I'm building a new system for my sister. I have soyo motherboard and case, well the power supply covers half the huge Ultra cooling fan I bought. The case is running about 40 deg C and CPU is 59 deg C. I used thermal glue on the CPU n fan. The case doesn't have any fans locations. So what do you guys think? Too hot? I'm calling around to Soyo and AMD and seeing what they say. I think I might have to return it.

60C is kind of hot. You're not in danger of ruining the CPU, but it's generally unhealthy to have a processor running that hot. The best idea would be to get a case with some fans. Bringing it down another 10C would be about right.

okay so 50C is okay for an Athlon XP, thanks for the information. I know my 2700+ runs much cooler, but I've got a 7 case fans.

Well it depends. Are you getting 59°C in full load or while the system is idling ? If it's the latter then yes, it is a bit on the hot side.

On the other hand, if the temp does not increase much in full load, say from 59°C to 65°C, then it's not so bad. Just be carefull when running that system during the summer though.

Okay I took some of your advice, I added a 80mm intake fan and rigged up a 60mm exhaust under my pci cards, i know hot air rises but this was the only place. The system is 56 deg C, under a direct X game black hawk down it was like 60 deg C after i played a few mins.

Twice the computer has completely shut off, and was then hard to power back up. Had to take the plug out, flip the switch a few times, until I got power back. Its running right now at 55 deg C cpu and 39 deg C case. I updated windows XP prof, installed new drivers from Soyo and all my cards have update drivers. What gives??

Update, installed CPUIdle and my cpu is now running 41 deg C!!!!! Awesome, I'm gonna buy this when the 30 days runs out. It dropped 18 deg C idle!!

okay update again, its been running for about 20 mins

case 35 deg C, CPU 39 deg C

I've never had an Athlon XP run this cool! I have a 2700xp with 6 case fans and it runs in the 50's with a good cpu cooler. This is going on my other system! I've also had a 2000 athlon before my 2700.

ROFL thats what imma do when i grow up, make a program that says your CPU runs at 20C, so every single one of you goes out and buys it

I know it works, heatsink is cool to the touch now. Also my SOYO motherboard software is what I read the temp at, not through the CPUidle. Think what you want, but its 38 deg C now as opposed to 59 deg C before. No more lockups or anything and isn't hot to the touch like before.

*EDIT** just realized your 15, anyways go read up on somethings and get back with me. OKay I"ll be nice, athlon has 2 resistors, after a cpu function they stay on, cpuidle turns these on halt. So your chip after a process isn't still working. This lowers temp drastically.

www.cpuidle.de that is the page for any of you guys interested. I almost switched to INTEL b/c of heat lockups, sure amd is fast and cheat but run hotter than you know what. My 2000xp fried. I need a stable system and this is giving me that.

cpuidle only works when your cpu isn't doing anything anyway, so its pretty useless if you use a lot of cpu intensive tasks. Also, just because you have 500 fans doesn't mean you will run cooler, those fans have to be positioned for the best airflow.

BTW, your comment about the resistors is false. I'm not sure if you used the wrong term or if the info is just bogus altogether but, resistors are passive components, they do not have ON and OFF states. Resistors do not switch, they just resist current. If the circuit is switched off, then it would cut the flow through the resistor, but that is different than saying you switched the resistor off. This would imply that the circuit as a whole is still active.

Heres the real scoop....sorry for any confusion. And yes your correct it doesn't "work" under intensive applications when the cpu is waiting for tasks it is suspended. But it does work and your cpu is never 100 load all the time. So when you do work it will go up, but its starting from a much cooler starting point.

Under normal circumstances the CPU isn't always active but spends much time waiting for the keyboard, harddisk or CD-ROM. What would be more logical than to turn off the CPU for that period? That's exactly what the HLT machine instruction (Opcode F4) does. Whenever the CPU encounters a HLT instruction the clock is halted and the CPU enters suspend mode until an interrupt, NMI, or reset happens. With the advent of power saving microprocessors like the Cyrix Cx486S the HLT instruction elicits an additional benefit. When "Suspend on HLT" is enabled in the configuration register the processor not only stops on HLT but also enters the power saving suspend mode.

Hey uh pal, that post was more joke then seriousness, but thats my fault.

I know what that program does and I've used it before, so I know your postings of your temps arent BS.

But as StormBringer said, its pretty useless if you have your cpu working intensively constantly.

And next time, leave my age out of it, be nasty, and tell me about your on and off resistors