Question about TEMPS

[hamike69]

I have an AMD Phenom X4 980 BE with a Cooler Master N520 HSF. Also have 3 case fans (front, side, rear) drawing in from the front, blowing out from the back. Side fan is sucking air out. PSU fan also. At idle on Easy Tune 6 my CPU is at 39/40 C When I am playing BF 3 it goes all the way up to 61/62 C. Is this normal or do I have an issue?

Any help is greatly appreciated

Mike
ON, Canada

 

[RGone]

Most of us in here that try and help people with issues about Temps or otherwise, suggest that you download HWMonitor from CPUID com and have it open on the desktop as you run Prime95 "blend" test for about 20 mins to maximize and stabilize the temps when under load. Then capture the HWMonitor from the screen when open showing the Min and Max temps of cpu and further down is CPU Core Temps which is what we also need to see. So expand the size of HWMonitor to show all temps and voltages except stuff about hard drives and video card and capture and post to the forum and we can have a much better idea of what is going on. Games don't tell us much. Prime95 pushes all computers about the same so it is easier to relate yours to what we expect to see. Good luck.

 

[trents]

Mike, EasyTune only gives the CPU socket temps or "CPU" temps. A more helpful temp measure is "core temp" because it is actually measures temps from the processor die rather than the motherboard socket area. Both can be helpful, especially when a temp sensor gives a way out there reading and there is reason to suspect that one or the other is calibrated poorly.

Would you do us the favor of downloading and installing three programs:

1. CPU-z: this gives us loads of information about your system and your bios settings. We would need you to capture screen shots of these three tabs of the program: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD" and then upload the images as an attachment with your post. I'll explain how to do that below.
2. Prime95: this is our standard "stress tester" program that loads the CPU cores heavily and stresses the system to test for max temps and the stability of overclock settings.
3. HWMonitor: gives lots of different temp readouts and voltage reports

So what we'd ask is:
1. Give us those three CPU-z tabs pics
2. Open HWMonitor on the desktop and leave it open while you run the Prime95 "Just stress testing" "blend" torture test for 20 minutes. Upload a pic of the HWMonitor interface at the end of the 20 min stress test.

To do screen shot captures, locate "Snipping Tool" in the Windows Accessories group. You might want to place it in the quick launch task bar for convenience.

1. Launch Snipping Tool and place the mouse cursor on the upper left corner of the image you wish to capture.
2. Hold the left mouse button down and drag down and across the image to frame and crop it.
3. Click on the floppy disk tool at the top of the Snipping Tool interface in order to save the image to disk.
4. Repeat these steps for other images you want to attach to you post.
5. Click on the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of any new post window
6. When the Advanced Post window appears, click on the paper clip tool at the top. This brings up the file browser and loader which will allow you to locate and link the files you which to attach. The rest is kind of obvious.

 

[hamike69]

Ok thanks for the response when I get everything done I will post.

 

[hamike69]

From doing this everything looks fine, though my memory sticks are in slot 1 and 2 and on here it shows 3 and 4. I did change my side fan on my case to blow air in, That did help.

 

[manu2b]

If these are max temps running Prime95, then you are in line (assuming you are using the stock cooler).

You can change your ram timing in the Bios: according to CPU-z, you can set them to [email protected] instead of 11-11-11-28. It will be a little bit faster (nothing that you can really notice unless benching though...).

 

[trents]

Thanks for the pics and the info they give us. Good job!

Some suggestions:
1. Disable Cool N Quiet, C1E and Turbo (if you have it) in bios. Go into Windows Control Panel Power Options and choose the High Performance option. That should turn off all the green stuff that causes wild swings in frequencies and voltages.
2. I see a big problem with your memory settings. I see that you are trying to run the memory at the XMP 1600 frequency. I hate to tell you this but the Deneb core CPUs often don't like to run with the memory at 1600 mhz. That family of CPUs had a fairly weak IMC (Integrated Memory Controller) which is only rated for 1333 mhz and is happiest running at that speed. Hear what I'm saying. The problem is not that them memory won't run that fast or that the motherboard won't handle the ram at that speed because both are very capable of that. The weak link in the chain is the CPU IMC. I suggest you scale your memory back to 1333 and up the voltage from 1.5 to 1.55.

Some Denebs will in fact be stable when running the ram at 1600 and if yours will do that, fine. But please compare the info with regard to memory timings in the CPU-z "Memory" tab (your current settings) with that in the CPU-z "SPD" tab (manufacturer's recommendations for voltages and timings. I think your will see that your timings need adjustment (especially the Command Rate (CR) which definitely needs to be at 2T) and I wold still bump up the ram voltage from 1.5 to 1.55 which often helps make things more stable.

3. Bump your CPUNB voltage up to 1.225-1.25 range. The CPUNB is part of of the IMC and that will help with stability when overclocking.

 

[trents]

If these are max temps running Prime95, then you are in line (assuming you are using the stock cooler).

You can change your ram timing in the Bios: according to CPU-z, you can set them to [email protected] instead of 11-11-11-28. It will be a little bit faster (nothing that you can really notice unless benching though...).

He's not using the stock cooler. Check his first post. I think the temps are kind of high for an aftermarket cooler like that.

 

[manu2b]

He's not using the stock cooler. Check his first post. I think the temps are kind of high for an aftermarket cooler.

Time to go back in my hole...

 

[hamike69]

Ya no stock cooler, when I ordered the CPU I failed to notice it came without one. So I bought the Cooler Master N520, saying that then it seems to me that I am running too hot. I have a Cooler Master 310 Elite case, which is pretty small compared to my Chenbro on my other rig.

For this build I used the "pea" method for putting TP on the CPU plus I cheaped out and used what came with the HSF unit. Should I clean it off and do the "2 grains of rice" method?

I have built 5 or so computers myself, my last build was very unstable. But when I decided to build this new one I transfered all the hardware into my old Chenbro case and it has not crashed since, go figure. The new one has not crashed at all I ran the Passmark Burn In program and now the Prime 95 and all seems fine, just the issues of heat got me concerned.

I will change my timings up like suggested and see how that goes.

Thanks for all the help!!!

Great forums here!!!!

 

[hamike69]

Time to go back in my hole...

No, no I need all the help I can get! TY

 

[trents]

Is this an exposed heat pipe direct contact type of cooler or does it have a bottom plate covering the copper heat pipes?

 

[hamike69]

This is the cooler.

 

[trents]

Okay, it has a flat plate on he bottom. The "pea in the center of the CPU" should work fine for that one. But its worth repasting just to eliminate that as a possible issue. Here's what I'd suggest:

1. Remove the cooler and wipe off the excess paste from both surfaces with a dry paper coffee filter. Coffee filters work great because they have a smooth, hard sheen and don't leave behind insulating fibers like paper towels, kleenex and soft cloths. Then finish the cleanup with a coffee filter moistened with a little rubbing alcohol.
2. Squeeze a small blob of paste in the center of the CPU face. Make the blob a little bigger than a BB but smaller than a green pea. About 3 mm in diameter is right.
3. Lower the cooler onto the CPU, being careful to center it as much as possible. Twist it a little to the left once and a little to the right once.
4. Clamp it down.

The biggest problem is the cooler is too small, only a 92mm fan-based cooler.

 

[hamike69]

Ok I will pull it and clean it. I have some gun cleaning pads instead of coffee filter (no coffee in this house lol) they will do the trick.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[hamike69]

I cleaned everything up and reinstalled it. Temps are 58-60 still. I have read a lot of reviews about this cooler and it seems everyone is happy with it. But they seem to have a lot lower temps, but I am stable so that is good. Ran Prime95 and it hovered around 58.

 

[trents]

Make sure you run Prime for at least 2 hrs. to confirm stability.

 

[hamike69]

So if I run prime for the 2hrs and no problems I am good? I mean the thing still runs very hot. I have been looking around on the web to find the maximum temperature for that CPU but can't find an actual solid answer. But like you said trents it is high, is it going to cook on me?

 

[trents]

60 is not high enough to hurt the CPU per se if that's core temp. But check the CPU socket temp. Don't let that get above about 68 C. AMD says about 70 C. is max safe but they are coy about whether that is core or socket and they kind of say "either or".

 

[manu2b]

^Agreed.

The thing is that when you reach the 3.9'ish, Deneb doesn't like temp over 50/55°C: it starts getting very unstable.

Example:
With an Hyper TX2, I was getting 3.85GHz/1.4v/60°C, stable, no issue.
With a Megahalems, the very same CPU was going to 3.96GHz/1.45v/48°C, stable. But anything above 50°C was either causing a reboot or a BSOD.
With the water loop in my sig, I take it to 4.1GHz/1.55v and 45°C, stable.