Newbie questions

My budget-built baby:

Athlon XP 1800+ TBred B (retail AMD cooling on cpu, I wasn't planning on oc'ing when built)
MSI K7T266 PRO2-U
Kingston PC2100 512M
Geforce4 MX440SE 64M sdram
Maxtor 80G 7200rpm HDD
Dominator(made by Artec I think) CD-RW 52x24x52
Generic 300W ATX PSU

Stock speed---idle temp 37C, Prime95 load 41C

Then I used the FuzzyLogic util that came with mobo out of curiosity.

Running at Multi-11.5 FSB-157.8=1815MHz
vcore still set to auto in bios, mbm shows it bouncing from 1.60 to 1.62

Running prime95 tourture test while reading the forums, temp never goes over 46c.
Two hours of prime95 with no problems. Idle cpu temp 40c.

How do these temps sound for the retail hsf, and how much more might I oc with better hsf?

Also, how screwed am I if i want to install a new heat sink? I used the thermal pad on the original and have heard of problems due to it melting.

Thanks in advance,
bs

40 C is pretty good for the retail HSF...

If you're gonna do some serious overclocking though, I'd suggest a better HSF combo.

bmsurber said:

How do these temps sound for the retail hsf, and how much more might I oc with better hsf?

Also, how screwed am I if i want to install a new heat sink? I used the thermal pad on the original and have heard of problems due to it melting.

Thanks in advance,
bs

Click to expand...

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

Those temps are far better than I would expect with the retail hsf. Do you know if those are on-die or insocket temperature readings? I would guess they are insocket.

You aren't screwed at all if you want to change heatsinks. The thermal pad can be somewhat of a pain to remove but if you are patient it is by no means impossible. If you use your license, library card, or credit card to help you scrape the thermal pad off it will really speed the process along. I would not use anything more firm than that however so you don't damage the cpu die. I use my credit card and isopropyl alcohol when I remove thermal pads. I also set the cpu on a sponge while it sat on my workbench as I was cleaning it... This way I could scrape away but didn't have to worry about bending any pins.

Your temps are excellent for a stock cooler. I'm overclocking a 2000+ (not as much an overclock as you) and I get around 38C on cold days under load, and 45C on hot days. I'm using a Vantec AeroFlow. Excellent quiet HSF, and its cheap at newegg. Review is at http://www.overclockers.com/articles635/

There are about 10 other heatsinks that perform better, but this fan is nearly silent, and the HS performs well for its low noise.

Anyway- if you upgrade to a HSF similar to mine, you will notice a more pleasant fan noise (AMD fans have an irritating whine to them), and a more pleasant temperature drop (maybe a few degrees, but its worth it).

If your looking for the best air cooler, you can find it at http://www.overclockers.com/articles698/ - it's an excellent heatsink, but the noise would drive me crazy.

Anyway- your temps are really nice with that kind of overclock. Good job.

He gets better temps than me, even with my new water cooling setup. Its like 85F out here.... Only know computer temps in C. Anyway, being farther north is probably the best cooling investment you could buy.

How can I tell if the temp is on-die or in-socket?

btw diggingforgold, what fan noise, I can't hear anything over the tt smart fan II in the front of the case

For anyone to find out if they are reading on-die or in-socket temps, they have to find out three things:

1) Does their cpu feature an on-die sensor?

2) Does their motherboard support readings from the on-die sensor?

3) Is their monitoring software configured correctly to read from the on-die sensor?

My 2000 pally had something in the center of the pins on the bottom, but my 1700 jiuhb has nothing.

Is it that the 2000 had a sensor, but the 1700 doesnt?