So I haven't overclocked my cpu yet.. still running at 1533mhz. I'm installing benchmarking software and system probing software. Decide it might be good to check what the current standard cpu temp. I figure it'd be in the 30s with my new super duper Alpha PAL8045. What do I find? A steady 60 degrees C. Needless to say, I was pretty bewildered. How can this be happening? I did notice that the mounting pads on the corners of my CPU were (imo) high such that when the alpha rested (unmounted) on the cpu, it didnt touch the core at all. I assumed that when i would finally mount the heatsink, the pressure would cause the core and heatsink to make contact. And when I did mount, it "looked" like they were touching (although it was pretty hard to see). Could it be possible that my heatsink is not making a good connection with my cpu core? Has anyone else had problems using the alpha PAL8045 with an amd athlon xp cpu? Any answers would be great. Thanks.

Those pads on the CPU are compressible and are designed to keep the heat sink from rocking on the core and chipping it. What kind of thermal contact do you have between the heat sink and the CPU core? You should use thermal paste.

I bought some arctic silver III and used that. I followed the instructions on Arctic's website so I'm pretty sure I used the right amount. Am I meant to screw the alpha in as much as I can until the screws don't turn anymore? I turned until it gave a good enough resistance that I was afraid of tightening it anymore. what are amd athlon 1800s meant to run at temperature wise? ted

WEll amd pc's have a die temp of 90C. But once you go in the 60'ies you'll start to get random reboots etc. I live in the tropics and had temps of 63C with the stock cooling. Now i have a swiftech mcx 468 (the best hs there is ) with a delta fan 60cfm airflow (loud as hell but effective)on my xp1800+ i have temps of 36-42 now. The alpha you have is also a very good hs and you should defniatly be getting lower temps (around the same as me since i take it you live in a cooler region of the world than me). I would check the mounting again just take the alpha fan off and reconnect it (add articsilver 3 check if you used the right washers etc) once you reconected it take it off again and check if you see artic silver imprint on your hsf if you see the imprint then your core is making contact. And if your temp still is in the 60'ies there must be something with your temp sensor becuase there is no way that an alpha can give you such temp's even in the most extreme conditions. I hope i am of some help. Boni Boksteen

Hmm ok I will try to do that. Just a quick question though, which washers should I be using if I have the asus a7v333 mobo? ted