Q: Just curious . I have an Epox 8rda + with an Athlon 2100. I have 5 fans. Ones on the CPU, in the diet, one on the side of the case, one is on top of the case, and the last one in the back of the case. When I first built this system, I have the program and the USDM said that my system is running at 46/47 C. Well, I looked today, and my temperature is now and the system is 51/52C 33/34C. Is there any reason for concern?
I opened the box and some wires pulled away from the fans and installing the fan in the back closer to the diet (two back into my Enermax case fan). I think if its too bad I could a round cable, but I still had all the wires from the diet.
Am me paranoid about 5 degrees to increase, or is within the normal temperature? I realize that the heat from the outside (when I use the computer, the temperature outside the village was about 40-60 degrees F), so that something might have to do, but I wanted to sure.
Thanks for your help !
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Re:Thanks DJ and guy for your dust/heatsink suggestion. If the temperature goes up too much, I'll check the heatsink. Currently, I'm running at 42C, so I'm not that worried. But I do appreciate your help!
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Re:FYI, here's my little experience with dust accumulation…
i've been running an IWill KK266/1.2Ath-C setup for about two years now doing only routine cleaning of the case when necessary. The computer runs almost 24.7, so i clean it out once a month or so. The temp had raised about 8 degrees C in the past two years so i decided it was probably time to disassemble, clean, and reassemble with arctic silver.
I finally took off the HSF (thermoengine w/ 7000rpm delta fan) to clean dust around it and found that there was so much dust accumulated on the heatsink and IN the heatsink that I'm surprised the temperature only went up 8 degrees. It was so bad, i could barely tell there were grooves/fins in the heatsink. Needless to say, i took it all outside and cleaned it up and when i fired it back up, temp was back to normal. Something you may want to consider.
Team Diesel Crew
Re:Shouldn't have said anything…it's around 55/60 outside now
I just have the retail fan/heatsink that came with the chip. I bought the retail for the 3 year warranty and for the fact that I knew the heatsink and fan that comes with it must be good or AMD wouldn't recommend using it!
Thanks for the note on the side fan. That's how it was shipped, so I thought it was correct. Right now, I'm running at 42C, but it's also cold outside! 
If I ever have to replace my heatsink, I'll try the Arctic Silver out. Since the new fan and the switching of the side fan has seemed to cool it down, I'll just keep a close eye on it for now.
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Re:Our gas bill has been 300+ bucks a month for 3 months now. There was some discussion of stopping the gas companies from hiking prices during the winter (they went up 40% early in the season, then went up again later on) but of course that went nowhere as far as I know, probably got bribed out of legislation.
I don't think you'll really need the front fan. Most cases hardly have any airflow in that front area for fans, due to limitations from the plastic bezel combined with the badly ventilated metal face.
47C doesn't sound like too bad a temperature for it being 73F in the house. The side fan should definitely be blowing into the case onto the CPU, and the rear and top fans should be blowing out of the case.
What kind of heatsink do you have? Most should be blowing onto the heatsink, not away from it (known as sucking). Only Alpha heatsinks are known for being designed for a sucking fan. The side fan blows nice outside air into the case, directly toward the CPU fan which can then blow it right onto the heatsink, so it gets the coolest air possible. When it's set to suck the air, it's limited by how much air can be pulled through the heatsink.
The thermal pad that comes with heatsinks isn't difficult to use, but it is a one-shot product. Once you clamp it onto the CPU and turn on the power, it changes state to a slightly liquid form for a short time, so it oozes a bit and becomes very thin. If you take the heatsink off, you can't reuse it because it won't be able to fill the gaps as well anymore and can actually trap air. You don't have to buy a new heatsink if it's removed though, you can either replace the pad with another thermal pad, or use another compound, after cleaning off the pad. Technically, the heatsink will have a small amount of the pad material left in the microscopic grooves, but it's generally not a significant deterrant to cooling; that is most likely what would make someone say you have to replace the heatsink.
The pad should be placed pretty close to the center of the square or rectangular portion of the heatsink, the part that goes over the CPU itself; don't count the "stepped" smaller area on the side of the heatsink, which sits over the cam lever part of the socket. You can safely set the heatsink on top of the CPU without setting the clip, to see exactly where the core will be touching. Thermal pads are considerably larger than the core of the CPU, so as long as you're near the middle, it should cover the core just fine. If you do ever remove your heatsink, you'll be able to see exactly where the core was touching, because the thermal pad will be in pristine condition around the core, but will be almost gone where the core touched. You can even see the lettering from the core pressed into the pad on the heatsink, and sometimes even pressed into the metal of the heatsink itself.
Other thermal materials are slightly more complicated to use, but do provide significantly better heat transfer (except for cheap silicone paste). Arctic Silver 3 is the best. You can just rub it onto the heatsink and the CPU core and you're pretty much done (the AS site has detailed instructions). The thing to remember is that you're not trying to create a layer of material between the core and the heatsink. The heatsink clip puts a lot of pressure on the core, and will squeeze out excess compound. This is by design. You want the metal of the heatsink to contact the metal of the core as much as possible, because that is the best heat transfer. The thermal material is only supposed to fill in the microscopic grain of the heatsink and core (and the lettering on the core) so that even those areas provide some thermal transfer better than the air that would normally be trapped in those grooves.
Joe Traders Dow $ecrets
Re:you should see my last gas bill here in chicago…
Last months avg temp 21F.
I *scoff* at you for sweating in 73 degrees … lol
Im wearing 2 pairs of socks ,,, and 3 layers of shirts…
(damned the gas prices !!! )
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Re:Originally posted by: guy
It's pretty crappy cooling to have 3 case fans and the CPU and PSU fans running and only getting to even 46C. I've kept my Athlon MP 1.2GHz and now my XP 2100+ down to that temperature with a single quiet case fan behind the CPU being run at low speed by the control of the Antec power supply, and the stock Athlon cooler on the 2100+, plus the low speed fans in the Antec PSU. I'd bet you could remove the fan at the top at least and not have any cooling differences, and possibly even the side fan. But of course then you'd have needless holes in the case.
Well, since I was going to town today, I went to Compusa to look for a front case fan. When I saw the case that I had there (called the Black Widow by Comp, but it's really just an Enermax Rainbow), I saw that they had the side fan blowing air into the computer (mine was blowing out). So, I bought the front case fan and swapped the direction of the side fan. Now it's running at 47C. Still not great, but not as bad as 58F like it hit this morning.
Make sure there's no dust accumulations on the fans and heatsink. I was amazed at the amount of dust the stock Athlon XP cooler collected in a very short period. The temperature itself isn't a huge concern, but if it has changed then that's something to try and fix. It's doubtful that you'll see any difference in temps just from different cables or moving them around.
See, since this was my first computer, my cabling is a MESS. I need to get some twist ties or something, because I thought all those cables in there were restricting the airflow.
You might want to take off your heatsink from the CPU and replace the existing thermal compound with Arctic Silver 3 if you're not using it already. It can make a big difference. But you should still try and figure out why the temperature has gone up in the first place.
Thanks, and I might do that in the future, but I'll stick with the stock right now. That, to me, was the most difficult part of assembling the computer. All the warnings stated that you got one shot with the thermal tape, and if it didn't work, you were screwed and had to buy another heatsink. This might sound stupid, but I really don't know WHERE to put the thermal compound…on the middle of the chip? On the bottom of the heatsink but not touching the chip? I figure it would go smack dab in the middle of the chip on the metal part, but I didn't want to risk anything.
By the way, where are you that it's warming up to the point that you consider 40 to 60 degrees to be colder than it is now? It was 1 degree Fahrenheit in my part of Massachusetts this morning and we thought it was a nice break when we got to 40 degrees for a couple of days in a row before it got freezing again.
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My house's A/C is busted (since it's winter, we haven't fixed it yet…hopefully it'll get fixed this week), and the temperature in my house today was at least 78 degrees with no heater running since Tuesday. Before it rained today, I bet it was in the 70's outside. As I was struggling with the computer, I was sweating!
Now, this is probably WAY overkill, but here's my setup with the fans. The only problem is that my new front case fan really doesn't have a place to suck in the cool air from, so I might take out the floppy plate (I have 2) and replace it with some grill of some sort that lets air flow through it. Otherwise, the only place directly sucking air in from the room is the side fan.
Front case fan – blowing toward the harddrive to the back of the computer
Side case fan – sucking air from the outside straight over the video card and processor
CPU fan – blowing air straight out right at the side case fan…wonder if a little thundercloud might develop!
Rear case fan – blowing air straight out into the room
Top case fan – blowing air out of the top of the case into the room
Power supply fan – blowing air straight out into the room
Just checked my stats, and I'm running at 47C for the CPU and 33C for the case. It's 73 degrees F in my house now. I could always try swapping the side fan so it blows air out into the room again, but if I can keep it at 47, I'm happier than I was this morning. I just need to run some processor intensive games and see how bad it gets.
Thanks for the help!
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Re:It's pretty crappy cooling to have 3 case fans and the CPU and PSU fans running and only getting to even 46C. I've kept my Athlon MP 1.2GHz and now my XP 2100+ down to that temperature with a single quiet case fan behind the CPU being run at low speed by the control of the Antec power supply, and the stock Athlon cooler on the 2100+, plus the low speed fans in the Antec PSU. I'd bet you could remove the fan at the top at least and not have any cooling differences, and possibly even the side fan. But of course then you'd have needless holes in the case.
Make sure there's no dust accumulations on the fans and heatsink. I was amazed at the amount of dust the stock Athlon XP cooler collected in a very short period. The temperature itself isn't a huge concern, but if it has changed then that's something to try and fix. It's doubtful that you'll see any difference in temps just from different cables or moving them around.
You might want to take off your heatsink from the CPU and replace the existing thermal compound with Arctic Silver 3 if you're not using it already. It can make a big difference. But you should still try and figure out why the temperature has gone up in the first place.
By the way, where are you that it's warming up to the point that you consider 40 to 60 degrees to be colder than it is now? It was 1 degree Fahrenheit in my part of Massachusetts this morning and we thought it was a nice break when we got to 40 degrees for a couple of days in a row before it got freezing again.
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