CPU Vcore - advice needed

[Trotterwatch]

At the moment I am running the machine below, which for further detail is:

900mhz Original Thunderbird Non O/C 9x100mhz multiplier
250w PSU (yeah rubbish I know)
Jetway 663A Motherboard with latest Bios (not as bad a motherboard as you would think, given me very little trouble)
CPU Heatsink and Fan that runs at 5500RPM
1 Additional case fan running at 3000 RPMs
GF3 Ti200

Now the problem is at the moment it is extremely hot and humid here in England, as such the computer is overheating too much as high as 70C last night at the very peak where the ambient heat was unbearably high.

Normally it will go to 55C Max, usually 51C.

Anyways this got me round to thinking of ways I can save a little bit of power, and heat and so I went about:

Cleaning out my case of all dust
I rearranged the cables for better airflow
Removed an AMR Card that had been in my computer since purchase, but never used

Finally I noticed my CPU Vcore was running at 1.78v which seems to me to be slightly too high for an Athlon 900mhz. Anyone know what the recommended CPU Vcore level is for this type of processor?

At the moment it is running at 1.76v without any noticible problems.

I know I could do a pretty simple upgrade of fan/psu etc but that costs money of which I don't want to waste as I will be moving Country soon if all goes to plan, and my computer won't be coming with me (my GF has a better one anyway )

 

[Kaoss626]

this is by no means the same thing as reading what the voltage should be out of the specs provided by AMD

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/overclockingamd/

but its looking like 1.65 to 1.85 is acceptable. with around 1.75 being the nominal.

Personally I'm an overclocker so I go with whatever works. I crank it up a notch and the crank up the speed till it wont go any further and then back off a little bit.

If you were really worried about the heat, you could....... keep reducing the voltage untill it keeps crashing. Then raise the voltage above the new lower voltage untill you can run stable 100% full load for a couple hours. This ought to extend processor life, cool your machine down, conserve energy and other good stuff.

 

[Allnatural]

1.75v is what that Athlon should use, so 1.76 to 1.78 shouldn't be a problem. The heat is an oddity though. I had an old 1GHz Athlon overclocked to 1.33GHZ and running on 1.85v. It never got that hot; about 46C max in the summer. I've seen much evidence though (all anecdotal) that Athlons can run as hot as 90C for short periods without problems. Perhaps you have a sensor that's not reporting the correct temperature. Whatever the case, if you'll be discarding the computer soon anyway I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Trotterwatch]

Thank you both for your replies- as an experiment I have lowered the Vcore to 1.71v (no problems yet).

I think there is some sort of sensor issue here, as once before a BIOS update it used to report 40-50 max, whereas after I am almost certain the low and high temps raised by around 10C.

If I get time during the week I may also remove my heatsink and reapply some thermal conductor - as it has gone for quite some time without a removal and reapplication.