Cooling.. Am I ready to start OC

[BerettaX]

AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (Ive changed the clock speed to 140 already) If I go any higher it locks up.. Anyways below I have listed my seystem setup

AMD Athlon XP 1600+ running @ 1473 MHz pretty stable
Epox 8K7A motherboard (Mode for the cpu)
256 megs DDR crucial 2100 ram
300 watt power supply...
I dont think you need to no anything else... Just the regualr stuff

My cooling (So far)
-----------------------------------
My Case Fans
Back fan sucks air out
Top Sucks air out
Side blows air in "this is directly in front of cpu"

Inside the Case
Stock heatsink and fan on the cpu "No thermal paste AMD didnt send any"
Stock fan on the mobo

CPU + Chassis Tempature
Cpu = Idling around 38*C
Chassis = idling around 28*C

[plague]

:mad:"No thermal paste AMD didnt send any":mad:

ummm, get something on there, now. If you have nothing between the hsf and core, your temps must be pretty high. order some Arctic Silver very soon.

[BerettaX]

Yes.. I will get some of that when I get my front fan and my pci slot fans and my hd/rom cooling fans.. in about a week

[BerettaX]

If you have nothing between the hsf and core, your temps must be pretty high. order some Arctic Silver very soon.

My idle temp is 38*C this bad? I thought it was good

[rogerdugans]

38 sounds fine....but you CANNOT really depend on readings from the mobo unless you verify them with a more accurate device- even an indoor/outdoor thermometer inside the case is more dependable, imo. Many use fancy stuff- Digidoc/Compunurse, etc.

My AMD systems get unstable in the very high 40s (48/49 ish), and I haven't gotten one to crash (unless I broke it!) at anything under 45c or so.

I don't think I would run a system without thermal paste of some sort- even the Radio Shack goop is ok.

If you are going to run without anything, please don't oc it! Temps can climb quickly if you lose the contact you have, and possibly wreck your cpu!

Heat is the Enemy, and Caution is your best friend.

[Silver]

Go to Rat Shack and get some of their thermal grease till you can get as2. I would not run my system without it and think you are rather lucky to not have fried your processor already.

[ken257]

If he is using the stock AMD supplied HSF I am sure it had a thermal pad on the bottom. One of the reasons I think that they put it there is so that a newbee can't forget about the grease! In this case it may not be as bad as it sounds at least there is something there. I would refrain from overclocking though untill you improve the cooling and get a real HSF on there and some good grease, AMD retail sinks and those thermal pads are not the best thing in the world at transfering heat but it is a lot better then nothing.

[ken257]

And if you do put some grease on the stock sink make sure you clean all the old goop from the thermal pad off first. It is best to use a solvent and your fingernail don't scrapre the sink with a metel tool because you will scrach it up.

[ThePunkGeek]

you really need to watch your temps
Idling around 38*C
that means full load around 45?
sounds a little off for no thermal paste.