Is thermal paste necessary??? Here's my first experience with it:
I just built my first AMD system after having always built Intel systems in the past.
I purchased a CPU/MOBO combo where they installed the CPU.
It's a non overclocked AMD64 3000 S939 retail box+ retail AMD fan
I was getting idle temp. readings around 65-75 Celcius, but whenever I loaded up any sort of decent game, alarms would go off and pretty soon afterwards it would shut down. I felt the heatsink, and it felt luke-warm. Not knowing much abt AMD, I thought these are maybe false alarms, so I increased the tresholds to a max shutdown temp. of 95C. Still alarms went off and shutdowns happened when gaming.
Next I reseated the CPU and made sure it was in place correct. Idle temps. dropped to 60-70C range.
Then I started getting suspicious of the thermal paste and removed most of it with a paper napkin and now my systems seems to be running somewhat normal. I am now seeing temp readings between 45-55 C in Win XP and no alarms or shutdowns are happening.
So, is thermal paste necessary? It was probably put on too thick, but I am now wary about using it and wonder if it is necessary.
Also, I'm wondering if my current temp readings are where they should be. I'd like to see what other people's CPU temp. range is.
I just built my first AMD system after having always built Intel systems in the past.
I purchased a CPU/MOBO combo where they installed the CPU.
It's a non overclocked AMD64 3000 S939 retail box+ retail AMD fan
I was getting idle temp. readings around 65-75 Celcius, but whenever I loaded up any sort of decent game, alarms would go off and pretty soon afterwards it would shut down. I felt the heatsink, and it felt luke-warm. Not knowing much abt AMD, I thought these are maybe false alarms, so I increased the tresholds to a max shutdown temp. of 95C. Still alarms went off and shutdowns happened when gaming.
Next I reseated the CPU and made sure it was in place correct. Idle temps. dropped to 60-70C range.
Then I started getting suspicious of the thermal paste and removed most of it with a paper napkin and now my systems seems to be running somewhat normal. I am now seeing temp readings between 45-55 C in Win XP and no alarms or shutdowns are happening.
So, is thermal paste necessary? It was probably put on too thick, but I am now wary about using it and wonder if it is necessary.
Also, I'm wondering if my current temp readings are where they should be. I'd like to see what other people's CPU temp. range is.