AMD Standard operating temps

Hey I was just hoping that somebody could give me an estimate of a decent AMD operating temp, I'm running an Athlon XP 2400+, it's overclocked and I know that brings a lot more heat but I just want to know about what it should run at stock so I can get an idea if I need better cooling or not. Also the room temp is kept at 71 F which is a bit warm so this probably also contributes to the heat. It still has the stock heat sink with Arctic Silver thermal compound. I have 3 80mm case fans, 1 blowing in 2 blowing out, and the PSU fan blowing out, I'm running it on a MSI KT6 Delta-LSR motherboard with 512MB PC3200 (DDR400), I'd also like to know if anyone has this same board what temperature their NorthBridge runs at...

Hi,

I personally would not like to see it running at more than about 45c, which I guess is around 115F.

You are right about ambient (room) temperature...it will baseline to that, but 71F is not really hot, so should not be a problem.

Get an exhaust fan to shift air out of the case. They cost about 5-10$ and take up a PCI slot (or ISA if you remember those :D )

You can do clever things with old plastic bottles/piping to direct air onto the processor. That is the "incoming" bit.

I would suggest that you get one of those HDD cooling bays..............heat and vibration kill HDDs like there is no tomorrow :(

I can personally run a 2200+ at 37c (98F) with a room temp of about 20c (68F)

Hope that this helps

Merry Christmas

LoL, yes I know/remember ISA slots were, in fact I have a 450mhz system sitting next to me that has a few of em :P Anyway I was wondering what you would suggest if I made a home made exhaust tube like you said, i have 2 empty slots, however they're right below my video card and above my sound card so nothing too big will fit. I think that if i take the two slot covers out and cut the bar in between, then also cut part of each cover out and put a small fan off an older heatsink in there and then put a tube of some sort leading to up by the heatsink it should pull much of the hot air away? I'm also considering drilling some holes and putting a big 120mm fan in the top between my DVD drive and my PSU. Also I will soon be getting a Thermaltake Volcano 11+ heatsink to put on there and maybe some better thermal compound, and that should certainly help a lot.

Merry Christmas!


You should be able to get an exhaust fan straight "off the shelf"............just screw it into a PCI/ISA slot in your machine? The gismo will fit, well mine do :)

"below the video card"...........sounds nice, if the bits face down? otherwise take the higher slot. My reason is your sound card is pretty irrelevant as far as heat goes, but the vid card does generate a fair bit...........you might think about changing slots?

You can also get copper heatsink/fan units for videocards..........remember to use silver thermal paste ;)

Cheers

hey my software which moniters the temp routinely shows it around 49c .i have amd 1800+

Thank you adityaa1, this makes me feel a little more comfortable with the temps it runs at.

hey i have an athlon xp 2800+ and it runs on average at 42 C.

ok well i put mine back to original clock speed of 2000mhz exactly and it runs at around 51c just doing nothing in windows, which i dont think is too high since an 1800 which is the same core runs at 49c, and mine is the top speed of the thoroughbred core running 2c higher...i assume since the 2800 is barton and is at the lower end of that core's capabilities it would run cooler...

I seem to recall that AMDs are designed to handle 80,85 or 90c? depending on the model, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Remember that the room temperature is what it will balance to, and the airflow around the outside of the case is important. I have seen quite a few fancy workstations that allow very little airflow around the base unit :(

When you get a retail boxed AMD it will have a heatsink and some thermal compound. I don't use these..........Cooler Master make some nice heatsinks (there are other good makes) and silver thermal compound is much more effective.............just check out that the fan/heatsink is approved for your processor...............I have seen a guy fry two 1.3Ghz Durons, using an inappropriate heatsink :rolleyes:

You might also replace the ribbon cables with the circular variety, and add fan cooled 5.25" HDD mounting bays. Modern 7200rpm drives can get very hot, and the objective is to create an airflow that moves heat out of the case. If you let stale air build up around the drives it will kill them.

Cable ties are very cheap and often ignored. Keep wiring out of the way so it doesn't impede airflow ;)

Cheers

Bah. Who needs all these fancy fans and heatsinks and stuff?

Just put some ice cubes in the case. It'll keep the air nice and chilly and it's cheap too. You just need to put in new ice and sponge up the bottom every couple of hours though. Bonus - keeps the case cool during a power outage, too.