Bad cooling
 

Ok, I've got a serious problem here. I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, and it is generating way too much heat IMO. First I had it installed with the fan/heatsink that came with it, and it would run at like 50c when I was just running avarge apps on it, and like 65c when I was running Quake 3 Arena on it. I knew there had to be something wrong. So I got some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste and installed the Cooler Master 6+ I had ordered a while back. I finally got it on and all, but temps where only like 3-5c lower. So I was thinking it must be the case. So I took of the side panel and temps imeadiatly dropped another 5c. With my windows open (in my room) and my fan above my door blowing, I finally get temps of around 40c when just doing easy app work. But isn't that still too high when running things simple things like gaim, firefox or Media Player Classic at the same time?

Anyway, it's not like I can always have my windows open, and I hate to think how much dust is getting in with the side panels off (and god knows what else)

My system specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Abit Fatal1ty AN8-SLI
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB)
XFX nVidia Geforce 7800GT
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
OCZ OCZ520ADJ 520W
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA
Lian Li PC-65B Black

The case has an exhaust fan at the top and back along with the two mobo fans blowing air out. It has 2 intak fans at the bottom, I have them set to full power, but they have to go through my two hardrives and some cables which they are at it before they reach my CPU.

And of course, the CPU heatsink/fan is the Cooler Master 6+ (which was a really b1tch to install!)

Any help?

Is your 3800 overclocked with these temps?

Bad temp sensor or inccorrect setting with temp reading. Try using external temp probe if you have one or get one to verify the temp. Likely your system is unstable at this temp, otherwise I question the readings.

Nope. All at original settings

I was thinking the same thing. I'm getting these readings from my Abit uGuru control pannel that came with the motherboard. Maybe they are having bad temp readings. I will try to get a seperate temp monitor set up.