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Noob questions on X2 temps

From the looks of it the Evo 120 could very well be the culprit. I read a couple of reviews and it doesn't look very good and possibly it's not able to remove the heat produced by dual core CPUs quickly enough resulting in heat saturation especially when the CPU is stressed. Probably the heatsink's aluminum fins won't be that hot at 60c load and rather than blame it on the heatsink mounting I'd be more likely to blame it's efficiency when it comes to dissipating a lot of heat.

Apparently there was a version 1 and version 2 Evo 120 and the main difference being bigger heatpipes on the version 2 as well as improved mounting.

Buying a new heatsink might be the only way to know for sure and I'd recommend going with one of the big towers that blow out the back just like the Evo 120 so as to maintain the low temps elsewhere in your system.
 
Whats the beef with temps around 60c? Most CPUs are capable of abuse up to the 90c mark on occasion. I'm sure we get too obsessed with needing temps in the 40s or so when they will work perfectly fine at the 60 degree mark!


Here ya go

http://products.amd.com/us-en/desktop/details.aspx?opn=ADA3800DAA5CD

Says its fine up to 71 degrees C.

EDIT: Further reading suggests that the 71c quoted above is the maximum of a safe range of temperatures that can be attained with the 3800+ chip. The critical temperature at which the chip begins to fail is often far higher than the specifications safe operating temp guidelines suggest.
 
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It's 49c to 71c as it depends on the CPU on that page. The TCaseMax shown in CoreTemp shows the AMD rated CPU max temp.

Also the higher the CPU temp the higher the in-case ambient temps resulting in higher PWMIC and chipset temp as well as memory modules temp.

Also you're right up to a point about temps can be quite high and the system runs fine but usually that requires better cooling to dissipate the heat resulting in a noisier system and don't forget the PSU temp and it's fan noise will be higher /louder too.

Another thing is the OP is seeing 60c load temps running his CPU at stock settings so there's little room for overclocking especially if he should want to increase the vcore.
 
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Ahhh I see. Gonna have to download that core temp program as Everset gives me one figure, Asus PC probe gives me an entirely different one.

I'm seeing a little less than 60 ish under load overclocked to 2600Mhz on Asus Probe and 65 during full load on Everest. I have no idea which is reporting an accurate figure !! :(

Wrongfully assumed that OP was worrying about 60 ish in an overclocked environment for which I still think that temp range is OK with that kind of overclock tbh.
 
Angilion said:
i) How high is too high?
ii) Is it normal for one core to run up to 7C hotter than the other?

I'm getting 56/63 at stock under full load and that's much hotter than any CPU I've had and monitored before. Winding my case intake and CPU cooler (which doubles as case extract) fans up to max only drops the temps to 56/61 - just 2C on just one core going from minimum fan speed (1100 rpm) to maxium (2000rpm).
Click to expand...

If you take the Case side off does it improve noticeably?
 
Also just to let you know I tested my X2 4200+ (with the IHS removed) in an Antec Aria cube case with the Zalman CNPS7000B low-profile cooler and overclocked to 3GHz with 1.525v the core temps reached 75c before I decided to switch it off.

There was a burning smell inside the case so I suspect something on the motherboard was running very hot. Everything still works but I'm not sure if I'll be using that motherboard again. :)

In my tower system the same overclock to 3GHz with 1.525v the CPU core temps don't go very far above 60c. The IHS removal and having very efficient cooling of the CPU and motherboard chipset ensures temps remain very good even when overclocking to the extreme like that.

EDIT: Here's the screenshot showing temps etc at 3GHz in my tower:



Unfortunately Orthos failed after 1 hour 45 mins so I gave up trying above 2.75GHz at stock volts as the system is ultra silent at that speed.

Here's a screenshot showing temps etc at 2.75GHz with stock volts (1.35v):

 
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tbz_ck said:
Ahhh I see. Gonna have to download that core temp program as Everset gives me one figure, Asus PC probe gives me an entirely different one.

I'm seeing a little less than 60 ish under load overclocked to 2600Mhz on Asus Probe and 65 during full load on Everest. I have no idea which is reporting an accurate figure !! :(

Wrongfully assumed that OP was worrying about 60 ish in an overclocked environment for which I still think that temp range is OK with that kind of overclock tbh.
Click to expand...
25% o/c adds 3C. I think the chip has a lot more headroom, but I don't like the temps at all.
 
str said:
From the looks of it the Evo 120 could very well be the culprit. I read a couple of reviews and it doesn't look very good and possibly it's not able to remove the heat produced by dual core CPUs quickly enough resulting in heat saturation especially when the CPU is stressed. Probably the heatsink's aluminum fins won't be that hot at 60c load and rather than blame it on the heatsink mounting I'd be more likely to blame it's efficiency when it comes to dissipating a lot of heat.

Apparently there was a version 1 and version 2 Evo 120 and the main difference being bigger heatpipes on the version 2 as well as improved mounting.

Buying a new heatsink might be the only way to know for sure and I'd recommend going with one of the big towers that blow out the back just like the Evo 120 so as to maintain the low temps elsewhere in your system.
Click to expand...
I asked in the shop when I bought the X2 and was assured that the EVO 120 was more than good enough for cooling it. Coupled with the good reviews of it when it came out and my good experience with it, I considered that enough reason to stay with it.

Having spent some more time looking at reviews, I agree the EVO 120 is probably the problem. It seems that the limit to the amount of heat it can dissipate has been exceeded by my X2. Below that limit, it's an excellent cooler (it beat most other coolers when it came out) but the performance drop when that limit is reached is precipitous.

Bah. If I had know this beforehand, I wouldn't have bothered with the upgrade.
 
More confusion...OcUK sell the EVO 120 and the average rating for it from customer reviews is 5 stars (the maximum).

EDIT: In the customer reviews for the X2 3800, there's one customer using an EVO-120 on an o/c X2 3800 and another using the earlier EVO-33. Both claim low temps.
 
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Angilion said:
More confusion...OcUK sell the EVO 120 and the average rating for it from customer reviews is 5 stars (the maximum).

EDIT: In the customer reviews for the X2 3800, there's one customer using an EVO-120 on an o/c X2 3800 and another using the earlier EVO-33. Both claim low temps.
Click to expand...

So you don’t think the bad reviews are vetted out then... People are quick to complain and slow to compliment so read what you will into reviews on retail sites. ;)
 
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