Bad Power Supply and AMD Athlon 3200XP Hot 70 deg C

[kjv1611]

I have recently upgraded to a Gigabyte 7NNXP Motherboard with AMD Athlon 3200XP and 1 GB Kingston 400mhz DDR SDRAM. My previous motherboard was an Asus K7VT or something like that with a Slot A Athlon (Thunderbird core) at 900Mhz with 1 Gb PC133 SDRAM. Also, I upgraded the video card from an AGP 4x ATI Radeon 9100, I believe, that had 128mb SDRAM to an Nvidia Gforce FX 5900 XT with 128 MB DDR Ram. I have a Skyhawk Aluminum Case with 400Watt Skyhawk Steel power supply. I would have thought that 400Watts was plenty, but apparently not. In the case, I have a few fans.. Here's that break down:
Front intake (recently replaced standard case fan with
Vantec Stealth b/c a little quieter, though low air flow.
Skyhawk Ventiduct above the processor (connected to
back of case - blowing air out) - and I swapped out a
Thermaltake Smart Fan 2 instead of the default fan there.
Skyhawk fan bar accross the middle of the case, replaced
that fan just last week with a really good fan, wish I
had tried before, the Artic Cooling Artic Pro2 L 80mm -
blows a lot of air, and extremely quiet, even at highest
setting (has 3 speed settings)
Fan in the middle of Side panel (Q-Window design by
Skyhawk - have standard fan there.)
For the processor, I just have the standard "Speeze"
heatsink and fan which were placed on the processor
and Motherboard, Processor, Memory, Heatsink and fan
were all tested by Mwave.com before it was shipped to me.

These are my symptoms - first off, I've noticed that the CPU temp has been reading almost always between 70 and 75. The lowest CPU temp that has been reported was 65 deg C. Also, I think the Power Supply has all of a sudden gone bad, b/c I have had to turn the machine on by using the switch on the power supply (back of pc case) instead of just hitting the power button in the front. Sometimes it will turn on, some times it won't, and it's even shut off in the middle of computing once or twice, as well as randomly rebooted a few times. I don't necessarily think that the CPU temp is related, probably just need to get a good heatsink and fan. I do know, however, that since my power supply started acting crazy, I've also had problems with Norton Antivirus/Firewall, etc. One other weird thing that occured is that if I right-click on "My Computer" (Windows XP Pro with all updates), choose "Manage" from flyout menu, and go to disk management, there are no drive letters associated with my 2 hard drives, and the CDRW and DVDRom don't even show up at all (with disks in them). Before the PSU acted up, none of these things happened - however the CPU temp was reading the same temp. When I first tried adding another 12mm Papst fan (just sitting loosley behind/in front of the intake fan), the CPU temp seemed to first come down to about 65 after that, but it's now just reading around 70-75 pretty much all the time now.

What I'm looking for is some advice:
Would it be worth my time to invest in just a good powersupply and Heatsink/fan for the processor, or just go with a whole new case - better than skyhawk, or possibly go with one of those water-cooled cases? I've never tried the water cooling as of yet, b/c of price, but I don't want to continue having high temps on my CPU either.

One last note, the skyhawk case is rather loud with all the fans and drives and such, so I added some Dynamat to it just last week to quieten it down. It did make it significantly quieter, but still not very quiet. Any recommendations in this area, based on previous experience would be much appreciated. By the way, my drives are a Plexwriter 48x24x48, LiteOn DVD 16x, West Dig 80Gb 8mb Cache hard drive, and a 30Gb Maxtor 2MB buffer Hard drive (just for my documents) - seems to run better that way. Oh, and of course, a Sony 1.44 Mb floppy.

So, anyway, any advice as to the Case(if should consider switching), Power Supply, and CPU cooling... one note here as well - the Video Card is the MSI Nvidia 5900Fx XT, which has a copper heatsink and fan on it..

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[paparazi]

kjv1611
We have a lot of things in common:

Gigabyte GA7-NNXP (latest F18? bios)
XP3200+ CPU 400fsb
Swiftech SLK900-A with a YS-Tech 80x80x25mm around 40cfm
2 X HDD's 1 160gig SATA, 1 60gig ATA
MSI FX5900NP 256mb
Pioneer DVDRW 107D
Sony 52x32x52
Pioneer 109D? DVD
2x512mb Infineon PC3200
Audigy card
floppy
LianLi Alluminium midi case (two front, 0ne back one top standard 80mm fans)

Warm UK temps! 26C room (I have a wall thermometer next to my PC)
42C Case temp
49C CPU idle, PC on all day
Goes upto 52C after 1 hour of gaming.
These temps are several degrees higher than usual due to a warm spell in the UK.

Before changing your case I would just check that you have a similar amount of air blowing in the case as to blowing out! roughly and it is blowing in the direction, lower front to top back
I can't praise the Thermalright SLK900-A highly enough, as an air cooler there is probably only the Switech MCX462-V that equals it, both can be fitted with larger, slower spinning (thus quieter) fans without loosing too much cooling power.
Arctic Silver III helps a couple of degrees.
Where are you in the world? ambient temperatures are so critical to overall system and CPU temps.
Martin

Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.

 

[kjv1611]

Located in Greenville, (Upstate) South Carolina, (South Eastern) United States. One other thing I did at the same time as these changes was take a piece of filter (can be used with ac vents in house for extra filtration - some cheap kind, just to try) in the front of the case, between the front bezel and the actual case enclosure. So, for temps, I guess I could consider taking that out, and see if the airflow is better.

What would you suggest about the Power Supply? I am pretty sure that I need to get a different power supply at the least, and a different CPU heatsink and fan.

By the way, our temps here (Farenheit) have been around 85 for the high as of late, and we usually have high humidity. My temp in my home is usually around 75 F (I think about half of that would be the Celcius equivalent - don't remember the ratio there.).


Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[paparazi]

kjv1611
Good day to you!
Your ambient room temp of 75F (24C)is about the same as ours is at the moment so there isn't any reason why you shouldn't get similar running temps to mine.
This is all the more reason to get a better CPU cooler and properly sort out air flow in that case of yours.
One thing I didn't mention was the importance of neat, tidy wiring, which improves airflow.
Correct fitment of the heatsink with a good quality metal particle paste.
A quality twin fan power supply from: Antec, Enermax, Channel Well Technology, Fortron power, Vantec, Zalman, Thermaltake, chieftech etc, I would say 400watts plus (450watt), as these better PSU's generally delliver at least their stated output unlike generic PSU's that rarely come close to their stated output figures.
Martin


Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.

 

[kjv1611]

For cooling, power supplies, etc, have you heard much of a brand called, Silenx? According to their website,

http://www.silenx.com,

their products are used by many profesionals, and they have (supposedly) the quietest power supplies (actively cooled). Any ideas/experience?

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[Syruss]

hi there,
I have a amd athlon xp 2200, and i am also having problems with my power supply which is 300 watts, it is heating up very quickly. maybe this is a problem with amd CPU's in that the cause alot of heat.

Brian

 

[stallard]

This problem is not specific to Gigabyte. I have an MSI Motherboard and had similiar problems, at one point the CPU temp was reading over 90Deg, which is unlikely. Upgrading the BIOS did resolve the issue to some degree so you may want to check with Gigabyte to see if they have addressed the issue.

 

[kjv1611]

Hmm... I did try to update the bios, but not sure if it worked correctly or not. How can you tell which BIOS version you have. I've never even thought about it much, so unsure where to look.

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[paparazi]

kjv1611
SilenX are excellent by all accounts but in the same price bracket as Antec and Enermax (expensive)
One thing I will say, is silent generally means less air turnover, they compensate for this lower air cooled solution by fitting bigger passive heatsinks internally.
Basically these PSU's generally won't help keep your case cool as much as a standard twin fan unit.
Martin

Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.

 

[norty303]

There's a handy little BIOS update application on the Gigabyte install disk which connects to a server and downloads and updates the latest BIOS.

When the computer posts it'll say at the top before the drive info on the first screen something like:

GA-7xxxxx [BIOS version here]

 

[kjv1611]

Ahh, thanks, norty303 - I know I've seen that, just didn't pay much attention there. As far as the utility, it was not working correctly some of the time, so not sure if upgraded or not.

But here is a folow-up (somewhat) - it seems I have also gotten a virus after re-formatting my hard drive and reinstalling all software. What I did was get all Windows Updates and tried to do all the Antivirus updates all before hooking back up to my Firewalled Router. Big mistake. Now I'll probably just attempt to find the exact virus, get rid of it, and reformat it all to start over fresh again - good grief!

Oh well, I still need to get a new Power Supply, and better Heatsink/fan for CPU it seems. The lowest I've been able to get my CPU to read was 64 deg Celcius with the system reading 28 deg Celcius (that was with a desk fan blowing directly in with both sides off (took them off to look at a couple things - one being the filter I had put in the front - it seems a good bit more air came through after removing the filter as well - it was a cheap piece of filter). So, I figure, that is quite a difference in temps, so probably a good idea to go with a better CPU cooler.

Does anyone know if it is worth the while to just go strait to water cooling with this type setup? A Koolance case, perhaps, or some kind of water cooling kit? I looked at the new Zalman water cooler, but it costs as much as a Koolance case, and it sits up high outside of your case - not worth it, in my opinion.

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[paparazi]

kjv1611
You point out a couple of interesting numbers, case temp 28C whilst the CPU was 64C, 36C differance!!!! you definately need a new heatsink/cooler! thats for sure.
Look at my stats, there is never more than 8C between the two readings.
Water cooling isn't necessary unless you intend to overclock OR you have a thing about noise but it's your money.
Martin

Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.

 

[norty303]

Just to check, have you removed your heatsink, cleaned it and re-applied compound and ensured it is seated properly and the correct way around and not hooking up on the socket surround?

On an overclocked 2500xp with a stock heatsink/fan (and thermal pad) i'm running 49C and 52C loaded. It could also be the Gigabyte board detecting the temps too high which has been discussed before.

 

[kjv1611]

Well, I've not tried removing the heatsink and all just yet, but I just figured I'd be better off going ahead and getting a different heatsink and fan, b/c I would assume the lower the temps you run, the longer the life of the processor. Also, I don't think I have any thermal paste lying around - usually just get what needed for a particular build, if I install the processor myself. I may end up just doing that myself from now on, b/c that way I'll know for sure it is done correctly, and not just done quick, whether done right or not. I'm thinking of purchasing a powersupply, CPU heatsink and fan, and some of the Silver stuff from

http://www.directron.com

. I've only had good results with them, and their prices are unreal cheap on most items.

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[kjv1611]

Well, I'm up and running cool again, now. I got a new power supply (fixed that problem) and got a new heat sink and fan (fixed the cooling problem).
PowerSupply: Thermaltake 560 Watt Silent PurePower or
something - very quiet, very nice power supply.
Heatsink/Fana: Thermaltake SilentBoost - awesome heatsink
Also got Artic Silver 5 Thermal Paste

Anyway, powersupply runs cool, stable, and quiet. The processor temps now are ranging between 48C and 52C (99% of the time have been between 48C and 50C) The case temp is about the same. One thing I noticed is that the fan was having to work more than it should b/c of the Skyhawk "ventiduct." I'd say it was a waste even having it, b/c the fan in the ventiduct was trying to pull air off of the cpu, while the CPU fan was blowing air onto the heatsink of the CPU. When I removed it, I did not see any noticeable difference in temps by the BIOS or the gigabyte utility, but I could tell a difference in air temps if I placed my hand near the cpu heatsink before and after. Also, the SideBar fan from Skyhawk doesn't fit anymore b/c of the size of the heatsink and fan, though no complaints, b/c don't need it. By switching all of this out, and kind of rigging one of my fans to be an exhaust fan in the back (you have to look at some of the skyhawk cases to know why - they don't have a place for a decent sized fan, so I just kind of picked a hole to screw through and attached one screw to the fan - works just as well.

Also, I previously thought that I had possibly gotten a virus b/c of my Norton software going crazy, but it was not. I later found that Norton Internet Security was having some sort of conflicts with a couple different drivers and/or other programs. I eventually was able to work around this, and all seems to be running good and stable now. I haven't closed the case yet, but the CPU was running those high temps with it open before, and the case temp has been about the same, whether opened or closed previously. Now, I have to redrill holes in the back for the power supply screws to fit correctly, but that's no biggie -it's not a thick case by all means. I'm considering later cutting a hole in the top of the case, and putting one of the Thermaltake Smart II fans I have in the top to pull the hot air out that way, since that's about the only place it gets a little warm in my machine now, it seems. I also have a fan on the windowed side of case, and considering swapping it around to pull air in instead of blowing out - seems it might work better that way now (but for now, it runs great, regardless of what I do in the future)!

Oh, one last note: It seemed the computer was lagging a little before, but not now. Everything runs faster than I've run before. This is an awesome setup, but I'd recommend a different case than Skyhawk, now that I've had this one for a while - had to get Dynamat stuff to make it less than terrible loud. The Skyhawk case was okay before when I had a Slot A Athlon 900Mhz CPU, but just is not built for the most current processors. I will say it is a very light case, and I like the looks of it, but don't care for the fan setup nor the noise. My old PSU that went bad (I found it had blown a transistor[if that IS what they are called] when I opened it) was a SkyHawk 400 Watt Steel power supply. It was at least 5-10 times louder than this Thermaltake one even when it was brand new.

Oh well, I can definitely say I'm happy now. If I wanted to spend any more money, I'd go ahead and get a different case, but I think I'll just make mine do for at least the next year or two.

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[kjv1611]

By the way, now my system temp is still staying around 28-29 with case closed, but CPU temp is staying around 60C instead of 48-50C. I don't know, but it could be the fan on the side of the case blowing out... I'm considering switching it around to blowing in.. b/c seems to disrupt the air flow, I guess. Either way, 60 is way better than 70-80+ that I had at times before, usually around 70-75. I can definitely say that the Thermaltake heatsink and fan I got is definitely worth the price.

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[kjv1611]

Just as an update (evening of 22nd) - I got home from work, swapped the direction of the side fan around to where it is pulling in air instead of blowing out, and the avg temp dropped from about 58-62 to 49-53C. That's a pretty big drop just for redirectioning one fan. Anyway, that is the CPU temp, the case temp has staid constant between 28C and 30C the entire time it seems.

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

 

[norty303]

This is often the case that the side fan is further to the front of the case than the processor and so sucks out cooler air coming from the front before it ever reaches the processor. I tend to have all fans blowing in apart from the ones on the rear so that the air flow is always moving towards the back of the case.

Glad to hear you've had a satisfactory result from your experimentation

 

[kjv1611]

Yep, that's the way mine is working now: One exhaust fan (only held by one screw, b/c the back of this case won't hold anything bigger than a 60mm fan, and the power supply is pulling air from around cpu and putting out of case. All other fans (front and side) are now blowing in. It makes sense now, of course. Another side note: if you buy a Skyhawk case for use with any processor in a socket instead of a slot, then don't bother with the ventiduct - it's counter-productive.

Stephen
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV