Okay now here's what's happening.
I'm not sure, if my computer is too hot or not.

Just sitting here at the moment, my CPU is at 54 degrees and my GFX card sits at 54 degrees.
With the side panel on, the CPU sits at 57-59 degrees and the GFX card at 55-56.
My case has one fan at the back, i'm not sure if it's an intake or outtake.
I recently moved it from the Side panel as I didn't have one on the back of my pc, so i'm not sure what i'm sure I have to use.

I'm running a AMD 3800+ x2 without any overclocking.
Inno3D 8800GTS 512mb edition, no overclocking either.
550w PSU.
2GB Corsair Ram DDR2 667mhz or something.
22" wide screen monitor.

At the moment the case side is off, when I put it on the PC rises a little bit like 3-4 degrees.

There's also a problem when I play games.
I play Crysis perfect, and when I leave the game after playing, my computer is running at 65+ degrees like, both CPU and GFX.
Is this too hot?

Sometimes when I play CoD4 for a bit, my computer overheats and turns off on me.
After I play it a little I check the temperature, and it sits at 69-73 degrees..
I really don't know what to do..

If you've considered reading this, I thank you.
If you can help me, or give any information about my problem, that will mean alot to me.

-Matt

Edit

Gah, for some reason, the CPU is at 63 degrees and GFX card is at 58, just sitting on MSN messenger and Internet Explorer with a game minamized in the background, a game that doesn't even take 32mb card to load. x.x

Hi Matt. Please check this thread in our FAQ

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/27065/

There are a number of suggestions in there for helping your cooling solution, most of which don't involve spending any money Hopefully, that will at least get you moving in the right direction.

Please let us know how you get on.

Thanks for that link, but unfortunately it didn't help me.
The computer still sits at the same as it did
I manage to shave 1° off for moving the computer foward a bit but that's all
i'm out of ideas.

What do you have at the interface between your CPU and the heat exchanger?

So you've no intake fan at the front? And you've moved your rear fan to the side??

Ok, if thats true, its no wonder your PC is running hot - you have no airflow in your case.


You need a good fan at the front, sucking air in, and another good fan at the rear, blowing air out.

You can also put a secondary intake on the side panel.


This should significantly reduce temperatures.

You MAY be able to increase the speed at which your fans operate...the CPU fan, the video/GPU fan, and your rear fan (sometimes designated "system" fan) And increasing fan speeds may be all you absolutely have to do, and will cost you nothing. However, more fans generally do help.





Note: making permanent/non-reversible modifications will likely void any warranty you may have on certain items, so I recommend constructing connector adapters where possible. They aren't too hard to make, and you can sacrifice spare cables or even buy cheap 2,3, and 4-pin adapter cables from places like tigerdirect.com, newegg.com, geeks.com, etc to make the necessary modifications.




edit-to change from ATI-based to ATI/AMD-based

edit to add-Without more info, I can't say for sure whether your CPU temps are dangerous to the CPU, but they are higher than generally desirable. The video card GPUs generally tolerate higher temperatures than system CPUs. 3800+ X2 CPUs can have a specified max temperature of anywhere from 49C to 78C depending on a number of electrical and manufacturing factors. You can go to this page and determine the maximum temperature allowed for your CPU by inputting the correct parameters. The top parameter to input will be
"Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core"
http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/Default.aspx

edit to add-7VDC modify details and helpful links

again, apologies for the multiple edits...still on max pain-killer doses

There is no way for me to put a fan in the front of my case. x.x
I moved the fan from the side, to the rear.

Matt Iskov said:


And its blowing outwards, yes?

You should really invest in a decent chassis that allows for good airflow.

With those (and most modern) PC components, you need to have satisfactory airflow to keep everything running cool.

That meant AT LEAST 1 intake fan (preferably 120mm) and one exhaust fan (preferably 120mm)

Ok i've taken out a 80mm fan from my other computer which doesn't want to work, it's fairly powerful, and it's now my outtake fan at the rear top of my tower.
I've put the other fan I had, the 80mm one, as the intake at the side.
It's running alot cooler.
Should this be ok for now?
I'm also going to get some of that cooling paste you put on a heatsink.

It may be sufficient for the time being - but you really should invest in a proper chassis and decent fans.

What do you mean invest in some cooling paste??? Surely you already used some to mount the CPU cooler?? (or is it the Intel stock one?)

Hmm, I like my chassis though.
I got it for a gift off a friend.
I'll take the advice of new fans though, which I do intend on getting very soon.

Computer shop person built my computer, the heatsink already had some paste on it :\ but i'm going to add some of my own just to be sure.

The idea is not to add more, but to do it again properly.

You will have to carefully clean the top of the CPU, and the underside of the cooler.

Then get some good thermal paste (like Artic Silver 5) and apply a little to the middle of the cpu, then re-seat the heatsink.

Instructions for thermal paste use can be found here:
http://www.articsilver.com/

DublinGunner said:

^This^ is great advice, Matt, but can I draw your attention to one word in particular:



;)

Making a poor job of this part of the build could at best drastically reduce the effectiveness of the other things you're going to try, and at worst potentially cause a catostrophic failure of your entire system, leading to a major or complete rebuild.

Feel free to let us know if you're unsure about any part of the instructions there.

If your temperatures are now well below maximum, then you don't need to change a thing or spend any more money, especially if you haven't looked into freeware options for more granular fan speed control.

If you try to re-install the heat-sink un-necessarily, you run the very real risk of damaging something or making things worse.

Similarly, if things are sufficiently cooled down, you don't need to add any more fans, change your case, etc. It's just excess money, noise, and bother. Spend/save your money for other improvements like a quality PSU, more RAM, a faster CPU, a backup disk, a good DVD drive, or a nice program you like. Increasing RAM would without question improve performance. If you're using 32bit Windows, add 1GB. If you're running 64bit Windows, add at least 2GB.

Doing things to run your CPU at 40C instead of 45C if its maximum temperature is 60C doesn't make any significant difference in the life of the CPU or performance.

Thankyou so much everyone.
So, my CPU sitting steadily at 48-50 on idle, and GPU sitting at 47 idle, is no threat at all?
Alrighty.
And thankyou for that advice on the Arctic Silver 5, I won't apply it at the moment but if I see something going wrong, I might consider getting someone professional to carefully apply the AS5 for me, as I don't really have steady hands hah!
- Matt

No problem at all, thats what were here for!

Let us know how the temps are, but they look ok at the moment (CPUis maybe a little high for idle temp)

But as soon as you can sort out the airflow in a decent chassis, you should see a good drop in idle temps

Those Cpu temps looks high to me. Make sure that your heatsink is tightly clipped or screwed in your cpu socket. I had an old 478 intel cpu and after monitoring the high temps I checked the heatsink and when I pushed it down I heard the clip sound. Turns out one side was not touching the cpu and the temps were hovering at 58c after I clipped it in tightly it dropped to the mid 40's.

Meats of Evil said:

It really does depend on EXACTLY which version of which processor you have in your system, and we don't have all the data needed to give you a yes/no answer.

Investigate the details of your processor, and compare it with the maximum temperature data specifications from the AMD website.

As I posted earlier, there are several different versions of the AMD 3800+ X2, and the maximum temperature each version can handle varies substantially. For example, 3800+ X2 version A might have a maximum safe temp rating of 50C, while version D might have a maximum safe rating of 80C. Clearly, running the version A 3800+ processor at 55C would be a bad thing to do, and running close to that 50C temperature entails some degree of risk. However, if you had Version D of that same model processor, 55C would be a GREAT temperature. No sweat, because 55C is 25C degrees below the maximum safe temperature for that version of the CPU.





That is the only way to know if your CPU temperature is in fact low enough.


Personally, I like to ensure my CPU never gets within 10C of the maximum rated temperature. For example, if my processor has a maximum rated temp of 70C, then if the CPU temp ever reaches >60C I've got my computer set to raise an alarm. This 10C margin helps compensate for measurement error and possible variances/aging in a CPU that could make it more vulnerable to the maximum temp.

IF you absolutely cannot determine the actual specified maximum temperature of your specific CPU, the safest, most conservative thing to do is assume the MINIMUM specified maximum temperature for the 3800+ X2 series of CPUs.

A less conservative approach might be to assume your processor's allowed maximum temperature is somewhere in the middle of the 3800+ X2 range (which if I remember right I think the range was 49C to 79C, or about 65C). That obviously has more risk.

And, to add one more element of complexity...some modern CPUs/motherboards typically report 2 temperature categories for the CPU: the case temperature, and an on-die/on-silicon temperature for the CPU core(s). MOST specs I have seen rate the maximum safe CPU temperature by the reported case temperature value. So, you have to make sure you're looking at the right temperature sensor report.



edit-minor add
edit-add some website hyperlink info

I used that Central Brain Identifier and I didn't really understand much about my CPU.
I'm not really into the technical side of things like this.
I visited them sites but I don't think I learn't as much as I can, i'm kinda slow when it come's to this, but I appreciate your help.
I grabbed a screenshot of my CBI and CPU-Z and i'm wondering if you can make anything out of it.
Like, if you know my maximum temperature.
i'm sorry to be a hassle

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h168/Mattery/cpu.jpg
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h168/Mattery/cpu-z.jpg

ADO3800IAA5CU

max is as 55-70c - not really much help. But keep it to the lower end if possible.

It's confusing, isn't it?

I often end up having to cross-ref several sources and/or going to the AMD fora. The AMD processor forum is at:
http://forums.amd.com/forum/index.cfm?forumid=1


However...from what I can see based on the CPU info your pics provided...

The general spec for your CPU is at:
http://www.techpowerup.com/cpudb/360/AMD_Athlon_64_X2_3800+_EE.html

From that, you can see that at stock values, the core voltages should be at 1.25V (which is what your CPU is set to according to your pictures)

You've got a 65W, "Windsor" codename CPU.



In the direction you seem to be going, although it is intimidating at first, it will pay off in the long run to become familiar with researching the technical details like you've been doing...especially if you think you might ever join the overclocker's club.