Newbie temp questions...

Im pretty new to this, but Ive been reading alot of posts the past couple of days. Here's my problem: I've got a Athlon 1.2Ghz TypeC CPU and an MSI MS6380 mobo. The CPU came with a Volcano III. According to PCAlert (came with the mobo) Im getting CPU temps as high as 63C. This is with the machine at an idle. At first this really shocked me. Im not overclocking..but then I realize its about 85F in the rooom. I turned the computer off, removed the case cover and waited till the next day. The room temp was about 25C when I turned the computer on and immediately went into the bios to check the temps. The BIOS reported the CPU temp as 35C and chassis temp as 33C. How the !@#? can the chassis temp be 33C when the room temp is 25C, 10 seconds after I turn the machine on?? So I let it boot Win98SE and sit for awhile. I come back and the cpu temp is 53C, chassis temp 49C and room temp is 27C. I can touch the heat sink and hold my finger there without burning. I have NO idea where the temps are being taken from but Im beginning to get suspisious about the accuracy. I would like to get a MC-462A and start overclocking but I dont dare until I know I can get good temp reads..HELP!

My system:

Athlon 1.2Ghz @ 1200Mhz
K7T266 MS-6380 (w/RAID)
256MB Micron DDR
ATI RADEON 64DDR
Deskstar 75Gig ATA100 HDD
Maxtor 30Gig ATA66 HDD
HP9710 CDRW
SBLive! Platinum

3 case Fans (two in back blowing out, 1 in front pulling in)
Toshiba DVD

<<How the !@#? can the chassis temp be 33C when the room temp is 25C, 10 seconds after I turn the machine on?? >>

If you turn on the machine without a heatsink on the CPU, it will burn up in couple seconds so the CPU temp will rise above room temperature very quickly.

<<I have NO idea where the temps are being taken from but Im beginning to get suspisious about the accuracy>>

I don't have your exact motherboard but I do have MSI K7Master. MSI boards usualy have thermal sensor in the middle of the socket so that it actually touches the bottom of the CPU core. This leads to more accurate reading and people have been reporting higher temperature with MSI boards than with other boards. Higher temp maybe due to more accurate sensors or it may just be running to hot but you're not the only one experiencing high temps with MSI board. But I do believe the temp readings are accurate.

I have 1.33Ghz with Thermoengine w/Delta and my idle temp is at 50C and 36C case temp so your temp is not that far off from mine. Although 63C seems bit too high.

Make sure your heatsink is attached properly, use good thermal paste like Arctic Silver, or get a better heatsink. Volcano is not bad but you need something with better fan.

Also, uninstall that PCAlert and get Motherboard Monitor 5. It has much more monitoring features.


--BrianC

Yeah, I would suggest SiSoft Sandra. It monitors tons of stuff, including your cpu temp. I have a different mobo, kt7A, but my 1.2 runs at 32 idle and 53 under load. I'm trying to get that under 50, before I OC it.

The MSI temp do tend to be high because the sensor actually touches the cpu instead of a SM. I thought I was cooking my chip when the first time I powered my MSI K7T Turbo. I had a reading of 62 C on idle (HSF was a CoolmasterEP5-6I11). Swapped MB and still had the same reading. Lapping and AS gave me a 3 C drop. O/C has a good article on the MSI MB temperature anomaly.
I am at 43 C full load on a 1 GHz O/C to 1350 Chassis is at 26 and this is with the case open and a house fan aimed in. Now when I close the case I get 48/49 C full load and a chassis of 30 C. My HSF is the Swiftech MC462-A (noisy noisy Delta fan). I will probably do a heavy mod to the case and duct to the delta. For now, house fan/open case works.

BBChevy454 , Welcome man! I mainly just wanted to say that was an excellent first post. On topic now. What they said plus make sure youv'e got good case cooling. If you don't have good airflow, no HSF is gonna get those temps down.

Thanks everybody. I'm goin to cut a hole in the side of the case for a fan to vent air out. I think with all of those drives in there the ambient temp in the case is geting too high (especially the deskstar). I'm thinking about using some PVC ducting to draw air directly over the CPU. Has anyone tried this?? What's the diff between the MC-462 and MC-462A? Where can I get the swiftech and some Artic Silver?? I can't seem to find this kind of stuff. Thanks again!

Welcome to the board BBChevy454! Seems you already have responses, so I just dropped by to say hello. =)

<< I can touch the heat sink and hold my finger there without burning. >>

To me this is an indication of bad heat transfer. If the heatsink is not hot, that usually means the cpu is retaining most of the heat, if you have a warm heatsink, its usually a good thing unless you have amazing aircooling

i suggest lapping your heatsink, getting some arctic silver II, and maybe a 60mm black label delta fan if you want the best aircooling you can get

for more information on lapping heatsinks and what it does, just search on google.com for "heatsink lapping guide" and one of the sites should have something worthwhile for reading

and to buy some cooling supplies i'd suggest www.2cooltek.com if you are american, and for the canucks like myself www.bigfootcomputers.com. both these stores are good for supplies.

have a good overclock and hope to see you with a little bit lower temps soon!