XP 3500 socket 939 high cpu temps?

[Don Burnette]

I just completed upgrading to an Athlon 3500 90nm winchester core, with an
MSI Neo2 Platinum mb this past weekend.

I got the oem processor, along with a Thermalrite XP90 heatsink, with a 80mm
( i think) fan.
I used Arctic Silver 3.

My cpu temp as reported by corecenter, and in the bios, idles around 46-48C,
and gets into low 50's under load. System temp is 25C.
This is the first time in my many system upgrades that I have had a heat
problem. My Athlon XP 2800+, overclocked to 3200+, idled around 36c and
only got to app 42c under load. I have also noticed even at idle, the temp
can vary 3-5 degrees C very quickly, which I find unusual.

I am concerned about these temps. I am not overclocking the system yet,
running all at stock ( 11x200). My case cooling is good, I have it in a
Lian Li pc-75 full tower case, which came equipped with 2 cooling fans in
front, and two in back. At this time, I do not have Cool N Quite enabled.
My cpu fan is turning at 3800 rpm.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[s_roger]

I just completed upgrading to an Athlon 3500 90nm winchester core, with an
MSI Neo2 Platinum mb this past weekend.

I got the oem processor, along with a Thermalrite XP90 heatsink, with a 80mm
( i think) fan.
I used Arctic Silver 3.

My cpu temp as reported by corecenter, and in the bios, idles around 46-48C,
and gets into low 50's under load. System temp is 25C.
This is the first time in my many system upgrades that I have had a heat
problem. My Athlon XP 2800+, overclocked to 3200+, idled around 36c and
only got to app 42c under load. I have also noticed even at idle, the temp
can vary 3-5 degrees C very quickly, which I find unusual.

I am concerned about these temps. I am not overclocking the system yet,
running all at stock ( 11x200). My case cooling is good, I have it in a
Lian Li pc-75 full tower case, which came equipped with 2 cooling fans in
front, and two in back. At this time, I do not have Cool N Quite enabled.
My cpu fan is turning at 3800 rpm.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,


--
Don Burnette

"When you decide something is impossible to do, try to stay out of the way
of the man that's doing it."

Core Center except for the latest version is not accurate. The lastest
version on the MSI website also will read high CPU temps but will give
a better reading after a warm reboot. If your system temp is 25 I would
suspect that your load CPU temp is in the high 30's or lower 40's. At
this time my temps are 35-39 with stock cooling with both Core Center
and MBM.

 

[Don Burnette]

Core Center except for the latest version is not accurate. The lastest
version on the MSI website also will read high CPU temps but will give
a better reading after a warm reboot. If your system temp is 25 I
would suspect that your load CPU temp is in the high 30's or lower
40's. At this time my temps are 35-39 with stock cooling with both
Core Center and MBM.

Thanks, I will try out the latest version. I booted up just now after
getting home, and it immediately showed 45C - I know that can't be right
from a cold boot up.

I tried installing MBM yesterday and kept getting an error message, I
figured maybe it did not work with this mb, will try again as I prefer it.

Thanks,

 

[Don Burnette]

Core Center except for the latest version is not accurate. The lastest
version on the MSI website also will read high CPU temps but will give
a better reading after a warm reboot. If your system temp is 25 I
would suspect that your load CPU temp is in the high 30's or lower
40's. At this time my temps are 35-39 with stock cooling with both
Core Center and MBM.

You were dead on!
Just installed the latest version of core center, and my temp dropped
immediately by about 8c, I also successfully installed MBM and it is
reporting about the same. High 30's at idle. I am sure load will be low
40's.

I was worried for nothing. I will also get a little better fan than this
cheapo I have on this great heatsink, and I am sure it will help as well.

Thanks!

 

[Michael Brown]

Don Burnette wrote:
[...]

Just installed the latest version of core center, and my temp dropped
immediately by about 8c,

This is why the absolute value given by motherboard temperature monitors are
useless. The reading you get depends much more on things like BIOS revision,
monitoring program, board variations, etc than actual CPU temperature.
*Relative* readings are useful (keep everything the same but change fans,
does it get hotter or colder?) but absolute readings don't mean much ("nyeh
nyeh my setup runs cooler than yours nyeh nyeh" - yeah, right). If it's
stable (Prime95) and not overvolted significantly, then it's not getting hot
enough to be damaged so there's nothing to worry about.

Of course, if you are doing serious overvolting and/or subzero cooling, then
things change, but if you're that serious about things then you a) know what
you're doing and b) know that there is an signficant chance that you will
damage/kill your CPU and are not worried by this.

[...]

 

[Don Burnette]

Don Burnette wrote:
[...]

Just installed the latest version of core center, and my temp dropped
immediately by about 8c,

This is why the absolute value given by motherboard temperature
monitors are useless. The reading you get depends much more on things
like BIOS revision, monitoring program, board variations, etc than
actual CPU temperature. *Relative* readings are useful (keep
everything the same but change fans, does it get hotter or colder?)
but absolute readings don't mean much ("nyeh nyeh my setup runs
cooler than yours nyeh nyeh" - yeah, right). If it's stable (Prime95)
and not overvolted significantly, then it's not getting hot enough to
be damaged so there's nothing to worry about.
Of course, if you are doing serious overvolting and/or subzero
cooling, then things change, but if you're that serious about things
then you a) know what you're doing and b) know that there is an
signficant chance that you will damage/kill your CPU and are not
worried by this.
[...]

I agree. I always overclock my systems, and had not started so yet on this
one due to the temps being reported. However, I will say, I must have not
had the heatsink mounted on good, or the arctic silver 3 not on properly, as
I was experiencing overheating when I first assembled. This is about the 5th
build for me, and first time I had this problem. I even changed to the
thermal paste provided with the XP90 Thermalrite, yuk - stuff was like glue,
bent some cpu pins when trying to remove the heatsink - the gluish effect
probably because of the heat.

Cleaned everything off, carefully applied a thin layer of arctic silver 3,
and carefully mounted and matched the XP90 to the cpu. Much better!

 

[Ed]

Don Burnette wrote:
[...]

Just installed the latest version of core center, and my temp dropped
immediately by about 8c,

This is why the absolute value given by motherboard temperature
monitors are useless. The reading you get depends much more on things
like BIOS revision, monitoring program, board variations, etc than
actual CPU temperature. *Relative* readings are useful (keep
everything the same but change fans, does it get hotter or colder?)
but absolute readings don't mean much ("nyeh nyeh my setup runs
cooler than yours nyeh nyeh" - yeah, right). If it's stable (Prime95)
and not overvolted significantly, then it's not getting hot enough to
be damaged so there's nothing to worry about.
Of course, if you are doing serious overvolting and/or subzero
cooling, then things change, but if you're that serious about things
then you a) know what you're doing and b) know that there is an
signficant chance that you will damage/kill your CPU and are not
worried by this.
[...]

I agree. I always overclock my systems, and had not started so yet on this
one due to the temps being reported. However, I will say, I must have not
had the heatsink mounted on good, or the arctic silver 3 not on properly, as
I was experiencing overheating when I first assembled. This is about the 5th
build for me, and first time I had this problem. I even changed to the
thermal paste provided with the XP90 Thermalrite, yuk - stuff was like glue,
bent some cpu pins when trying to remove the heatsink - the gluish effect
probably because of the heat.

Cleaned everything off, carefully applied a thin layer of arctic silver 3,
and carefully mounted and matched the XP90 to the cpu. Much better!

fwiw, I got the best temps by putting no more then about 3/4 of a BB's
worth of paste right in the center of the CPU, then put the heatsink on
and lock it down. The temps were higher when I spread the paste out over
the whole top of the CPU. (2 - MSI /Clawhammer systems)

Ed

 

[Chip]

fwiw, I got the best temps by putting no more then about 3/4 of a BB's
worth of paste right in the center of the CPU, then put the heatsink on
and lock it down. The temps were higher when I spread the paste out over
the whole top of the CPU. (2 - MSI /Clawhammer systems)

Ed

How much higher, Ed?

I can see that you could get a thinner layer of AS if you use the "3/4 of a
bb" method. But how much difference did it make?

Chip

 

[General Schvantzkoph]

I tried installing MBM yesterday and kept getting an error message, I
figured maybe it did not work with this mb, will try again as I prefer it.

Thanks,

Check the temp readings in the BIOS to make sure that they agree with the
temperatures reported by MBM. If there is a disagreement I'd trust the
BIOS readings over the MBM ones.

 

[Wes Newell]

Check the temp readings in the BIOS to make sure that they agree with the
temperatures reported by MBM. If there is a disagreement I'd trust the
BIOS readings over the MBM ones.

You can't compare those as the bios puts a load on the cpu and should read
higher than an idle OS reading. There's about 6C difference in mine and I
can see it rise in the bios if I exit the os fast and go straight to bios
readings.

 

[Ed]

How much higher, Ed?

I can see that you could get a thinner layer of AS if you use the "3/4 of a
bb" method. But how much difference did it make?

Chip

Well the one PC (3000+ clawhammer OC'd 200MHz) die temp dropped about
10C running Prime95 max heat test, the other PC (claw 3400+ no OCing)
dropped about 5C.

One CPU got ripped right out of the socket when I went to re-do the
paste (paste was spread over whole top), it's still working though. ;p

Ed

 

[Ed]

You can't compare those as the bios puts a load on the cpu and should read
higher than an idle OS reading. There's about 6C difference in mine and I
can see it rise in the bios if I exit the os fast and go straight to bios
readings.

I did some PC wattage testing for BIOS, Windows, etc,etc... if anyone is
interested in looking at.

http://tinyurl.com/6ea3k

Cheers,
Ed

 

[Don Burnette]

Well the one PC (3000+ clawhammer OC'd 200MHz) die temp dropped about
10C running Prime95 max heat test, the other PC (claw 3400+ no OCing)
dropped about 5C.

One CPU got ripped right out of the socket when I went to re-do the
paste (paste was spread over whole top), it's still working though. ;p

Ed

Funny you mention that. I first used the Arctic Silver3, and spread a layer
across the chip's surface. When my temps were going through the roof, I
cleaned it off and tried the paste. When that didn't work, I pulled my cpu
out of the socket as well - stuff was like glue. It bent some pins on my 939
processor, and had to carefully bend back to get the cpu to drop in the
socket again. Luckily, seems to be fine. I used a thin smooth layer across
the surface. I still think my temps could be better, I may try the bb trick
to see if that is better.

 

[Ed]

Funny you mention that. I first used the Arctic Silver3, and spread a layer
across the chip's surface. When my temps were going through the roof, I
cleaned it off and tried the paste. When that didn't work, I pulled my cpu
out of the socket as well - stuff was like glue. It bent some pins on my 939
processor, and had to carefully bend back to get the cpu to drop in the
socket again. Luckily, seems to be fine. I used a thin smooth layer across
the surface. I still think my temps could be better, I may try the bb trick
to see if that is better.

Ya same here... was like glue! I could tell the heatsink wasn't coming
off easy enough, so as a last resort I just lifted the HS straight up
off the board and the CPU was stuck to the bottom of it, didn't bend any
pins, I think maybe AMD could of made the whole design better, but in
AMD's defense I did take a AMD retail HS off one system after 3 months
and it came right off no problem, paste looked sort of like AS3 to me.

Good luck with the temps, but if it doesn't lock up or crash under heavy
loads I wouldn't worry about it, all of my AMDs since the K5 have been
used and abused, they all retired before they ever burned up. ;p

Ed

 

[s_roger]

With the "new" Core Center do a warm reboot and your CPU temps will
probably be lower yet.

 

[Dee]

With the "new" Core Center do a warm reboot and your CPU temps will
probably be lower yet.

I'm not sure your suggestion is logical!

My temp reads around 27 C or 28 C whether I cold boot in the morning or
I warm boot sometime during the day. And I have the latest version of
CoreCenter!

 

[Don Burnette]

Ya same here... was like glue! I could tell the heatsink wasn't coming
off easy enough, so as a last resort I just lifted the HS straight up
off the board and the CPU was stuck to the bottom of it, didn't bend
any pins, I think maybe AMD could of made the whole design better,
but in AMD's defense I did take a AMD retail HS off one system after
3 months and it came right off no problem, paste looked sort of like
AS3 to me.

Good luck with the temps, but if it doesn't lock up or crash under
heavy loads I wouldn't worry about it, all of my AMDs since the K5
have been used and abused, they all retired before they ever burned
up. ;p

Ed

Yeah, I know - I am just picky I guess.. System is stable as I could want so
far - have overclocked the fsb to 205 with no other changes, still running
strong. I will continue to tweak it more. I had my Athlon XP 2800+ running
at 3200+, and had gotten the idle temps down in the lower 30's, and hit 40
only under heavy load. The only way I see to overclock this system is
through the fsb, so I know I will eventually want to up the cpu voltage for
stability at higher speeds, and just do not want a temp issue to enter the
equation.

I will give credit though, on my first few boots when the heatsink obviously
was not on correctly, the system would shut down when it overheated with no
harm to the cpu.

I am tempted to remove the heatstink and try just the 3/4 of a bb trick with
AS3 as mentioned above. But heck, maybe I won't for a while . I put a
nice, thin , even layer across the whole surface of the cpu, just not sure
changing it will make much of a difference.

 

[Don Burnette]

I'm not sure your suggestion is logical!

My temp reads around 27 C or 28 C whether I cold boot in the morning
or I warm boot sometime during the day. And I have the latest
version of CoreCenter!

%$@#, heck, by the time my system boots up and windows is completely
loaded, mine cpu temp is already around 40c.

This Thermalrite XP90 is a beautiful heatsink, and somewhat expensive ..
just feel like my temps should be lower.

 

[Michael Brown]

Dee wrote: [...]

My temp reads around 27 C or 28 C whether I cold boot in the morning
or I warm boot sometime during the day. And I have the latest
version of CoreCenter!

%$@#, heck, by the time my system boots up and windows is completely
loaded, mine cpu temp is already around 40c.

See my post earlier in this thread. Him @27 vs you @40 means nothing. There
is even a reasonable chance that your CPU is actually running cooler than
his.

[...]

 

[Chip]

%$@#, heck, by the time my system boots up and windows is completely
loaded, mine cpu temp is already around 40c.

Don't worry about it. There's no way his 27C is real. 40C is typical for
Winchester CPU's in your motherboard.

Chip