Soyo overly sensitive to overheating? HELP!

I recently (April) purchased a new Dragon Ultra Platinum KT600 MB. I know
this board is two years old, but I needed a new MB when my old ASUS died,
and got a great deal on it at a local suppliers' closeout sale.

I bought the fastest CPU the board supports, an Athlon XP 3200+, and a good
*solid copper* heatsink. But if I run the processor at full speed, after
just a few hours, the computer spontaneously crashes.

I replaced the fan that came with the sink with one twice as large (was
60mm square by just 10mm high. Replaced it with one 20mm high), and added
two case fans. This dropped my die/case temperatures by almost 8'C <!!!>,
but the crashing persists (usually when the cpu tops 51'C).

The ONLY way to stabilize the computer is to run my processor at a lower-
than-rated speed (changing the settings in BIOS so it thinks it is a 2500
+). When I do, the computer runs cooler and 100% stable.

Before you ask, yes I checked the processor. It is indeed an authentic AMD
Athlon XP 3200+.

The procesor and MB should both tolerate much higher temps (at least into
the mid 60'C range), so I'm at a loss to understand why I crash at just
50'. I didn't spend the extra money on a 3200+ processor just to run it at
2500+. Please help!

--
-*- Bubba -*-

Ever consider it might be the Power Supply? Just a thought...
"Bubba Gump" <a DeleteThis @b.com> wrote in message
news:Xns969FD1B61BB7Eabcom@216.168.3.50...
>I recently (April) purchased a new Dragon Ultra Platinum KT600 MB. I know
> this board is two years old, but I needed a new MB when my old ASUS died,
> and got a great deal on it at a local suppliers' closeout sale.
>
> I bought the fastest CPU the board supports, an Athlon XP 3200+, and a
> good
> *solid copper* heatsink. But if I run the processor at full speed, after
> just a few hours, the computer spontaneously crashes.
>
> I replaced the fan that came with the sink with one twice as large (was
> 60mm square by just 10mm high. Replaced it with one 20mm high), and added
> two case fans. This dropped my die/case temperatures by almost 8'C <!!!>,
> but the crashing persists (usually when the cpu tops 51'C).
>
> The ONLY way to stabilize the computer is to run my processor at a lower-
> than-rated speed (changing the settings in BIOS so it thinks it is a 2500
> +). When I do, the computer runs cooler and 100% stable.
>
> Before you ask, yes I checked the processor. It is indeed an authentic AMD
> Athlon XP 3200+.
>
> The procesor and MB should both tolerate much higher temps (at least into
> the mid 60'C range), so I'm at a loss to understand why I crash at just
> 50'. I didn't spend the extra money on a 3200+ processor just to run it at
> 2500+. Please help!
>
> --
> -*- Bubba -*-