On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 15:39:36 +0000, jakesnake66 wrote:

After reading thousands of posts here and elsewhere regarding
overclocking amd cpus, it seems to me that most overclockers (and pc
builder/enthusiasts) are too concerned about heat - or at least their
concerns about particular heat ranges are off the mark. Mind you, I'm
by no means an expert, but I've overclocked many cpu/mobos and graphics
cards, and I often run cpus in heat ranges that a lot of people seem to
consider undesirable or even dangerous. Is there any real danger running
an athlon at 60+ degrees C under load? Doesn't AMD consider anything
under 80-90C "safe?" It seems like the consensus is that desirable temp
ranges are 40-50C, with the upper end of that giving a lot of people
concern, and causing many to go to greater lengths for cooling. I've
seen people brag about temps under 40C, as if they've really
accomplished something. Have they? We're only going to use these cpus
a couple years (at most) anyway, so any supposed shortening/lenthening
of life seems irrelevant to me. On this particular pc, I'm running a
mobile 2500 at 2.3ghz using a TR2M1. I have two 80mm case fans that I
leave off most of the time because of the noise. If I can believe
Sandra, I idle at about 54C, and top out around 64C after 30 minutes of
gaming. My 9800Pro g-card is slightly oc'ed and puts off a bit of heat
itself. The computer runs great, and I see no evidence that my temp
range causes any negative consequences.
Just looking for a little discussion. Thank you,

jakesnake


Jakesnake: I agree wholeheartedly! I have said similar things on posts to
this newsgroup in the past: many overclockers spend so much time and
effort and worry over heat when it has been shown that there is a huge
variability between motherboards, reporting software, heat sensors, heat
sensor postions, BIOS reporting, etc, - in other words there is no
ACCURATE basis to compare heat reports between various installations.

Secondly, it appears most overclockers are also keen techos - and thus
they change their systems frequently as you said - so why bother worrying
about your precious CPU when you'll probably replace it in 2-3 years!

If I were to be cynical I would propose that perhaps the whole heat issue
has been blown out of all proportion by the marketing machines of the
computer cooling industry! Are we being sold a "bill of goods" to keep our
economies ticking over?

I have always maintained that many overclockers also do not pay enough
attention to their ambient room temperature issue first - before going out
and spending a ****load of money on fans and even fancier and pricier
cooling solutions. Secondly, they also often have a tendency to put too
many fans in their boxes, thus unnecessarily increasing airflow turbulence
inside the case (rather than creating a nice easy continuous unturbulent
flow of air from the front lower case up through the back upper part of
their case).

I would suggest that any CPU temperature from 35-65 or perhaps even 70
(for shorter periods of time) is not an issue for overclockers.

Larry Gagnon, A+ certified tech.

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