PCTech Forums

Hello, I finally got my parts, the pc is up and running and it works great...ummm I have a problem though. My CPU is at 47.5°C idle, then 70°C-75°C while playing games such as HALO or CAL (Call of Duty). I read that others have the same problems as well. I have 6 fans and 9 including the garphics card, processor, and power supply fan for cooling. Is this really normal, as you remember I have just recieved the Athlon 64 fx-53. I am using my motherboard's (ASUS K8T800 SK8V) software temp as well as hmonitor (Another temp monitering software). I am going to buy Thermal Grease and wonder if this will help the problem at all. I desperately seek your advice!!!! It supposively maxes out at 55°C, even in gaming applications and overclocked as well.

"Also note that while overclocking the Athlon 64 FX-53, all we used was the stock heatsink / fan combo supplied by AMD. Even with this modest heatsink, the FX-53 ran relatively cool throughout all of our testing. At default clock speeds, we never saw the FX-53 break the 43C mark, and this was after hours of gaming and benchmarking in a closed mid-tower case. At a max temp of 43C with the FX-53 at default clock speeds, it's running about 20% - 25% cooler than Intel's high-end CPUs at the moment. When we over-volted and overclocked the processor, temperatures obviously went up, but they still remained manageable. After running for about an hour at 2.65GHz, the FX-53 peaked at "only" 55C. This temperature is much lower than what we saw with a 3.2GHz "Prescott" at default speeds, and only a couple of degrees higher than the 3.4GHz P4 Extreme Edition. Kudos to AMD for know how to keep things cool under pressure and for engineering a CPU core with more than reasonable thermal characteristics." (Scroll down a bit, 5th paragraph on the second link.)

(Some what similar prob, different processor though.)
http://www.canadiangamer.ca/cgi-bin/yab ... 1027655430

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle. ... icleid=203


-Thanks in advance

the temp rise from idle to full load seems pretty high to me. from 47.5 to 75 is like a 160% increase. I'd suspect either lousy installation with a very thick thermal pad, a very cheap/generic heatsink that is not disapating enought heat, or you've got that CPU overclocked a bit. With all of the fan control devices out there, i also wonder if you aren't slowing your CPU fan for noise deduction reasons.

If you are going to buy new thermal material, go for Artic Silver 5. It's arguably the best stuff out there. sells it for 5 bucks, but in order to validate the 6.99 shipping cost, you might want to buy some other stuff.

No, I am not overclocking, or reducing my fans speed at all, in fact I don't mind the noise too much. Anyway, I will consider rechecking the fan to see if it's attached correctely and definitely buy the Artic Silver 5 material you suggested. If this doesn't work though I will rquire another way to cool my cpu, and would like to hear another way.
-Thanks in advance

You might want to cut down on the number of fans you have running--not the ones on the cards, northbridge or cpu. two more besided the one in the power supply should be suficient--make sure the flow is directed all one way. Try no to use the power sources on the motherboard, 9 fans draw and awful lot of amps--add a few usb connections and you could really be pulling a lot of current through the MB.

The biggest problem is the volume of air circulating through your machine. You have turned your computer into a giant air filter--and if you have a pet that sheds hair, your video card fan will be toast in 6 months.

I completely disagree,use all the fans you have,some for intake and some for exaust.Yes they do draw amps from the PSU but certainly not enough to make your cpu run hot.

Well, I am going to call AMD and then my mobo manufactorer to find out what the porblem is. Right now I have my airconditioner on, and it lowered it to about 41.5°C(and dropping steadily,Motherboard temp = 26 °C)the only problem is the damn room is cold as hell. The tower noise was managable, but both airconditioner and tower noise?!? I don't think this is right for the temp to be so high that I have to apply my airconditioner. The room was a little warm to begin with, but it sould not go to 70-75°C. Like I have said earlier one of the sites claimed they have gotten only about 55 °C at most WHILE overclocking at 2.65ghz, and I am NOT over clocking it at all. The cpu fan is running at 3276-3400rpms (fluxuating little.) and I checked to make sure it was working properly. If it comes to having to put the airconditioner all the time then the bills go up, but I guess thats what I have to live with(hopefully not.) I have checked these temperature reading in my bios, motherbaord software, and hmonitor software. They all come close (about 3-4 degree difference.) I will aslo buy the thermal material artic silver 5 to help it along, and I will, ASAP on monday call AMD. ( I do have a pet dog, but he is small and does not shed. I always make sure he is away from my tower and I keep the door shut.)

XMachine you may want to read this article about Thermal Grease.

Thank you, the guys at Amd could have told me, but thank you for giving me an advanced notice! Thank you! As for my tower being in a cabinet, no, my tower is a foot from the wall and none of fans are facing the wall. I repositioned my tower several times as well (Still on the ground, not directly touching the rug of course. The plastic legs keep it off of the rug.). I turned my A/C off now and of cource the temp is going up, but hopefully it won't be as bad as before. 47°C is the current reading for my CPU, and my mother board is 31°C. I am still unhappy because I can't do any gaming due to the fact my temp will rise to about 70°C. I can't even replace the heatsink/fan for the processor or it will void the warrenty! Well AMD better have a good solution, and I hope the one thermal greaseing that they do accept, but is hard to find, will work. Oh, as for my room's reg temp it is about 65, 70 or 75°F. (I'll find a thermometer.)

As far as dust, I will used compressed air once or twice a week, sound good?

Update: 49°C (It might go up to 55°C again, this is really annoying.)
-My room temp is 66°F (The termometer was right next to the tower for 15-18 min. for an accurate reading.) The room temp is obviously going to fluxuate during the seasons, so the A/C will help balance it out. None the less the CPU temp is still too high.
-Thanks again

I would not be overly concerned with the high cpu heat durring gaming. The Athlon 64 chips have thermostats that will slow down the CPU if it is getting too hot. Unless you have stability problems (ie crashing) I would say game away. It's doubtful you'll even shorten the lifespan of your cpu at that heat. I'm a professional service technician, and regularly work on servers, etc. I've never actually seen a bad CPU that wasn't caused by a lousy installation or lightning strike. I've seen plenty of fans fail on CPUs causing the machine to be EXTREMELY UNSTABLE, but once I got a new fan on, everything was all good again.

Good news! They said the temp is normal for that processor and is designed to take more heat. I will buy thermal "PASTE," which AMD themselves recommended to put on. I can return to gaming, and at least I don't have to worry too much about the cpu heat. Thanks for your help and support everyone. Thank you. (By the way my system was not unstable at any time.)

Thanks for the info on temp. Don't forget to scrape off the oem waffer off the cooling fan before applying the "thermal paste." Arctic Silver is the best stuff, its about $7.00 a tube at Frys or CompUSA-- I forget which one. Its probably enough to do about 30 cpu's