What's considered cool?

[nuggetz]

I've been reading some reviews at newegg on various cooling devices ranging from fans to water. I've reading lots of people claiming that their rigs now run at like 50C with high end water cooling. Isn't water supposed to cool you off better than a fan? . Is 50C considered good? I'm trying to cool off my AMD 3500 which runs at around 35 deg idle on a hot day in a super hot room in my house. Not sure what it does under full load although I've never seen it exceed 45deg. This is OC to 2.4 from stock with stock fan. What would I expect with good cooling solutions. If it's 50degs, then I'm not so sure I need it. Unless I have some sort of rare - cool running chip. I do have a nice full tower with plenty of fans. Maybe that helps. Not sure.

Also, how hot is too hot?

 

[-=Antimatter=-]

You have to differentiate between load temperatures (CPU under full stress) and idle temperatures (CPU doing nothing). Generally a temperature of 40-50C is good for load, andything below that for idle. Over 60C people start to get nervous about seeing their processors go up in smoke.

If you're looking to overclock or just get lower temperatures for peace of mind, try any of the Zalman coolers (CPNS9500 or 7000/7700) or the Thermaltake Big Typhoon. There are a few others out there as well, but these are the most popular.

Oh, and since you have an a64 you could enable Cool N' Quiet.

 

[nuggetz]

I'm def wann a OC. I know I'm not OCing much right now, only to 2.4 off of a stock fan with temps never over 45, I'm wondering some folks have over 50+ with water cooling. Somethings not right.

 

[CarterEVIL]

Sounds like your machine is running just fine. Trust me, I have seen processors go up in smoke, and that is not something that you want to have happen. Your temps are great for OC'ing. People that are over clocking with a water cooling solution that have temps that hi are most likely puching too much voltage to the CPU.