Hi all,

I just got a new mobo and processor. I went with AMD 6400 and a gigabyte board that supports SLI. However, I'm concerned I might be getting to hot while playing games. Especially my graphics card (xfx 8600 gt). When playing games I can feel my case getting hot and using pc wizard my two cores are getting up to about 50 C and my graphics card hit a whopping 80C at one point. When I stop playing the games my card drops under 70C usually at about 65C to as low as 61C. My CPU cores will run at about 40C and sometimes even under 40C when not playing any games.

I think my CPU probably is okay I don't think 50 is terrible but not the best either, but I'm not a wiz at this either. My graphics card on the other hand seems to be smoking. Should I go with more case fans? I just have a regular case and only has 1 case fan, an 80mm. I'm thinking I should drop a pci fan under than video card, do you think this will help solve my problem?

Build: amd 6400
2 gigs of ram
8600 gt
sata hd 160 gigs.
OS: Vista

Thanks!

More specific information required to properly advise you.
a. what is the mobo temp (ambient case temp)
b. what make and model of case
c. what type of cpu cooler, what type of thermal paste used

These questions are minimum, there are other factors that could affect the cooling, these ones are the most significant to start with.

Load temps of 50C cpu and 80C gpu are fine. No need to worry. But with only 1 80mm case fan, I'd try to find a way to add more fans for better airflow.

You can pick up a case with 2 120mm intake & exhaust for cheap after rebate. Or you can put a floor/desk fan to blow onto the pc.

Yup these are good questions to start with since it sounds like a case airflow issue.

Hopefully that single fan you already have is an exhaust because getting the hot air out is more important than pushing cool air in if the hot air has no place to go. Ideally you want an exhaust and intake with about the same airflow. If your case has no more fan mounts other than the one used you might have to do some minor mods to add more fans if you dont want to get a new case.

A PCI fan would problay help a bit but they don't move much air and if they do move alot of air they are really loud.

If your current fan is a rear exhaust open up your case and see if you can find a spot to mount a front intake fan.

I think something was wrong with the CPU AMD 6400, because that thing was just smoking! I removed it, put in my old 4000 with artic silver 5. Added a PCI fan and my temp of my CPU is now 14C and my 8600 GT is now running at 55C.

I'm sending the CPU back as defective.

I highly doubt the 6400 is defective. It uses much more power and runs hotter than a 4000. Its 125W vs 65W. And 14C temperature is certainly way too low for idle or load temp, unless it's in a freezer. It is incorrect. And since the 8600GT runs cooler with the 4000, you obviously have very bad airflow and aren't removing the hot air from the case.

Where I would start is number 1, put a PCI slot fan under your video card to pull some heat off of that. Number 2, mount a fan in the front of the case to pull air in, and number 3, make sure you have a fan right underneath your PSU, which if your case is set like mine, you would be pulling air off the CPU as well as creating a cool breeze under the PSU to keep it cool. And as far as defective, man you have to keep it cool. My 5200 runs at 25-28 degrees C on idle, that's with stock cooling. But in the side of my case, I have a massive case fan, about as big around as a soccer ball, then a fan pulling air underneath the PSU, and then of course the PSU fan.

Also, check your fans, because some fans are not worth anything, I once had one that couldn't move much air at all. Finally had an old one that I put in instead, same size of fan, but moved a BUNCH more air. check how many cfm's your fans can move, and check that when you buy, I'd start there. Because you don't want to send that cpu back and get another one that does the same thing. As someone said, you are doubling the wattage, of course it'll be somewhat hotter. Oh, if you have any extra optical drive bays free, I think they sell fans that can mount there as well, or you could probably rig one in there as well to move more air. Get a good breeze flowing in that case, I think it would suprise you.

make sure you applied thermal paste properly, that card runs that hot, get ntunes boost fan to 40% when in game.

I find nTune to be a tad unreliable, if your motherboard has access to the GPU fan controls I would manually set the speed there. If it doesn't, nTune is your next best bet.

The last 2 system fans I purchased were Scythe 120MM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Cust [...] 6835185005
I got it for the being quieter and having 49 CFM, there are better fans out there but I decided to go with something that wasn't going to sound like a jet engine.

If aftermarket fans fail you try a better case with more air flow, there are plenty of cases on the market designed for pushing air efficiently.

Thanks for all the tips, I been tweaking with it some trying to see what the best results are. I got my CPU and GPU down some by adding artic silver and a PCI fan right under the card. I think it will hold me over until I can get a Zaleman Cooler which I think should drop the CPU down another 5 to 10 degrees.

Thanks for the help!

As I said, make sure you have a fan right under the PSU, I know I had one system, if I actually didn't have a fan pulling air under the PSU to create a cool breeze the system would die, and I'd have to reset, but then that was in the days of Socket A when my 2800 was always running 50-60 degrees C.

Wow that sucks, how did you position a fan there? Duct tape or something?

Bah, 50C is fine. 80C for gfx is also fine. Stop complaining.

That is really a subjective answer, there are too many exceptions to what you just said.