AMD 8650 Cooling

Hello all,

I'm new here on the forums and have a question about cooling. I am trying to do a push-pull cooling configuration with my PC. I am running a Phenom X3 8650 2.3Ghz (Not OC'd) w/ the stock heatsink and arctic silver 5.

I have a motherboard alarm set in the bios for when the CPU reaches 60C...max temp for this proc. according to AMD is 70C.

I ran the Everest stability test for 20min with all the fans set to low, and the CPU never got over 57C under 100% load. Yet, when I play GTAIV for 10 min, I hear the CPU alarm telling me it is over 60C. What's going on? Is this okay?

My Cooling system:
I am running a 180mm intake fan in the front, a 180mm intake fan in the side. I also have a 120mm exhaust fan plus the stock CPU fan. My ATI 4870 card has a blowback fan out the rear as well.

Download Intel Burn Test and give that a shot, it may simply be that GTA4 is putting a higher load on the cpu then everest is.
That said, that's awfully toasty for the stock cooler and AS5 on a normal clocked CPU. It might be worthwhile to pull the CPU cooler off and make sure it's making good contact.

What are the temps like with the fans on high? It's also possible that there simply isn't enough airflow through the case.

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, the temps sounded high to me too. I think I am going to try a new case.

The way I applied arctic silver 5 was to place a small dollop in the center of the CPU heat spreader, and then firmly place the heatsink on top and lock it down. According to the arctic silver 5 manual, this spreads it out the best instead of spreading it with your finger. Is this the way you apply it?

It's a way that certainly works, the only question is whether it was enough.
I would remove the heatsink and look to see that the entire heatspreader on the top of the CPU has AS5 on it.
If the dot is too small it'll just be a circle in the middle, which will limit contact and cause high temps.

Thanks...I bought arcticlean and a new case and that seems to have cooled things down a bit with the processor.