AMD Cool "n" Quiet - Good or Bad

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johnny B.
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J

Johnny B.

I would like to know if the Cool "n" Quite feature offered by the Athlon64
and the used with the K8VSE Deluxe motherbard is any good. Will I take a
performance hit using it? I am using a Althon64 3200 with 1G mem and Win XP
Pro.

TIA
 
Johnny B. said:
I would like to know if the Cool "n" Quite feature offered by the Athlon64
and the used with the K8VSE Deluxe motherbard is any good. Will I take a
performance hit using it? I am using a Althon64 3200 with 1G mem and Win XP
Pro.
Click to expand...

I turned on the cool-n-quiet on my k8v-se-d just for grins. After
saving the settings for cool-n-quiet, I returned to the bios setup and
watched the temperatures and fan RPM via the hardware monitor page.
Over the course of a minute of two the bios slowly turned the CPU
fan's RPM down lower and lower till the fan finally stopped. The CPU
temperature naturally sky-rocketed well past 50 degrees C. I quickly
turned the cool-n-quiet off, saved the settings and then entered the
bios again to watch the temperature drop to normal levels. Something
is clearly wrong with their BIOS software. If you turn it on I'd be
very careful and watch that it doesn't misbehave. You don't want to
fry an expensive CPU.

-wolfgang
 
I would like to know if the Cool "n" Quite feature offered by the
Athlon64
I turned on the cool-n-quiet on my k8v-se-d just for grins. After
saving the settings for cool-n-quiet, I returned to the bios setup and
watched the temperatures and fan RPM via the hardware monitor page.
Over the course of a minute of two the bios slowly turned the CPU
fan's RPM down lower and lower till the fan finally stopped. The CPU
temperature naturally sky-rocketed well past 50 degrees C. I quickly
turned the cool-n-quiet off, saved the settings and then entered the
bios again to watch the temperature drop to normal levels. Something
is clearly wrong with their BIOS software. If you turn it on I'd be
very careful and watch that it doesn't misbehave. You don't want to
fry an expensive CPU.
Click to expand...

I don't know the K8VSE Deluxe. I am using a K8V Deluxe and an Athlon 64
3000+. Cool 'n Quiet is running without any problems. The CPU fan only runs
when needed. When CPU temperature rises to about 52 degrees Celsius, CPU fan
starts running and stops, when CPU temperature goes down to about 46 degrees
(shown by Asus Probe).

Siegfried
 
Hi Johnny,
C"n"Q works perfectly for me. I have exactly the same MB/cpu/memory as
yourself. When not gaming (UT2004) it kicks in unoticeably. At the moment
it's running at 1000mhz, voltage 1.074. ASUS probe gives me a cpu of
27degrees, mb 24degrees, this with an ambient temperature of 21degrees.
When online gaming C"n"Q quits giving exellent performance. UT2004 gives me
100+fps with all settings maxed out. CPU temps rise to 40-43 degrees, mb
possibly 30degrees. When C"n"Q does kick in there is no noticeable drop in
performance. All day to day operations still appear to be instantaneous and
I have to click the icon to see it is in fact in operation.
Since building I have flashed the bios to 1002.006 dated 4/14/2004.
Cool "n" Quiet is, for me, the best thing since CSI (get'em Grissom).
HTH
Dave
 
Yes, the temperature does rise up to about 52C before the fans cut in - It
scared me a bit when I first tried it.
But providing it does not go higher - i.e. C&Q is working, then everything
should be reliable.
If you don't like the idea of the fans not cutting in until 52C or so, then
simply disable the Q-Fan thingy and let the fan run continuously. This
should make the CPU temperature plummet downwards during idle.
I have not noticed any performance degradation with C&Q, although I suspect
that there probably is a tiny bit when you first start a demanding program
and ithe ciruits have to "ramp up" to full voltage and speed.
I particularly like the fact that the power is reduced so much during C&Q
operation - This should improve the reliability of the power supply circuits
on the motherboard as well as the ATX Power Supply.
- Steve
 
Steve said:
I particularly like the fact that the power is reduced so much during C&Q
operation - This should improve the reliability of the power supply
circuits on the motherboard as well as the ATX Power Supply.
Click to expand...

Conversely, the heat cycling of the components could make them less
reliable. Anecdotal evidence, as well as various studies, have shown that
it is lots of changes in temperature that causes many problems, rather than
constant "high" temperature. The thermal cycling causes the components to
expand and contract, which, over time, damages them. Also, connectors can
creep when exposed to thermal cycling.

Ben
 
Yes - that's certainly a valid way of looking at it, Ben!
But bearing in mind that semiconductor reliability decreases exponentially
with temperature - and also the fact that my own system stabilises nicely in
the "cool" mode most of the time the way I use it - I think that I prefer to
use the C&Q rather than not.
The variation in temperature of the power supply components is reduced if it
incorporates a temperature controlled fan.
Another point is that most of the failures I have experienced with PCs are
related to fan failure, particularly smaller ones like chipset or CPU fans.
They go noisy then seize up. I therefore like the idea of running the CPU
fan only occasionally, which is what happens in my own system.
On the other hand, I used to set my system to spin down it's hard drives
whenever they had not been used for a while. I have stopped doing this, as I
get the feeling that regular contact start/stop cycles are probably more
detrimental than leaving the fluid bearings spinning...

- Steve
 
Ben said:
Conversely, the heat cycling of the components could make them less
reliable. Anecdotal evidence, as well as various studies, have shown that
it is lots of changes in temperature that causes many problems, rather than
constant "high" temperature. The thermal cycling causes the components to
expand and contract, which, over time, damages them. Also, connectors can
creep when exposed to thermal cycling.

Ben
Click to expand...

wise words oh holy one...
Just how long have Ben POPE for?
 
Steve said:
Yes - that's certainly a valid way of looking at it, Ben!
But bearing in mind that semiconductor reliability decreases exponentially
with temperature - and also the fact that my own system stabilises nicely
in the "cool" mode most of the time the way I use it - I think that I
prefer to use the C&Q rather than not.
Click to expand...

Indeed... I was thinking more along the lines of the discrete components
like capacitors - especially on the CPU voltage regulation side of things.
The variation in temperature of the power supply components is reduced if
it incorporates a temperature controlled fan.
Another point is that most of the failures I have experienced with PCs are
related to fan failure, particularly smaller ones like chipset or CPU
fans. They go noisy then seize up. I therefore like the idea of running
the CPU fan only occasionally, which is what happens in my own system.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.
On the other hand, I used to set my system to spin down it's hard drives
whenever they had not been used for a while. I have stopped doing this,
as I get the feeling that regular contact start/stop cycles are probably
more detrimental than leaving the fluid bearings spinning...
Click to expand...

The specs usually say how many start/stop cycles the drive can handle... It
is true that spinning hard drives up is one of the most strenuous activities
the drive can do, leaving them running is not a bad idea.

Ben
 
wise words oh holy one...
Just how long have Ben POPE for?
Click to expand...

I guess he can be Pope as long as he doesn't break any cardinal
rules...

Kevin Miller

"Either way, it is bad for Zathras."
 
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