CPU Temperature

Is1ldur

Just a quick question, as I am heading up to Peats at lunchtime. Recently get a Athlon 64 3400+ and it appears to be running the stock fan and cooler. Temps at 50 at idle and runs away up over 65 before the system locks up whenever I play anything intensive, even Quake! And this is with the side panel off and cold air coming in through the window. Would lack of thermal paste cause between Cpu and heatsink cause this, or should I be looking at a new fan heatsink. As I said I am heading up to Peats at lunchtime, was gonna just peak up thermal paste, but if anyone has any other ideas. Also, is the CPU fan supposed to flow air onto the CPU/heatsink, or draw hot air away?

Any answers much appreciated!

Orion

It draws the heat away. It could be thermal paste but you should also look at the airflow in the case. Do you have any case fans apart from the CPU fan and PSU? How much space is there behind the case to expel hot air - do you need a front case fan to draw in cold air? Leaving the side of a case off can actually make things worse as it affects the airflow.

Is1ldur

That could be it, the fan seems to by pushing air towards the CPU rather than away from it, maybe on the wrong way around? The airflow in the case is reasonable, as I have a fan at the back pulling cold air in. I may pick up a fan for the front of the case at lunchtime just to be sure.
Thank you.

Drapper

Is1ldur wrote:

Just a quick question, as I am heading up to Peats at lunchtime. Recently get a Athlon 64 3400+ and it appears to be running the stock fan and cooler. Temps at 50 at idle and runs away up over 65 before the system locks up whenever I play anything intensive, even Quake! And this is with the side panel off and cold air coming in through the window. Would lack of thermal paste cause between Cpu and heatsink cause this, or should I be looking at a new fan heatsink. As I said I am heading up to Peats at lunchtime, was gonna just peak up thermal paste, but if anyone has any other ideas. Also, is the CPU fan supposed to flow air onto the CPU/heatsink, or draw hot air away?

Any answers much appreciated!

post this in Tweaking and Modding the lads there are well clued up on CPU temps!

they are fasntastic at helping with stuff like this !! Gline/Wizzard ect ect

get good thermal paste..........

Orion

That's a good call actually - Khannie may move this to that forum - you'd get very good suggestions there.

el Bastardo

Good quality, silver-based paste makes a difference; I use it and my temps are low 30s on a XP64-3700. Stock heatsinks are fine, but I'd replace the fan with something more efficient (i.e. quieter). BTW, the CPU fan is supposed to be facing inwards; i.e blowing onto the CPU/heatsink - the arrow markings on the fan should be pointing towards the CPU.

Stephen

The fan at the back of your case should be pumping hot air out, rather than sucking it in.
I have an A64 3200+ with the stock AMD cooler and it does a great job of keeping it cool. Not overclocked though.

Orion

Rear case fan should be pulling in cold air - not pumping it out. It's an airflow thing for all the components not just the cpu. Cold air rushing over them - air gets heated - hot air rises - gets expelled by the psu.

Gurgle

Macros42 wrote:

Rear case fan should be pulling in cold air - not pumping it out. It's an airflow thing for all the components not just the cpu. Cold air rushing over them - air gets heated - hot air rises - gets expelled by the psu.

But the fan motor itself generates heat - so its better to use it as an exhaust fan. Cool air is pulled in through vents, over all the components and out through the exhaust fan.

Orion

I disagree. The heat generated by the fan itself is negligible. Here's a diagram of what I'm talking about:

This particular case has multiple fans on the back but the concept is sound. It's only the top fans that should be extractor ones as hot air rises - in most systems this fan is in the psu.

Diddy Kong

But if you reverse the principle of your image, and suck cold air in the front and push hot air out the back, surely it is the same??

Orion

Not quite. I have input fans on both front and back. Think top and bottom instead of front and back. Bottom to pull in cold air and top to push out hot air.

Stephen

The way i've always done it is to suck in cool air at the front/bottom and pump out hot air at the rear/mid-high up where the fan mounts are.

Drapper

ok guys we are loosing touch with the guys request!

the heat is building up on his CPU !

issue:-

hotspots
lack of paste
poor installation of heat sync

any others?

SouperComputer

Too much paste\contaminated surfaces.
Nutso Motherboard overvolting CPU.

Spunog UIE

what the hell.

Okay, first off the most common method for air flow in the case is, air comes into through the front and out through the back. The cpu fan blows down through the heatsink taking cooling the fins and dispirsing the hot air, it doesn't work well sucking the air up with most heatsinks and a regular fan.

The picture that was posted of a case and airflow is not a standard case, the psu is located in the bottom front of the case.

In a standard set up the air should flow from the front to the back of the case, or back to front, but all in the one direction. If you have your psu at the back sucking out air (which it does), and a fan directly below it blowing in cold air, your not getting a good flow. The CPU, PSU, and harddrives make up most of the heat in your case. So in a traditional set up, cold air comes in through the front, over the harddrives, over the northbridge, over the cpu, and is extracted by the back fan and PSU. Different approaches are to have it the opposite way so that the coolest air blows over the the CPU first having the greatest effect. Both have their down sides, as the temp of the area around the CPU will be hotter than the Harddrives, so that if you do it reversed the warmer air has further to travel and doesn't get extracted as well. Some newer cases have set up air tunnels to keep the air seperate from the CPU and other areas of the case, it also creates a stronger air flow. Some keep their hardrives in a completely different compartment with in the case. Anywy I doubt this is the cause of the overheating. Try leave off the side of your case and see if it makes any difference, its better than bad air flow.

Getting artic silver or something like that is an alright move, it doesn't make a huge difference to the temps, but its a LOT easier to put on, more stickier and less runny than most. The tube is expensive for the amount you get but it'll last you for ages.

If you are going to resit or put a new heatsink on, take a look at a guide for doing it. Common problems are actually not putting too little thermal paste on, but putting too much only needs a tiny amount. Again people will argue how you can go about this, either to do a thin layer over the top of the chip or a blob in the middle and let the heatsink compress and spread it out. Its easy enough with AMD64 not like the old stinkin Athlons.

Givin the reported heat and your crashes, it definitly sounds like your heatsink was not fitted properly or as mentioned your motherboard is fecked. When you take it off, check see if there's any paste on it, or a heatpad (shudders) if there's a heatpad its may be a bitch to scrub off, which you WILL have to do if your resitting it with new thermal paste.

Cuddlesworth

Cant believe nobody mentioned dust, if there was going to be bad contact between the cpu and heatsink dont you think it would have always been there? Go down to maplins and get a can of compressed air and blow the clogged dust out of your heatsink.

Is1ldur

Thanks for all the answers guys. Not too sure I have it licked yet. Got the arctic silver and applied per the website. I managed to play Half Life 2 for about 20 minutes this time before the machine froze up. When I checked the temperaure history it appears to have stayed around mid 60's when playing and when it hit 70, it froze up. I checked the application of thermal paste and made sure I had a good covering, bet even now when I am just typing away here, the temp is already running at 52.
Surely I don't need a bigger fan above the heatsink?
WTF, temp is down to 43 now?
Is any of this natural?

Stephen

Are you sure your motherboard is reporting the correct temperatures? What make and model is the board?

uberpixie

Is1ldur wrote:

Thanks for all the answers guys. Not too sure I have it licked yet. Got the arctic silver and applied per the website. I managed to play Half Life 2 for about 20 minutes this time before the machine froze up. When I checked the temperaure history it appears to have stayed around mid 60's when playing and when it hit 70, it froze up. I checked the application of thermal paste and made sure I had a good covering, bet even now when I am just typing away here, the temp is already running at 52.
Surely I don't need a bigger fan above the heatsink?
WTF, temp is down to 43 now?
Is any of this natural?

What case do you have?

What is your cable setup like?