Unusually elevated CPU Temperature. (1.8A NW)

[jdurg]

Okay. I just recently completed the rig seen in my link below. It's the first computer I've ever built and am very glad that it worked as soon as I hit the power button. My 1.8A Northwood is the also the first time I've ever tried to overclock a computer. Instead of the stock Intel heatsink/fan, I'm using a Thermaltake 478 P4 Volcano and Arctic Silver 3. I applied the AS3 as indicated by the directions and then put on the heatsink/fan. With WindowsXP installed and a good deal of software installed I decided to start overclocking it. Right now, my Vcore is 1.6 volts and my fsb is at 112. Any higher and Prime95 fails within one minute. Also, my temperatures are about 48-50 degrees idle and 58-60 degrees under full load!?!?!?!!!!! I'm getting the temperatures from PC Alert III, and they pretty much match the temperatures in my BIOS. What have I done wrong? What could cause my idle temperatures to be about 10-15 degrees higher than most people have? I have an Evercase4252 that I bought off of Newegg and it has three 80mm fans in the case. One intake in the front, another intake in the side right over the CPU area, and an exhaust in the back. (There's also the PSU fan.) My power supply is only an Enermax 300W, I believe. (I'm not too sure on the brand.) But I don't think the power supply is the cause of my problems. All of my voltages are within range. The only problem is that high temperature. Should I take the fan on the side of the case and make it an exhaust fan? Or is the insanely high temperature becuase the AS3 hasn't had time to "cure" yet? I'm so frustrated right now. It's nice getting a 2.0 GHz CPU out of a 1.8 GHz chip, but I'd like to get up to that magical 133 fsb.


BTW, my chassis temperature is only 32-34 degrees under the full Prime95 load.

 

[SSGTi]

Hmm well I'm at 2.5 ghz with a enermax 300w ps, so that's not holding you back. My cpu temp's are kinda high also, 58-59c under full load in prime 95. Then again I have no case fans, just the cpu and ps fans running (nice an quiet). The system is completely stable under prime 95 even with the high cpu temps. Try bumping up the vcore a bit. I'm using 1.625 @ 2.5ghz.

 

[Duvie]

A couple of things...


1) It sounds like an MSI board, right??? PCalert sounds familar as a bundled software....I believe there is a bios update to fix reported temperature problems with msi boards...make sure you have updated bios...

2) That hsf is better then the retail hsf so properly applied AS3 should have yielded better temps...my temps at 1.8@2.4 on msi board with 1.65v was like yours but with retail hsf and retail thermal pad...

3) Those system temps seem a bit high...If bios is newest one I would look at case cooling or room temperature...At 34c that makes the temp 93.2f. Most system temps should not be a whole lot higher then ambient room temperature. I get like 25c right now. My temperature in the room is like 73f (22.7c), and I have 2 case fans not including the PS fan.

4) I had my temps hit 62c at 133fsb with 1.65v and I was fine for 12 hours of prime95...go ahead and bump the voltage up to 1.625 or 1.65 and see if that gains a bit more stability in prime95.

 

[jdurg]

Well, finally some good news! I upped the voltage to 1.625V as SSGTi suggested and upped the fsb to 133. It works! I'm getting into Windows at 2.4 GHz, and my temperatures haven't really changed too much. I'm running Prime95 right now, and the max temp I've seen is 60 Degrees. This is after one hour of number crunching. My idle temps have dropped to around 27 degrees for the chassis, and about 43 degrees for the CPU. After this hour of Prime95, the temps are 35 degrees for the chassis and 57-61 degrees for the CPU. Everything is stable, however, and since I have a three year warranty on the CPU and the Northwoods have the built in overheat protection, I'm pretty sure everything is going to be alright.

I have an MSI 845 Ultra-ARU and yeah, that's where I got PC Alert III from. I tried Motherboard Monitor, but it wasn't as clean and easy to make out as PC Alert III is. Also, when I installed MBM5, it said that my CPU temp was 93 Degrees Celsius!!! So I think that was just a bug. I think next week I'll pick up some rounded cables since the inside of the case is kind of tight. But it is nice to see that the temperatures have dropped a little bit.


Once the torture test is done, I'll post my Sandra scores. (Sandra is the only benchmarking software on my PC right now.)

 

[SSGTi]

Yeah those are the temp's I'm getting also. I'm using as3 with the stock hsf just like you .

MBM works with the 845 nicely. Once you install it go to the setting screen a pick the right sensor's to monitor. It's a very accurate program. It reports what I see in Bios...

 

[Quetzalboat]

Dear Friends,

I want to ask about the temp of my CPU (also benchmarked by SiSoft Sandra 2000 Pro)
My CPU is PIII 733EB 133 MHz in I Will VD133 Pro Raid MoBo. [Run on stock speed/non OC]

Temperature Sensors :
Board temperature = 30* C/86* F
Power/Aux temperature = 55* C/131* F
CPU temperature = 48* C/118,4* F
CPU Fan speed = 5921 rpm

Voltage Sensors :
CPU core voltage = 3.26 V
Aux voltage = 2.13 V
+3,3V voltage = 3.38 V
+ 5 V voltage = 5.32 V
+ 12 V voltage = 12.29 V

Is it normal, or too high? [cause I'm not an expert on such things]
Or I have to attach an extra fan to make it lower?
Thank you for your advices.

 

[jdurg]

Okay. Here's yet another update. After making my previous post, the computer went into a full hardware lockup. I got fairly peeved and just unplugged everything and reconnected my other computer. I took the new one into a different room and opened it up. I took off the heatsink and uninstalled the CPU. I then noticed that I had f'd up with the wire mod trick. (I had mistakingly thought that on the charts shown at various websites that the 1 stood for the pins that had to be connected. I now know that it is supposed to be the zeros. heh.) I think that also explains why sometimes the computer just wouldn't boot up. There wasn't enough voltage going to the cpu. So that was fixed.

I then went to an Eckard nearby and picked up some nail files. I picked up varying degrees of coarseness and sanded down the heatsink until I could no longer see any marks on it. The heatsink is now nice and smooth and the few tiny scratches that I had noticed earlier have dissapeared. I then reapplied the AS3 (After a thorough cleaning) and reinstalled everything. I also changed the location of the thermal sensor of my exhaust fan. I put the sensor right near where the heatsink of the cpu is. I booted it up and see that the default voltage is now 1.700 volts. (Although I can't bring that down any lower. But that's fine since 1.75 is my preset limit. However, PC Alert III shows the vcore as 1.60 volts. I think that is because the MSI board voltage is about .1 volts lower than what it set in the BIOS.) I booted everything up and noticed that my idle temps are about three to four degrees lower than they used to be. At idle, the cpu temps is around 40-44 degrees as opposed to 48-50 degrees. So that's a benefit. Plus, the temps should lower by another 2-4 degrees once the AS3 really "cures."

I ran Prime95 for about forty minutes and the temperatures fluctuated between 54-60 degrees Celsius. At 1.7 volts, that's pretty good. I decided to stop Prime95 after the 40 minutes because if it hasn't failed at that point, then it probably won't fail when doing what I want to do with it. I then went and ran the SiSoft Sandra 2002 benchmarks for the CPU and the RAM. With the temperatures maxing out at around 55 degrees, these are my results.

CPU Arithmatic: ALU = 4587 MIPS, FPU/iSSE2 = 1257/2931 MFLOPS

CPU Multi-Media: Interger iSSE2 = 9518 it/s, Floating Point iSSE2 = 11632 it/s

Memory Bandwidth: RAM Int Buffered Bandwidth = 1913 MB/s, RAM Float Buffered Bandwidth = 1912 MB/s.

The speed of the RAM is stated at 2x133=226MHz data rate. The Maximum Bandwidth = 2128 MB/s.

This is with 512 megs of Micron PC2400 DDR RAM. In the BIOS, I have the RAM running at 200 MHz with a CAS of 2. I'm sure I can get the memory benches up a little more, but I'm not very sure at all on how to OC RAM. Either way, I think this system will work out fine. I still plan on getting rounded cables and perhaps a stronger exhaust fan. I'll see when my paycheck comes on Friday.

 

[sandorski]

Umm, you did a wire mod? That should have been your prime suspect all along.

 

[Duvie]

< decided to stop Prime95 after the 40 minutes because if it hasn't failed at that point, then it probably won't fail when doing what I want to do with it. >

Crap I guess I can run it 2.584ghz then....

just joking!!!

I do a lot of divx encoding and they can often times take 3-4 hours depending on legth of movie and type of audio track I am trying to create....So I usually expect it to last that much but usually let it run 12 hours...

I take it you haven't oc'd any??? Still at default 100mhz fsb???

Hopefully at voltage you have you can run it up there, cause your temps still kinda suck considering it is at default speed....My board never got above 47c at 1.65v and 600mhz oc.....

 

[jdurg]

My bad. I forgot to mention that I had upped the fsb to 133. Sorry about that.

 

[Jerboy]

<< Okay. I just recently completed the rig seen in my link below. It's the first computer I've ever built and am very glad that it worked as soon as I hit the power button. My 1.8A Northwood is the also the first time I've ever tried to overclock a computer. Instead of the stock Intel heatsink/fan, I'm using a Thermaltake 478 P4 Volcano and Arctic Silver 3. I applied the AS3 as indicated by the directions and then put on the heatsink/fan. With WindowsXP installed and a good deal of software installed I decided to start overclocking it. Right now, my Vcore is 1.6 volts and my fsb is at 112. Any higher and Prime95 fails within one minute. Also, my temperatures are about 48-50 degrees idle and 58-60 degrees under full load!?!?!?!!!!! I'm getting the temperatures from PC Alert III, and they pretty much match the temperatures in my BIOS. What have I done wrong? What could cause my idle temperatures to be about 10-15 degrees higher than most people have? I have an Evercase4252 that I bought off of Newegg and it has three 80mm fans in the case. One intake in the front, another intake in the side right over the CPU area, and an exhaust in the back. (There's also the PSU fan.) My power supply is only an Enermax 300W, I believe. (I'm not too sure on the brand.) But I don't think the power supply is the cause of my problems. All of my voltages are within range. The only problem is that high temperature. Should I take the fan on the side of the case and make it an exhaust fan? Or is the insanely high temperature becuase the AS3 hasn't had time to "cure" yet? I'm so frustrated right now. It's nice getting a 2.0 GHz CPU out of a 1.8 GHz chip, but I'd like to get up to that magical 133 fsb.


BTW, my chassis temperature is only 32-34 degrees under the full Prime95 load. >>



Unusually elevated in reference to, liquid nitrogen perhaps. water freeze at 32 degrees FAHRENHEIT so 52F is pretty cool..
People start using UNITS properly.

 

[jdurg]

My temps were listed in Celsius. I guess I just assumed that is what everyone would see it as. (Spending too much time as a chemist. lol. I've gotten more comfortable with Celsius than Fahrenheit.) Today I just got two Panaflo UA1 fans that should help move some more air. When the rest of my order gets here, I'll have some rounded cables to improve the air flow. Either way, a 2.4 GHz CPU for the price of a 1.8 GHz CPU is a mighty fine deal!

 

[Drsignguy]

Not to bad there, I have done the same thing you did and check out what I am building! Almost there I am waiting for My ASUS nVida GeForce 4600 video card that has been on backorder since the 17th of Feb, then I am getting a couple if newer HD's. then I will have a couple of minor details to finish up on. Those will be told at a later date so keep watching. My Rigs

 

[Fant]

Here are the results of my 1.8a o/c to 2.4:

http://www2.antsinthepants.com:6080/octest/octest.html

My question is my CPU temps are getting to 56C-60C with prime95 as well. At what temp will the Northbridge heat protection kick in? I'd hate to think my CPU is actually throttling down to 1.2ghz or something without my knowing?