I suspect my case temps are too high

Hi all,

It seems I'm up against the limit of how far my setup will overclock, and I'm thinking temperatures have something to do with it. Right now, with outlook express, antivir, and spybot as the only apps running constantly, I'm seeing a reported motherboard temp of 46 and a core temp of 47 degrees celcius. A couple of things jump out at me: First, that motherboard temp sounds awfully high for good overclocking. Second, I wonder if the motherboard temp is actually lower, since the cpu core temp is only being reported as one degree higher.

I'm using the asus AI Suite, which reports actual core temp as far as I know. I don't see how my cpu cooler can be keeping the cpu temp at only one degree higher than the ambient air, which tells me the ambient air is actually considerably cooler than what the motherboard temp reports. (the cpu voltage is at 1.376)

Nevertheless, these temps seem too high for a system that's essentially idling. Lemme clarify some details about the airflow in my case. The case is one of those xclio jet engine-looking things. It's a full tower with a 250mm fan in front and a 350mm fan in the left side. The 250 pulls air in and the 350 pulls it out. Both of these fans are set as high as they'll go with the included speed controllers, and the fan on the tuniq tower is also at full speed (plugged directly in to a motherboard fan header without the controller).

I'm wondering how I ought to approach this. The side fan is pulling air out exactly where I think it needs to be pulled out-next to the videocard. That monstrosity puts out more heat according to my hand-o-meter than the cpu. I suspect leftover heat from the videocard is still circulating in the case. Since the card seems to expel most of it's heat straight down. maybe I ought to fab up some kind of duct to take that hot air directly out of the case?

All this leads to another question-what motherboard components might really benefit from extra cooling efforts? Basically, I think that something on the board has me blocked from higher overclocks, so I'd like to focus my efforts on things on my specific type of board that can get hot and affect stability.

Any of you folks have ideas for me to try?

so the CPU is at 46 at idle? If it is... yeah.. try taking off and putting back on your HSF and reapplying some AS5 to it all.

Yeah, it's pretty much idle. I don't count browsing a forum with the listed programs running in the background as much above idle. I have actually already removed and reseated the heatsink, thinking I might have bungled the original install. Nothing changed temp-wise to speak of. For the heatsink grease, I can't remember if I used as5 or vantec grease. I just looked where I normally keep the stuff, and I was surprised to find both vantec and as5. I would normally use the as5 without question, but I don't remember finding it when I built the box, and I also think I remember the stuff I applied being white. Even if I did use the vantec stuff, surely it wouldn't be so inferior as to cause temps this high? I'm beginning to wonder if I ought to pull the tuniq off and lap it and the cpu...

I just fired it up for the first time today, and the motherboard temp was reported as being 27c. That sounds about right, considering it sat all night turned off. I just don't understand how the cpu core temp can possibly be the same or close to the same as the motherboard temp. The only thing that makes sense is that the board temp reported climbs much higher than the actual air temp inside the case while the machine is being used.

Anybody know of any cheap digital temp probes I can hang out inside the case to get temperature readings?

BTT