How Hot is Too Hot?

[HarleyMYK]

I am running a Thunderbird 1200 200FSB retail Athlon with the AMD fan. It is running at about 60 C (140F). I am not doing anything much when I measure it - no overclocking or stressing or anything. Is this OK?

 

[Frocer]

Hum personally I think 60C is pushing it when it's idle, I'd suggest you get a better HSF, the Volcano II is excellent for non-overclockers. I keep my 1.33ghz around 40C when idle

 

[kurokaze]

what HSF are you using? Are you using thermal compound
or paste? Did you lap your hsf? what is the ambient
temperature or what is your motherboard temp? What
motherboard + bios are you using?

Do you have any other case fans running?

60C is way to hot for idle.

Intel Components, AMD Components... all made in Taiwan!

 

[Guest]

When you say that 46C is what you SHOULD run at under full load, what are you basing your argument on? I have never seen any official documentation from AMD that makes that claim.

While I agree that the 80-90 C that AMD says that Athlon will operate at is way too high, it doesn't make sense to me to shell out at least $50+ on cooling to bring a CPU temp to that temprature.
In most cases A $10 fan and decent case cooling will keep an AMD 1.33 around 50-57 under load. I've been running my AMD CPU 1.33 nonstop under full load (doing video compressing) for awhile without any problems.
I have several friends who run have been running their CPU's between 57-60 C (under full load) for the last 4+ months without a hitch.
I agree the CPU life may drop from 10 years of life to 5-7 years of life, but how many of us really keep a CPU for more than 3-4 years?

To put things into perspective, 4 years ago A P2-300 or higher was a serious speed deamon. Now a P2-300 can be bought for ~$40, so even if you want to keep the CPU forever you can buy a replacement for less then the added cooling costs.

Just a thought!

 

[rcf84]

Buy a copper orb for $20 keep it lower then what you get.

Nice Intel and AMD users get a Cookie.... Yummy

 

[Guest]

I upgraded to an AMD 1.2 (266) Tbird this weekend and, besides 2 blowers and 2 case fans that were already in there, I only bought a $15 generic f/hs combo and it's kept the AMD to a nice 52-53 C. I've been looking into the OCZ Gladiator after reading a few reviews, but am wondering if it'll really drop the chip's temperature that much?

I also used the thermal compound that came with the f/hs, but after an hour of looking I couldn't find a straight answer as to how much or where you're supposed to put it. I ended up just putting a really thin layer directly on the chip's die, was that right?

m19

 

[kanute]

I happen to have an OCZ gladiator. It does a decent job, though not spectacular. RIght now I'm running at 40C idle with a case temp of 30C. Under load, it heats up to the high 40's to low 50's and the case temp will rise to about 34 or 35. So It's about a 15 degree difference from CPU to mobo under load. This is on a 1.2 Ghz @ 1.4.

That oughta void your warrenty!

 

[Guest]

my duron 800 on a hot day on idle is 42c or so

under load 50-52 maybe..

--call it what you wish, with this machine I can make mercury flow in 3 directions at once--

 

[lamer_gamer]

Just wondering what HSF you're using as I also own a duron.

My brain has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down

 

[girish]

get a good heatsink to get the temp to less than 45, 60 is too hot.

btw are the readings correct? too many temp probes show 10~20 higher or lower temperatures. even those from asus arent calibrated properly...

anyway, get a better heatsink/fan

girish

<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>

 

[Ringwraith]

Anything under 60c as a rule is safe. My 900 Mhz Boxed Athlon runs full load 24/7 and averages between 49c to 54c (depending on ambient- no AC) and I have never seen this sucker crash! I refurbished and sold a Compaq k6-3 450 computer 2 years ago that idled at 45c to this guy who put it in the desk cabinet that had the door shut on it!!! That same K6-3 ran about 20 minutes without active cooling once because he was fiddling in the case and shut the side panel in a way the pushed and IDE cable on the CPU fan preventing it from spinning. The fvcker is still running as I write this. As I know it Athlon's are even more hardy when it comes to high temps so 50c won't even phase an Athlon.

 

[Guest]

Not one shred of evidence has ever been released that says 60c would fry or even damage an AMD 1.33 cpu. When I asked WHY you insisted that you must run below 46c I expected more than:

..."becuz I always leave it some space for overclocking and besides, your friends are ameturess since most of the pros in here would like to run their CPU as cool as possible"...

Anyway, to say that somebody is an amateur because they don't care to OC a cpu, or shell out a significant chuck of cash so that it will run cooler is a bit ignorant. I will agree with you that in general a cooler cpu is better. But if cost is an issue, as it is for most of us, I don't see a problem with a higher temperatures as long as they are within spec.

Only time will tell how long a CPU will last under a particular heat stress level, but AMD seems comfortable recommending fans that only bring the CPU down to ~60C.







<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by gkfisher1 on 06/20/01 04:00 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[HarleyMYK]

Thanks for all the replies. For those of you who asked, I am using a K7T Turbo. As I noted, I am using the AMD fan and heat sink that came in the retail box. In the case, I have am 80mm intake and 80mm exhaust fan, plus a smart power exhaust. Internal case temp is around 32C. AMD includes a thermal tape on the bottom of their hsf unit (you must first remove a protective plastic over it before installation.)

What is to "lap" the hsf mean?

One thing that I thought was odd were the four round little pads on the top of the chip. The instructions clearly show those being left on, but obviously they will reduce heat transfer.

 

[Guest]

FROM ABOVE: "One thing that I thought was odd were the four round little pads on the top of the chip. The instructions clearly show those being left on, but obviously they will reduce heat transfer"

For Heavens sake do not take the little rubber feet off of an Athlon. The cores are very fragile to pressure at an angle, especially when installing a heatsink. These feet help keep the pressure straight-down and also help absorb shock if the system is moved.
The feet will not degrade the heat transfer because the heatsink is still fully touching the core of the chip. The clip mechanisms on Socket-A heatsinks apply enough force to squish the feet down and make good contact with the core.
As far as thermal paste application: just put on enough to completely cover the core with a thin but complete layer. The goal of the thermal paste is to fill in any gaps between the CPU and heatsink, and there should be very few.
That brings us to lapping: Lapping is the sanding down of a heatsink to get the bottom of it perfectly flat. Somw heatsinks are "rough" on the bottom and do not contact the CPU as well as they could. The best way to lap is to find a VERY flat surface, like a marble table or a piece of metal and lay a large sheet of sandpaper on it and move the heatsink against it. You should start kinda rough like ~150 grit then move up to finer ones like 400 or so, until the bottom is nearly shiny.

Here's my temps:
850 Thunderbird @ 941Mhz
AMD Stock 1Ghz cooler: Idle=50 Load=57
Volcano II: Idle=43 Load=48
The Volcano II is a kickass, quiet, and easy to install cooler.





Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
-Einstein

 

[noko]

I had a friend who forgot to remove the plastic tape containing the thermal grease on the bottom side of the HSF. His T-Bird would go up to 60c also at idle and fail around 68c to 70c when he tried to overclock. Anyways I got him to remove his HSF and we discovered the problem. Afterwards his T-Bird ranned in the high 40's, rarely went over 55c when overclocked. Also what is your system temperture? 60c maybe fine if your system temperture is like 40c.

Well to eat your <b>C kie</b> and have it too, gotta get <b>Rade n II</b>

 

[noko]

Oh yeah, my 1.2gh @ 1.4gh T-Bird with core voltage of 1.75v as indicated is running at 38c now with system temp of 25c.

Well to eat your <b>C kie</b> and have it too, gotta get <b>Rade n II</b>

 

[khha4113]

What brand of HSF are using? My TB 1G@1.2G goes from 48C to 55C with my GlobalWin FOP-32, and I want to find a HSF that can reduce its temp.

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[noko]

An Alpha 6035 with a 7000 RPM fan. Noisy but it works good. I have to do minor maintenance on the HS every so ofter because over a period of time I have to remove the dust that collects on it. The fan sucks air through the HS vice blows air through it. It has a copper bottom that interfaces with the T-Bird.

Well to eat your <b>C kie</b> and have it too, gotta get <b>Rade n II</b>

 

[Bud]

I agree with noko on this one...remove your HSF and clean the tape off the bottom with alcohol, then apply a dab of thermal paste and remount the HSF. 60C at idle is too hot...something is wrong. It may not actually fail under load, but it could cause instability. I think once you remount the HSF properly, you'll see max load temps in the low 50s.

I'm not in touch with my feeings, and I like it that way!

 

[khha4113]

Thanks.

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[Guest]

Wusy,

Because my opinion is different than yours doesn't mean that I don't know what I speak of . That's a lesson in life that extends outside of techie talk.

FYI, I spent $10 on an AMD approved fan that keeps my cpu ~53-55 under load, and around 46-49 idle. My temps are based on a case temp of around 28-30 and a room temprature of 75F. If I drop my room temp down to 72F, then everything else is lower (with my CPU maxing out around 51C).

I think that everybody will need to decide for themselves what they're comfortable with. I choose to run the CPU at 53C under load opposed to 42C under load for 3 reasons: 1) Works just as good, 2) Quiet is Good, 3) I wanted to spend the extra cash of another 256meg of ram ($69 for 256 at crucial.com). From what I saw in my brief CPU cooler search, most of the high end coolers are either noisy or expensive. If you don't mind the noise, yup an extra $20 may be worth it for you to be able to push that 1.33 up to 1.5. But if you want a quiet, high-end cooler, you may need to shell out more than $20 extra.

Just curious, but does anybody have a 1.33 running at <45C under full load with a quiet CPU fan? If so, how much and what fan? Also, note your room temp and case temp!

Thanks!