Are small OC worth it?

nicksource · 11 Mar 2007 at 23:50

Hi guys,

I have a AMD64 3500+. I purchased a new case fan, 120mm to replace a cheapo 80mm I have, which will move more air. At the moment it runs at 55C with no load, then upto 65C with load.

I can push it from 2.2, to 2.4ghz and wondering if this is worth doing? It borders 70C full load then, hehe.

It has the stock fan, no idea why it runs this hot?

Defcon5 · 11 Mar 2007 at 23:57

130nm, hot hot hot!

nicksource · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:04

I guess that is the chip model?

Defcon5 · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:11

Die size, they shrunk down to 90nm for the venice cores, along with sse3 and a new memory controller (iirc)

55 idle is way too high, ,my mates 3200 idles at 22! What are you measuring the temps with?

Also what compound are you using, and whats your case airflow like?

Gashman · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:21

proberbly best to buy yourself a better cooler to be honest, cause those temperatures are hot for idle

nicksource · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:21

Case airflow is good, have a fan at the front for HDD. One at the rear and a cone on the case side for the CPU.

I read the temperature off BIOS for idle and use Lavalys Home Edition.

celliott · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:27

Use Coretemp as its generally more accurate. What CPU cooler are you using?

nicksource · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:31

Stock cooler, not sure what it is.

Coretemp says:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Venice)
TCaseMax: 55C
TDP: 38.2 Watts
Core #0: 43C

Justintime · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:40

nicksource said:
Stock cooler, not sure what it is.

Coretemp says:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Venice)
TCaseMax: 55C
TDP: 38.2 Watts
Core #0: 43C

Your idle (if not taken when under load) is 43C there.

nicksource · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:43

Yep, that's my idle then, not sure why BIOS reads different?

Anyway, that's a good temperature right for idle?

Justintime · 12 Mar 2007 at 00:55

Windows idle is usually less than the BIOS idle due to certain cpu power saving features being implemented by windows xp itself. Yep, the idle temp you got there is pretty much consistent with the stock cooler, also is cool n' quiet enabled?

nicksource · 12 Mar 2007 at 09:13

Nope, that's turned off. It just lags when I try to performe high CPU stuff like games, it drops the CPU speed and up again when I need it, just never enough it seems.

drunkenmaster · 12 Mar 2007 at 11:29

temp isn't down to being 130 or 90nm, the core might be smaller on a smaller process, but its got to output a little less wattage over a much smaller area. a winchester core, if thats what you have, puts out a little more wattage but can dissipate it over a much larger surface area. you can have very cool running cpu's from any process, only difference is when a company screws a process up a la prescott.

get a new cooler, most things you buy now are compatible with a huge number of sockets, the tuniq tower or thermalright ultra 120 plus, so buy now and if you upgrade in the future you still have a great cooler. my winchester, long since gone, would do 2.65GHz on air and 2.8Ghz on water and that was from the very first batch into the uk years back. needed some juice but with a, can't even remember, maybe a xp120 cooler was fine on temps.