[Matis]

You may have read about it once or twice through the forums by now. Some info on the matter:

It's summer. Temps vary between 22-30ºC each day. My 5600+ has stock cooling. There's a single intake fan on the case, not counting the PSU, and it's a really low output one. I believe that waving my hand produces stronger air currents.

As far as Everest has shown, none of the other components overheats, the GPU barely reaching 70ºC in most cases, while the rest stays below 50ºC(mobo and HDD never got past 47ºC, as far as I remember).

When does it happen? Obviously when CPU intensive processes are open, such as Dolphin, newer PC games(Last Remnant, Overlord II),No$GBA(with zoom, that is) and the like(for some reason PCSX2 runs cooler than all of those, barely getting over 70ºC when I make or load a save state after a while of playing).

In the BIOS, the CPU threshold is at 75ªC, though I can set it at 70, 80 or 85 if I want to. The first of those is obviously not an option, and I'm not sure raising the threshold would do the CPU any good.

I did a full clean up of my PC the other day, and even replaced the thermal paste, following Cid's advice. Neither really did much.

Cooling, as I said, is stock. Of course, the obvious solution would be to buy a replacement cooler, but what exactly should I go after? Then, there's the price tag thing(50 USD for a cooler? Damn, that's expensive).

 

[gamefreak94]

If you want a third party cooler, then get a Cooler Master Hyper TX3, shouldn't set you back more then $30.

But before doing that you could try and pop in more case fans to see if that gets the job done cheaply.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Alternatively, open up the case and expose the interiors completely during summer. problem solved.

If it's still too hot, you should have one of those big fans at your house to cool off the entire room, right? Blow it directly into the machine.

 

[-StrikE-]

With a stock cooler during the hottest summer days (that means +30-40C) i had a maximum of 64C in heavy loads with my CPU athlon X2 5000+ overclocked at 3-3.1 Ghz. I can't think of anything else other then the cooler being at fault, though they where some gygabite motherboards a long time ago which caused the cpu's to have higher temps (though that happened on intel dual core/core 2 duo i don't remember there being problems with AMD Athlon X2), maybe if you can borrow another amd athlon x2 from somewhere you could try to experiment with this as well. As for opening the case at max it could help with 1-2C its overrated. As for the fan i don't think its a good idea since all it does is blast air towards the components a good cooling is also about evacuating air of from the radiators.

 

[Matis]

I tried opening up the case while I was doing some tests. As Strike pointed out, only helped by one degree or two. The motherboard is an MSI K9-AGM, if it matters.

As for the stock cooler, I think I might still have the one that came with my older x2 3800+. And no, I have no standing fan. I have a ceiling one and air conditioner. But I'm not going to turn on the AC every time I want to play something.

Edit: This is annoying. Just look at that screen. Now it's "idle", and temps are at 47 and 48ºC for each core.

 

[Mad]

No they are 72C and 70C each core.
You must have uploaded the wrong screenshot.
And thats really pretty high.
I remember when i had my old X2 3800+, it barely reached 60C on full load.

Try cleaning the dust out of the Heatsink, and if its clean, take it out, clean the thermal paste, re-apply it and put the HSF back.

 

[Matis]

No, it's not the wrong screen. That's of when the system was under presumably full load. What I said afterwards is that, when idle, temps are 47 and 48ºC, more or less.

And I already said that I cleaned the entire PC and re-applied thermal paste.

 

[Phil]

Throw some water on it

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

submerge it in non conductive oil

 

[Phil]

Most oil is non conductive lol. But save it to lubricate ....other things

 

[BinarySlave]

The "Boxed" coolers are known to just prevent the CPU from frying (see a lot of cooler comparison test).
Go buy a new cooler, that's all you can do, really.
...and you propably have to live with investing 30-50$ for a good one.

 

[nanaya]

Your Harddisk temperature is worrying too, 52 is a bit high imo, check out your front case fan.

 

[Matis]

I have no "front case fan". Let me see if I can find a picture of my case(it'll be hard, though. I don't even know it's model. Or manufacturer. >_>).

There are five air vents on the case(not counting the one of the PSU), two to the left(80 mm and 120 mm ones, as if to fit fans), two to the right and one behind. Only the 80 mm one has a fan, and it's a low output fan that came with the case.

As for a cooler, what should I get? What should I look for?

 

[BinarySlave]

Those are known to be very good ones (ordered by price = cheapest last):
Noctua NH-U12P 770g (TOP!)
EKL Alpenföhn Nordwand 860g (TOP!)
Scythe Mugen 2 870g (VERY GOOD)
OCZ Vendetta 2 780g (GOOD)
EKL Alpenföhn Brocken 929g (VERY GOOD)

 

[Matis]

Is it sad that the only brand I know out of those is OCZ?

Either way, I can't find a good picture of my case, so this will have to do:

I bought only the case, though. And that left speaker is blocking the view of the 120 mm air vent.

(By the way, if it wasn't obvious already, it should be compatible with AM2 motherboards. And here's a screen of temps after idling for around 5 minutes)

 

[nanaya]

I think the problem is your case, also a 120mm heatsink may not fit in your case by the looks of it. :/
Changing your case seems to be the best solution in long run imo.
my preferred components :

case :
Xigmatek Midgard, cheap and good case. review : techPowerUp :: Xigmatek Midgard Review :: Page 1 / 6
Lancool Dragonlord PC-K58
Cooler Master HAF922

heatsink:
Xigmatek s1283, best bang for the buck heatsink. review : Xigmatek AMD K8 Heatsink Temperature Comparisons - HDT-S1283 FrostyTech Review

 

[Matis]

Would getting a Phenom II help the matter? I mean, I'd be moving from a 65 nm to a 45 nm processor. I will be buying a processor sometime soon, because my father wants a PC for himself, so I thought that instead of buying a run down the mill dual core for him I could get a quad core for myself and give him my current dual core. Of course, that still wouldn't solve the problem for HIM, but he'd never get to full load, ever.

As for the cases and heatsink, I'll see what I can find over here.

Well, I think I can get myself a Cooler Master Hyper TX3 for 30 USD. I like the fact that it supports AM2 and AM3 motherboards(as I''ll probably get an AM3 eventually). Getting a new case will be a totally different matter, though.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

if airflow is the issue, then no.

 

[Matis]

I meant as in getting a Phenom II AND a new cooler/heatsink, not just the processor.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

if the air is not circulating efficiently in the case then a new cooler/heatsink will not be efficient enough.