850 Thunderbird Temperature?

[RichDem]

I have just replaced my trusty old K6II 450 with a ThunderBurd 850 on an Abit KT7 motherboard.

I am using an AMD approved 300W power supply, a Taisol CGK742092 heatsink and fan. The CPU temp in the bios is reading around 87F and the system temp is 73F. Is this OK. I haven't used any thermal paste yet because when I installed the heatsink I noticed it only contacts the processor in four places and does not contact the whole processor like my old one. Should I still use the thermal paste? if so how much? does anybody know roughly what sort of temperature the processor should be running at with this heatsink. I also have an axhaust fan at the back of the case.

Apart from that the installation went as sweet as a nut and now my PC runs like grease lightening. Well worth it.

Richard Carter

[RobRich]

87F is well within specs of the Thunderbird core. I find most SocketA Athlons are stable upto 50-52C.

I would definitely recommend using thermal paste. The rather cheap Radio Shack paste works fine for most systems. Apply the paste extremely thin, as too much paste will act as an insulator. You just need enough to lightly cover the small core chip.

Hope this helps,
Robert Richmond