High temperature on AMD Athlon XP 2400+

Environment: I've a AMD Athlon XP 2400+, MSI MS-6390 motherboard, 1.5 GB Transcend RAM (2 DIMMs-1 GB, 512 MB (400 Mhz), 3 Seagate HDDs - 40 GB, 80 GB, 160GB, Graphics card: nVidia GeForce 6200 AGP card, Chassis: Mercury KOB 146 with 450W PS, 1 processor fan (default), 3 system fans 1 for inlet, 1 for outlet, 1 to cool HDDs, 1 Liteon DVD drive. Ag. room temperature: 28 C(approx. 82.4 F).

Issue: On comp startup (in BIOS) the CPU temperature is around 53 C(127.4 F. But on complete boot and at the desktop the temp is around 65 C(149 F). If any game like NFS UG2 is played at lowest details then the tempearture can go upto 70 C(158 F). The GPU temp at normal desktop is around 48 C(118.4 F), after the game is played the temp goes upto 56 C(132.8 F).

Question: What can be done to reduce the temperature both of the CPU and GPU? Any idea is welcome suggestion!!! Please help

I have an Athlon XP 2800+ probably the hottest Athlon XP made. I have always has a problem keeping it cool. Even with Zalman copper CPU cooler and 6 case fans I barely manage to keep the CPU between 45-50C. I have 3 hard drives and 2 CD/DVD drives. I have a nVidia FX5900 which runs about 50C idle. It's main problem is that it is a rather long card which tends to block a lot of air flow.

For economic reasons I have been letting my room temperature run 22-28C but I know that when the room temperature approaches 28C my CPU temperature will sometimes jump to in the range of 55-60C or more causing it to crash the computer.

You could go the same route but the biggest thing you could do right now is keep your computer room temperature a lot cooler. No matter how good you cool your computer components a high room temperature will defeat your efforts. You might also check the inside of your case to make sure nothing is blocking the air flow and any case fans are working properly.

Well you are correct i do keep the Room fan on to maintain a ambient temp in the room but thats the best i can do abt the room temp. Anyother suggestion ?

Two things you can try
1/ Reapply some ArcticSilver compound (clean off 1st)

2/ You can lapp the heatsink...the flatter...the better contact...the cooler.

My stock AMD 64 3700+ HS was out .007 (seven thousands of an inch)
When I first set it up I just wanted to make sure it ran fine...well I left it for a while.
After a few weeks I lapped the HS and seen a 4*-5* cel drop in temps

firstly perhaps, some comments from ... AMD Athlon™ System Cooling Guidelines .. which is a pdf file btw

If you are using a full-tower or mid-tower case, you need to be aware of the characteristics of the power supply you use. First, only use a power supply that is on the AMD Athlon Processor Recommended Power Supply list ... (?!!) ... Second, for best results use a power supply with venting in the processor region - that means primary air-intake is on the bottom of the power supply, not the front of the power supply

Use an auxiliary exhaust rear chassis fan, suggested size of 80 millimeters or larger. The fan intake should be near the location of the processor

Make sure all the internal wires and cables are routed carefully so as to not block or hinder airflow through the case. Use tie-wraps judiciously to accomplish this

A front cooling fan does not seem to be essential. In fact, in some extreme situations, testing showed these fans to be recirculating hot air rather than introducing cool air
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i have an athlon xp 2400+, and recently suffered auto shut-downs/restarts .. after downloading SpeedFan (which i've now got neatly auto-loading via StartUp, and minimised into the notification area) i noticed CPU temps in the 60s, and up to 69 degrees C with heavy load .. in the end i took off the CPU grill and fan and found the heatsink to be CAKED in dust .. with fingers, cotton buds, small brush (using an anti-static wrist strap) i cleaned it out, with the fan, and now my CPU runs mainly between 52-55 degrees C, ie a temp drop of around 10 degrees .. but i still don't know what temp it should be running at

as for GPU, i don't have one, so .. PCI fan? .. thin/round IDE cables?