CPU Overheating - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 Dual Core AM2 1MB 3.1GHz

You can get a Phenom II X2 or an Athlon II X3 X4 with that budget.

You could also save yourself some money and simply upgrade your cooler. A Hyper 212+ for $30 will keep that nice and cool as I'm guessing you're using the factory HSF. Something like the 212+ will drop temps on that processor down 20-25C easily. If you're happy with the performance but you're only worried about temps, that's a better, and cheaper option. Plus, you should be able get another 200-400MHz with better cooling fairly easily and still not have to worry about temps.

That said, a Phenom II X2/X3 or the AII X3/X4, for about $100-$120, are quite a bit faster than the 6000+, but it really depends on which games you play. WaW isn't really that demanding on the CPU, but your 6000+ is a little underpowered for a 5770 and you'll see some nice frame-rate improvements going to the newer architecture and you'd be able to play with higher detail settings.

Going off of what is stated in this post i cant really add much except your more likely than not suffocating your CPU either do to a dust clogged Heat-sink or your case is covered in cat hair lol If you are indeed using a stock heatsink that came with your cpu you can go straight to newegg.com and do a little research and find a cost effective cooler that will most likely keep your cpu under or around 70c(at max load) depending on other variables not really stated...Or if you do have a aftermarket Heat-sink already that isnt made of wool chances are you need to re-apply some better thermal paste and or make sure the heatsink is setup where it is giving your cpu equal cooling...BUT!!!! do not remove your heatsink to check without having some new thermal paste because you will need to re-apply some if you take the heatsink off. Just to answer any possible questions you want to remove power from your pc remove the heatsink clean the top of your cpu completely and apply an even coat of thermal paste and then try reattaching the Heat-sink...Now if you do all that or that isnt the problem then you might have some bad airflow or your house maybe over 100 degrees and your pc has constant sunlight on it.  

If this wasnt any help im sorry i tried  

Yea thats what seemed strange WaW isnt that demanding in terms of usage but it just hits 76 degrees its crazy. And yea i did buy a new cooler ive had it for a good year now. I went with the Zalman CNPS9500. I've tried everything I really dont know what 2 do anymore. I'm also using Arctic Silver paste.

Lool yea i tried all that. But thnx for the help i really don't know wat to do anymore :S I think i might just go for a better case like the CM Storm Scout for better airflow but i want to get a new CPU with less wattage to see if that makes a difference first as its something i need as opposed 2 the case.

I'm especially looking for a good CPU for gaming ive heard AMD Athlon II X4 arent really good for that :S

The Phenom x3 720 is very good.

The annoying thing with upgrading is each separate items limitations with upgrading lol get a new cpu and your rams to slow and then you get new ram but your motherboard doesnt support it and then your graphics card the problem then your psu and then your cooling and then your cpu is bad again lol

You might have the paste on too thick. Did you remove the factory paste from the CNPS9500 before putting on the Arctic Silver? Too much paste is as bad as too little.

yea it didnt have any paste on the Zalman. Here's wat i did.. I put a rice sized grain on the CPU and spread it evenly then did the same on the Zalman and put a tiny amount in the center of the CPU... rested the heatsink on it and turned it sideways and attached it to the socket.

yea tell me about it! Ive spent so much money trying 2 fix the problem!

Any solution yet?

Well here is a good one that might help with overheating: have you tried undervolting your cpu? Yes, undervolting your cpu in the bios. I don't know if your motherboard has that option in the bios.

first you restart your machine, press "delete" or whatever you press to enter the bios, find "advanced BIOS settings" and then enter "CPU feature" there should be an option to increase or decrase your cpu's voltage.

I had the same problem too with my 6000+ Brisbane, until I undervolted it to about 1.375v and most importantly you must turn off AMD Cool and Quiet or else it will not work.Also, completely disable the "shutdown temperature" option in "pc health" settings.

to give you an idea, mine used to hit 70-73 C, and now it only hits 55-60 C max.

*look at your moterboard's manual if you have one, or just google it to see if your mobo has that option.
hope this helps bye

First thing that catches my eye is the X2 6000 3.1 was an 89 watt brisbane chip at 65nm. Not 125 watts. The winsor x2 6000 had a 125 watt version but it was 3.0 2 meg L2.

This means something is very wrong with your existing cooling. An 89 watt chip should be nowhere near that hot.

Something is wrong with the airflow or something is wrong with the heatsink.

yeah ive got the x2 6000 2mb l2 . it runs 53/57 degrees non overclocked and it doesnt go any higher than that.

I have a x2 5600+ brisbane OC to 3.1 @ 1.325v and it readily hits 80c while gaming for a short period (20 minutes maybe). It usually hits about 60c at startup then backs down to mid 40s if im just browsing the web or something. I can honestly say though that I have never had any crashes or anything due to heat related issues.

Well since then I bought a new case (the CM Storm Scout) and a new Heatsink. I went with the Noctua NH U12P SE2. I have to say there is some difference. Its not perfect as it still overheats sometimes when the room becomes too hot so i have to keep a couple of windows open but its better than before.

Now what I want to try is to undervolt the CPU voltage only the only option my motherboard gives is 1.5 volts which is so not something i'm willing to try. I'm looking around to see if a BIOS update will allow me to undervolt so something like 1.3. Thnx for all the help