Question : Problem: Athlon XP2600+ (Temperatures)

Hello Experts

I recently purchased an Athlon 2600+ Thouroughbred and am very happy with it, but when I installed PC Alert 4 realised that it ran at 54degrees idle and up to as much as 65 under load!

I then purchased a Thermaltake volcano 9 with Arctic Silver 3 Compound but noticed the temperature only dropped to about 48 to 50. Is this normal? Arctic Silver apparently needs to run for 200 hours to break it in, in which during that period the temp should drop from 2 to 5.

Please let me know what you think

Thanks

Answer : Problem: Athlon XP2600+ (Temperatures)

Hello,

Firstly bear with me I know that I go on :)

Well, as others have said, the upper limit of the chip depends on your version/batch but generally the manufacturers upper rating is around 70-90C, it varies quite a lot. But realistically you don't want the temperature to get above 60C for a variety of reasons, some of the main ones:

When a chip, or a component generally, get hot it introduces noise into the circuitry. Now since CPU's are quite small that noise has the effect of making the chip unstable, then as it get hotter/spends more time at a hot temp. what happens is what generally happens to such things, it burns out. Now most CPU's can, if they stay within the normal operating temperature, last 10 - 100 years.
Obviously this lifespan won't be needed so the only issue is whether it's stable (the fact that this ties in pretty well with the higher temps. notwithstanding).

Now various AMD CPU's and their associated motherboards read the temperature different ways, generally either a internal diode
which is best (though not ideal) or an external (to the chip) sensor which has to be contacting the chip correctly. It's safe to say you are probably getting the reading from a diode which should be accurate to around 2-5C, though some will disagree. Now as this reading has to get through the motherboard to get to you so it could be off, as wdr503 says check your board manufacturers site for issues regarding the temperature readings, then ask here or check around for issues with your motherboard, Abit boards in particular report a higher temperature. Depending on your board you might be able to set it to shutdown if the temperatures reach a preset level (look in the BIOS). Confirm your general temp. readings by using another monitor: http://mbm.livewiredev.com - read all the stuff about your board/instructions or you might get the wrong results.

There is a quick way to check if your cooler is working correctly:
You take the max wattage of the chip and mutiply it by the C/W of your cooler to get the temp. rise above ambient e.g.
60W x C/W 0.50 = 30C plus room temperature of 23C, which works out at anything inside the case but lets say 30C = Chip Temp: 60C. Now your chip should output between 60 -70W at load and your coolers reported C/W is....well here is a problem as it changes it's speed and therefore it's C/W. The specs are on it's site:http://www.thermaltake.com/products/heatsink/v9CoolMod.htm
However I would use a better cooler, just my opinion - I use solid copper coolers just as a starting point, if the Volcanos's (Note: I have no exp. with Thermaltake coolers) max CFM at 55C is 75.7, I would say it's noisy but without the performance. If it's not then it's either not regulating it's speed correctly- so isn't spinning fast enough, or it's really quiet (doubtful), this link will take you to a site where you can listen to fan noise (yes that's listen to fan noise):http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/tecar.html so that you can compare.

And this link is to a previous question that was similar:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20687241.html

So when you read that you can see that if with 45 CFM on the CPU and 4 quiet Case fans I'm getting 40- 48 at it's hottest
(35-45C average) even with the higher wattage of your chip, 75 CFM should get your chip vastly cooler than 48 -50C but it's still what you (kind of) would expect with that cooler. You should try adding case fans or making sure that the case airflow is acceptable as that will raise it by 5-10 degrees.

Arctic Silver says that it's paste takes time to settle in, however in my experience it will either drop by nothing or 2C at max. Since you have this info. I'm assuming that you read and followed the instructions on their site (v. refreshing) so the paste isn't really an issue.

Finally after this monumental ramble (hey it's the weekend and I don't feel like cutting the grass), even 65C is fine for your chip. Run
this: http://users.bigpond.net.au/cpuburn/ and if your temperature after 30min is under 65 with no errors you're fine.

But if you want better cooling and you can put up with the noise of an 80mm at 75CFM then you could spend $150 and get it down another 15C easily so........oh just ask and I'll carry on.

Oh and this is the direct link to AMD CPU tech docs. (wait they take awhile to appear after you open the page):
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_3734_3748,00.html


Regards
Dalziel