CPU Temps

  • Thread starter Ray Cassick \(Home\)
  • Start date
R

Ray Cassick \(Home\)

Can anyone here comment on a good CPU temp range?

I have an Intel P4 #Ghz CPU running in an ASUS P4P800E Mobo. I have been
running into random BSODS recently and am suspecting 1 of a few things:

1 - Flaky power supply. According to EVEREST the CPU core voltage varies
from 1.36 to 1.42. I also suspect that it might be a bit under powered
because I have a rather large system (2 180Gig IDE HDs, 1 CDR, 1 CDRW and 1
DVDRW). Current PS is 425 watt.

2 - Flaky RAM. I have 2 Gigs of PC3200 (Nanya M2U51264DS8HC3G-5T) in stalled
(2 ranks, 4 banks) but I have run several memory checkers on them and they
seem fine. The memory tester from Microsoft though HATES my system for some
reason and refuses to tell me that I have one good byte of RAM at all. It
says that every bit of my RAM is bad. Go figure.

3 - CPU heat issues. I have always suspected that my CPU might be runnign a
bit hot. EVERTEST says that my CPU temp is goes anywhere form 35c to 44c and
that seems too hot for me. I have a good copper heat sink with a polished
base plate and a good amount of thermal grease. EVEREST also reports that my
CPU fan is running @ 2700RPM. Seems a bit low also but I cannot find a place
to change it in the BIOS.
 
S

spodosaurus

Ray said:
Can anyone here comment on a good CPU temp range?

I have an Intel P4 #Ghz CPU running in an ASUS P4P800E Mobo. I have been
running into random BSODS recently and am suspecting 1 of a few things:

1 - Flaky power supply. According to EVEREST the CPU core voltage varies
from 1.36 to 1.42. I also suspect that it might be a bit under powered
because I have a rather large system (2 180Gig IDE HDs, 1 CDR, 1 CDRW and 1
DVDRW). Current PS is 425 watt.

Brand name or generic PSU?
2 - Flaky RAM. I have 2 Gigs of PC3200 (Nanya M2U51264DS8HC3G-5T) in stalled
(2 ranks, 4 banks) but I have run several memory checkers on them and they
seem fine. The memory tester from Microsoft though HATES my system for some
reason and refuses to tell me that I have one good byte of RAM at all. It
says that every bit of my RAM is bad. Go figure.

Which testers? How long did you leave them running for?
3 - CPU heat issues. I have always suspected that my CPU might be runnign a
bit hot. EVERTEST says that my CPU temp is goes anywhere form 35c to 44c and
that seems too hot for me.

That's a great temperature range.
I have a good copper heat sink with a polished
base plate and a good amount of thermal grease. EVEREST also reports that my
CPU fan is running @ 2700RPM. Seems a bit low also but I cannot find a place
to change it in the BIOS.

You forgot to suspect driver issues and to tell us which version of
Windows you're running.

Cheers,

Ari

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
R

Ray Cassick \(Home\)

spodosaurus said:
Brand name or generic PSU?
Generic crap one that came with a case (Bare bones kit from Tiger Direct)
thats why it is on my suspect list :) I replaced my 425 Watt PS with a 550
Mad Dog from CompUSA and my CPU core voltage is now rock solid at 1.41 and
all the other voltages are right where they should be an not wavering at
all.
Which testers? How long did you leave them running for?

I ran memtest86 for a full 24 hours, never had a single error. The memory
tester from MS as I said seems to not even say I have one good byte while
several versions of memtest say I am flawless.
That's a great temperature range.

I replaced the heatsink and Fan unit from the Intel one that came with the
CPU to a Hyper48 from Colloer Master. Running the system now for an hour
under good load (Burnning a DVD while unraring a large file set and Watching
a DIVx movie shows that my CPU temp has not gone over 33c at all.

Odd but the new Hintsink fan spins slower (only 1418RPM) but cools way
better. Must be that this one is 3 times the size of the factory one and is
ALL copper, not just copper core.
You forgot to suspect driver issues and to tell us which version of
Windows you're running.

Windows XP SP2

I did suspect driver issues and ran around like a madman getting all the
latest updates from the INtel site, mother board manuafcturer and stuff. I
came to the conclusion that I don't think that was it. I even ran out and
bought a brand new NVIDIA FX5500 to replace the ATI 9500 I had because I
kept getting blue screens related tothe ATIWDM drivers. I then started toget
blue screesnn related tothe NVIDIA drivers :(. I was also getting
win32sys.sys, ntfs.sys, cdfs.sys, memory management, and aslew of others too
numerous to count. That was one reason I was suspecting RAM in the first
place.

I have the feeling that I fell victim to a cheap barebones deal that I could
not resist and, against my better cash savinig judgement at the time, went
with a factory heatsink and crappy, substandard PS.

Never again.
 
S

spodosaurus

Ray said:
Generic crap one that came with a case (Bare bones kit from Tiger Direct)
thats why it is on my suspect list :) I replaced my 425 Watt PS with a 550
Mad Dog from CompUSA and my CPU core voltage is now rock solid at 1.41 and
all the other voltages are right where they should be an not wavering at
all.




I ran memtest86 for a full 24 hours, never had a single error. The memory
tester from MS as I said seems to not even say I have one good byte while
several versions of memtest say I am flawless.




I replaced the heatsink and Fan unit from the Intel one that came with the
CPU to a Hyper48 from Colloer Master. Running the system now for an hour
under good load (Burnning a DVD while unraring a large file set and Watching
a DIVx movie shows that my CPU temp has not gone over 33c at all.




Odd but the new Hintsink fan spins slower (only 1418RPM) but cools way
better. Must be that this one is 3 times the size of the factory one and is
ALL copper, not just copper core.




Windows XP SP2

I did suspect driver issues and ran around like a madman getting all the
latest updates from the INtel site, mother board manuafcturer and stuff. I
came to the conclusion that I don't think that was it. I even ran out and
bought a brand new NVIDIA FX5500 to replace the ATI 9500 I had because I
kept getting blue screens related tothe ATIWDM drivers. I then started toget
blue screesnn related tothe NVIDIA drivers :(. I was also getting
win32sys.sys, ntfs.sys, cdfs.sys, memory management, and aslew of others too
numerous to count. That was one reason I was suspecting RAM in the first
place.

I have the feeling that I fell victim to a cheap barebones deal that I could
not resist and, against my better cash savinig judgement at the time, went
with a factory heatsink and crappy, substandard PS.

Never again.

Let us know if you have further problems.


--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
L

larry moe 'n curly

Ray said:
I have an Intel P4 #Ghz CPU running in an ASUS P4P800E Mobo. I have been
running into random BSODS recently and am suspecting 1 of a few things:
1 - Flaky power supply. According to EVEREST the CPU core voltage varies
from 1.36 to 1.42. I also suspect that it might be a bit under powered
because I have a rather large system (2 180Gig IDE HDs, 1 CDR, 1 CDRW and
1 DVDRW). Current PS is 425 watt.
Generic crap one that came with a case (Bare bones kit from Tiger Direct)
thats why it is on my suspect list :) I replaced my 425 Watt PS with a 550
Mad Dog from CompUSA and my CPU core voltage is now rock solid at 1.41 and
all the other voltages are right where they should be an not wavering at
all.

I think that Mad Dog gets its PSUs from Sirtec, which makes several
brands, including Thermaltake. They're OK but not great, and if you
ever need another PSU, think about something by Fortron-Source because
they are great and also cheap from places like Directron and Newegg.
I'm cheap but won't skimp on PSUs. That doesn't mean I spend a lot --
$25 has been my maximum for the past three years, and that one included
a case, but it was an Antec.

Also don't trust software voltage readings too much because I've seen
them off by 6%, and that was when the software was working right (i.e.,
not telling me that the +12V fluctuated every second between 6V and
8V). A cheap digital multimeter will be accurate to 1% and can also
test lots of other stuff.
2 - Flaky RAM. I have 2 Gigs of PC3200 (Nanya M2U51264DS8HC3G-5T) in
stalled (2 ranks, 4 banks) but I have run several memory checkers on them
and they seem fine. The memory tester from Microsoft though HATES my
system for some reason and refuses to tell me that I have one good byte
of RAM at all. It says that every bit of my RAM is bad. Go figure.
I ran memtest86 for a full 24 hours, never had a single error. The memory
tester from MS as I said seems to not even say I have one good byte while
several versions of memtest say I am flawless.

Try Gold Memory shareware, from www.goldmemory.cz because it sometimes
finds problems that MemTest86 misses (and vice-versa). I wouldn't
completely dismiss MS' results because another person said it found
errors that one of these diagnostics missed. OTOH it's possible for
diagnostic software to be buggy because MemTest86 v. 2.5 reported tons
of errors while v. 3.x found none with the same hardware. Also try
other BIOS memory settings. All my bad memory has had no-name chips on
it, and I've never experienced a defect with branded chips, like Nanya,
except with one module where some of the gold fingers had solder on
them (had to argue with CompUSA over it -- they said it tested fine
even though the "test" lasted only 15 seconds, including the time to
walk to and from the service area).
3 - CPU heat issues. I have always suspected that my CPU might be runnign
a bit hot. EVERTEST says that my CPU temp is goes anywhere form 35c to
44c and that seems too hot for me.

There are computers with case temps that hot. OTOH 60C CPU temp is OK,
too. With some mobos it's possible to change the CPU fan speed using
programs like SpeedFan, which rapidly turn the fan power on and off to
lower the average voltage.
 

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