am i overheating

Lots of different opinions around. I got an Athlon 2800+ down from 67*C to 59*C at idle (BIOS readings) by carefully taking off the old heatsink paste and replacing it (air can get trapped in the "medium" and act as an insulator).

When I added a new graphics card to my system, all temperatures increased more than 10*C.

The PSU will always be hot because heat is a product of changing the voltage (that's why there is always a fan in the PSU).

Make sure that the case has a proper air flow, don't leave PCI slots uncovered (like me ). A good case has a well directed air flow.

Add extra fans if you think (noise will increase).

Matt

 

the mobo is made by ecs and it is a new model. in fact it doesnt even come up as an option in cpucool for motherboards yet. reason why i built this machine is because i got the case, board, 52x burner, floppy, 56k modem and a 300w psu for a little amount of monies. one of those tigerdirect build your own. then i added on components based on the motherboards recommendations and specs. so all componets are within the boards manual as being compatible. like i said before it was a quick decision to build a machine. havent built a p4 before so i thought i would give a try. so far the machine is doing fine was just curious about the heat but i think most of the heat is from the 460w psu.

i put extra case fans in because of the 3.2g ver e and the 256mb ati 9600xt which in my research all recommended a little more cooling. both are papst fans and i used artic silver 5 for the compound. first time i have used or even seen a psu with that many watts so wasnt sure if they produced a lot of warmth but it looks like they do. being in the north woods of wisconsin and now during the winter months i will also keep my window open by the machine and that should definitely keep it on the cool side.

i really appreciate all your comments and assistance. thanks again.