How hot is too hot?

I currently have an Athlon XP 2100+ on an MSI KT333 Ultra-ARU in a black Evercase with all three case fans and the cooler that comes with the retail processor. It's running in a house with a room temp of about 27 degrees C. At load, the XP 2100+ reaches a temp of around 52 degrees. Idle is six degrees cooler. I am using Arctic Silver III thermal compound, and am wondering if this temperature is a little out of the ordinary. Haven't yet tried re-doing the thermal interface. I would just like to know from you XP users how hot yours run and if this seems out of the ordinary.
Thanks in advance.

<b>if it crashes then its too hot.</b>

Proud owner of the <b>Beige Beast</b>

Oh great poobah, join me in my quest to have everyone chanting that exact phrase.

The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark

You're temp is fine, try to use a large fan like Thermaltake Silent Viking, then it will run wery silent. The clue is to have a fan that runs on few RMP, the larger number the more noise you get.

I personally believe that higher temps are okay as long as they don't exceed 60 C. You will eventually ruin the life of your system faster than someone who kept his at 40 C with a loud fan or 35 C with water cooling, but this is only a probability and not a fact, and by then you will most likely have upgraded your entire computer anyway because the old one was too slow. My rule of thumb is generally to be very careful with keeping temps down, however, if you have some kind of CPU overheating protection on your mainboard then you can experiment a bit more.

It is true the mainboard can fry too. Few people pay attention to this although they should. The exhaust fan is important not only because it draws hot air away from the CPU but also because it draws hot air away from the capacitors, which can become very hot. When capacitors become overloaded or overheat they can literally burn out and lose their capacitance, thereby lowering system stability. However, if you have a decent exhaust fan then this won't be a problem.

This little cathode light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!

Try this first, you may be lucky
<A HREF="http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php" target="_new">http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php</A>
+++++++++++++
and remember that the db the fanmakers write are not
the real one . I have one 12 db (paps):when alone it's really almost inaudible, but when on the heatsink it's twice louder!
<font color=green> The second time is always better than the first </font color=green><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by kamo on 07/13/02 02:17 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Running a cpu at a higher temp WILL LESSEN THE LIFE OF THE PROCESSOR, this is a fact, the funny part is were talking from 20 years to 19 years, and if you still have the same cpu in 19 years you need to be spanked.


Temps do not matter unless your locking up, period.


The Cash Left In My Pocket,The BEST Benchmark