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CPU idling for lower temp, good idea or not?

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gt24

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2003
Location
Ohio
Is this a good idea or will a program that does that cause damage to a CPU? I heard from a friend that having that program will cause damage, over time, because the CPU die would expand and compress as the idling program kept the CPU cool and then later, let the CPU get hot again when it was being used.

What are your thoughts on this?
 
He's right, but you do that everytime you turn your PC on. The chip won't get damaged before you upgrade, not by a long shot.
 
I guess the question now is what is more of a risk...

using the idler and running your proc 2C over ambient yet damaging it because of heat fluctuations or...

running much warmer and keeping generally similar temps?

I had around 38 C - 36 C (CPU - Ambient case temp unless otherwise stated) with the idler program. Now, at the same ran rotation (about 3500 RPM), I have 49 C - 44 C, which I would normally get under full load (but then again, you can't idle a proc at full load!). I get about the same temps at full load (I run my fan at around 5000 RPM then). So, is the warmer proc safer or not really so safe...?
 
How can your ambient, or room temperature as i understand be 36 to 44c, thats like a sauna, i mean thats 97 to 111F
 
made the mistake of mixing up room and case temps!

what I am talking about is case temps, sorry about the confusion!!
 
that is still pretty hot for case temps. My case temps are only 4c above room temp. Do you have enough air circulation in your case? or is your room really that hot?
 
Well, IE ate my post, DARN IT! Anyways, recapping, I can't take the temp of my room because I have no way of doing so. I usually keep the room a bit on the cool side but there are times I let it get to a comfortrable temperature as well. Here are my temps right now (I just turned on the AC again and it is getting rather cool in here).

47 C CPU 42 C Case
or, so you don't have to think about it...
116 F CPU 107 F Case

Now, I got one fan pulling air in from the front of my case, but it might not be overly effective because of the panel in front of my case blocking airflow (it pulls air from the bottom of the case, where there is a hole in the panel, up a bit and then into the case). I got another fan in my window, blowing in I believe. I got the Volcano 11 sitting on my proc, as always. One fan is blowing out of my case and the PSU is blowing out as well. I got 3 HDDs in there (one in a 5.25 bay for a little while until I start messing with things again), 2 are behind that first fan. My window fan reports RPMs, but can't be controlled. My Volcano 11 is controllable and reports RPMs.

CPU 3629 RPM, SYS 2721 RPM

I can take a picture of the insides of my case if you want to see it, however finding a host for those pictures will be a pain and thus I don't want to do it right now. I can do it if you really want pictures though, so just let me know later. Anyways, now the room is really starting to cool down, and get to be very darn cold, and my temps read as follows (right now).

46 C CPU 40 C Case

They don't get much better than that, at least without the CPU idler that is. Anyways, let me know if what I reported is bad, in any way...
 
well, i am not a pro. in cooling but i think 40-42c case temperatures is a little too high. my cpu is 42-46 idle/load, but my case usually stays at around 30-32, with room temp of 26c. right now i have no AC running in the house. Maybe your case temp sensor sits close to a heat source, a HDD or something, i dont know where on the mobo its located. But i definately think that 42c for case temp is too high.
 
Motherboard is ECS K7VTA3 rev 3.1. The motherboard has three temp sensors but one of them is not working (cycles up to the highest temp possible, then crashes to lowest temp possible and does the cycle again). Aparently, this was done in a BIOS revision that was out before this board reached my hands and thus was preinstalled. I have no clue where the second temperature probe is, but when I get my Asus A7N8X Deluxe installed, it will give more accurate readings (IT BETTER!). I will be getting into overclocking and getting a better heatsync, so I will most certainly know, then, what my issues are in my case.

By the way, my exaust fans are blowing warm air. Not hot air, not pretty mild air, but fairly warm. They always have, they always will.

Anyways, if you can give me info on the K7VTA3 rev 3.1 sensor locations, I would really appreciate it!
 
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