How hot can my PC run before I should worry?

[roccenstein]

OK, here's the speedfan reading I just did...

As for my system, I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600, 4gb ram, win XP pro, Nvidia 8400 GS graphics card, and a Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 AM2 NFORCE 570 mobo.

I have a good size case, so it's not like everything's crammed in with no room to breathe.  My processor has a fan mounted on top of a heatsink on top of it, and I have three other case fans, one 4 1/2 inch and 2 3 inch, so I should have adequate cooling.  The case itself is clean, no excess dust, etc., and none of the fans are blocked.  The only thing I can think of is if the fan over the processor is gunked up with dustbunnies.   I've had the computer a little less than a year, so I haven't taken things apart for any kind of thorough cleaning.  It looks like the processor fan is only held in place by two clips though, so I'd imagine it wouldn't hurt anything to pop it off, right?

Also, I noticed it only lists one fan, which I'm assuming is the one mounted over the processor, and why does it show two different core temperatures?

[Dias de verano]

You have to configure it. Read the documentation on the website.

[roccenstein]

Maybe I'm just not knowledgeable enough to figure it out, but I looked on the website and didn't see any information for configuring it.

[Eg0Death]

If you share more information about your hardware specifications it will make helping you much easier. 

Do you perchance have a dual core CPU?  Is anything overclocked?  Is this a custom built PC or is it stock from a manufacturer? 

If you clean out the fan and the heat sync over the CPU and it still runs hot (but is not overclocked) the thermal paste between the heat sync and the CPU may be an issue.  If low quality/not enough paste was used it may need to be replaced.

I could add a bunch of potential issues but without more info they would be speculation.

[Dias de verano]

OK. See here

http://www.overclockers.com/articles1165/

[roccenstein]

Yeah, I do have a dual core cpu.  Nothing is overclocked, as far as I know. 
I put most of my system specs in the post with the speedfan results. 

I guess my system would qualify as custom built, I bought it from cyberpowerpc.com. 

Any other specs you need that I'm forgetting?

[Eg0Death]

I just see a white box with a red X where your speedfan results are posted. 

I strongly suspect that 2 core temps are displayed because the dual core CPU has 2 cores . . .

Is the system builder local to you or did you just find them online?  If they are local that makes harassing contacting them much easier.  You might ask if any other customers have complained about hot CPUs.  The manufacturer may have gotten hold of a bad batch of thermal paste or it could have been assembled by a crummy employee. 

[roccenstein]

Well. if that DID turn out to be the problem, is it something that is fairly easy to fix?  I have experience installing drives and graphics cards, etc, but have never done anything like installing a cpu.

[Dias de verano]

60-63 is by no means too hot for the 4600. As per AMD's website your 4600 temperature ranges are 55C - 70C although Cpuworld says max operating temperature 55 - 72. The cores will always read different from each other. This is 100% normal. Core 1 usually hotter.

[roccenstein]

Well that's good to hear.  Thanks!