I'm new to AMD, but these temps don't sound good...

[e_storm]

Ok, this is my first try at running an AMD processor. First, here are my current specs:
Epox 8K7A+, 1.4g tbird, millenium glaciator, case sides off
cheapo vcard, no HD(yet)
full tower case

I'm still in the building stages, so the furthest I have got is into bios and I have no HD in yet, just using a dos boot disk.

Anyway, I fired this thing up and got into bios right away to check out the temps. Its started in the low 40s and every few seconds would go up a degree...til finally ended up resting about 52*C!! Now this is under no load at all, just in the system bios. Now I know these chips run hot, but isn't that a bit much? The heatsink is fairly warm to the touch, so it appears to be doing its job. Is this what I am to expect? do all you guys just load up on case fans to keep temp reasonable?

I have various case fans in place and will use them once I make sure my PS is good enough (300w PC P&C turbocool). I see others with temps in the 40s and thats about what I expected under idle conditions and maybe in the 50s under load, but with what I have now, if I put it under load I'd be in the upper 50s or maybe even 60s!! What do you all think?

 

[Super]

Start with the basics:

check for good contact between the die and the HSF.

make sure you applied thermal grease properly.

Hope this Helps.

 

[Amedeo602]

make sure the hsf is on right....it sounds dumb but the first time i put a hsf on a socket a cpu, i actually managed to put it on bass ackwards.

I hope I don't need to remind you to use AS2

 

[e_storm]

LOL, I just took a look and you were right, I had the thing on totally backwards...after looking at the mating surface on the HS, it looked like only a portion of entire area of the die was making contact. lol. Thanks for the advice, you'd think after 3 computers I could figure out how to put on a HS correctly.

funny thing is I looked at the direction closely before putting it on....guess I was just tired or something.

*edit*... oh btw, temps now are at 43* when idle in bios, system temp 34*, ambient around 25*. with case sides off. This is a little more in line with what I was expecting.

 

[Amedeo602]

glad ya got it fixed

 

[e_storm]

I'm a bit embarrased , but glad its straightened out

 

[Amedeo602]

baah...that's nothing

you should have seen me when i put mine together


it took me about a half hour to figure out how to get the mobo tray out of the case (i NEVER want a case like this again...it was a nightmare)

 

[boonmar]

I'm new to putting computer together but manage to put T-bird 1.333 w/ asusa7a266 mo using thermal take volcano II. I was using the old bios that came with mo. Went into the bios, after 5 min. the temp was around 50c. I upgraded to the lastest bios. Now it's at 60c. 63c when full load. I just order the Glaciator and did not know that you can put those thing backward. I thought as long as you clip the hs to the mb there is no difference. I haven't got the new heatsink yet, but what is the correct way of putting it on? Thanks in advance...

 

[e_storm]

the glaciator comes with detailed instructions, but the jist of it is:

put the fixed clip on the side opposite the cambox, so the clip that you have to fiddle with should be on the cambox side. make any sense?

Another way to look at it is:
on the bottom of the HS, there is a step, where a section of the bottom of the HS has been cut off. That step should be over the cambox so that it can clear the cambox. It'll make for sense once you get it.

 

[Rob Cork]

baah...that's nothing

you should have seen me when i put mine together


it took me about a half hour to figure out how to get the mobo tray out of the case (i NEVER want a case like this again...it was a nightmare)

At least you got to the stage of taking out the mobo tray - I built a system for my friend at Easter and we spent like 1/2hr after taking the case out the box just trying to figure out how to take the sides off! Turned out they were just a little stiff, we ended up having to put the case on its side and hit it repeatedly till it came loose - it actually turned out to be quite a nice case inside (it was the Juno P3 if that means anything)

As for the glaciator, like most hsfs it has an indent milled along one side to sit over the cam box - basically in profile it ought to look like this:

 

[The Overclocker]

when i put my computer together i put the ide cable in the wrong way. i took the hard disk bak twice before i realised LOL, i fyou really want to improve the then get rid of the thermal pad and use artic silver

 

[Thelemac]

FYI...when in checking the temp in BIOS...it is actually at full load since the BIOS doesn't send the HLT signal to your processor. No idle there.

 

[e_storm]

really? I had also heard that it was not idle, but more like under only a partial load, like 40% CPU usage or something like that. I'll run a test as soon as I get the thing completely put together. I remember this question came up a few months ago and I think that was the verdict, but I'll run the test just to see.

Of course, temp differences in bios and with MBM could be a factor also, but we'll worry about that when the time comes.

 

[Amedeo602]

I read a good analogy about this somewhere...(I forget where, sorry)

A CPU is like a car. When it's turned on and in the BIOS, the CPU is working, just like a car. The only time it''s actually idle is when you're running a program like CPUIdle that turns off all the unnecessary processes (like having a car at idle instead of having it going forward).

Rob: Funny you mention case sides. On the case I have now for some reason the right side NEVER wants to go back on correctly. There's a small gap in between the case and the side and it bugs the hell out of me.

Last time I skimp on a case . . .