A Little too hot?

Hey, i've got AMD sempron 2500+ and temp idols at around 40 degrees and 55 under load. I know these are pretty high but would u say too high? Concidering i have 2 case fans one of which is 120mm and the other 80mm, a dual fanned psu and standard cpu fan which came with processor.

 

Well all the fans are going in the right direction and the wires arn;t all that neat, but they are hardly obstrucking the fans. The comps right in the middle on the room, and the 2 systems fans are places one at the back and one on the side.

 

Ahhh, I think I've found out my problem, If i have 2 case fans, one at the back and one at the side would it be best to have one sucking air in and one blowing out?? If so which one should do what? Bearing in mind the fan at the back is only about 6 inches from the wall.

 

Ohh ok thanks!

 

Really, that is well within safe operating specs.

 

Well what would u say the max temps should be before things start to get risky?

 

Idle at 60c would worry me, seeing how temps generally jump 10c under load.

50-55 idle would still be kind of high, but still safe.

 

Ok then cheers

 

If you take a look at the AMD site you will see that they recommend no front fan. I've tried it with and without and don't see much difference. One of my rigs runnin AMD XP's started running a little warm so I removed the heat sink and lapped the base. When I started the lapping I could tell that the original surface was not completely flat. Lapping and some Arctic Silver helped some, but in my opinion the supplied heat sink is a wimp and the fan makes way too much noise. My other computer with the faster cpu has a great big Thermalright heat sink and it runs at least five degrees cooler.

Ichabod

 

40C at idle is good. But 55C under load is kind of high, though it's well within AMD's limits (probably 85C, but check that with AMD if you're getting anywhere near those temperatures.)

A 15C differential between idle and full load temps suggests to me that the thermal resistance in your CPU cooling system is higher than it needs to be. That could be caused by a number of factors, e.g., a heatsink that isn't quite large enough, a thermal interface between CPU die and heatsink that isn't quite right, or a heatsink material that isn't conductive enough.

Ichabod's suggestion may therefore be quite relevant. Lapping the base of the heatsink and using a premium thermal grease will reduce the thermal resistance of the interface -- if properly done. A copper core in the heatsink (or an all-copper heatsink) will also help to reduce thermal resistance. Improving airflow in the case and through the heatsink may be a cheaper solution, but does involve some guesswork to get it right. See AMD's paper on the topic here.

AMD has a strong preference for thermal pads. They view thermal greases as not particularly reliable -- probably because it's much easier to install a thermal grease improperly. You may invalidate AMD's warranty if you use products not approved by AMD.