Heat worries

[Guest]

I'm seriously worried about the heat of my rig. Maybe you guys could
help me out?

It's an Athlon64 3200+ with Antec Sonata case. It's all stock cooling,
no overclocking.

The thing is, I've had it for a year now, and I've had no problems with
heat. (Well actually, I didn't pay any attention to the heat.) But
yesterday, while I was playing a game, the heat warning beeps cut in.
It was the first time that had happened. I checked the BIOS, and heat
warning was set at 75 degrees C! Yikes.

After that, I let the box cool down, then turned it on, and just looked
at the idle temp in BIOS. It crawled up to 60 deg C before I got bored;
I think that's plenty to be worried about.

The CPU fan seems to be fine. I don't understand what could possibly be
making it run so hot. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Laszlo

 

[jmc]

Suddenly, without warning, (e-mail address removed) exclaimed
(5/15/2005 10:33 AM):

I'm seriously worried about the heat of my rig. Maybe you guys could
help me out?

It's an Athlon64 3200+ with Antec Sonata case. It's all stock cooling,
no overclocking.

The thing is, I've had it for a year now, and I've had no problems with
heat. (Well actually, I didn't pay any attention to the heat.) But
yesterday, while I was playing a game, the heat warning beeps cut in.
It was the first time that had happened. I checked the BIOS, and heat
warning was set at 75 degrees C! Yikes.

After that, I let the box cool down, then turned it on, and just looked
at the idle temp in BIOS. It crawled up to 60 deg C before I got bored;
I think that's plenty to be worried about.

The CPU fan seems to be fine. I don't understand what could possibly be
making it run so hot. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Laszlo

Hmmm. Did you just install the CPU, or did this start after it's been
running fine for a while?

My first thought is your thermal tape or compound. If you've just
installed the CPU, sounds like you didn't apply it correctly, or the
heatsink isn't installed correctly.

If it's just started doing this, check that the fan's actually blowing.
Check all of your system fans. Check and clean excessive dust (not
with a standard vaccum tho). Check that the heatsink's still attached
properly.

You might want to install Motherboard Monitor, you can configure it so
the temps display in your system tray - quite handy (and free).

Hope this helps...

jmc

 

[John Hollingsworth]

*From:* (e-mail address removed)
*Date:* 15 May 2005 02:33:38 -0700

I'm seriously worried about the heat of my rig. Maybe you guys could
help me out?

It's an Athlon64 3200+ with Antec Sonata case. It's all stock cooling,
no overclocking.

The thing is, I've had it for a year now, and I've had no problems with
heat. (Well actually, I didn't pay any attention to the heat.) But
yesterday, while I was playing a game, the heat warning beeps cut in.
It was the first time that had happened. I checked the BIOS, and heat
warning was set at 75 degrees C! Yikes.

After that, I let the box cool down, then turned it on, and just looked
at the idle temp in BIOS. It crawled up to 60 deg C before I got bored;
I think that's plenty to be worried about.

The CPU fan seems to be fine. I don't understand what could possibly be
making it run so hot. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Laszlo

Sounds like your CPU to heatsink joint needs remaking as a first check.

I have the Sonata with a 3500+ and with a Zalman 7000. With the Zalman
fan on minimum speed, and Cool n Quiet enabled CPU idle temp is ~ 27deg C
in a 21 deg C room and the motherboard is at ~ 26 deg C. 100% CPU gives me
a temp of ~ 45 deg C.

John

Please remove "NO-SPAM" if sending email.

 

[Gary C]

If it's just started doing this, check that the fan's actually blowing.
Check all of your system fans. Check and clean excessive dust (not with a
standard vaccum tho).

Could be dust packed into the heatsink, from the fan.

 

[Guest]

with

Could be dust packed into the heatsink, from the fan.

Unfortunately, I don't have a screwdriver here (I'll borrow one
tomorrow). But I took off the side of the case, and just kinda blew
into the fan as best I could.

The temperature dropped 10 degrees. *boggle*

Wow. I had _no_ idea dust could make such a huge difference. I'm
definitely going to pay more attention to it in the future.

Thanks for all your help.

Laszlo

 

[ERIC]

Hey man --- you gotta get that cool n quiet driver going .. when idling cuts
the voltage and frequency and thus heat..

did your heat sink get any compound on it ? is there pressure on it
contacting the surface of the cpu ? did you put your big fat sweaty smelly
stinky oilly finger on the surface of the chip and /or heatsink surface and
not clean it with alcohol ( ? ( that would prevent heat conduction through
the paste because it would be an insulator ) ..

maybe your heatsink is a POS. u dont have to get a copper one , but it
better damn well have an 60 to 80 mm fan on it and some good sized aluminum
...

actually the 64bit is supposed to put out less heat because of cool n quiet
and transistor optimization ( i mean lower voltage levels). -- less heat
power dissapation.

even at 100% load , you must have a tangle of wires in your case, no intake
fans and very poor output fans...

how many _other _ fans in the case do you have ? u need at least 1 or2
exhaust fans in the case back, and if you can it is very desireable to get
an 80 mm min. in the front for intake ..
as well as an intake on the side cover. better yet get some 120's ...
better yet get some water cooling to quiet the whole thing down.

how many hard drives is there ? are they ATA or SATA ? ATA drives, floppy
and CD-ROM cables really restrict air flow in a case and you need to be
creative in tying them up to reduce air restictions.