Athlon 64 Temperature Threshold

[OMG1Penguin]

Hi, I recently got an athlon 64 3000+, that I have been gradually overclocking with prime95 working in the background. I have a pretty decent air cooling setup, and I have just been increasing voltages until I get error free with P95 for a couple minutes (then I try a step up).

It is a C0 core ClawHammer according to cpuz, with 512k cache.
I am running it the hottest it has been, 2400mhz 1.70 vcore @ 65-66C.
It seems to have stabilized there, jumping between 65 and 66.
Once P95 stops running, it drops down to near ambient (reading as 46C right now) almost instantly.

How hot can these things get before I start to worry? Or should I just push it to instability?

Thanks

EDIT: Bleh, got an error at 1.70, bumped to 1.75, and temp is reaching 69C

 

[Manzelle]

I run an XP not an A64 but I don't like anything over 55C personally...that's just me though...

 

[Degrador]

69C under full load would be fine, but I wouldn't suggest you up the voltage any more. Temps above 70 are things you certainly want to avoid.

 

[Algere]

70 C is the limit

According to specifications anyways

 

[OMG1Penguin]

That's about what I was thinking. Thanks for the help!

 

[Tenchi4U]

Sounds like its time to invest in phase-shift cooling...

 

[OMG1Penguin]

Well, a new BIOS came out, and it "dropped" my CPU temp by ~5c.
This system is going to be budget first, high end second, but I am eying that 6800GT pretty hard~

 

[Corporate Thug]

What board are you using?

 

[Draco]

Originally posted by: Algere
70 C is the limit

According to specifications anyways

Actually that's the maximum temp of the pc case. The core can operate at much high temps. It varies from model to model, but AMD CPU's can operate safely anywhere up to 85-95 degree's celsius. Of course you wouldn't want to run them like that for extended periods of time. AMD's white papers indicate a normal operating temperature is from 60-65 c. So I think your in pretty good shape.

 

[CommandoCATS]

I think all standard semiconductors are supposed to be rated to at least 80C (mil-spec is probably even higher). That should cover everything from logic gates to processors. Of course that's in a perfectly reference setup, so it probably won't be stable overclocked. In fact, that is probably the reason why it is possible to overclock many processors, because they bin the speeds for operation up to such a high temp (many processors which could potentially do such and such mhz at a lower temp might fail at 80C and get marked down).

 

[TheNarcissist]

My A64 seems to be running much hotter than yours, its an Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle core @ 2040 Mhz 1.5V, it idle's around 58-59C, but under load with my Zalman 7000 and 4 case fans in my Thermaltake III Lanfire case it runs at 68-69C, Now a strange thing i find is when i turn all my fans from max to minimum (large noise difference, the CPU fan changes from 2900 RPM to 2100 RPM i believe, and im not sure about the case fans) the max and idle temeratures do not change one bit still 58-59C and 68-69C. Now i know these arent bad temps, but considering your OC'ing @ 2400 and getting temps a little LOWER than my stock speeds, got me a little conserned. I tried to OC before but around 210FPS i was getting blue screens, figured it was probably my ram, (its cheap corsair ram), because my CPU temps still stay low, but i decieded just to stay @ stock speeds, quite an improvement anyway over my AXP1600+

 

[TheNarcissist]

Well, i reapplied my thermal paste and my load temps dropped about 7 deg so i guess that was my problem, i hadnt put nearly enough paste on there, i took a "thin" layer too seriously and put almost NOTHING on the core =D

 

[MrK6]

Thermal paste makes a big difference. If you have a normal heatsink, you'll need enough to fill in the valleys, other wise you can get air bubbles. If you have a lapped heatsink and you put on too much, the layer is too thick and kills heat performance too. Ya gotta find the grey area . Right now I'm running case 35C, CPU 35/46, A64 3000+ Clawhammer CG @ 2.2GHz (220x10) at stock vcore. I think my mobo is reporting temps a little too high though, I just bought a thermometer and I'm going to see how accurate the motherboard sensor is by placing it in different places in the case.

 

[Falloutboy]

personally I wouldn't go over 60c no matter what, its perfectly feasable to keep your temp below that with air cooling at any fairly convervative voltage 15% over. now if your going over that in volatge you should really be looking at water.

 

[TheNarcissist]

well the strange thing is my mobo reports two different temperatures, ive pasted this before but no one seemed to awnser me, Sometime it says i idle @ 55C and max at 70C, other times it says idle @ 28C and max at 38C, the temp sensor i have on the front of my case that i taped onto the bottom of the heatsink shows like 25C and 35C, but i dunno because this is on the heatsink not the CPU core if this is right or not, no idea why my mobo is spitting two diff CPU temps at me either. .

Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle Core
Abit KV8 Pro Mobo
Zalman 7000A Cu w/ Arctic Ceramique paste