12C idle temp real?

[Ravynmagi]

I've been a long time AMD and before that Cyrix fan. But I finally bought my very first Intel CPU. What I had been hearing about the overclocking potentional of the Core 2 Duos was just too tempting.

Anyway, my CPU, board, and memory arrived today and I put it all together. Intel E4300, Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 3.3, and 2GB of OCZ Gold DDR2-800.

I don't waste any time, I soon was overclocked to 2.92GHz (far enough on the first day I figure), 9x325. Still using stock voltages and cooling.

But my idle temps seem very low to me. Not that I'm complaining, I just want to be sure I can trust what I'm seeing.

Core Temp, Speed Fan, and EasyTune 5, all report 12C. When I run Orthos for a while it gets up to 46C. If I reboot the computer and jump into the BIOS and look at PC Health, I see 20C there.

My AMD X2 4600 or 64 3800 CPUs never idled this cool. Just curious if this is normal or if I should be suspicious of these temps.

By the way, the ambient temp is 23C and I'm using an Antec P180 case with decent circulation.

 

[Bbq]

Not possible. You cannot have a cpu temperature lower than ambient temperature.

 

[leSLIe]

as a rule of thumb, when using a heatsink fan, the temperature can´t drop below ambient temperature, in your case room temperature. so unless you are freezing in your room the pc temperature can´t be 12º C. !!

 

[Ravynmagi]

Thanks guys. That does make sense. With that knowledge, I decided to flash my BIOS from F9 to F10.

Now everything seems to be reporting correct temps. I'm idling at 32C now with my overclock and 56C under load.

 

[gepetto]

i wouldnt use F10, its horrible