RT-AC88U - can it run too cool?

[harry555]

bit of a strange question I know but had several occurrences where I've had to turn my ASUS RT-AC88U AC3100 off when really hot and the 2.4 & 5 GHz Wifi lights go off, I assumed it was the 5GHz overheating and bringing the box down!

so starting with temperatures 2.4Ghz=50, 5GHz=54, CPU=77 C, I placed it on top of a 6 fan laptop cooler - as you can see from the screenshot, within about 30 mins, there's a massive drop. They've pretty much levelled off now but got me thinking though, is it ok for the Router to run at these temperatures? - will it cause any problems does anyone know?

thanks

 

[RMerlin]

Low temperatures won't cause any problem.

 

[harry555]

Low temperatures won't cause any problem.

thanks for that, would you suggest keeping it on all the time or only when it's getting too hot? most of the time it's fine!

 

[TonyH]

thanks for that, would you suggest keeping it on all the time or only when it's getting too hot? most of the time it's fine!

It may run little faster. In my working days with main frame large scale system, when temp dropped to near freezing due to HVAC failure, system ran noticeably faster, LOL! Think super conductor......

 

[ColinTaylor]

thanks for that, would you suggest keeping it on all the time or only when it's getting too hot? most of the time it's fine!

Although not particularly relevant to the internal die temperature of chips, repeated large changes in temperature will stress components and are likely to accelerate their failure. The best thing would be for everything to maintain a constant temperature within it's normal operating window.

It may run little faster. In my working days with main frame large scale system, when temp dropped to near freezing due to HVAC failure, system ran noticeably faster, LOL! Think super conductor......

That's pretty old school. I doubt the same would apply here though. Everything in the router is tightly synchronised with everything else, from CPU to memory access to bus speed etc. and it's all derived from a PLL clock. If the RAM started to go "faster" even by a single clock cycle there's be errors all over the place.

 

[TonyH]

[QUOTE="ColinTaylor, post: itated large changerises in temperature will stress components and are likely to accelerate their failure. The best thing would be for everything to maintain a constant temperature within it's normal operating window.


That's pretty old school. I doubt the same would apply here though. Everything in the router is tightly synchronised with everything else, from CPU to memory access to bus speed etc. and it's all derived from a PLL clock. If the RAM started to go "faster" even by a single clock cycle there's be errors all over the place.[/QUOTE]

Not only components, all the conductor resistance decreases which means electrons start moving across faster at every P-N junctions..... Old school, new school, basic theory still sticks. Then I wrote a little script in machine code executing certain instructions like 25,000 cycles. When cold it took definitely less time (measure in fraction of seconds) Leading edge of logic pulses looked more square when multi channel logic tracer storage scope was connected, LOL. I retired at turn of century.....

Speaking of PLL, reference Xtal should be in temperature regulated oven to maintain accuracy.
Even my little HAM radio tranceiver has a Xtal oven as an option for frequency accuracy. It runs pretty warm, almost hot.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Another thing to consider running that fan. You will be sucking in a ton of dust that could possibly force thermal issues down the road.

My 3100 gets hot as well 73 cpu most times. In the summer with no AC on it gets much warmer. I have never had a issue or think twice about it.

 

[savagepagan]

Part of the problem is that the ventilation sucks. Look at some of the Linksys routers and it seems half of the router case( top and bottom) is ventilated. My AC3100 has just a tiny vent on the top to let out heat. It's winter and my home is at 20C and my cpu is at 70C. Imagine in summer when my home gets to 27C.

 

[sfx2000]

bit of a strange question I know but had several occurrences where I've had to turn my ASUS RT-AC88U AC3100 off when really hot and the 2.4 & 5 GHz Wifi lights go off, I assumed it was the 5GHz overheating and bringing the box down!

so starting with temperatures 2.4Ghz=50, 5GHz=54, CPU=77 C, I placed it on top of a 6 fan laptop cooler - as you can see from the screenshot, within about 30 mins, there's a massive drop. They've pretty much levelled off now but got me thinking though, is it ok for the Router to run at these temperatures? - will it cause any problems does anyone know?

What makes you think it's too hot?

Seriously... 77c isn't very hot for the chips, I've seen several Broadcom products on the 40nm node run fine at 80c...