Free gift

[slaveofconvention]

So someone just gave me a Micro ATX mobo along with a watercooled Athlon 3200 on 939 pin...

The watercooling is courtesy of a coolermaster closed loop with a single 80mm radiator - so I took it off immediately and replaced it with an Arctic Cooling 64 HSF. I dropped in 2GB of DDR333 (4x512MB - all I had lying around - I keep giving away the DDR400 - got to stop that!!!)

Here's the thing....

The guy who gave it to me said he couldn't get it to stay on - and now that I HAVE managed to get it to stay on, I think I know why. Even with what is widely considered to be one of, if not the best Air coolers for S754/939 on there, the CPU is sitting idle at 55c and above - I'm thinking with that watercooling loop on there it was overheating and shutting itself down...

Here's the weird thing....

I've never seen this before but on post it reports itself as an engineering sample - the board is a Biostar Tforce 6100-939

I'm just wondering if it's going to be worth the hassle to get this thing up and running - if that CPU temp is correct, I imagine its going to constantly overheat under load - it isn't overclocked - and i've reset the bios

I have it on and running now, hoping that, once the HSF has settled in etc, the CPU temp will drop, but in my experience, that's rarely more than 5-10 degrees absolute max improvement.

Anyone got any thoughts - do these run hot? Never had any dealings at all with 939 - on the AMD side of things, I jumped straight from 754 to AM2

EDIT - I thought about underclocking it, but I can't see any way to - there's no multiplier option in the bios and the FSB freq only goes up....200 is the minimum

[Zephik]

Is there thermal paste applied between the processor and the cooler? That could be one reason for overheating. I don't see why water cooling wouldn't be good enough. Was coolant being used or distilled water? Coolant has better heat transfer properties. The radiator had a fan on it didn't it? What about a reservoir? What's the pump and tubing size? Maybe the pump is too weak. or you may just need a better radiator or at least another one.

Is it still overheating with the air cooler? It definitely shouldn't be if it is. Whats the room temperature?

[slaveofconvention]

The watercooling is one of those ...

http://www.pricebat.ca/Coolermaster-Aquagate-Mini-R80-Watercooling-Kit-80MM-Fan-S478-LGA775-S604-SocketA.p_107073/

These kits, until a couple recently which have bucked the trend, are generally considered pretty poor. The PC has been on now for a couple of hours and it's sitting at a steady 52c which is still high in my book. Having said that, it may well be the sensor thats playing up because when I touch the heatsink on the HSF it's utterly cool to the touch.

A full dedicated watercooling setup will beat air every time - I don't deny that - but a top-quality air cooling setup will run rings around these older kits...

Bear in mind this is running stock, no o/c's at all

The thermal grease I used is pretty cheap n nasty, but yeah it's there....

[SXRguyinMA]

52c is way too high for idle. my Pentium D 820 OC'ed to 3.3GHz run @ 30c idle, 40-45 loaded with liquid cooling, single 120mm rad and fan

:EDIT: sitting @ 32.2c as I type this

[Outlaw]

Would it be possible to get one of those thermometer guns on it and check or get a secondary thermometer on it to see if its close to accurate? If it is just the sensor, would it be possible to raise the threshold for it shutting itself down?

[slaveofconvention]

Got a quick n dirty alternative lol - the design of the HSF on there at the moment means you can reach down and touch the copper block directly on the CPU...

http://www.slaveofconvention.com/imagestore/f64.jpg

Mine must be a slightly earlier revision because the black thing you can see on the pic is not there on mine so I can literally rest my finger directly onto the copper....

Its VERY cool to the touch - there is no way that another millimetre down is a block of silicone running at 52c/125f - there's definitely something wrong with the temp sensor... Idn about adjusting the thresholds tho - I know how and that it can be done but if the sensor is dodgy it may end up cooking the CPU without some kind of control. Think I might have a look see if I can ebay up another mobo - only one I can find retail is close to £60/$100 and I don't want to be spending that on a board for a system which will already be 3 years out of date before I build it lol - hell the CPU is on ebay now (another seller, not me) with a buy it now of only £14....

[Zephik]

The watercooling is one of those ...

http://www.pricebat.ca/Coolermaster-Aquagate-Mini-R80-Watercooling-Kit-80MM-Fan-S478-LGA775-S604-SocketA.p_107073/

LOL oh well there's your problem! Those kits are worthless imho. You are definitely better with the AC 64.

I'd imagine if its reporting 125F but it feels cool to the touch that a sensor is out of whack or isn't being used properly OR SOMETHING. You could fry an egg at 125F! It would be a slow fry, but it'd get there eventually. lol

At least its performing at a decently safe temperature now though. Undoubtedly because of the AC 64 HSF. Well, even 55c (131F) is alright since its still under the 140F "time to start worrying" zone.

Still though, it should be lower than that from what I've read about the AC 64. Some reviews reported, where they were overclocking, that they were only getting like 31c (88F) or around there. That actually may be where you are if its cool to the touch, so it may very well be a faulty sensor or something.

[slaveofconvention]

I know the kits are worthless lol - that's why I removed it before I even tested a thing and stuck the AC 64 on lol - lucky to have a cooler that good lying spare tho - just so happens I bought a new case for my media center a little while ago (x2 5400) and that cooler wouldnt fit so had to get something smaller... such a good thing that I never throw anything away - altho the wife wouldn't agree :p

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?p=252134#post252134 <<-- that'll give you some idea of how often I throw stuff away :p

[slaveofconvention]

I think it was the BIOS that was the engineering sample - I just updated it and that message is now gone. The CPU temp has also dropped below 50 for the first time, but it's barely below 50 - sitting at 48 now - that may well be a reflection of the ambient temp - it's nearly 2am as I type this....

Highest I can set the shutdown temp is 70c so I'm still 50/50 on if I should try to make this into a working system or not - it is tempting - I have EVERYTHING else I need so it's effectively a totally free A64 3200, 2GB ram, 80GB HD, DVD/CDRW combo with legal XP home - but I don't know if my conscience would let me sell it knowing there's that possibly dodgy sensor and I sure as hell don't need another system lol - I think there are about 15 working systems in the house now!!!!

[slaveofconvention]

Well I left it on all night and it's now dropped to 43c - still a little toasty for idle with the cooling it has but maybe a better tim will help - think I have some akasa stuff here somewhere - I must admit, it's not something I've ever bothered with paying much attention to - I know it CAN make a difference with temps but I've never bothered with overclocking so the difference has never really been important to me in the past...

[billygoat333]

my x2 4400+ hovers around the 40-45c mark with a stock cooler and stock paste, so its probably normal

just havent taken the time to change out the paste and/or get an aftermarket cooler. exp. since I am thinkin bout getting a new processor/mb/ram setup. course, I gotsta make more money for that last to happen. lol

[x88x]

Do you know what core the proc is? I ask because when I went from a 3500+ Clawhammer core (130nm) to a 3700+ Newcastle core (90nm), my temps actually dropped significantly. IIRC, the Clawhammer idled at around 35-40C but would hit 70C under full load. The Newcastle idled at around 30-35C and would only hit around 50C under full load. I think I was running better cooling than you are on that, so, yeah, if that's a Clawhammer core you've got, those temps sound about right now, but if it's anything newer (Venice, Newcastle, etc), something still seems a bit off.

[slaveofconvention]

It's a venice. I think a proper clean of the CPU and HSF, and a higher grade TIM should result in stable temps I'll be comfortable with. I just removed the HSF to get the part no. to ID the CPU and there was more compound left than I'm used to - it's possible that it wasn't properly seated. The motherboard didn't have any retention bracket when I got it - the coolermaster watercooling unit had it's own custom one, so I pinched one off of an untested 754 pin board - assuming that as 754/939 coolers are interchangeable, the retention bracket will probably be the same too. May well be worth double checking the whole setup - tighten screws etc. Even if I only shave another 2c off of the temps, that'll give me a "stable" idle of about 39c which may be a little high, but nothing I would be overly concerned about... an idle 3 or 4 degrees high I don't mind - when it was idling around 17-19 degrees high, I wasn't happy :p