Hello, I am curious to know what the normal operating temp for an AMD XP 3000 is supposed to be. The reason I ask is because I currently use an AMD 2000 oc'ed at 1900MHZ and I have water cooling which keeps the temp at 36C. However when I installed the AMD XP 3000 my temps were at 76C! The water was hot as heck, so is this normal or do I have to upgrade my water cooler? I thought that water cooling could handle all of today's CPUs. Thanks

I have an AMD 3000+ as well along with a ThermalTake TR2 M2(www.tr2tt.com) and as I'm writing this its at 55 degrees celcius. I've never seen the temp any higher than 61 on my system.

Water cooling is no better than good air cooling...it's just expensive & requires more maintenance. My overclocked 1800+ idles in the upper 20's with a $10 CoolerMaster Aluminum HSF with copper base. It all depends on the configuration though...no two setups are alike. 76C is awfully high regardless of the cooling type. It seems that either something isn't installed correctly or you're getting an erroneous reading

jam you say that all the time, however I do not wish to have my PC at 60+ DB since I use it for audio recording, and I cannot have the fan overcome the quality of the sound. You say it is high maintenance... what high maintenance? Filling it with water once a month?

If "The water was hot as heck" then it must have been a valid temp reading afterall water boils @ 100C. Check your watercooling setup.

I am not yet a big fan of watercooling but I know it is more efficient than air cooling..(when and if it is installed correctly with the right parts). Some do it for lower temps, others for reduced noise level, but most often the installation is done from reading the manual...."how perfect".

Like jam implied you can still keep your CPU temps under control with decent air cooling, and air cooling is not just about the number or how big the fan is. They have to be strategically setup too.

Also is not alarming for CPU's to run idle @ 40-50 temps @ certain clocks and PC are not mute electronics by design so going watercooling for noise dampening is a waste of money for me.

BTW drop the CPU to it's clock speed and see what temps readings you get.

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Yes, high maintenance when compared to air cooling...

Filling it with water, adding chemicals to the water (you don't run straight tap water, do you?), periodically checking for leaks, keeping the radiator & it's cooling fan dust free, inspecting the water block for signs of corrosion, to name but a few...basically, there are several components that have the potential for failure, whereas with aircooling, you really only have one...the fan!

As for noise levels, the CPU cooling fan is only one of the fans in the average system. Many times, the PSU is the noise culprit...but it could be the case fans, videocard fan, NB fan, etc. There's a cummulative effect too, so 60+ DB is certainly possible, put you can't put the blame solely on the HSF.

If you have the time, you might find this an interesting read:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles605/index.asp

i was wondering if you put the water cooling system on correctly. I've heard people with very high temps because thy had not set the water cooling system up correctly.

Also to anyone reading.

when installing a fan and heatsink, it's extremely important to have the heatsink on the right way around. i've seen ruined CPU's because of this (usaully when the CPU is overcloked but not always the case)
also, i'm pretty vague, for example: instead of pouring the milk in the glass i poured it in the milo tin, the plate and in the biscuit tin. for anyone who is as vague as me please check if the fan is the right way around you want intake not exhaust on a CPU fan (that's air blowing into not out of)

any way enough of sharing my vagueness.

i hope this has made people check there heatsinks and if there pouring the milk into there glass, and NOT something else.

slothboy