good cooling but running hot... why?!

[GE]

I've got an Athlon 1.333 with an Arkua Copper ThermoEngine fitted witha nice 31CFM fan. I've also got two drive bay fans blowin in at the front, two other fans cooling the chipset, two mini extractor fans at the bottom and a nice big 90mm extractor as well. I've used (as directed) Artic Silver 2 heat goo. The problem is that the CPU is always running at around 45 to 53 degrees C... My chip isn't even over-clocked! Do Athlons normally run this hot? I think I rmemeber the safe operating temperature as being up to 60C, which isn't too much higher than it is now... Also, If I do over-clock this thing, will the temperature go up a lot more? I don't know how much hotter a system gets when over-clocked...


thanks people!

[Oni]

w/ that much air flow, I'd say that its your temperature monitoring software being funny.

[Christoph]

Welcome to the forums!

Don't OC with those temps. They're way too hot for the maount of cooling you have. When you OC, the safe operating temp of your chip goes down because OCing makes chips more unstable.
I'd recommend that you check the attachment of your CPU cooler. It's not logical that you'd get those types of temps with 5 fans circulating air around. What's your ambient temp and can your case get cool air?
Hope that helps a little.

[GE]

the chassis is running at 42 whilst just surfing the net..... I'm not sure I trust the software... but I don't distrust it enough to be happy with what I see. How do I check the attachment then? it's been put on properly, nice and ticght and in the clips and that... I don't want to bent the clasp any becasue I''m sure those little platic mounts on the CPU holder would snap... what's another way of finding CPU temperature other than using the on-board temp sensors which could be dodgy?

[BrianCapps]

I would recommend you re-seat the HSF. Just take it off and put it back on. I had to do this 3 times before I got it right with mine.

Keep at it!

Brian

[Christoph]

If you go that route, put a thick rubber band around it so you can get a better grip. It would have saved me a proc.

[GE]

ok... so I didn't know you can put the heatsink on the wrong way round! now it refuses to go higher than 41, even after 30 CPU benchmarks in a row... added more fans: got 4 inputs and 3 exhaust all of which are not too noisy... thanks for your help guys-you do a great job!

***big cheesy smile***