Safe temperature for Athlon 64 X2?

[Rathine]

Good afternoon fellow computer enthusiasts,

I'm not doing anything really big here, this was just a standard upgrade for me. I really don't plan on overclocking or anything. I bougth a 4800+, 65W on socket AM2, and have left the speed at a default of 2.5GHz I believe it is 1u

I decided to go ahead and give the retail stock HSF a try. To my alarm, idle temp has been between 60 and 70 C And under stress, I've seen it get as high as 80. If I let it run for long periods at 80, could I risk permanent damage to it? What is a safe temp for this particular CPU? Anything under 70 C long term?

I guess I was a fool to think I could trust the stock HSF and thermal tape. I went ahead and ordered an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro, and some Silver 5 grease. Should this be sufficient?

Also, how would I know if I'm at risk for damage to the CPU? I haven't had any crashes or lockups so far. And if 80 is dangerous, how long can it sustain this? Just a few seconds?

 

[Evilonigiri]

While it differs from series of cpu to cpu, the general one-size-fit all rule is stay under 65C.

The cooler you ordered is a okay, but don't expect to OC far.

80C is not good for any amount of time period. A few secs is okay, but less is always better. However, you don't have to worry too much about it, when you exceed a certain temp, the cpu will throttle itself or shut down to prevent major damage.

 

[Rathine]

But my motherboard only supports automatic shutoff up to 70 C Will the CPU throttle or shutoff on its own if it gets too hot, even if the BIOS doesn't support that option?

 

[EXT64]

The stock cooler shouldn't be running that hot. How is your case ventilation? Did you put any thermal paste on the processor?

 

[Evilonigiri]

I think that option in the bios is just to throttle the cpu. I don't think the automatic shut off is a visible option in the bios, it's supposed to be automatic.

 

[Rathine]

Case ventilation is fine as far as I know. I have a 4000 RPM exhaust blower in one PCI slot, and a Vantec 80mm case fan on the rear. Also, one back panel is missing, and there is alot open slot in the rear. Mid ATX with plenty of room.

The stock HSF is aluminium... and the fan is only running at 2900 to 3000 RPM Should the fan be running this low? Why would AMD include a junk HSF in their retail kit? Because they are too lazy to put in a quality model, or they know people will install custom sinks anyhow? Well, I imagine they wouldn't make much profit if they did. I noticed now that they actually offer a warranty on their processors - but only if you use the stock HSF. I left the stock thermal tape on, but replaced it with Silver 3 grease.

My power supply is an Enermax 475 Watt. I'm only running one hard drive, and not many other accessories. So I assume this should be sufficient?

 

[Rathine]

Any other thoughts people? Do you think my motherboard's temp monitor could be producing inaccurate readings? I have a Biostar based on a Via K8M800

 

[Evilonigiri]

3000RPM is rather fast...fyi.

However that's normal for AMD stock cooling.

 

[Rathine]

I guess by today's standard's 3,000 is somewhat fast. I've looked on NewEgg and see most of the popular rated ones are below this. I remember a few years back when 7,000 was fast. And there are still some server HSF that run with that.

I was looking at the Dynatron A48G, which is copper and 7,000 RPM. I was thinking I could use a fan adjuster to bring it down to 5,000 RPM or so and maybe the noise level would be tolerable. That was the main complaint aside from the fact that it blows air vertically, instead of horizontally.

 

[Evilonigiri]

You're talking about fans right? They usually range from 0-5000RPM these days. The smaller the fan, the faster it is, and I was thinking of 120mm fans. Now 3000RPM for a 120mm fan is rather fast, but it's normal for a 80mm fan.

 

[Rathine]

Bigger fan and blades, means more cubic feet per minute of air cycled, right? I was thinking more like a 60mm. The fan on the stock heatsink looks to be about 70mm or so.

 

[Evilonigiri]

Right, bigger radius, more mass thus slower but more cfm (I like SI). This results into quieter cooling.

If it's 60mm, that's quite understandable. I can't imagine what my 9 x 120mm fans all running at 5000RPM would sound like.