Athlon XP Temps - Thermal Pad vs. Compound
 

Hello folks,

I have an Athlon XP 2500+ running at 2151 MHz (3000+). I'm using the stock heatsink and thermal pad, and have replaced the stock fan with the one from my old GlobalWin FOP-32 (4200 RPM, 26 CFM).

These are the CPU temps with a room temp of ~27C:

Idle: 51C
Load: 60C

My reason for posting is that I find these temps too high, and I wonder if the stock thermal pad could be the culprit. Has anyone here compared temps while using a thermal pad and thermal compound? I have some normal white thermal compound, but I don't know if it would be worthwhile to take everything apart to replace the thermal pad with it. I could also get some Arctic Silver 5, but I also don't know how much of an improvement I would see.

The heatsink is only warm to the touch, definitely under 45C. Is a difference of 6-7 degrees from the CPU to the heatsink too bad? If it helps, I have a rear exhaust fan, and taking off the side panel of the case reduces CPU temperatures by 3C (and increases the case temp by 3C, but that shouldn't be relevant).

Everything runs fine at these temps when the ambient temp is under 30 degrees, but today is just an exception, for it's summer here. The other day it was 35C and the CPU got over 65C under load, with nasty results.

I'll greatly appreciate any advice and/or comments.

Thanks,

at a room temp of 27°C with a closed case , a stock heatsink + high speed CFM, those temps at that speed are far from "too high"

if the PC is stable at that speed you don't have to worry, but if you want to overclock you should decrease the temperature to ~45°C max under load.

lowering the room temp is a sure way of doing this (27°C is high in my book, I'm at 21-22°C max here) , changing the thermal pad can have an positive change, but don't expect more then 5°C difference.

to really lower the temperature you should consider changing that stock heatsink with a full copper one.

2500+, stock cooler, stock speed

50° stressed with the fan speed controlled by mainboard so not at the maximal speed (12/15 or so)

changed the thermal pad for som AS Céramique and the temps didn't go down. perhaps it's a difference of 1 degree but it's not much

I have seen cases with a decrease of as much as 10°C with but ordinairy white goop. AS could help another 2-5°C.
As you can see, it's different every time, still worth it in my book.

Thanks for the responses. jmke: Do you really think a copper heatsink would help? As I said the heatsink is only warm to the touch, so I don't think that's the problem. If it was the heatsink, it should be hot, but it's not, hence why I suspect a heat transfer problem from the CPU to the heatsink.

copper conducts the heat better. so your heatsink should be getting warmer, when the CPU gets cooler

Yep, but my stock heatsink already has a copper base, so it wouldn't be getting any warmer. Sorry, forgot to mention that in my original post.

the stock cooler is worse then full copper HQ heatsinks

check the difference with the all copper SP-97



check OC results here: http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=get...&articID=11 9