Need your opinion on my temps.

Need your opinions. Sorry for the long post but I'm really confused. My systems specs are as follows:

Asus CUSL2 Mobo
Celeron(T) [email protected] 146FSB (for now until I sort this out)
Swiftech MCXC370 w/ 31cfm fan and AS3
Antec SX830 w/ 4 80mm fan
2 x Crucial 256MB PC133 CAS2
SB Live Platinum
GF2 GTS
1 x 30GB Maxtor
1 x 40GB WD
Lite-On 24X10X40
Linksys NIC

At the moment, I'm getting 45C idle and 50C at full load (1.6G) using MBM 5.2. My ambient is usually 23C (A/C is on 24/7). In the BIOS, the cpu temp never goes above 48C.

No matter what I do I cannot get my idle and load temps to drop below what they are currently now. I have 2 80mm fan up front blowing air in and another 2 at the back sucking hot air out (about 30cfm each). Case temp never goes above 29C and usually hovers at 28C.

I tried the CPU Diode Calibration from the Arctic Silver website and I'm getting a value of -11C which I do not know if it is even correct. When I switch the FSB to the lowest setting (66FSB which drops the cpu to 733Mhz) my cpu idle and load temps stays constant at 44C. I would've thought it would drop below the 40s. If I increase the FSB from 147 up to 156, the idle and load temps slightly increases between 2C-3C only.

I also stuck a temp probe between the HSF and the chip with the probe touching the side of the Intel Heat Spreader and at full load the temp never goes above 39C. Hope i haven't lost you with all these numbers.

With this setup that I have, is it normal for my cpu temps to be always 20C above ambient? I really don't know which numbers to believe. I've even tried using a 50cfm fan to blow cold air in and the cpu temps never change. Any suggestions/comments are welcome.

Thanks.

Well, are you using Arctic Silver? Did you apply a very thin layer not a thick one? I think the main problem is airflow, it's too weak. It should be only 2-3 degrees above ambient.

Try looking into more powerful 80mm's like the Sunon 50, and 4 of them would equal 200cfm. If you are willing to do some case modding, you can add 120mm fans with that. I run 2 120mm YSTECH 131cfm, and they're great along with other fans.

Make sure you had some AS on the tip of your diode.

Hi Pogs
There comes a time in case cooling that no matter what fans you have sucking in & exhausting out the internal case temps become starved of the esential air required around the H/Sink-Fan-cpu area! If you follow what I mean??
The ambient temp. (room) can not change much more than a few degrees under normal conditions. Therfore the air in side the case must be almost the same temp. maybe a couple of degrees higher if air is passing thro. I have found from experence that you are better off with slow fans (about 27CFM) 2 front & 2 rear work better, so allowing the H/Sink Fan to do the job of cooling the cpu @ higher RPM`s & a greater CFM

Acko

Yodums, Acko:

Thanks for the replies. I played with it a little bit more and I've come to the conclusion that the diode temp readings are really off by 11C. I followed the instructions for the CPU Diode Calibration step by step on 3 different HSFs and I got the same error value each time when I ran the tests.

I searched a bit and read that a lot of these CUSL2s (and Asus mobos in general, too) report temps higher than they should be.

With those results, I'm positive my setup is adequate. Though, I might replace my 80mm case fans with Vantec Stealths to keep the noise level down a minimum.

So my temps should be as follows:

Idle : 45C - 11C = 34C
Load: 50C- 11C = 39C

Thanks again.