Case Temp vs Die Temp

[Ed]

Athlon 64 shows 70C Case Temp max.
Athlon XP shows 85C Die Temp max.

Why didn't AMD just give us the max die temp for A64?, isn't that where
these (754) boards are reading the CPU temp from anyways?

And what do they mean by "case", the metal heat spreader on top of the
CPU?

Thanks,
Ed

 

[Rob Stow]

Athlon 64 shows 70C Case Temp max.
Athlon XP shows 85C Die Temp max.

Why didn't AMD just give us the max die temp for A64?, isn't that where
these (754) boards are reading the CPU temp from anyways?

And what do they mean by "case", the metal heat spreader on top of the
CPU?

No. The "case" is the resin or ceramic-like material
around the actual cpu. It is also often referred
to as the "packaging". To put it yet another way,
the case is the part that has all of the pins sticking
out of the bottom. And yet another way, when you
look at the top of an Athlon XP, you can see the shiny
die in the middle of the dark gray case.