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BIOS temps or PC Alert III?

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  • BIOS temps or PC Alert III?

    Not sure what to trust here... my BIOS temps or the temps shown in PC Alert III, which came with my MSI mobo.

    I just went out and bought a $65 fan, MCX478. It's this massive thing, and I replaced my older standard fan with it. PC Alert had been showing my temps at 49 C prior. After I put on the new fan, it hardly changed at all according to PC Alert... temp runs about the same:-( I used thermal grease: arctic silver. I tried checking temps in my BIOS instead and the cpu temp there was showing 30 C. Do I believe my BIOS or PC Alert?

    Is it possible that my cpu heats up that much after just loading winxp?? It's such a dramatic jump b/t the readings in BIOS and those in PC Alert, that I find it hard to believe it would, but I really couldn't say for sure.

    Thanks.

  • #2
    Is the 30C temperature reflected in the BIOS after a cold boot or a reboot? If it is a cold boot temperature, then try a reboot and go immediately into the BIOS and see what it says. If there is a large difference still, then try measuring the temperature with Motherboard Monitor or SiSoft Sandra. Both of these programs are pretty reliable, so see where a majority of these utilities say your temp really lies. This should let you know which of your two is giving the bum results.
    Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
    My Toys

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    • #3
      After a reboot. I loaded up XP and ran a few programs first, then reset, and entered BIOS to check out the temp.

      I'll check out some of those other programs. Thanks.

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      • #4
        SiSoft is telling me 49 C as well:-( So that means a bum reading in the BIOS?

        Any idea why my temp would be so high? I haven't overclocked. What does an "average" system run at? That seems a little high regardless. Damn, that's disappointing after buying a $65 fan.

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        • #5
          How much airflow do you have going through the case? The best heatsink in the world won't help if there's no cool, fresh air to move.
          Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
          My Toys

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          • #6
            Well I got all of the cords out of the way and taped them around the box to prevent them from blocking airflow. According to PC Alert the system temp is 30 C while the cpu is at 49 C. I figured the large difference in temps must mean i put the fan on incorrectly. Took it apart, wiped everything down, reapplied arctic silver and carefully reinstalled the fan, but it didn't change anything:-( How difficult is it to install a cpu fan? I thought I was pretty careful about it.

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            • #7
              Keeping the cables out of the way is a good start, but you didn't answer the question... How much airflow do you have going through the case? The fact remains that if you don't have enough air moving within the case, then you're high-dollar heatsink isn't going to do anything to help you out.

              As a general rule, it's good to have a couple of fans sucking cool air in from the lower front portion of the case. You'll also want a couple of fans exhausting the hot air from the upper rear portion of the case. This is a natural airflow pattern and should create enough airflow to let your Swiftech unit do what it is intended to do.
              Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
              My Toys

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              • #8
                How do I measure how much airflow is going through the case? Are you just asking where my fans are positioned? If so... The case has two fans in back, blowing air out, but none in front. Just the standard stuff that came with it when I purchased it.

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                • #9
                  My question was trying to find out what the CFM ratings were on your fans, but if you don't have any fans sucking in cool air, then that is where a lot of your problem lies. It's kinda like what I was saying above... since you don't have any fresh, cool air being brought into the case, that high-dollar HSF is wasting away. Get some fans on the lower front portion of the case to bring in cool air and you should see quite a difference in temperatures.
                  Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
                  My Toys

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                  • #10
                    Gotcha, thanks for the advice. I'll buy a couple and see how it goes.

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                    • #11
                      Also make sure that the front bezel will allow good air flow thru it too as some that I've come across don't and the front fans just wind up recirculating case air. :smokin:
                      <center>:cheers:</center>

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                      • #12
                        How do I detect what the air is doing? Just feel for it with my hand? Or is there a more precise way?

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                        • #13
                          Look if ya want precise then get a DigitDoc 5 and move and monitor temps in different areas of your case till you get the best configuration. :smokin:
                          <center>:cheers:</center>

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                          • #14
                            Thanks, I'll check that out.

                            Now I'm really confused :confused:

                            I went into BIOS, and for the hell of it, raised my FSB setting from 100 MHz to 110MHz even though my CPU under PC Alert III and SiSoft Sandra are showing 50 C readings. BIOS continues to show the CPU running at 30C-34C. That brought my 1.5 ghz up to 1.66 ghz according to SiSoft. However, the temp of the cpu didn't change at all. I'm still idling at 50 C according to those two programs. What is that all about? Is that not a significant enough change to increase cpu temps? My settings only allow me to go up to 200 MHz, so I figured setting it at 110 would be a significant jump. Am I missing something? Or could there be a problem with the way my system is registering temps? I didn't change the vcore because I have no idea how that would alter my system, other than raising the voltage to my cpu. I only changed the FSB.

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                            • #15
                              Also take a look at Flaco's 1st post in this thread here.
                              Also you may want to try Motherboard Monitor and see how that compares. :smokin:
                              <center>:cheers:</center>

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