I did a little research regarding this subject cuz I was worried. In general the AMD chip thermal limit is 90c. You are okay with you 42 to 46. Get nervious above 70c.
You may want to look at your IDE cables. Some overclockers cut (length wise) their cables (the big flat ones). Then bunch them up with tie wraps. This helps maintain good air flow inside the box. They also sell round IDE cables.

Liquid cooled heat sink/fan. You are serious aren't you?

Cool on

I searched the AMD site for my processor max temp. It's 85c on the die. my MB has a high temp safeguard and I tested it out. My comp shuts off when the temp on the die reaches X degree's c. I set it to 80 (to be safe). I have the round cables too. Thought ahead on this computer. :) I even found some old AT power supply's and took a cooling fan out of there and put it on the new computer's case. That helped move some air around.

And yes I AM serous about the heatsink. Here's the link:

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CP-101-N

I thought it would work better then a plain fan, and a water cooled system wasn't in the budget. i don't overclock, but I don't want to have excessive heat buildup. The computer will eventuatly be in a TV control room with lots of heat creating equipment, so I've gotta keep it as cool as possible. The control room can get up to 80+fer. One time a guy left the control room door shut and didn't turn on the AC and the therometer was maxed out at 90+ when the morning guy arrived. It was probely 100fer in there. :( That damaged some equipment.

I've built nothing but AMD systems for the last couple years and they do not overheat. Older AMD system could get pretty hot. I just finished a fifteen hour render. CPU temp at end was a very cool 106F or only about 7 degrees over its resting temp. So I guess inspite of the system being under a constant load running at near 98% CPU cycle for fifteen hours straight I've cooled my system pretty good. <wink>

Nothing special. I have a fairly large heatsink on the CPU with a variable speed fan that only speeds up if it gets hot. Never does. On top of that I have three case fans, onw on the back, one on the side to blow out the hot air, one in front to suck in cool air. Again, nothing special or large.

In my opinion setting the max to 80c is WAY TO HIGH! That may be its thermal load cutoff, but you've gone a long way to already frying the chip if it gets that hot even once. I have mine alarm set to just 55c. Right now my CPU temp is only 97F or about 37C.

A common misconception is taking the side panels or back off your PC keeps the case cooler. WRONG! If you are sucking cool air in from the front, and blowing out hot air from the back and/or side then the case cover being ON helps the air current and so it will be cooler, not hotter. Also having a bundle of wires blocking the air current can totally defeat the cooling... again often overlooked. Take a few minutes to carefully route all cables and use plastic tie offs to keep them out of the way.

A common reason for a CPU overheating when people build their own system is they are tempted to put on way too much heatsink compound like putting peatnutbutter on a slice of bread or skip it all together, Either way, that defeats the purpose and the chip won't have the proper contact with the headsink. If you do your own you only put on a very light layer of compound then spread it in a very thin layer with a plasic credit card edge or some similar tool.

I'm making the leap into water cooling. I just received my Koolance 4U rackmount case today. I have never ventured into water cooling but I record live audio, sometimes outside in the GA heat, and need more than fans for cooling, I think. It looks pretty well designed and manufactured, but is fairly pricey when you add everything that you need.

Is the 37c your CPU temp or CPU die temp? My MB health utils says both, and the die temp is usally 10-15c higher then the normal cpu temp on my system. That's the one that is used for the cut-off too (on my comp). That's why I have the cut-off at 80c. I actuatly did have the cut-off at 55c BEFORE i knew it used the die temp, and the alarm went off 2 minutes into a render and the computer went off. :)

How do you feel about a filter on the intake fan? I've had dust problems before where the intake fan blows in, so I put a filter on it. it's just a floor vent filter I cut to fit the fan.

The 37C is the normal temp. If you have a older AMD chip they can run normally somewhere between 130-145F or 54-62C under load. My older system never got over the high 120's. Anything much over 145F I'd be worried and try to find out why it is running hotter. The newer AMD chips like the XP series should run at least 20-25 degrees cooler then that. If you have an older AMD I would set the alarm no higher than 155F, if it gets much higher then that I would think weird things may start to happen and the CPU will die an early death.

I got a case that comes with a little filter on the intake. That reminds me, time to clean it. <wink>

Best sources for all of this are on the many, many overclocking sites.

To start off, not all CPU fans/heatsinks are created equal -> get a decent setup, but be aware that you're increasing the noise you'll have to deal with when installing super fans. Heatsink compounds are not all equal either, so invest a little extra. FWIW, I like the circular designed heatsinks with the fan in the middle as these are much more resistant to dust clogging in my experience.

Watercooling is an option, though obviously it's not a good thing if you get water on your circuit board (s) with your PC running. Remember, S___ happens.

Case fans are not at all equal either. You can buy special high output fans, or at the very least go somewhere like Jameco where you get cfm rates before you buy. All around best deal (used to be anyway) is the Antec brand case fans at CompUSA (just a couple of bucks each).

Cases are not equal... Here the overclocking sites are golden, where you can find actual measurements etc. on how cool a case will run. You can mod a case, but in the end you can have air flow restrictions and turbulence that make those extra fans useless - best IMO to get one designed right to start with. I'm really impressed with the Antecs, but bear in mind that the filters they use now days are pulled out from the bottom of the case front for cleaning. Is it really worth it to you to pull your PC out to where you can remove this filter? Might want to leave that devil out?

Popular case mods lately include fans at the top of the case, and fans on the side panel blowing on the CPU, but bear in mind that if you're adding this stuff to a case you may or may not get much benefit depending on general airflow characteristics. In general you're safer getting air out of the case. Also, don't forget hard drive coolers and such, though ram and chipset coolers don't work in some applications, with some motherboards/chipsets etc. [one SIS chipset screws up if you cool it for example] IDE cables were mentioned, and they can block the airflow considerably. Rather then cutting up existing ribbon cables, better off to buy nice ones enclosed in a rubber-like sheath - very cheap money now days online, though a local retailer will likely try and charge $20 +.

Pulling the side of the case off and pointing a decent fan in there does work BTW, as I can attest as well as dozens of sites. No matter how you do your case, it's an enclosed environment where heat from all the electronics accumilates. Use MBM or similar & you'll likely see an internal case temp at least a few dregrees higher then current room temp. Opening the case at the very least gets the internal temps reduced to ambient, and the individual fans on the CPU, GPU etc. do their job. Aiming an external fan in there cools everything else & reduces any localized higher air temps as around the CPU.

Generally speaking, the best solution is still to have the room adequately air conditioned, or locate the PC where it's cool -> it's common when dealing with audio to enclose the PC in a closet, behind glass doors, in a special enclosure etc. to reduce noise, so it's possible to cool the PC's environment separate from the room if you're in a situation where this is difficult. If the room temp is 80 F or less, you'll generally not have problems if your PC is correctly assembled. People can get nuts about cooling, but if you're not in a hot environment, not overclocking, have everything put together as it should be, likely not a problem. CPUs today get hot, will start to fail if they get too hot, but this will usually show up as errors and crashes long before you melt anything.

Guess what? It wasn't airflow or currents or such: the CpU cooler was defective! I recieved a recall notice on it tonight. The rivits on the container that holds the liquid could fail causing liquid to leak. Hence, less coolent, less heat disapated. :( Now i'm getting a new fan and all should be fixed. :)