..lol

? quoting rs6I want to water cool my PC, then the over clocking can really start :smile:
Why not invest that cash into a more modern comp? I mean seriously, what gain will you get that you cannot get better with a bigger PC?
I have yet to reach my new PC's limits without overclocking it.. If I reach that point, it will be time to move on to the next model..
shrugs
still, when you do it, I want before and after reports.. I wanna see what you gained..

I alreadly have a high end PC.

64 3200
geforce 6800
1gb RAM

but there is always something to gain by adding more speed.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting rs6</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>

I alreadly have a high end PC.

64 3200
geforce 6800
1gb RAM

but there is always something to gain by adding more speed.

</DIV></DIV>

The human eye cannot discern the advance you may gain with overclocking that system..

conversely, there is no game currently that can exceed the demands of that hardware so how will you determine any advancements?

in other words, if the game is set to maximum, and you have no troubles, how will you know you are still having no troubles except.. that you are continuing to not have any?

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

I'm getting an uber-fan with like liquid cooling and just crazy stuff like that. Then I can overclock and go nuts.

Both my old Athlon XP 2700+ and my new P4 550 3.47ghz run at about 54C idle, slightly higher under load. About the same temp on my 6800GT. That is with 2 front 80mm fans, 2 rear 80mm fans, and stock cooling. Those temps come down about 2 degrees if I crank the fans to max, though that's not usually worth the noise unless I'm putting them under heavy load.

I pretty much agree with everyone else- you want it under 60, 70+ and there's a problem. Getting cooler is nice, and will lengthen the life of your components, though if you get a new pc every 3-4 years it's probably irrelevant. The other benefit of water cooling is a reduction in -noise-, of course, which is many people's motivation for doing it rather than improved cooling or overclocking.

People often spend more effort and cash overclocking than it would cost to simply upgrade the damn pc. It's mostly bragging rights I guess. Although when some kid came in and bragged that he fried his 'xtremely' overclocked cpu because he "got drunk and forgot to put fresh ice cubes in the water cooling unit", I just thought he was a moron.

I think over 60 is too hot, but if it's over 55 then start looking into
some new cooling methods ( or ask here!) and make sure that inside your
case is dust free, especially your cpu cooler, the fin in this can
capture lots of dust.

Although when some kid came in and bragged that he fried his
'xtremely' overclocked cpu because he "got drunk and forgot to put
fresh ice cubes in the water cooling unit", I just thought he was a
moron.

Ahahahaha :biggrin: Classic!

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

heh yeah we get some weird stuff at MicroCenter.

Had some guy in last week having problems with his pc's video card overheating and shutting down. Turns out Dell had only put a 170watt power supply in the P4 3.0ghz he bought. Since buying it he had added two hard drives and a 6800GT. Gee, wonder if that could have been a power supply issue?!

I f**king despise Dell.

Adding a 6800 to a Dell is akin to adding a blower on a Volkswagen..

I cannot imagine someone buying a high end card and placing it in a substandard machine..

I have a broken Dell here someone gave to me. It hasn't even got an AGP slot.. It was less than a year old when I got it, and I have only had it a couple months.. I didn't realize they still released machines/motherboards without an AGP slot.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Adding a 6800 to a Dell is akin to adding a blower on a Volkswagen..
I cannot imagine someone buying a high end card and placing it in a substandard machine..
I have a broken Dell here someone gave to me. It hasn't even got an AGP slot.. It was less than a year old when I got it, and I have only had it a couple months.. I didn't realize they still released machines/motherboards without an AGP slot.

They started adding them in about 2002 or so (not saying all of them after 2002 have AGP). They usually stick to on-board video and really don't want people to go around them and upgrade on their own (they wouldn't make insane amounts of money that way).
Since Dell doesn't support outside upgrading, obviously, they only put in the power THEY need. I think opening the case actually voids the warrenty, if I remember correctly.

However, It's very easy to upgrade a Dell, Gateway, Compaq, whatever. It also makes sense, since if you already made the mistake of buying one you don't really want to spend another amount to buy a completly new computer.

Anyway, dell only puts the parts together and slaps their drive image on. They don't manufacturer the parts. However, they usually choose Intel boards with as much built in as possible. (even processors sometimes, but that would be too costly if something broke. You'd have to replace the entire board and not just that part)

But, to be perfectly honest, Dell's are the nicest-working of the suck-whore-industry. Gateways and Compaqs/HP, oh my God, disgusting. I swear they engineer new ways to cut your self on the case. Oh and they're big fans of the expansion card setup. THOSE are completly un-upgradable computers.

I don't count AlienWare because those are too expensive to be computers. They are labor-whores if I ever saw any.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono said:
I swear they engineer new ways to cut your self on the case.
.

I'd laugh except there is way to much truth to the statement.. I wonder if anyone has done a study on how many cuts are occurring while upgrading, and how many machines are ruined because blood short circuited the machines.

Some of these broken machines I have been given.. I look at them suspiciously to see if there is any blood on them from other people.. All i need is some new kind of AIDS transferal no one has heard of before.. I'd never convince anyone that I was faithful, I dunno how I got it. :eek:

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

A 170watt... even 250... is not sufficient for a P4 3.0ghz to start with, nevermind adding new stuff.

what you run into is that Dell, HP, Compaq etc. sometimes use proprietary parts as well. Examples:

Some Dells were made with modified ATX power connectors. You could replace the power supply.. ie the connector would fit.. but since they changed the pinout you would blow the motherboard.

The exhaust fans on some Dells have a proprietary mobo connection that is monitored by the mobo. If it doesn't detect the fan and enough rpm, it shuts down. Thus if the fan goes, you have to go to Dell to replace it. Or get good at splicing cables I suppose.

Some HP's use small form factor ATX power supplies. They are ATX in frontal shape, yes, but not as 'deep'- ie if you try to replace them, you will find that a regular ATX psu doesn't have enough room between itself and the cd drives in their teeny cases. Good luck replacing the floppy drives in those cases, too...

Anyway, this is why you build your own.

Orpheus, you aren't going to get AIDS from dried blood left on an old pc case rolls eyes Besides, we all know you'd get it from your needle-sharing! :wink:

Jinx said:
Orpheus, you aren't going to get AIDS from dried blood left on an old pc case rolls eyes Besides, we all know you'd get it from your needle-sharing! :wink:

YOU PROMISED!!!

I told Dave about my diaper consumption in confidence, and then he goes and tells everyone I do goats.. Well at least he didn't mention the diapers.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

We should stop give Dell such a hard time. They never intend to sell their PC to us gamers in the first place. Dell machines are meant for people who have no idea what a "BIOS" is, or even what OS they're running.

Dells are perfect for grannies or technophobes who just want to buy a computer, plug it into the wall socket, and have everything working. They use it primarily to check emails and play Solitaire.

Now, I don't think anyone needs an uber AGP card to play Solitaire.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Although Dells Dimention XPS is supposed to be a decent one from what I can remember from the PC Format article it compared well to one of the Alienware ones carnt remember which though and I dont know where that mag is.

---

Tinterweb site
Deviantart

Human knowledge belongs to the world

satchmo said:
We should stop give Dell such a hard time. They never intend to sell their PC to us gamers in the first place. Dell machines are meant for people who have no idea what a "BIOS" is, or even what OS they're running.

Dells are perfect for grannies or technophobes who just want to buy a computer, plug it into the wall socket, and have everything working. They use it primarily to check emails and play Solitaire.

Now, I don't think anyone needs an uber AGP card to play Solitaire.

If it wasn't for the fact that Dell does nothing to prevent gamers from buying the machines I would have agreed with you.

Warning messages were created for a purpose, tis time they be applied to computers perhaps.

I am betting right this minute that a large percentage of our member list has premanufactured computers and wish they didn't..

Should we poll it?
Just how long did it take you to build this last PC Satch before you saw the light? and.. what was it that swayed you to do so?

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

? quote:I have a broken Dell here someone gave to me. It hasn't even got
an AGP slot.. It was less than a year old when I got it, and I have
only had it a couple months.. I didn't realize they still released
machines/motherboards without an AGP slot.

I've got a 3 year old pc from the same place owned by tiny/time, cnr, 3
PCI yet no agp on the tiny motherboard! It may be 3 and a half years
old but still, the PC I bought for ?50 had a 1/2 speed agp slot!

Some Dells were made with modified ATX power connectors. You
could replace the power supply.. ie the connector would fit.. but since
they changed the pinout you would blow the motherboard.

iirc dell's PSU's have modified screw holes, so basically, you can't
change the PSU or the case seperatly, you would have to change it
together.

Now, I don't think anyone needs an uber AGP card to play Solitaire.

Not the way I play it

Just how long did it take you to build this last PC Satch before you saw the light?

I've never played high-end PC games until recently, so there was never a need to have a high-octane machine. A Celeron with 256 MB of RAM and on-board s**tty Intel video were sufficient to run Excel and Word.

Old games (like Doom and Quake) never required much of a hardware to play, and that's what I used to do on my spare time. Medical school and residency took seven years of my life, and I did nothing but study and work during that time (that's how I missed out Half-Life completely).

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

HP has a habit to format their HDDs for non-upgradability. Basically, you will have a very hard time getting any OS to install if they're wiped. This isn't widley speaking, but I've run into it, you can't slave them either.

It's very douchebagish of them or economically smart, I don't know which, they're pretty similar concepts.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono said:
It's very douchebagish of them .

Oh how I love it when you talk dirty.. Do it again. :dodgy:

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Crono said:
It's very douchebagish of them .

Oh how I love it when you talk dirty.. Do it again. :dodgy:

Orph, you are worrying me again......

mine keeps at 30-40 at most times only whein i run like 3 demanding
games at once mine heats up eg hl2,hammer and wow. sayin that i got a
crap load of fans and a pretty good coolant system in my comp (cost
alot tho)...

I feel nicely average after reading this thread (and I'm not talking about the goats and diapers, although I might as well be).

My Intel PC is set to alarm at 60C and shutdown at 70C. Every few months the alarm goes of during some heavy number crunching and I know it's time to clean the dust out of the CPU heatsink. My room seems to be particularly dusty. Big dust too, the kind you can pick up in one piece.

I've heard Athlons have a slightly lower temperature threshhold.

Hmm, I've peeked into my BIOS many times, but I don't think the ASUS A7N8X-E motherboard is internally equipped with an alarm. I could be wrong.

I can imagine the alarm feature can be quite handy.

But yes, the purpose of this thread is to make everyone feel good and secure about their own CPU temperatures. Oftentimes, the extreme techies from other forums can get fanatical about cooling. They aren't satisfied until their PC is water-cooled to 25 Celsius, so I know that's just not realistic or practical.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

If you have an ASUS mobo, then with in you should get some drivers, one
called asus probe, this can be used to monitor heat and you can set the
alarm.

Thanks. I checked out ASUS Probe, but it's bloody 35MB. If
it's not something I can set within the BIOS, I'd rather pass. I
don't want to drain system resources to monitor temperature, especially
when I never really had any problem with overheating.

I have SpeedFan, and I think I can set that to alarm too. But I'll live dangerously. :wink:

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Uh ... your computer already monitors the tempurature, so if there's some software thing it's just telling you what the values are. It's not as if it's purposfully checking all the time, if it's well written, it'll just sneak a peak at what the system already knows.

But, you can check your BIOS to see what the tempurature is, it's there, it has to be, take a nice long look.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Oh yeah, the temperatures are in the BIOS. I knew that. But I was looking for an alarm feature from within the BIOS.

That's all right. I am pretty happy with the temperature my CPU is running anyways. I'll stop being so paranoid.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

ASUS Probe show come on a disc with your motherboard with the drivers
for the lan connector etc, it doesn't take up much system resources,
you can leave it in the background whilst playing HL2 and set it to
record temperatures.