Holy Sizzling Hot Athlon Batman

Immacolata · July 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">Argh! The overheating season is upon me</div> I build myself an Atlhon XP 2100+ pc last year. And I had a world of trouble keeping the system cool enough. Invested in a special "Silent Twin" fan with heatsink that Ive seen reviewed as good for the Atlhons. It worked fine so far but now I get overheating problems. My cabinet is insulated with cork for sound reduction. It might contribute to keeping the heat inside, but the thing is I got ambient temperature under control with some good fan placement (80mm sucking in air at the front, 80mm blowing out air at the rear, just next to the cpu. So ambient temperature is very good, rarely goes above 36 C.

When I play a CPU 3d intensive game like NS or Gothic 2 I soon see temperatures rise. 73C or 163F is what I set my alarm to. Hits that spot in about 8 minutes. If I dont stop it will reach 75C / 167F and the machine will crash. I even took off the side panel of my case to allow a bit of cool off. The cooler is mounted using a thin meticulously applied layer of cooling paste. I know that less is better when it come to thermal conducting paste. I fear that the fan and heatsink isnt capable of the job keeping the XP 2100+ cool <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>

IT must be the cpu cooler that gives me my problems. Who can help me? How can I keep this hot rig cool in the summer season?

Any brand of fan with not too much noise you can recommend from personal epxerience?

Marik_Steele · July 2003

About half a year ago, I had such extreme overheating problems with my Athlon T-bird 1.4GHz that it burnt itself out, so I know where you're coming from. Not pretty stuff. My questions and advice:

1. What thermal paste solution? Standard stuff that comes with the CPU/mobo/heatsink, or a brand-name thing like Arctic Silver III?
2. Have you checked whether your forward/aft blowholes are doing their job? If you get better temps with the sidepanel on instead of off, that's how it should be. If not, you may want to invest in rounded IDE cables, or do simpler stuff like twist-tie them out of the way of airflow.
3. Is it a closed cabinet? Letting the air accumulate heat in there isn't worth the noise reduction.
4. Are you willing to buy a new heatsink, or just fans? For less than most replacement CPUs, you can get one of the best heatsink/fan combos on the market.

For my XP 2000+, I've been using an all-copper SLK-800 with a cheapo, 3000rpm, 80mm fan. I'm quite sure that despite my living in South Florida, I've never had my CPU temp go into the 50's celcius. Right now as I type, it's hovering at 43; in the winter (if you can call it that, in my state) it's usually in the 30's.

Immacolata · July 2003

I worked hard on ambient temperatures, trust me. It's about 36C in hot conditions. That's not a lot, in other words 36C / 96F. Air flow is good enough in the cabinet itself, removing the side panels did not help me avoid crashes. I just did it out of frustration. Im probably going to order this baby:

<a href='http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030113/cooler5-33.html' target='_blank'>Vantec Aeroflow VA4-C7040</a>

It's not too expensive. Im desperate so Im throwing money after it with abandon right now <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

Savant · July 2003

I'm a fan of <a href='http://www.swiftnets.com/' target='_blank'>Swiftech</a> myself. Although I run with Intel, I have one of their MCX462 series heatsinks and I'm quite happy with it. However, if you really want to bring your temps down, perhaps look at something like <a href='http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcx462plusT.asp' target='_blank'>this</a> which you can slap a 92mm fan on and thus lower your ambient fan noise without sacrificing CFM.

Regards,

Savant

s_viper3 · July 2003

I have several systems that I own, but most of the time I play outside, and my outside computer is significantly less powerful (its in a water-proof tower, but regardless I dont want to put any good hardware in it).

Some of you won't beleive this, but here goes:
- Athlon 850 (Slot A - The big sideways thing)
- 256mb PC100 Ram
- DMA66 tops support
- PCI Voodoo2 2000 - 16mb SD onboard

And I am using: - Russian 3DFX 3rd party drivers, with WickedGL final beta drivers (before it disappeared).

With the above hardware, and with settings set properly, I get 100fps a good amount of the time, with the lowest framerates in areas with lots of players and structures as low as 20fps. This is on a 6 year old videocard my friends.
I get higher framerates on this voodoo2 pci than I do on a Radeon 9000 pro 128mb AGP4x I have in my other computer. I don't know what to say, but it's pretty sad.

Edit: This is with NS2.0u btw, I get LOWER framerates in 1.04. Explain that one!

Long Live 3DFX!

MaDMaxX · July 2003

Ok, heres the deal:
Athlon 2.5 with Barton core
2x cd drives and 512megs

Spose thats the heat generating stuff.
I get 40 degrees starting temp just lying around in windows and an absolute max of 45 degrees when under full load for hours in a hot room on a hot day all day.

I use a full copper zalman flower cooler, very silent, i run the fan on full power (about 3000rpm) cost me just under 30 quid.
I have no fans in th front of the case and one in the back blowing outwards, make sure its a grill and not cut out metal case (thats very noisey and restrictive) I also run a card cooler directly under the graphics card. Despite the way they look, card coolers put out a large amount of air and it stops the GPU heat from getting to the rest of the system.
If this lot doesn't help at all, i can almost guarantee cutting a "blow hole" in the top of the vase will sort it (can fit a fan to it optionally)
Ive not heard about using as little as possible transfer compound, i suspect its not a problem, the cooler WILL squeeze all additional stuff outwards, it needs to fill all metal impureties in the metal between the two surfaces, so put a reasonable amount on.

Highly recomended.

Immacolata · July 2003

If you put too much cooling paste on you will increase the overall thermal resistance of the heat sink. Cooling paste still has a higher resistance to heat than copper - but way lower than dry air <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'> So too thick is possible.

MonsieurEvil · July 2003

By the way - NASA uses cork to protect portions of rockets at takeoff. It is an extremely good thermal-insulator. i.e. the theory is it's precisely what you should not be using inside your case. I have never heard of anyone doing that before, but leave it to an old-worlder.

<a href='http://www.greensage.com/SLCH-INSULATION/SLCH-CorkInsul.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.greensage.com/SLCH-INSULATION/S...H-CorkInsul.htm</a>

Nub.

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'>

Immacolata · July 2003

I must again repeat that my ambient temperature is rather low all things considered. It hovers on the 36C mark, thats not a lot. And trust me, that is AFTER having installed numerous fans to create air circulation. Before I did that the Cork made it like a tiny oven in there, retaining far too much heat. As well as noise, which is Why I got it in the first place. And that was back in the days of 800 megahurtz pcs and Geforce 1. Things didn't heat up that much <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

New fan on the order. Hope it is what I need.

MonsieurEvil · July 2003

just saying - I have more equipment in, and poorer circulation out, of my main PC and I don't have anything like these issues. Heck, the fan on my GF4 broke months ago from a crappy bearing and I still don't have heat issues like this...

MonsE 1, Immac 0

<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'>

NumbersNotFound · July 2003

What kind of cooler is on it now?

It seems that it isn't attached right, or doesn't have the thermal paste on right.. I'm running a 2400 and NEVER get above 54C with the stock cooler.

Maybe the heat sink is backwards, not making full contact, etc.

Moquiao · July 2003

the trick is.. take the case of and get a big bucket of water and douse your system make sure you get it ALL over the chips and everything...**

** this is a joke anyonre moronic enough to do this deserves to screw up theyre p.c/...

Nil_IQ · July 2003

Is there a way to find out your system temperature without going into the Bios (i.e, without restarting)?

/me looks like a computer nubbin <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/nerd.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='nerd.gif'>

My comp is getting on the hot side too. I have the side panel off, which is fine when i'm playing a game, since the game sounds wil drown out the computery sounds, but otherwise (ie, now, when im browsing the forums) the continuous buzz/beep/whine gets very annoying.

How would you describe that noise computers make anyway? Sort of a whine, but kind of a high pitched buzz as well....

Oh, and I have a desk fan pointed into the computer when all else fails <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Gadzuko · July 2003

I recommend doing what a friend of mine did when his CPU fan failed: Remove the side panels and take a giant, industrial size fan (the size of a largish TV) and prop it up against your case.

Okay, so maybe that's a little extreme, not to mention noisy. But it kept him in the LAN party.

Wheeee · July 2003

The big fan can be good and bad. The bigger the fan, generally the more EM interference it causes, which may cause your monitor output to wobble slightly (due to the constantly reversing EM fields from the fan motor). Another issue with this is condensation.

Anyway, I'd advise you to take off your heat sink/fan combo from your CPU, then carefully use a clean flat-head screwdriver or chisel to scrape off the thermal grease (pasty white stuff usually) from both the heat sink bottom and the CPU, where they meet. Then get a fresh tube of thermal grease and re-apply it to the heat sink, using a clean flathead screwdriver or a chisel. It is VERY IMPORTANT to smear the grease evenly in a thin layer, otherwise you'll create air pockets between the CPU and the heatsink when you re-attach the HS/fan to the CPU. The air pockets will act as insulators, and your Processor temp will rise.

If it still is acting up, you might want to try switching to something like the Millenium Glaciator (a HS/fan combo) *edit* although I am using a Zalman flower HS/F combo myself on my P4 2.4 rig, and temps never really go over 45-50C under heavy load *edit*.

Wheeee · July 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Nil_IQ @ Jul 9 2003, 02:26 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Is there a way to find out your system temperature without going into the Bios (i.e, without restarting)?

/me looks like a computer nubbin <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/nerd.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='nerd.gif'>

My comp is getting on the hot side too. I have the side panel off, which is fine when i'm playing a game, since the game sounds wil drown out the computery sounds, but otherwise (ie, now, when im browsing the forums) the continuous buzz/beep/whine gets very annoying.

How would you describe that noise computers make anyway? Sort of a whine, but kind of a high pitched buzz as well....

Oh, and I have a desk fan pointed into the computer when all else fails <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
Handy app called MBM (motherboard monitor). Just search it in google or yahoo. (sorry for the double post).

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>the trick is.. take the case of and get a big bucket of water and douse your system make sure you get it ALL over the chips and everything...**

** this is a joke anyonre moronic enough to do this deserves to screw up theyre p.c/... </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

meh. you're a mean one, mr. grinch...

airyK · July 2003

well as long we are on the same subject, what is the best hsf for a 2500 + barton? im curious because im putting together a computer real soon and would like to know what is the best air cooling i can get.

sekdar · July 2003

<a href='http://mbm.livewiredev.com' target='_blank'>http://mbm.livewiredev.com</a>

^Motherboard Monitor, a program that lets you monitor heat levels.

most of the posters already covered the big stuff tho.

my friend uses an AMD 1700+ thoroughbred-b 1.47GHz overclocked to <i>2.5GHz</i>.

He uses Artic Silver III and a Thermalright SLK-800.

He never exceeds 38 degrees Celsius.

These things will solve all your heat problems <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'> I'm getting them soon because my rig bakes itself every summer...

Cereal_KillR · July 2003

take the:

Thermalright SLK-900
<img src='http://www.rue-montgallet.com/imgdb/produits/000000014215.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
WARNING: this is a heatsink and needs a fan on top of it. "Noiseless" ones prefered? Cheap ones work as well. Size of needed fan: 92. There is a version with a noiseblocker (this being a brand and not an item of noise blocking) fan.

or I also like

Zalman CNPS 6500B Al/Cu
<img src='http://www.rue-montgallet.com/imgdb/produits/000000011209.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

This one is quite nice as well as it is a kit. The fan isn't exactly on the heatsink but by replacing it by a giant one (120) you can give some cooling to the memory and possibly the north.

oh, and dont abuse the paste, too much paste is worse than no paste, just put enough to replace the air with paste.
Buy quality paste, such as ArCtic Silver III (Artic being a copy, Arctic being the quality one)

Redford · July 2003

I find it vaugly amusing you would seal a 2.1 GhZ processor in cork in order to "reduce the sound level". Wood is a poorer conductor of heat then metal, and air is an even worse conductor of heat, which cork is full of in the form of air bubbles. I would say that if you removed the cork, your problem would solve itself.

airyK · July 2003

the slk-900 comes out to be 45 dollars w/out the fan. thats exspensive imo, is there any cheaper counterpart?

Zel · July 2003

he still hasnt mentioned airflow, is ther any? or else no heatsink will save you if you keep blowing the same warm air at the cpu.

Fina · July 2003

What about dust? On my old Athlon 1600, a dusty HSF would add a good 5-10c to the temp. It idled at 60c.

My new processor is a Athlon 2500 Barton, overclocked to 2800 speeds. It idles around 45-50c, and that is with the retail HSF that came with it.

Emsee · July 2003

It's most likely the cpu heatsink and fan thats the problem. My Athlon xp 2000+ overclocked to 2200 is only at 60-65 C and thats with only the standard heatsink/fan that came with it, no case fans and with the side on, pushing it a little I know, but it is the middle of summer (28 c outside) and there's a hot water storage tank in my room too.
Anyway try speedfan for checking the temp and make sure the heatsink and fan on the cpu are free from dust. To clean them a can of compressed air works well to blow the dust out. You could try a system exhaust fan to try and cool it down a bit more but it really sounds like it's your heatsink.

Wheeee · July 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (sekdar @ Jul 9 2003, 06:30 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> ...snip...
my friend uses an AMD 1700+ thoroughbred-b 1.47GHz overclocked to <i>2.5GHz</i>.

...snip...

He never exceeds 38 degrees Celsius.
 </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
That's pretty impressive with just air cooling. Almost 70% overclock? jeebus.

BlackMage · July 2003

<a href='http://www.xoxide.com' target='_blank'>Xoxide</a>
^all your colling and modding needs^
this place has a whole lotta stuff ... pretty good priced fans heatsinks good thermal paste
if u have the $$ it has temp monitors fan controllers lcd displays (temp speed winamp eq) water colling kits and even peltzier kits. then theyhave mod supplies like lights window(kits too) tools and more stuff

Scythe · July 2003

<img src='http://users.bigpond.net.au/zimbu/cooling.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

This is no joke. I had my rig running for the better part of two years like this. If I was playing a game without the fan on it would shoot up to 75 deg c and reboot itself. We dabbed a bit more thermally conductive goo between the heat sink and the die and the tempreture dropped like a rock.

--Scythe--

Cereal_KillR · July 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Scythe @ Jul 11 2003, 09:02 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> (img of fan in comp)

This is no joke. I had my rig running for the better part of two years like this. If I was playing a game without the fan on it would shoot up to 75 deg c and reboot itself. We dabbed a bit more thermally conductive goo between the heat sink and the die and the tempreture dropped like a rock.

--Scythe--  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
doesnt that blow tons of dust in your computer though...

Eric: You pay for quality. There's always the base fan you get in box versions that are normally sufficient (though I never tried) Only thing I gotta say, paste means a lot. Else there is the SLK-800 or 700 but I'd say investing in a quality heatsink is worth it.

NeedDirections · July 2003

get <a href='http://www.koolance.com/' target='_blank'>watercooling</a> and the days of overheating are gone <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Reven · July 2003

i have an Athlon xp 1800+ xp and i cant get it under 50C. i spent about £30 on a Globalwin CAK4-88T 3000XP

<img src='http://www.extremecooling.co.uk/graphics/images/gw_cak4-88T.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

its getting to the point that my system is freezing after about 1-2 hours of 3d Gaming.

well when i upgrade soon, i will be concidering some other form of cooling(liquid) <img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

Holy Sizzling Hot Athlon Batman

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