Well, I took off the case cover and temperatures dropped on both the CPU and motherboard by about ten degrees within a half hour. Under a normal workload (word processor and web browser running)the CPU temperature stayed at 70C and the motherboard remained at about 32C. I then upped the workload with 3-D game for about an hour. The temperature on the CPU topped out at 77C and the motherboard remained at 32C. Today, after having the computer off for about 12 hours since its last use (the case cover is still off), I'm getting a CPU temp of 63C and a mobo temp of 29C with about one hour of use under a medium workload. So obviusly, my case is having air circulation problems. Its fairly snug for what I have in it (two hard drives, DVD-rom, CD-R, floppy and assorted cards), so it might be time to upgrade to a slightly larger case with better air circulation. I could try moving some wires around, but there's not much room to do that (or add a larger exhaust fan in a place that makes sense). I'll probably also go ahead and get a better CPU heatsink/fan. It's more than a little annoying that the fan and heatsink that come with the Athlon don't do a good job. Any further suggestions for cooling the system (or smarter ways of doing it than what I'm planning)? Really appreciate all the feedback and advice that I've gotten so far. Inocare

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i have a gigabyte ga7vrxp mobo, running an amd 1900+,with an alpha PAL8045 heat sink and fan, Useing round cables (home made). In my old case with intake fan bottom front exhaust top rear and p/s fan i got temps of 113F. that case had air circulation holes on the sides. I changed to a larger case using same fan setup plus a hard drive fan upper top, without side vents and got an increase in temps to 131F ouch!!!!. Thats with no load monitoring in bios for god sake. So i drilled holes in upper rear of side panel and installed a fan on lower front. this dropped the temp to 125F. these are all cpu temps. Going to install another fan in lid for better exhaust. i would go with a case that has two exhaust fan in rear , one intake up front and maybe an lid fan. be ready with the cash, but its worth it.

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Alright, I went a bought a Volcano 7 heatsink/fan and a new case with more room and better ventilation (not to mention more fans). Under a nominal workload and with the case closed the cpu is running at 61C and the mobo at 43C. Its still warm in there, but much better than before. I'm still toying with wire placement etc. so hopefully I'll be able to get it a little cooler by moving wires out of the way. I also used a thermal paste instead of the stuff that came under the Volcano 7.

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What are you using to monitor the temps? Is it the BIOS or the Asus probe utility? I have had lots of problems in the past with Asus Probe being real flaky, so I switched to Motherboard Monitor.

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I've been using both, though lately I have to admit I've been rellying mostly on the ASUS Probe. Anyhow, when I was keeping tabs on both they tended to agree. By the way, did you ever get fluctuating voltage readings using the probe?

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hello ya all I have been reading this thread and am glad i found it. I just built up a Asus A7V333 with a AMD XP1900. I also dumped out the cash for 512mb os ddr333 ram. This thing ran hot as hell in my house at first I was getting temps of up to 68c! This was very scarry to me due to the fact that i have only run intel chips up untill now. After alot of work I have got the temps down to 49c wile running kaza, a firewall,antivirus and playing mp3s off my cdr. not to bad. Oh ya the motherboard temp is 29 and my house is about 25c right now. This is what I did. Installed front and rear fans front intake rear out. Bought a volcano7 (no paste). Ok now this is where it gets interesting, this got the cpu down to about 55c still not great. I then installed a program called cpuidle and my temps droped by 7c! do you belive that? I installed it and sat in amasement watching my temp drop over about 10 min to 45c (idle). I dont work for cpuidle and I sound like a add i know but this thing kicks ass!!! better than paste that is for dam shur. Ok so here is my question, I now want to get this thing running cooler and then maby over clock this monster any one out there have any numbers they can throw at me for manualy setting the speed of the cpu? Peace to ya all out there and any feed back is very much appreciated. thanks

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dam forgot to mention. I am using asus probe and it seems that my volcano7 is only running at 3416rpm and the cpu is at 49c is there some way i can speed that thing up? I know it is voltage controlled but my house is hotter than most so it is set a little low. I don't see any thing in the BIOS for this any one know? Peace

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It sounds like your running a little cooler than I am even though we have basically have the same setup. Where did your the program, cpuidle? Sorry I can't help you with overclocking, but I've never done it. Congratulations on getting that temperature down. My own processor continues to run at about 60C and mobo at 40C.

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tr808...CPU Idle is a neat utility, but it only can help you when you aren't doing anything with your computer. When you're running any processor intensive apps, it's going to heat right back up again.

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I'm also running an Athlon XP 1800+ with a Volcano 7 on an Asus A7V333. Newer versions of CPUIdle use a tweak that makes the KT-chipset to issue a halt command to the processor, which seems to be (well...with this configuration) much more effective than a standard software CPU cooling solution, like Rain or Waterfall. I did also experience a temperature drop (idle) from 48C to 42C = 6C and 50C maximum under full load. I believe it has already been in this forum. Try searching with "WPCREDIT". This gives you the same temperature drop, but by editing the KT333 registry directly. It will also give you lower temperatures under full loading.

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tr808 and everyone else, you'll be interested in this post. About 3 weeks ago I acquired nearly the same setup as everyone else. XP 1900 on an A7V333, Volcano 7, Arctic Silver 3, 2 intake, 2 case exhaust, an a RaidMax powersupply that has 2 fans in it(so 3 exhaust total) all 80mm, alum case. I average 53C cpu and 34C mb under normal active loads, 50C with case panel slightly open. Have seen 55C running 3DMark. Temps based on Asus Probe. Seperate temp gauge shows room temp is 28C, case exhaust is 31C. One thing I _must_ suggest to everyone with a _Volcano 7_ : You've probably noticed the green _thermistor_ hanging out of it to allow the fan to adjust it's speed on the fly. The placement of this thermistor on the outside of the sink is quite _foolish_ if you ask me. I ripped my fan off my Vol7 and _wedged_ the thermistor into my heatsink so the fan almost always runs at _5000rpm_. Before doing that I was almost always at 56C when idle. Another thing that concerns me about the Vol7 is that it's airflow blows toward the CPU/HS rather than sucking up from the MB and allowing my exhaust fans to suck out the heat off the Vol7. So am worried that it's actually recycling the heat and have yet rectify this. Reason being is the thermistor in the sink doesn't allow for me to merely flip the fan over and will have to change the polarity to accomplish this. Food for thought in any event.. Once I get my temp down around 48C, give or take, I will start OCin this bad boy. Anyone OCing their 1900 yet? Care to share some specs FSB/Mult/Volt wise? Thanks in advance!

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After posting the previous message, I got a wild hair up my crack and decided to try reversing the wires on my Vol7. Having reverse the black and red wires, it didn't work. Spose I will have to come up with something to turn the fan over and extend the wiring of the thermistor to reach to the sink. Just FYI.

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You know from reading the responses to this post, I'm becoming ever more convinced that my temperatures while higher than I would like them, are fairly normal for my cpu/mobo set up (Athlon +1900 and A7V333). Currently I'm getting 58C for my CPU and 41C for my motherboard. The room I'm in is not air-conditioned and its fairly hot out here in LA at the momment. I still haven't tried any of the software cooling methods as I'm a little afraid of messing around with my chipset instructions and such. However, I think I might try to put the thermometer in heatsink of the Volcano 7 like Kezibo did. I also made an interesting discovery that while fairly simple and obvious people might be overlooking in trying to lower temperatures inside the case. Simply put, make sure the ducts through which your intake fans are allowing air into the case are not blocked by carpeting or anything else. They seem to be fairly low and hidden away in most cases so its easy to forget about them. I lifted my case off the floor (carpeted) and got about 2-3C cooler temps on my motherboard. Its not much, but its something.

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