Legit Reviews

Lately I've noticed that my computer room has been getting god awful hot. My case has a real time CPU temp probe thingie on the front that the battery was dead, so I just replaced it and saw my core temps are up a lot. Right now with the side of my case open, all 11 fans on max (or the normal 3/4) speed, and nothing open, my CPU is running at 45*. F@H makes my core get up to 55-60* which is pretty bad. I used to idle at 40-42* with a max of 48* under heavy load. I know my ultimate solution is get a better cooling system, aka water, but I don't have money for that crap right now. I've got too many bills coming up since school just started, so I'll be pushed back until November before I can buy any toys again.

What can you folks suggest? I recently (2-3 months) put AS5 compound on my core, so I know the thermal paste can't be too weak. I know when I put the AS5 on, it dropped the core from a normal of 45* at idle to ~41* at idle which was great.

Just for reference, specs:

- Thermaltake Xaser III (Same one reviewed on this website... physically! )
- Athlon XP 2600+ @ 352MHz FSB
- Asus A7N8X-E
- 2x 512MB Crucial PC2700 DDR
- Built by ATI 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro (Not overclocked currently)

Thanks in advance!

you can always drop your oc. thats what i did. to get 2.4ghz out of my cpu i was running at 2v now im down to 2.2 only 200mhz less and im running at 1.65v, now my temps are well with in normal and i was able to slow my fans down to a reasonable level. It sucks because i would love to have that extra 200mhz but until i to can finish my water rig i will have to survive at 2.2ghz.

Nails,
What heatsink are you running on that processor?
I'm with Infinite on this. i have a 2500+ mobile in the same board. At 2.4 i(200x12) it was running 45-48C. i dropped the multi to 11x200 and it is right about 38-40. and doesn't break 50C under load.

I've got a Thermaltake Volcano 11 on there with AS5 paste.

I can't do much with my multipliers as I think it's a BIOS issue. We've determined that my processor is indeed unlocked (Purchased April 2003), but the BIOS is most likely limiting me from changing anything more.

I'm still at stock voltage, but again I'm at 12.5 x 176. Just going up those few MHz in the core frequency didn't affect the temperatures much, but I'm sure it has some play, but not a lot.

you might want to take a look at the sink and see if its got alot of hair and dust build up. I have to clean mine out about every 1-2mths to keep it from getting to hot.

Nothing should be on it. I just put new AS5 paste on it less than two months ago and cleaned everything up then.

No, I think Infinite means the top of the heatsink. i have the thermaltake on my 2500+, and it sucks alot of dust and hair into the fins, and that does influence the cooling performance.
I'm likely to switch over to a thermalright heatsink, i use their stuff on all my other air-cooled systems, and the difference is very noticeable.

Yeah thats what i ment. Check the top of the sink under the fan, and see if the fins are clogged up. Dust and hair can make a much larger difference then people think.

infinitevalence wrote:Yeah thats what i ment. Check the top of the sink under the fan, and see if the fins are clogged up. Dust and hair can make a much larger difference then people think.

could you just get some compressed air and blow it out, or does it have to be disassembled to cleaned out by hand? i've had a lot of problems with dust building up over time, but it's just normal, especially if the computer is on the floor (especially carpeted floor). dust is just everywhere down there. and everytime you sit down to your computer, your feet kick up dust that ends up on the fan or heatsink or whatever.

it is always a good first step to use compressed air, why disasemble anything if you don't have to?

capper5016 wrote:it is always a good first step to use compressed air, why disasemble anything if you don't have to?

i don't know. i thought maybe the air could damage the sensitive components or something. plus, taking apart stuff is fun.

putting it back together is a different story, though.

as long as you dont have watter in your compressor or unless your using like 30k psi you should be ok. I use a $20 high output pump thats used for camping beds, and it works great.

Ah yeah... sorry, I'm kinda out of it today. Had an interesting day at work and that wore me out pretty fast.

I'll look at it, but last I checked there wasn't a lot of dust in my case. The case has filters on it which help filter out most dust, but they aren't perfect, that I say say! I'll check that out tomorrow if I have time. I need to buy some more compressed air anyway.

NO HUFFING, we need all the quality forum members we can get so dont go sucking down that air duster k.

infinitevalence wrote:NO HUFFING, we need all the quality forum members we can get so dont go sucking down that air duster k.

OMG you can suck the air? sounds like fun. someone should do a review on what air in a can gets the best results. just kidding. you'd have to be a real airhead (get it?) to try something that stupid.

Argh.... my CPU is getting hotter as we speak. It now idles at 46-47*C after running F@H non-stop for 3 weeks. I did turn off my PC for 20 minutes to clean all the dust from the heatsink and all the fans. Didn't fix much of anything.

Time for a thermal paste reapplication or a new HSF? I put AS5 on there a few months back. Current heatsink is the Thermaltake Volcano 11. I hate how the heatsink applies to the CPU, but it was originally doing a decent job. I DO want to get a water cooling system in the future, but not now. I've got other priorities.

you can't go wrong with a thermalright and a panaflo fan. you can try a re-ap of your thermal compound as well. My system idles at 4849C with a thermalright XP-120 while running F@H in the background.

Anyone else want to chime in on this again?

Just keep an eye on the tempreture in your room, its possible that the average temp in your room is what is causing the spike in temp on you computer. you may not need to reaply TIM or change fans or heatsinks. try opening a window or something see if that helps.

I'm in my basement, so it's actually pretty cool down here. The room that I'm in does get warm when my CPU runs above 55*, but that's about it. She doesn't run above 55* anymore though. It idles at 47* and under full load it hits 51* max. I'm confused with that to be honest.