Overheating cpu

[Yugi]

im running a amd athlon x2 6400 on a msi board.

I've had it running for 2 days now, it always seemed to run slightly hot, but for the first time i tried to run a game tonight and it crashed and now it over heats very quickly, i've ran it with just the cpu fan hooked in and the moniter with the mobo sitting outside the case and it still overheated. This is my heatsink

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835114039


I had to get a small one because it needed to be in a microatx case, if this is the problem im willing to get a mid. Any suggestions

p.s. the first days up until the games it never shut down or anything

[Alaron]

That is a very strange design for a CPU cooler. The fan can't be moving much air when its covered like that, which is probably the cause of your overheating. If you have the stock heatsink/fan, that would do the job if you can fit it into your case.

[Yugi]

It didn't come with one, i bought this one to see and if it does the job im going to order a new case, i just wanted some opinions, thanks for your help

[liambl]

I can't work out that CPU cooler. Unless it draws air in one end and blows it out the other?

[Yugi]

I don't even know dude, it does blow air but it's so muffled, im just confused why it didnt do this earlier

[Yugi]

I have another question, I have 3 heat sinks, I can not get any of them to keep the cpu cool in the case, on 2 of them, they cant fit all the way on the cpu because of the battery, could this be the reason it's temp sky rockets.

and after a cpu over heats, does it have a tendency to get hotter faster?

[Cricket]

That's got to be the dumbest heatsink/fan design I've ever seen.I have another question, I have 3 heat sinks, I can not get any of them to keep the cpu cool in the case, on 2 of them, they cant fit all the way on the cpu because of the battery, could this be the reason it's temp sky rockets.If the heatsink is sitting on the battery, yes. The heatsink isn't making good contact with the CPU and you're not getting good thermal transfer.and after a cpu over heats, does it have a tendency to get hotter faster?I don't believe so.

:) Cricket

[shadowpr]

What mother board do you have that it won't let you properly instal the heatsink?

[Yugi]

It's the case, it's to small, i need to get a bigger one, which I am, but the only time ive gotten it to stay at a low temp is when i got it to stay at 38c out of case with one of the heat sinks, thats the lowest i can get it and it's still high. Here is my mobo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130065

[Cricket]

Wait...how is the battery interferring with the CPU heatsink? The battery isn't even close to the CPU, it's way over by the PCI slots.

When you said the heatsink won't fit because of the battery, did you mean the power supply? You're using a micro-ATX case which means the power supply may be situated vertically instead of horizontally and that will limit the room over the CPU.

Get a standard ATX mid-tower case. The micro-ATX motherboard will fit in any standard ATX case.

:) Cricket

[Yugi]

Yeah, i meant psu sorry. It's situated horizontally, which is a dumb design, and the heatsink is very tall so the battery rubs the heat sink.

But is 38c going to be a problem?

[hitchface]

It isn't terrible, but it could be cooler. I understand it to be a noisy cooler in the 1st place. You could ramp up the fan speed with SpeedFan, but you seriously need to look into a different cooler. Something from Zalman or Arctic Cooling would do nicely.

[Yugi]

I have one from zalman, thats the one that keeps it at 38

[hitchface]

The one you linked to wasn't a Zalman unit...

[Yugi]

i know, I have 3 differnt ones, the one linked to was the one that fit and the other 2 were to big, but the only one that keeps it cool is the zalman

[hitchface]

Aha, now I get it. Yeah, it would seem that a new ATX case is your best solution.

[Yugi]

But, how come it's running so hot? with such a big heatsink and fan running outside the case, shouldn't it be doing better than 38

[Cricket]

38C is actually a pretty low temp for a modern CPU (and the 6400+ is about as modern as you can get). I wouldn't worry about it.

:) Cricket

[Yugi]

As long as it isnt going to burn up im fine, thanks for your help cricket and everyone else who helped

[amdalex]

You should consider upgrading to a full size ATX case. Here is a nice one, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119077. It has good cooling to since the whole front perforated.