Hello;
I own above-mentioned motherboard with Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton, 1833
MHz). My problem refers to temperatures. Indicator on CPU shows 51-53
Celsius degrees, and while gaming - even 60-65 degrees (cooler Pentagram
Freezone 80CU).
Hmm, the name "Pentagram Freezone" doesn't exactly inspire
confidence, but then as you wrote below, "system still works
fine". A Barton with it's larger core is usually pretty
easy to keep cool, unless your case is quite warm inside
then your heatsink isn't doing very well. Even so, a Barton
at stock speed & voltage (not overclocked) should be fine at
60-65C.
If you wanted to o'c it (since the CPU can likely go at
least 300MHz faster) you should think about a different
heatsink... and your present 'sink might be kinda loud too,
as most generics are. If the present 'sink is quiet, and
not exceptionally engineered (relative to it being a
generic) it could simply be that your temps reflect this low
airflow rate.
If you like low noise and low cost heatsinks then this is a
tradeoff that you might make, and is an acceptible one so
long as CPU stays in a stable temp range AND the fan
fulfills it's secondary purpose, to move enough air on the
face of the motherboard to cool off the power regulation
circuitry (especially capacitors). Try running Prime95's
Torture Test for about 3 hours and if it passes that without
errors and your larger motherboard capacitors don't feel
more than moderately warm, you likely have plenty of thermal
margin left, there's no game and very little else that heats
up a CPU as much as Prime95 or other special-purpose
programs which isolate that subsystem as much.
But what disturbs me more, is northbridge temperature -
on average it is 45-47 degrees, and while gaming - even 53-55 degrees.
This is a curious thing, your wondering about a northbridge
temp that is lower. Did you consult the spec sheet and thus
have a reference for what an excessive temp might be?
If not, I suggest you should not worry about NB temp at all
unless you have a problem that seems related.
I
have a motherboard version only with northbridge radiator, but without a
cooler.
Which is a good thing. If you were overvolting the chipset
(not even possible most often without altering physical
circuit(s) on the circuit board) or the system were in
extremely warm, near inhospitable external environements,
you might then need more cooling. Otherwise it's a bad
thing to have a northbridge fan, it simply introduces
another failure potential, noise, dust buildup for more
periodic maintenance points.
For reference, since you aren't even exploiting the full
spec'd speed of KT600 (DDR400/200MHz) with your Barton 2500,
let alone overclocking the FSB past 200MHz, you should have
quite a bit of temperature tolerance. Because your FSB is
lower than possible, the temp margin for stability goes up -
and that would be the issue, you're not even remotely close
to a damaging temperature.
I installed coolers in the case (one sucking air in, and the
other one - exhausting), but it did not change the situation much.
Since these two parts you mention are specifically designed
to be warm-to-hot while running, the issue would be whether
the REST of your system components were hot, that the
overall temp you see is merely a reflection of inadequate
airflow... and that even if those parts didn't get cooler,
the other might've.
By "installed coolers" did you mean there were NO fans in
the case at all, except the power supply exhaust? If so,
the system never should've been ran like that at all, I
mean, not turned on even once, period. Both AMD and Intel
specify cooling arrangements, including a rear exhaust fan.
It is pointless to ignore and then come back later and
question temps. Excuse this note if you already had an
unimpeded exhaust fan, but some cases also need more front
air intake- not necessarily a fan but open area.
I
replaced original, wide IDE and FDD cables with thin, round ones, but it
also did not change much. Radiators are very warm, which means that they
receive heat from the chips.
I'd love to know who started that crazy urban legend that
cables make a difference. They don't... not relatively
speaking... almost anything else possible to do to a chassis
will make more of a difference than cables. Air is not
solid and flows around obstacles in a case incredibly well.
I have a question - shuld I worry about that? My system still works
fine, it did not freeze even once, but I am a little anxious.
_IF_ you think the northbridge heatsink isn't making good
contact you could take it off, clean off the original
thermal interface material and apply a nice thin coat of
thermal compound... preferribly a synthetic ester based
compound rather than silicone based, something like Arctic
Silver or better still Arctic Alumina/Ceramique as it's
electrically inert, easier to cleanup, cheaper, and nearly
same performance as the more expensive Silver based
alternatives. Same could be done to the CPU heatsink if you
think it's warranted.
.