Originally posted by: Texun
Any chance your HS might need a fresh application of thermal compound? I'm not having the same problem but I have noticed temp changes in the 10 degree range with my Abit board. One day it will show a cpu temp in the low 30's and the next day it will be in the low 40's. Room temps are about the same. It's not a problem but it is puzzling. I've finally reached the conclusion that I don't trust temp sensors.
I agree, and I'll tell ya, after using an Asus P4P800-Deluxe for 9 months, and just building a new system with an Abit IS7, I'll be sticking with Asus in the future, despite my good past experience with my Abit BH6. The HW monitors seem to be flaky as hell on the IS7. At random intervals, they'll indicate that all my fans have failed, or that one is spinning at an impossible speed (indicated in scientific notation even!), the indicated temps spike and fall at random (130 C on the CPU? I don't think so!), the PC speaker beeps and chirps at random (are these alarms?), and one time, a "bee-boo-bee-boo" siren started wailing for about 10 seconds then, before I could even open the monitor software to check, the system suddenly turned off. I immediately removed the case cover and felt the HS--it was not unusualy warm. Moments later, I hit the power button, went into setup, and checked the "PC Health." Everything looked great. WTF?
Although I know different MBs will indicate the CPU core temp differently, the P4 2.4c that used to read 28/42 (idle/running SETI) on my Asus now reads 42/65 under the same conditions. I shudder to think what my new 3.0 @ 3.3 (33/47 on Asus) would look like on the Abit.
My conclusion from this is that readings from BOTH motherboards are suspect (therefore, I trust neither to be accurate), but at least the Asus gives reliable, predictible readings, instead of flaking out at random. If my temp indications suddenly spike on my Asus, I can trust that something's not right. If they spike on the Abit. . . How can I be sure it's not just flaking out again?
If a BIOS update doesn't fix the Abit, I'm eating Newegg's restocking fee and my return shipping, and ordering another Asus. (The price was right on the Abit, but so far, it seems like it was no bargain.)