Houston we have a problem. Newbie with 1200 at 48-65c.

[pmoores]

Hi, just got a new thunderbird 1200 cpu to replace my old p2-400 yesterday. They gave me a generic heatsink/fan and i stated 'nope, couldnt care less about overclocking'.

Ive in last 24 hours changed my mind hehe.

Though this was my first time installing a motherboard and working up to the full system, i beleive everthing was installed properly. I used thermal paste on just the cpu portion of the die and clamped the generic heatsink/fan in the right direction.

That being said, im getting 49c as a cpu temperature with abient temp of 25c with the case on. Doing a test render last night at 100% cpu usage i was registering 64c. I pulled the case off and set a house fan on the board,,, this brought the cpu down to the high 40's in maximum load.

So on that note and taking in account im a newbie what is the first and most likely problem. Do i have a bad chip.... or very low end heatsink (temperatures were similiar with case off if the house fan was not on)?

These numbers were achieved using the factory 9x133mhz that this chip is suppose to run at.

btw. its a 1200mhz on a k7a-raid with 512 megs pc133 sdram.

HEHE, with the numbers above maybe i should be considering starting a underclockers forum.

[wildone]

very low end hs\f ,get a new one asap
Wildone

[UnseenMenace]

Welcome to the Forum

The AMD will run a little hotter than the Intel CPU's however your tempratures are just a little to high in my opinion.. I would suggest to anyone running a AMD cpu to obtain a high quality hsf (heat sink fan) as the standard hsf often just dont do well enough even on a standard CPU. Another important requirement for AMD systems is a good power supply 300w or higher as they draw more power than Intel CPU's.

But you have a great system there, I would try however to improve case cooling and obtain a better HSF.. If you need advice on hsf.. tell us how much money you have to spend and someone will give you advice.

[pmoores]

Money isnt too important but with the caviat that i broke myself for this month what with the ibm 60gig as well. I'll have to muddle along without any additions at least till the mid june pay.

My concern is more that the cpu might be for lack of a better word: 'bad' if its running that hot even on stock parts. Since i do 3d rendering it could be maxed out in theory for a day straight.
Is 65c TOO hot for long periods of time?

If 65c is to be concerned about but normal then i cannot contact the store and state that they sold me could be outright trouble when the summer heat hits.

Id also ask that is there a point where i could damage the cpu (not even overlocking)? lets see... its low 20's in the room but could be mid 30's summertime... that would make the cpu a easy 75c+ until i got extra cooling.... or hehe opened the side of the case and bought a 'student' clip fan and had it blowing in 24/7 (excluding a better heatsink/etc that i will be buying in the future).

[pmoores]

Money isnt too important but with the caviat that i broke myself for this month what with the ibm 60gig as well. I'll have to muddle along without any additions at least till the mid june pay.

My concern is more that the cpu might be for lack of a better word: 'bad' if its running that hot even on stock parts. Since i do 3d rendering it could be maxed out in theory for a day straight.
Is 65c TOO hot for long periods of time?

If 65c is to be concerned about but normal then i cannot contact the store and state that they sold me could be outright trouble when the summer heat hits.

Id also ask that is there a point where i could damage the cpu (not even overlocking)? lets see... its low 20's in the room but could be mid 30's summertime... that would make the cpu a easy 75c+ until i got extra cooling.... or hehe opened the side of the case and bought a 'student' clip fan and had it blowing in 24/7 (excluding a better heatsink/etc that i will be buying in the future).

[Tomas]

when the temp is over 50c its shortening the cpu life in the long term. Also the abit kt7 board shows a bit less than actually temp!! so 65c is WAY to high. Im running my 1.1@1.3 on a globalwin fop38 heatsink with temps around 45c idle to 47-48c loaded. Just try to keep it under 50s

[n2]

i can't say for certain... but a 1200 under 3d rendering with a real crummy hsk/fan may be normal... at 1200mhz you certainly will throw off heat, O/C'd or not.
front page holds the key, read about the Millennium Glaciator and accept no substitutes... Ed does good tests and gives the straight poop on whats out there. his word is like gospel to me. for $40 this hsk/fan is the best thing out there for cooling, bar none.

now, looking at the current situation.
get out the sandpaper!!!
it's called lapping, it'll drop some degrees off till you get a new cooler.
you can find guides thru the front page, but the idea is to sand the hsk down smooth, as any imperfections cause poor transfer of heat, and also lil' hot pockets.
next, of course... (get some artic silver thermal paste for the new hsk)
is the goo... put this on very sparingly.. like a thin transparent layer.
too much is bad. apply with a razor blade.
now lapping and proper goo installed, you should be a bit cooler. maybe even 10* cooler.
the guides up front hold specific details to doing this stuff, and even have pics :)

on a personal note, you do graphics right?
i'm interested in finding out about software, i dunno diddly :D
it's for my womans graphic arts PC, cuz i wanna kill her MAC
maybe drop an e-mail to n2iq2@yahoo.com
i'd like to discuss some different progs with someone versed in it.
of course, it's unappropriate in this thread as the proper forum would be "software" <hiya Daniel :) > LOL
but, just thought i'd ask!

[castle lager fan]

65C sounds pretty hot with ambient of 20C. My 1.33 ran at 50C+ with Coolermaster, even higher under load. If you expect the ambient to go up and is concerned about your CPU's lifespan (although AMD recons 90-95C is max fir die temps) you can do the following.

1) Reduce case temp by opening it up and putting normal house fan on it.
2) Reduce clock speed for a while maybe 8*133 which will reduce heat produced
3)Reduce core voltage after you reduce clock speed which will also drop temp.

Running at 1GHz till you get proper cooling is better than loosing your CPU. COnsider it underclocking to be able to overclock in the future. Besides a few weeks to wait is not that bad ;-)

PS Remember proper cooling includes keeping your case cool. Check Hoot's article for case cooling.