in the past amds processors did run hotter, but only with the retail box cooler, with the same cooler amd processors run cooler than intel, and its been that way for a long time.

I have alot ofe xperience with overclocking, and the main thing about it is knowing the limits and getting the optimum voltage to the CPU.

Generally, when you overclock you need about .1 for every 100-150mhz you overclock. Also, don't bother with increasing the multiplier, that won't do anything for you. What you need to do is increase the bus speed and the speed of the RAM.

Why don't you try lowering the voltage a few notches. That is the main contributor to your heat problem.

If that doesn't work, maybe look into a liquid cooling system.

It looks like I'm a little late arriving to the party here, but 2.6GHz is pretty high for any Athlon XP, regardless of the core. (Mine is at its limit at ~2410MHz, for what it'* worth.)

When you said that lowering the clock speed way down didn't really improve your temperaures much, that kind of raises a red flag in my mind. It could be that your heatsink isn't making a good contact (you said it'* lapped, but perhaps with moving and shifting the computer over the months/years, the heatsink isn't sitting on the CPU perfectly anymore). It might be worth trying to reapply your thermal compound too.

Also, what motherboard do you have? Sometimes they don't report temperatures all that accurately.

Edit: And as the guy above me said, your voltage could be high too - what is it set at (and what is the motherboard reporting?). I have mine set in the BIOS to 1.875 Volts - way over the default 1.50V, and probably most people would consider that too high. However, when I actually look at the voltage that'* reported, especially when the CPU is under load, it averages around 1.78-1.80V, which is why I need to set it so high in the first place (motherboard seems to undervolt quite a bit).

A little update for you guys. I purchased the Zalman 6000 [all copper] heatsink and 120mm fan. Let me tell you, Sol is very right in Zalman products being works of art. This thing is incredible! This is the flower kind.. the link is in this thread somewhere [it'* for an aluminum/copper, but it is the same design]. The system is quieter than it was with the old heatsink turned all the way down with the fan speed controller. This is eliminating the Zalman controller, and the fan being directly plugged into the motherboard.

In reply to some of my mainboard settings. I had her sitting around 1.8-1.9 volts.. depended upon if the system was cold and whatnot. I had the FSB cranked up along with the multiplier, just for info. Way too high from info I have seen. When I brought her back down to factory specs, I didn't bring the voltage down to 1.5v, but 1.6v.. which may have contributed to my overheating problem. I have an XFX NFS2-AED motherboard. It was BETA [I was a BETA-Tester for XFX {long story}], so it has a few quirks [like not turning on when hot]. But, the temps were accurate. When I got the heatsink installed [the first time], I saw what jwikoff was talking about having installed it upside down, because I did that. And the system overheated immediately. When I pulled it, I realized the thermal compound was on the base, not the copper. So, I just switched it around, and off I was. Upon initial boot up, I got 28*C [after sitting about 30 minutes after overheating with the heatsink installed wrong]. I then fired up my Gentoo install [was installing Gentoo at the time], and started bootstrapping [VERY CPU intensive]. This would get my CPU up to about 78*C with the old cooler. I checked the temp this time, 42*C. I was sitting in awe at that point. I was ecstatic at that point. Just for clarificaton, these are on DEFAULT settings [no overclocking, nothing]. I cranked up the FSB from 333mhz, to 366mhz, and upped the voltage .1v. 44*C. I cranked it back down, because I didn't want an unstable system while compiling 5+hr programs, then blowing something and wasting all that time. But, shortly I will start playing with the settings again. I have another 2600+ CPU laying around here somewhere.. just in case.


-justin

Glad to see everything is running cool. Nice choice on the heatsink too!

that'* the sumbitch that'* in my PC now (with an 80mm fan), a 2500+. My CPU socket is reading a balmy 32ēC

It did 3200+ speeds all stable and cool. Don't know what it'* doing now, you'd have to ask my brother.