Athlon 64 x2 4800+ Brisbane: 50C idle temp

[808rob]

My Athlon 64 x2 4800+ Brisbane CPU runs at about 48C - 50C at idle. I also have that entire side of the case open. (ambient temp is about 25C). The fan i am using is a Xigmatek ep-cd901 92mm. I have applied, cleaned and reapplied Arctic Silver (with different thicknesses) about three times now with no change in temperatures. I am thinking of purchasing a Coolermaster Hyper 212+ as it is recommended several times here on the forums. I am using Core Temp for temp data.

I also noticed that the fan was running quite slow at idle, as if the Xigmatek's PWM controller hadn't recognized the processor was about to fry.

No BSODs, shut downs or crashes (yet!) Though I am baffled by the fact that my girlfriend's Athlon II 64 X2 250 is running at a cool 25C right now (stock fan) and only hits 45C while gaming

Some other information: Mobo is ASUS M2N68-LA and I have 2GB of PC2 4200 Kingston RAM.


Pretty sure this an open and shut deal, though just wanted to be 99.99% sure :lol: Thanks in advance.

 

[geekapproved]

Why don't you disable the pwm and set the fan to run full speed?

 

[das_stig]

Try switching to voltage rather than PWM control.

A Hyper212+ would certainly but a good investment.

 

[geekapproved]

If the fans is turning slowing like you said, and turning the fan speed up cools the cpu down, I see no reason to buy a $30 cooler for a 8yr old cpu.

 

[808rob]

I'll try toying with PWM and voltage and see if I can get something to change.

I'm also on a budget here and a $28 fan is in it, not a new mobo+cpu.

 

[jitpublisher]

Does the heatsink feel that hot to the touch? If not, I would venture that your temp monitoring software is giving you a bad reading.

 

[geekapproved]

You should compare several temp monitoring programs to determine which are correct and which are not.

 

[808rob]

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. Here's what I have found so far.

Fan Control: LOL! No option to control fan speed from the bios. Thanks, ASUS. My friend has a manual fan controller that he is going to loan me for testing. (Edit: I tried controlling the cpu fan in SpeedFan, though the option was not available in the Speeds tab.)

Heatsink: While the heatsink fins still aren't hot after 30 minutes, there is some heat above the fan. However the cpu fan does not change speed during the time from boot to idle.

Idle temperatures:
Speed Fan: reports Core at 23C, and Temp1 at 47C (?)
Core Temp: reports 2 cores at 45C and 50C
CPUID HW Monitor: reports 2 cores at 44C and 49C

CPU voltage was reported at 1.71V by all three plus CPU-Z

Speed Fan and CPUID HW Monitor reported the CPU fan was operating at 994 RPM and 991 RPM, respectively.

Xigmatek claims that this fan has PWM though without the BIOS option I don't know how to disable that.

There's a lot of system lag. Temperature spikes to 55C as soon as I launch any software (CoreTemp & HW monitor)

 

[808rob]

I've been reading that the DTS on the Brisbanes is broken/inaccurate/etc. Could be why I can't get an accurate reading?

Also: I used a thermaltake fan controller to run the fan up to full speed (~2500RPM). The temperatures remained nearly the same on all of the temperature monitors except for Speed Fan, which showed a temperature drop from 23C at 1200RPM to 15C at 2500RPM.

I am going to trust Speed Fan on this

 

[808rob]

I used an infrared thermometer and it supports SpeedFan's temp readings in the 20's.

Guess the Brisbane DTS really is inaccurate.

 

[808rob]

Best answer selected by 808rob.