AMD FX-8120 temperatures

I am using AMD FX-8120 processor in my computer. At an idle state, the temperature lies in range of 35 to 40 degree Celsius. When I ran Prime95 on my computer, I found that the temperature rose to 61 degree Celsius within ten minutes. This test was done with side panel of my CPU cabinet open and it was running on stock clock. I am using two cooling fans of size 120 mm and a heatsink in my computer. I have updated the BIOS of my motherboard and no socket on the motherboard is found to be overheating. I have also replaced the thermal paste used in heatsink, but still the rise in temperature continues.

Temperature of internal parts of a computer also depends on the ambient temperatures. If the temperature of the environment in which it is placed is more, then it will also affect the temperatures of the internal parts. The place in which I live has the ambient temperature above 30 degree Celsius in day. I use AMD Phenom II X4 955 on stock speed and at idle state with normal clock speeds, the temperature is 42 degree Celsius. When I run a high end game like Rage in it, the temperature rises up to 70 to 80 degree Celsius. To keep this in control, I am using three heatsinks in my computer with two 240 mm cooling fans. I have provided a good airflow to my system. You too can provide a good air flow, if your CPU is placed in closed area, then move it to an open area. But the temperature rise in such short time, that is, ten minutes is worth observing.

I have seen such problems occurring in many systems due to oversupply of electricity to the motherboard. Every motherboard has certain capacity to take in power. Even if you provide more than the specified value, it will cause problems like in your case overheating. You can try limiting the power intake of your motherboard to a certain limit. This will reduce the temperature as the power will be supplied as per the need of a peripheral. The stock voltage set by the manufacturer is an standard value setup. It is applicable in certain regions while in certain not. Since you are using and AMD processor, it will have an feature by name ‘AMD Application Power Management’. If you limit the voltage intake via BIOS, then many times certain activities and tasks might get restricted due to insufficient power supply. To cover this problem, AMD Application Power Management will dynamically change the power consumption and distribution over the system as per the need arises. The working of this feature depends on the number of threads running simultaneously in the processor.

Another method to limit the voltage consumption via BIOS without depriving any task or activity of enough power is by overclocking the processor. Overclocking will give more headroom to have large voltage without compromising other features. I also suggest you to take a look at DIGI+ VRM BIOS settings as it will provide more advanced options for controlling the voltage in your system. It provides options for scheduling power supply at certain times which you know you will be running some heavy power consuming process.