# Athlon 2500+ (Barton) and it's temperature...

## qnx

Hi! Just got new CPU and I have no idea about how hot it should run. During full load (emerge a-lot-of-things-cause-I'm-rebuilding-the-system) I get  50-52 C @ 4100 RPM with my Thermaltake VOLCANO 9. Funny thing is that if I run it att full RPM (5100) the temperature is only about 2 degrees lower. So I wonder if I can run CPU in 52 C or if I have to set the fan on max speed and put my headphones on...

What do you think??

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## handsomepete

I have a very unventilated older Athlon that's been running @ ~54C non-stop for about 10 months without issues.  That's probably not the best thing in the world, but it can survive.  

If you're worried, don't bother with your heatsink fan so much.  Instead get a better case front fan (Antec makes some quiet ones that push a decent amount of air) and move some of the clutter out of the way (I use electric tape to stick cable/wires against the case side) so you have a clear path of fresh cool air coming in from the front of the case.  Airflow is just as important as the heatsink stuff.

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## qnx

Right, thanks for the tip!

BTW, how about CFLAGS?? I have "-march=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe" . Anything else??

Cheers, 

Jacob

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## PowerFactor

50~52C at full load doesn't sound like a problem to me.  Save you ears, they're more important than 2C of cpu temp. :Wink:   AMD specifies maximum die temp at 90C.  Your die may be a few degrees hotter than the motherboard shows, but it's nowhere near that.

CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" 

works well for me.

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## qnx

Good, thanks =)

Now I'm going to overclock it a bit, should run @ 2Ghz without a problem, I think....

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## Yak

As far as cooling goes, for cable routing I recommend small zip ties instead of electrical tape, because once the tape gets older and warmed up in there awhile it will make your wires and case gunky. I'm also trying these little 3m plastic hooks with an adhesive with a pull tab for holding wires, they still stickin to the case after a week  :Smile: 

For cflags some add -fomit-frame-pointer. Breaks debugging but supposed to run (a little?) faster. 

Oh, and IIRC, the newest athlons (thoroughbred B + barton?) are rated 85C not 90, if that matters..

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## RangerDude

My athlon mobile goes up to 80C before the fan starts.   :Rolling Eyes: 

The notebook gets pretty hot underneath sometimes..

AMD is generally hot. If you want a colder CPU, get a Celeron or P4.

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## qnx

No...it's not that I want a colder CPU, I don't want to run P4, nor Celeron (no way man...). I just wanted to know if it's normal and if I can run this CPU in about 50 Celsius and still have it a couple of years...

You see, before this AthlonXP I had  a PIII 450mhz which didn't had any thermistor so I don't actually know what temperatures are normal for idle respective full load states. That's why I ask =)

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## RangerDude

Celeron is great. Very cheap and in my server.   :Cool: 

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## qnx

 *RangerDude wrote:*   

> Celeron is great. Very cheap and in my server.  

 Cheap, yes. But great? Dunno....I just don't trust Celerons and Durons for my power user workstation. Gentoo deserves a great CPU, I think   :Laughing: 

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## RangerDude

Celerons aren't super CPUs but they are damn stable, need almost no active cooling and are cheap. My server uptime was once 60 days. That's the longest I had a computer not rebooting.   :Rolling Eyes: 

For stability and long uptime. I only trust Intel CPU. AMDs just get so darn hot I'm afraid they start a fire og just fry one day.  :Wink: 

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## Malakin

 *Quote:*   

> AMD is generally hot. If you want a colder CPU, get a Celeron or P4.

 

This is not true:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1718&p=4

Celerons produce the most heat for the performance, by far (of recent processors).

A Barton 3000 is 74 watts while a P4 3.0 is 82 watts.

Here's another site with more info, a little harder to read since there's so much listed though:

http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm

There is no magic chip that uses less power. An Athlon XP 1700+ thoroughbred comes in under 50 watts, so does a Pentium 4 1800 willamette but a Barton 3000 at 74 watts is a hell of a lot faster ;)

 *Quote:*   

> No...it's not that I want a colder CPU, I don't want to run P4, nor Celeron (no way man...). I just wanted to know if it's normal and if I can run this CPU in about 50 Celsius and still have it a couple of years... 

 50C is totally normal. AMD CPU's with stock AMD heatsinks on them usually sit in the low 50's.

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## taskara

hmmm.. I have this exact cpu you mention

Barton 2500+ (defualt speed of 1800mhz @ 1.65 volts)

I am running it at 2.2ghz (200fsb x 11) 1.75 volts

it NEVER goes over 40 degrees celcius.

and that's with my volcano 7+ on the SLOWEST speed

so yours seems a little high to me...

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## Yak

 *RangerDude wrote:*   

> .For stability and long uptime. I only trust Intel CPU.  AMDs just get so darn hot I'm afraid they start a fire og just fry one day. 

 

Which ones? This is just a biased generalization. 

My main computer is running an AMD K6-3 450 that has been overclocked to 550Mhz its entire life. It's ran nearly 24 hours a day for what 4 or 5 years, and it barely gets warm running seti@home constantly. It used to run windows 98 for over a month between reboots and I'm sure it would run gentoo for months probably years without rebooting. 

Only AMD cpu I know that runs hot is the 1 Ghz slot A athlon, that one really warms a room up nicely. This particular cpu survived a fried Abit motherboard due to bad capacitors, and also survived the cpu fan being accidently unplugged for days   :Exclamation:  The heatsink was hot enough to fry an egg (and fingers, ouch), and it was still running, and still is running over a year later. 

Yea, 50-52C sounds cool to me, assuming the thermistor is reading accurately. Room temps and case design/fans can have a big effect on cpu temps too. Cpus are pretty durable, it's not like it's going to fry if you run it 2 degrees warmer. 

Dunno about putting volcanoes on your cpu, myself i picked the vantec aeroflow for the new 2700+ toy.  :Wink: 

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## paulisdead

that seems a bit high to me for a Barton.  My Barton 2500 is at 99F idle (that's what like 37C?), 108F load, with a volcano 9 at full blast, and it's overclocked to 2.13ghz.  Hopin when my NF7-s comes this week I'll be able to get it higher.  Then again I do have 3 80mm fans in the case too.

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## Malakin

 *Quote:*   

> it NEVER goes over 40 degrees celcius.
> 
> and that's with my volcano 7+ on the SLOWEST speed
> 
> so yours seems a little high to me...

 

You're probably reading the motherboard temp (even if whatever you're reading is calling it cpu temp). An XP2500 Barton pumps out 68 watts and a volcano 7+ is a mediocre heatsink at best since the way it's designed there is a large gap between the fan and the heatsink so most of the air just spills out the sides.

 *Quote:*   

>  My main computer is running an AMD K6-3 450 that has been overclocked to 550Mhz its entire life. It's ran nearly 24 hours a day for what 4 or 5 years, and it barely gets warm running seti@home constantly.

 Typical power consumption for a k6-3 450 is 12 watts and it peaks at 20 watts so no surprise it doesn't get all that hot.

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## taskara

 *Malakin wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   it NEVER goes over 40 degrees celcius.
> 
> and that's with my volcano 7+ on the SLOWEST speed
> 
> so yours seems a little high to me... 
> ...

 

perhaps this is the case, however I do work with computers for a living, and I can tell you that the heatsink is hardly hot at all.

If I was not reading an incorrect temperature, then surely the heatsink would be hot.

have you had different results with a barton cpu?

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## RangerDude

I also have the Volcano 7+ heatsink.

Quotes about it being a mediocre heatsink are simply not true!

V7+ is in the better end of heatsink and ideal for overclocking. It is made out of pure cobber and with many fine wings. Really ark work!

My p4 1600@2000 is 38/44C at 0/100% cpu usage. Got no compiler errors ever.

Though, when I oc'ed to 1,6@2,4GHz I got a disk crask twice and had to reinstall windows and linux twice. NOT FUN. I think it is my HD that can't handle the oc'ed bus.

Fun story:

I once had a 486 I was about trash. It was in the days when there was no CPU socket security. So, just for fun, I rotated the CPU 180 degrees and swiched on, just to see what would happen.   :Twisted Evil:   :Twisted Evil:   :Twisted Evil: 

The first 5 secs the computer kinda sound like... well... not normal. And then *smoke*. LOL!   :Rolling Eyes: 

I'm a bit nervous about M$ buying all CPU manufactures to spread their palladium crap- soon, we won't be able to run linux.   :Evil or Very Mad: 

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## sweede

the amount of air flowing through the case has a huge impact on CPU tempatures than the speed of the fan.

i've got two exhause two intake and a zalman CNPS5000 heatsink 

similar to this, http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps5100Cu.htm , but id ont have that cool fan controller

my CPu runnin at 180fsb on a 12.5 multiplier stays cool (~50c) after encoding DVD->divx for like, 8 hours straight. 

I also got this for my video card http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/zm80a-hp.htm

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## qnx

 *taskara wrote:*   

> hmmm.. I have this exact cpu you mention
> 
> Barton 2500+ (defualt speed of 1800mhz @ 1.65 volts)
> 
> I am running it at 2.2ghz (200fsb x 11) 1.75 volts
> ...

 

Shit...this looks intressting...However, as Malakin mentioned, are you sure you're reading the right temperature? Cause my sensors shows two, (actually three, the third has a temperature of 208.0 C all the time!! but I guess it's just beacuse I don't have any third thermistor) temperatures, the one is (CPU load 0%/100%) 19C/24C which is the thermistor located _next__to_ CPU and 34C/52C which is the one located _under_ CPU socket. All temperatures @ 4100RPM from my Volcano 9. And would you please tell my what MoBo you're using? And do you have any other fans in the chassi?

By the way, you all mention Volcano 7+ and lower temperatures. I thought Volcano 9 was next generation of Volcano series, isn't it?? Is 7+ better then 9   :Rolling Eyes:  ??

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## taskara

yeah the Volcano 7+ is the better of the two, it's also slightly more expensive, 100% copper base and fins. Volcano 11 is out too.. dunno how good it is.

I am definately reading the temperature correctly, because the heatsink hardly feels warm at all, and I've been using athlons since b4 they were released  :Wink:  so I'm sure it's all good. Secondly, another guy comfirmed how cool his barton is running. do a search on google and see how hot they are running around the world, you'll be surprised  :Very Happy: 

also I use an asus a7n8x deluxe (rev 2), which reads the temperature directly from the CPU itself, unlike the kt400 and other chipsets.

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## qnx

Damn...you're scarring me...Really. Guess I have to shut down my computer and buy some fans to get better air flow inside the chassi, I'm sure that's the source of my problem =(

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## handsomepete

Heh, weird.  I was about to say what a low temperature that is and then I had to reboot my PC (with a Barton in it).  I checked the temp in the bios and it's running at 28 degrees.  Neat.

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## qnx

 *handsomepete wrote:*   

> Heh, weird.  I was about to say what a low temperature that is and then I had to reboot my PC (with a Barton in it).  I checked the temp in the bios and it's running at 28 degrees.  Neat.

 

I repete: if you have Abit NF7 or something similar, build on the same platform (as Epox RDA8+ and others) the temp1 in lm_sensors is the thermistor next to CPU, not under. temp2 shows the real temp of CPU.

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## handsomepete

 *qnx wrote:*   

>  *handsomepete wrote:*   Heh, weird.  I was about to say what a low temperature that is and then I had to reboot my PC (with a Barton in it).  I checked the temp in the bios and it's running at 28 degrees.  Neat. 
> 
> I repete: if you have Abit NF7 or something similar, build on the same platform (as Epox RDA8+ and others) the temp1 in lm_sensors is the thermistor next to CPU, not under. temp2 shows the real temp of CPU.

 

Ah, if only I could even get lm_sensors to run, but alas - it won't compile against the dev kernel without some legwork I'm too lazy to do.  This was from the CPU temp in the bios (a7v8x) as that's the only readout I have available to me right now.  It should be noted that the other two athlons in the room are running at 60C and 54C right now.

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## qnx

 *handsomepete wrote:*   

> It should be noted that the other two athlons in the room are running at 60C and 54C right now.

 

OK, and are you doing something special with them or they just "stand" there? For how long have they been running like that?

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## handsomepete

 *qnx wrote:*   

>  *handsomepete wrote:*   It should be noted that the other two athlons in the room are running at 60C and 54C right now. 
> 
> OK, and are you doing something special with them or they just "stand" there? For how long have they been running like that?

 

One's my webserver, one's my fileserver.  The webserver has been running like this (on a broken motherboard) pretty much nonstop for about a year and a half.  The fileserver is relatively new (and having some wicked X troubles), but seems to be running along pretty well.

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## qnx

Right, thanks. So....I think I can run it as it is BUT it would be nice to get some chassi fans too, since I'm going to use my CPU much more then a webb or fileserver dose. Thanks, again!

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## qnx

GODDAMIIT!!!! I can't stand it anymore! This time, I was compiling k3b and playing with KDE when the computer just shuted down and sounded exacly like an ambulance!!! What is it about?? Anyone else with this ambulance problem??

p.s I'm not joking...   :Crying or Very sad: 

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## Malakin

 *Quote:*   

> I am definately reading the temperature correctly, because the heatsink hardly feels warm at all

 taskara, do the fins on your 7+ heatsink almost touch the fan or is there a gap in between? On the 7+ I have there is a significant gap, I'm wondering if they started making them cheaper after a while and I got a cheaper version of the 7+. My 7+ is outperformed by both a volcano 6+ and a 9. The volcano 6 is probably the best design as all the air is forced through the fins and it's slightly rectangular, unfortunately it doesn't have an 80mm fan on it (nor is it copper). The 7+ is not pure copper as mine quickly turned an odd color and it's not the color of oxidized copper, it is very heavy though so it must be at least mostly copper, maybe it's coated with something but it looks copper when you take it out of the box. I modded my 7+ so that the fan is now touching the fins on the heatsink but haven't bothered to try it since I did that, I currently have a 6+ with a manual fan speed controller on one cpu and it's working quite nicely (very quiet when I turn it down). Another system is using a 9 with a quiet 80mm fan on it and that's also working fairly nicely. The 7+ I was shipped using a quiet 80mm fan ended up with a temperature of 62C, putting the same fan on the 9 ended up around 50C, allways using silver heatsink compound.

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## Odin

 *handsomepete wrote:*   

> I have a very unventilated older Athlon that's been running @ ~54C non-stop for about 10 months without issues.  That's probably not the best thing in the world, but it can survive.  
> 
> If you're worried, don't bother with your heatsink fan so much.  Instead get a better case front fan (Antec makes some quiet ones that push a decent amount of air) and move some of the clutter out of the way (I use electric tape to stick cable/wires against the case side) so you have a clear path of fresh cool air coming in from the front of the case.  Airflow is just as important as the heatsink stuff.

 

Good advice, removing my (slow - Panaflo 80mm L1A) front fan makes my CPU temps go up about 10C. (from 32-42, approx) This is an Athlon XP 1700+ running at 2.0ghz, with a Volcano 7. Works well enough for me.   :Razz: 

Most motherboards report pretty incorrect temps anyway... Don't put too much faith in them.

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## taskara

 *Malakin wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   I am definately reading the temperature correctly, because the heatsink hardly feels warm at all taskara, do the fins on your 7+ heatsink almost touch the fan or is there a gap in between? On the 7+ I have there is a significant gap, I'm wondering if they started making them cheaper after a while and I got a cheaper version of the 7+. My 7+ is outperformed by both a volcano 6+ and a 9. The volcano 6 is probably the best design as all the air is forced through the fins and it's slightly rectangular, unfortunately it doesn't have an 80mm fan on it (nor is it copper). The 7+ is not pure copper as mine quickly turned an odd color and it's not the color of oxidized copper, it is very heavy though so it must be at least mostly copper, maybe it's coated with something but it looks copper when you take it out of the box. I modded my 7+ so that the fan is now touching the fins on the heatsink but haven't bothered to try it since I did that, I currently have a 6+ with a manual fan speed controller on one cpu and it's working quite nicely (very quiet when I turn it down). Another system is using a 9 with a quiet 80mm fan on it and that's also working fairly nicely. The 7+ I was shipped using a quiet 80mm fan ended up with a temperature of 62C, putting the same fan on the 9 ended up around 50C, allways using silver heatsink compound.

 

yeah there is a gap... but I have done some tests in the past, and found that the gap is actually better.

the reason is that the air in the gap is what's pushed through the fins.

think about the fins on a fan. it's not the air above the fan that's pushed through the fins, it's the air on the other side of the fin, ie between the fin and the heatsink. once that is pushed through, move air from the top comes down.

but the volume of air that you can push through, is limited to that tiny amount under each fin.

if there is a gap, sure some air will go out the sides, but the volume of air able to be pushed through is about 4 times that of a fan sitting right on top of the heatsink.

There is a balance of course. you can't have the fan too far away  :Wink:  but the volcano 7+ really only has two sides where the wair can excape out the edge, because of the metal bracket holding the fan above the cpu.

u can test it for yourself and see!  :Very Happy: 

secondly, it may not be pure copper, but it's 100% copper, meaning it doesn't have an aluminium core to sit on the diode, and then goes from aluminium to copper for the base and fins.  :Smile: 

 *qnx wrote:*   

> GODDAMIIT!!!! I can't stand it anymore! This time, I was compiling k3b and playing with KDE when the computer just shuted down and sounded exacly like an ambulance!!! What is it about?? Anyone else with this ambulance problem??
> 
> p.s I'm not joking...  

 

the siren is the motherboards warning to let you know it's over heating.

did you put thermal paste between your cpu and heatsink? if so what did you put there and how much. if that is not done correctly, then the heat can't transfer fom the cpu die to the heatsink, and it will overheat.

what is your voltage set on? it shoudl only need to be 1.65, or 1.7, even if overclocked to 2.2ghz.

 *Odin wrote:*   

>  *handsomepete wrote:*   I have a very unventilated older Athlon that's been running @ ~54C non-stop for about 10 months without issues.  That's probably not the best thing in the world, but it can survive.  
> 
> If you're worried, don't bother with your heatsink fan so much.  Instead get a better case front fan (Antec makes some quiet ones that push a decent amount of air) and move some of the clutter out of the way (I use electric tape to stick cable/wires against the case side) so you have a clear path of fresh cool air coming in from the front of the case.  Airflow is just as important as the heatsink stuff. 
> 
> Good advice, removing my (slow - Panaflo 80mm L1A) front fan makes my CPU temps go up about 10C. (from 32-42, approx) This is an Athlon XP 1700+ running at 2.0ghz, with a Volcano 7. Works well enough for me.  
> ...

 

this was true before amd built the temperature sensor directly into the cpu.

the motherboard gets the temperature directly from the cpu now (so long as your mainbord has this enabled)

I agree that before, when they used to use thermal diodes, that the temperature was a bit shakey.

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## moss

Well I've got an Athlon 2600+ Barton on a Abit NF7 with a EKL Blade XP heatsink and under full load it never goes above 55 C, not sure about idle as I always have Folding@home running.  The heatsink fan apparently goes up to 4100 RPM but is at the moment not going above 2600 RPM.

When I first built this machine I had a problem with overheating, the CPU was  getting up to temperatures of 70 C plus, with just the BIOS running!  Turned out I had used too much thermal paste when I first built the machine.  I won't make that mistake again!

So the temperate you're getting seems fine to me.

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## qnx

Right...

But what about the crashes and sound of an ambulance when running e.g burnK7 (aka cpuburn) or stress?

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## qnx

 *taskara wrote:*   

>  *qnx wrote:*   GODDAMIIT!!!! I can't stand it anymore! This time, I was compiling k3b and playing with KDE when the computer just shuted down and sounded exacly like an ambulance!!! What is it about?? Anyone else with this ambulance problem??
> 
> p.s I'm not joking...   
> 
> the siren is the motherboards warning to let you know it's over heating.
> ...

 

A friend of mine pit the thermal paste there, called arctic sliver or something like that. And he knows what he's doing...It also seems to work, since I never go over 56C degrees.

No overclocking involved, just standard 1.83Ghz.

And the siren doesn't start when just using KDE or watching movies, last time it started (without me trying to start it by running stress or cpuburn) was when I used KDE, VmWare and compiled k3b at the same time. CPU had about 55C that time.

Also, it happens as fast as I launch cpuburn and the temperature gets over...hum....42-50 degrees, really hard to define. But I'm not sure if it has to do with the temperature... More with FULL (100%, not 99%) CPU load, a kind of 'shock' as when start cpuburn or compilation of a Qt app... What can it be??

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## taskara

hmmm.. not sure mate..

that sound is usually the warning sound for a cpu overheat..

check the manual or onthe internet, and see if they have informatino about the siren.. it could be memory crapping out or something..

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## Malakin

 *Quote:*   

> yeah there is a gap... but I have done some tests in the past, and found that the gap is actually better.
> 
> the reason is that the air in the gap is what's pushed through the fins.

 I don't agree with your logic. The closer the fan, the more air is blown through the fins instead of around the fins. All well built high performance fans are either touching the fins or are in a casing of some sort which forces the air through the fins.

 *Quote:*   

> exacly like an ambulance!!! What is it about?? Anyone else with this ambulance problem??
> 
> p.s I'm not joking... 

 You can usually disable the heat alarm in the bios. Or you could just disconnect the pc speaker. I don't recommend either of these though as there may actually be a problem.

I've seen a guy leave the sticker on that covers the thermal strip on a stock amd fan (how stupid can you get?) and the cpu was still only running 60C. I think someone would have to put a hell of a lot of thermal compound on for it to create a problem but when you do apply the stuff remember you just need enough to coat the surface so any imperfections between the cpu and the heatsink are filled in, any more is defeating the purpose.

You might want to take the heatsink off and check it just to make sure all is well. Sometimes people start off with a stock amd heatsink that used thermal tape and then they go to a new heatsink and they don't clean the thermal tape crap off the cpu properly before applying the heatsink compound which can cause gaps.

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## qnx

Well guys, I fixed it  :Very Happy: 

I had to reset the heatsink...something went wrong first time I put it there. But I still don't understand why it died on 55C when I sat the overheat protection in BIOS to 110C (!)

Anyway, it's fixed  :Very Happy:  And I'm soooooo glad  :Very Happy:  :Very Happy:  :Very Happy: 

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## taskara

and what's it running at now?

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## b-llwyd

My Tbred 2200+ runs at about 60C idle, 65-70 with 100% CPU load. I've googled around, and it seems to be a little high, but not alarmingly so. My BIOS shutdown temp is at 80C.

(Spire Falconrock II, white-ish thermal grease, bad air-flow in the case)

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## qnx

 *taskara wrote:*   

> and what's it running at now?

 

40C idle - 45 full load  :Very Happy:  Really happy with that, especially that I have bad airflow in the chassi (only one side chassi fan). 

 *Quote:*   

> My Tbred 2200+ runs at about 60C idle, 65-70 with 100% CPU load. I've googled around, and it seems to be a little high, but not alarmingly so. My BIOS shutdown temp is at 80C. 
> 
> (Spire Falconrock II, white-ish thermal grease, bad air-flow in the case)

 

Try resetting your heatsink. I'm sure it would help! I thought too that everyting was perfect with the heatsink and temperature was quite ok for an AthlonXP 2500+ (55 at full load) but after resetting I see *huge* changes!

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## taskara

coolies.. well now the temperature of barton is solved  :Smile: 

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