CPU temperature - how hot should it run?
About six months ago I upgraded one of my PCs with a new motherboard, processor and CPU cooling fan (ASUS A7V233, AMD XP 1800 and GlobalWin respectively, if memory serves). Everything worked perfectly, but the cooling fan was incredibly noisy - the system also has a PSU fan, chipset fan on the motherboard, and two SCSI disks, but this CPU fan drowned them all out by far!
So, I recently changed the fan for a (more expensive) GlobalWin Copper Superquiet (or something). Sure enough, it's much quieter, but the machine started locking up occasionally. Suspecting overheating, I loaded up the ASUS 'Probe' software to check the temps, and also removed a coupl of the blanking plates from the 5.25" bays to let some of the hot air out of the case (it's a full tower).
The machine no longer locks up at random intervals, but the Probe software reports (and here comes the point of this rather long message) that the CPU runs at 71C idle, and 81C when under full load (crunching SETI work units).
This strikes me as being far too hot, although everything seems to work fine. What sort of CPU temp should I be looking for? Unfortunately, because I never checked the temps before changing the fan, I can't quantify how much difference it has made.
The PSU also runs *very* hot - almost too hot to touch. Is this a sign that it's being overworked?? I'm not sure what its power rating is - 300W, I think...
All advice gratefully received!
cbl.