Is 211 degrees Farenheit hot enough for you? I just downloaded motherboard monitor and I nearly s*** my pants when I found out that I was running 211 degrees (while idleing in windows after the comp had been on for a few hours) and the recommended temp was 145 degrees. I knew that this comp tended to run hot, but I had no idea. the fact that it's an athlon just makes the heat problem worse. No wonder my games have been freezing.

The time for drastic action has come-- I told my parents that this computer was cooking itself and it was a matter of time before the cpu burned itself out. Even after I told them this they insisted on leaving the computer inside an insulated f***ing wooden cabinet and they seemed damn impartial about it. Now they're pissed at me when i insisted on placing it on the tabletop where it can get cooling.

The time for threats has come... As of now, I'm on strike. My parent's aren't getting anything from me (even the time of day) until my demands are met.

1. All computers must be kept where they can receive adequate air circulation. No exceptions will be made, appearance is not an issue here. It's about protecting an investment.

2. adequate cooling must be purchased. All computers have a case fan and a cpu fan, plus a heatsink on the graphics chip. I obviously need a better means of cooling for each machine, so what would you people recommend?

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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.




[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited June 06, 2004).]

Damn man, that's really hot.

I have an AMD 64 FX-51 on an ASUS SK8N motherboard, and I'm running at 97°F

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Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.

Keep in mind sometimes stock heat monitor setups can be a bit iffy. I know when I run SETI@home on our new computer the monitoring software that came with our IC7 mobo says the temp is in excess of 70 degrees celcius, which is just bull (although yeah naturally a background program like SETI will push your cpu to the max). So be sure to research your motherboard just to see how reliable the monitor is.

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Cantina Cloud | BCF | The Massassian 1, 2 & 3 | Gonkmeg
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how can i get a more accurate measurement?

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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Who else is rooting for the parents?

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Damn that's hot. 211 is more than 2.5 times hotter than mine runs when fully stressed

Get some case fans.

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The Massassi-Map
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about how many would I need by your best guess, and where would i put them for optimal performance?
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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.



[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited June 06, 2004).]

Depending on your case, you may have some open slots in the back. Make sure to measure how far apart the screw slots are though, they should be either 60mm or 80mm if I'm not mistaken.

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Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.

I currently have the air conditioner set to about 73degrees F right now, so something tells me that if i simply put the computer on top and the fan starts pulling in some 73-degree air constantly, that should cut the heat drastically.

What about liquid cooling? is that any good?

I checked-- I don't have any extra fan slots, so adding more fans would mean cutting into the case. I have a dremel tool that would let me do that, I'm just not eager to carve up a case like that.

I'm running low-resource stuff now for awhile, and my temp has leveled down to about 95-100. The lowest i've seen it is 89. Not good, but not nearly as bad as before.

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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited June 06, 2004).]

Put a fan on the back of the wooden cabinet(s). I'm surprise your chip lasted at 211 deg F. According to AMD, my Athlon XP 2700+ dies at 80 deg C. I do not know about other chips. I think your extremly high temp was a fluke. Make sure that you do have the sensor in the right spot. My board had the sensor underneath the Socket A.

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I can't. One of the cabinets is built in, and the only thing behind it is the drywall and studs. Now, there's always cool air moving around behind the drywall, but I definitely don't want to start carving up the walls.

As for the other one, it isn't my cabinet, so I don't have a say in it.

I've never liked those computer compartments-- they're not good for fast machines that need a lot of cooling. Rather, I can only assume that they're for older machines that dont get as hot, like a 486, or a pII/III, or some other older machine that's still routinely used for office work and not gaming. Furniture manufacturers must realize that not all computers are created equal in terms of cooling.

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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited June 06, 2004).]

The best way to get a real reading on the temperature would be to use an infrared thermometer. You could get the temperature on any exposed surface with that, but of course you won't get the actual temperature of the processor since there's going to be a heat sink and fan blocking it. Though you could get the temperature of anywhere on the motherboard. Should at least tell you how accurate your system thermometer is. 211 F sounds a bit excessive, and it's doubtful that the thing would be any bit of stable(if it even ran at that point) at that high. Onboard thermometers aren't the most reliable things in the world...

how much are infared thermometers? Sounds expensive....


How about if i leave a mercury thermometer inside the case for awhile, take a few readings, and then average them? Would that give me a good reading in case I can't get an infared thermometer?

I know that my comp gets way too hot, partly b/c of its placement and partly b/c compaqs are notoriously undercooled....



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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

All you can do is tell your parents that they will lose money, and you will lose money, if you don't get your computer adequate cooling, because it will DIE, the core will literally MELT DOWN. 99ºC is way too hot, WAY too hot. If it's down to 99-100ºF then it's perfectly fine, but 99 C, which is 211 F, is just far too hot. Yah. Processors tend to run anywhere from 70 F to 150 F and be perfectly fine. It's after that that problems arise.

Jaiph--70 C is alright for most chips, though that is quite a load put on it I'd assume. But it's still running plenty coolly.

I'd suggest a new case that has some fan holes, for good ones check www.newegg.com or any other computer supply online store. Don't go to a brick and mortar--talk about overpriced. That is all.

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Heh, yes, infrared thermometers are expensive.

And no, a mercury thermometer wouldn't be accurate because for one, it would most likely be touching something and that would skew the readings. Not to mention your average mercury thermometer is only made for "normal heat conditions," and I wouldn't really trust one of them in something that could potentially get hot enough to break it.

Sticking your hand inside the case can give you a mildly accurate reading of how it is. If it's just mildly warm, but not hot enough to irritate you by holding your hand there for a long time, then it's pretty normal.

Oh, and 70 C may be normal for an Athlon, but definitely not for a P4. The maximum temperature Intel recommends for various P4s runs between 65-75, depending on the exact chip. You really don't want one running that hot though since it's not good for it.

[This message has been edited by Darth (edited June 07, 2004).]

Do NOT stick a computer very close to an air conditioner. If it is a crappy air conditioner, it will put out a bunch of humidity, which can do more damage to your PC in the long run.

And as for your parents starting to believe you:

Turn the computer on, get it nice and hot. Crack open the case while it is on, and have them touch that HSF. If their hand doesn't boil, they're lucky . Seriously though, it works. Just tell them that it is currently running hot enough that the CPU will actually MELT. Literally MELT. AMD Athlon processors are designed to withstand up to 85-90C, although even at that temperature, they become very unstable. 100C is completely unacceptable, and you risk losing your CPU, HSF, Motherboard, and anything else that's near it (Like RAM).

A nice way to check if the processor really is getting extremely hot is to look at the capacitors on the motherboard around the CPU. They're the big round things that stick up out of it. They have a plastic cover that goes around their sides, and has a lip that goes onto the top. If you look at the top, the plastic left on the lip should be very little. You can compare it to similar looking capacitors farther away from the CPU. They all start with the same general amount of lip plastic, but when they are exposed to a lot of heat, they will begin to come off the lip. Very simple, cheap way to tell if your CPU truly is way too hot.

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lmao!
*raises hand*

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Do you have stairs in your house?

So you're rooting for them to waste money? Sounds good to me.

But yah, all I'm saying is 70 C isn't meltdown temps for ANY processors, it might become a bit unstable, but it should run just fine. I'd protest if I were in your position, just because, from what I understand, isn't YOUR money at stake? That'd be supremely lame if they killed about 200-300 dollars worth of components for you.

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/me raises his hand...

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Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
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A good hint for heat is: If you can boil a pot of water on your CPU, something is wrong

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"The future is not determined by a throw of the dice, but is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me."
I am addicted to ellipses!!! AHHH!!! ...
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Ultimate cooling: Take the case off, and put one of those big fans in front of it to cool it off. Or knock out the walls of the cabinet and putt supports there instead so it gets a little bit of cooling.

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Err, no, Glyde, "Ultimate cooling" would be putting everything in a sealed box and freezing the whole thing with liguid nitrogen.

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Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.
:wq

Step 1) Take all the components of the computer out of the case.

Step 2) Find/purchase/steal a mini-fridge.

Step 3)Assemble the componets in the operating mini-fridge. Now you have a cool case.

Problem solved.

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Wouldn't you have to take measures to prevent condensation?

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Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.

SETI@home killed the power supply in one of our two desktop computeres :/.

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I did this with my current PC for quite a while -- when the parents decided it would be a "Great present" to get it upgraded for Xmas, the Techs (Nor my parents) figured I would need extra fans in my PC.

So when it started dying, I took a side panel off the tower, stuck the loudest, biggest floor fan I could find infront of it, and let 'er rip.



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"But yah, all I'm saying is 70 C isn't meltdown temps for ANY processors, it might become a bit unstable, but it should run just fine."

I would really call being unstable fine... Personally, that wouldn't be fine to me if I got random overheating crashes.

I'm playing my DIVX edition of AOTC in VideoLAN media player (a very good app, BTW) and I've moved my comp to the top of the desk where it can pull in cooler air.

My temp is still around 134 right now, that's getting a tad warm, right? It's only 20 degrees or so from the alarm point.




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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Eh, that's not bad. Cooler than mine runs when it's being stressed(until my new HSF comes today that is).

I said a LITTLE unstable, meaning if you run a seriously taxing game it might crash. But for running a background program, it should be fine.

At 54 C, PW, that's a bit warm, but nothing to be alarmed about at all. Mine runs at 36 C only because I have l33t cooling skillz. Or maybe because I have 5 fans, 3 of them case fans, fan on my CPU, and on my GF4.

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Dude, make sure you have the right sensors selected in MBM5, before you take drastic measures. Go to the MBM5 website, and go to the mobo list, and it will tell you the sensors you should have for the socket, diode, and case temperatures. If you have the wrong sensor for some of those, your temperature will be really wack. When I first installed MBM5, it displayed my CPU temperature at -48 celisus, my case temp was 176 celsius,and my socket was around 99 celsius. I had to go fix the sensors, and now everything is fine.

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Unstable is unstable, and that's not fine by my definition. I would want my PC running rock solid for days on end and the ability to run Prime95's stress test for a really long, long time.

I was playing Vice City (which is what made my other comp so hot) and it got up to 140 while sitting on a desktop instead of being in a cabinet.

It cooled down to an acceptable temp in about 10 seconds, though. Now, its 104.



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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

If I could pull that off in real life and really get it that cold, i wonder how it would work.....



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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

I'm not cooling expert, but all I can say is:

Word.

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When I had a heat problem, my motherboard was cutting out my CPU at about 76 degrees C. Reapplied the HSC, cleaned out the heatsink and it dropped about 15 degrees.

EDIT: For my AMD Athlon XP Thoroughbred, the killtemp was 85 degrees... while on the normal Athlons it's about 95 degrees.

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[This message has been edited by - Tony - (edited June 07, 2004).]

The measurement is probably inaccurate, or the heatsink was improperly applied or came loose. Even a heatsink with no fan in a case with absolutely no air circulation could not have a temperature that bad. Try the BIOS' reading, it might be of the core instead of the socket like MBM might be reading. The socket diode is likely broken or defective if it is reporting that high of a temperature. Also open it up and feel how hot the heatsink is.

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I'm going with the 'something is wrong with the sensor' crowd here. Try downloading a second, completely different program.

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I've won on computer placement. I had to burn myself on the heat sink to make my point, and the little burn blister that resulted finally convinced them.

I now have all computers on top of the desks where they can get some cooler air, and it's cut my heat by about 50% just by that alone.

Things are now incredibly cluttered on the desktops, but at least the computers are at healthy temperatures now.



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Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

well, if he burned himself on the heatsink, i think he really does have a problem, its not just the sensor. well, did have a problem, acutally.

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