Are these CPU temps normal?

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digimax

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 6, 2005
Messages
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I just put together a new gaming rig a few days ago. See signatures for specs. I want to overclock my q6600 G0, but current temps are keeping me from doing it. I have installed Speedfan 4.33 and it's reporting 58c on CPU with 41c across all 4 cores @ idle. That seems kind of high considering it's @ idle and has a Thermalright Ultima - 90 Heatsink with a 92mm Panaflo fan running at close to 3k rpms. Case is a Cooler master Cavalier 1 with an 80x80x20 Front Intake fan and a 120x120x25 Rear Exhaust fan.

I removed the the heatsink and made sure I didn't put too much thermal paste. I removed some of it and reinstalled the heatsink with the fan. But it made almost no difference and temperature increased 3c more to the 58c I posted above. I thought maybe I installed it incorrectly but I think everything is in place. The Panaflo fan is pulling air from the front of the case into the heatsink and out the rear exhaust fan. I removed the side panel and put my hand next to the heatsink. Air feels cool. With the side panel removed, temps go down to 51 on the CPU. I put the panel back on and played a couple of 1080p movie trailers from the apple website at the same time to bring cpu load to 50%. CPU temperature rose to 70c.

What could be wrong? Are these temps normal? Could it be that Speedfan is inacurate? Any suggestions on what could be causing this or how to fix it? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

By the way I'm a newbie when it comes to overclocking and I'm just trying to resolve this issue before I start messing around with the BIOS settings.
 
When you removed the thermal paste, did you fully clean your CPU and heatsink and reapplied it? What paste you using?
 
I used the thermal paste that came with the heatsink. When I removed the heatsink, I wiped it off completely off the heat sink and wiped it slightly off the cpu leaving a very extreme thin layer of paste almost invisible. I did not re-applied more paste into it. Is there another temp monitoring program available other than speedfan and coretemp? I couldn't get coretemp to run in vista 64.
 
I installed Everest Ultimate Edition. The readings are almost the same as Speedfan readings. I went ahead and removed the heatsink once again and cleaned both, bottom of hs and cpu surface with rubbing alcohol. I then re-applied thermal paste following instructions from a youtube video. I reinstalled everything and now the temps went down from 60c average to 51c average on the CPU and across all cores @ idle. Still not good enough. However, while I had the hs out of the computer, I placed a ruler on the sufrace of the heatsink to check for flatness consistensy and noticed that it's not completly flat. It's slightly curbed with a gap of just under 1mm on each side when the ruler is touching the center of the heatsink surface. Could this be the cause of my problems? If so, can it be fixed, or do I have to send it back for replacement?

By the way, what kind of readings should I be getting at idle and stock cpu speed with my setup?
 
yea you might have to send it back or shave it down. About the stock heatsink, my stock idle was at 38c-41c core1-core4 and load at 61c. Try to send it back, or else get another HSF that has a better surface. I just replaced my stock HSF, and now im hitting idle temps at 31c-33c and load at 48-49c.


EDITED: before doing all of this try using a better paste. Get artic silver 5. If you cant, or it does not work get back to me.
 
good luck, and when applying the AS5 apply a thin line about the thickness of 2 credit cards above the cores. Parallel to the socket clamp. So you got the 680i mobo, when you lay you comp down apply from left to right. Again, with AS5 you only need a little bit, so try to apply a straight equally thin line above the cores. let us know how it goes.
 
Those temps are definitely out of spec for a stock quad core with that cooler. Make sure your retention mechanism is properly installed and tightened.

If it uses screws, make sure to tighten one screw at a time slightly moving in an alternating fashion until they are all fully tight.

This ensures equal pressure across the base.
 
That's kind of warm for a G0, my B3 idles around that using a Tuniq Tower 120 (reapplied paste, lapped IHS and heatsink, reseated the heatsink 5-7 times, I've done everything to get these temperatures down but nothing works)

The stock Intel heatsink isn't exactly a wonderment of engineering when it comes to a quad core. That's a lot of heat for such a little piece of metal.
 
Well if this doesn't work, I'll probably make the jump straight to water cooling. We'll see. I'm at work right now, but when I get off, I'm going to stop by Autozone and get some sanding paper. I'll post up the results.
 
Just to be clear. The 41C per core temperature at idle is only slightly warm for the CPU. The 58C temp being reported by Speedfan is from a different diode. I would caution you to install a different monitoring app (my personal favorite is ntune w/ nvmonitor) and confirm your temps first.
 
I've installed Everest Ultimate Edition. It's just the trial version, but I was thinking about puchasing a licence key. I'll definately check out Ntune and try it out.
 
I have my Q6600 G0 stepping running at 3.0GHz and under full load I get temps of about 34C - using a Scythe cooler (the big one) and a single fan. I think you need to put more thermal paste on that HSF - every time I try to apply a thin layer like everyone seems to suggest I have trouble. Like Kyle once said, put on just enough and then double it. I think thats what he said anyhow! If the HSF has a good snug fit it'll squash out the excess.
 
I finished lapping my HS and reinstalled with a thin layer of AS5. Temperatures went down, but seem kind of inconsistent between Everest and Speedfan. With Everest I get 56C average for CPU @ full load. Cores 1 - 4 I get 62, 59, 57, 59 average. But with Speedfan I get 60c for CPU and for the cores I get 51, 47, 44, 50 average at full load as well.

Temps are still kind of high but not near the 75c+ I was getting before at full load. I'll install nTune later to see what kind of readings I get there. But it seems I might have to try a different cooling solution. I wish I could pin point the problem here though. I tried putting very little paste and then re doing it by cleaning HS and CPU with rubbing alcohol and try larger amount of paste. The larger the amount I put, the better readings I get. So I might try re doing it with more and see what happens.

Does anybody know of a popular liquid cooling solution that is easy to install in a mid tower case?
 
how are you putting the paste on? Also, those load temps are not to bad. My load temp jumps from 48-50c. Oh, and whats the speed of your cpu fan? You have the 680i mobo, go into bios and switch the fan control to manual. Set it to 100.

What about airflow in your case?
 
Temps are not bad, but I haven't overclocked my q6600 yet. I put a bit of AS5 on the HS and spread it evenly on the HS with a plastic bag over my finger. Prior to this, I cleaned CPU and HS base with rubbing alcohol. Fan is running @ 2900rpms. Not sure about airflow with my current case. It's a Cooler Master Cavalier 1. It has an 80mm intake fan at the bottom front and a 120mm exhaust fan in the back. I have a 92mm Panaflo H1A pulling air from the front of the case, into the HS and out to the exhaust fan.
 
You just have the same problem I have -- you did everything right, but your temps are above normal. I'd just leave it be or sell it for a cooler chip, I'm certain that's what's wrong with my Quad.
 
the only thing i can think of for you is...
1. Replacing the HSF with the stock. see if the temps are better or worse. If your temps with the Stock HSF are around 42c (give or take a few degrees) on idle, and 65c load (max), then thats normal for the stock HSF (at least for me it was). If this is the case, you may need to replace the ultima 90. Try it.
2. Have your pannle open durring the test. That case has poor airflow.
 
digimax said:
I finished lapping my HS and reinstalled with a thin layer of AS5. Temperatures went down, but seem kind of inconsistent between Everest and Speedfan. With Everest I get 56C average for CPU @ full load. Cores 1 - 4 I get 62, 59, 57, 59 average. But with Speedfan I get 60c for CPU and for the cores I get 51, 47, 44, 50 average at full load as well.
Click to expand...

Those temps are really, really high for stock CPU speeds. I only hit those temps at 3.4ghz on my g0 Q6600, but I use Core Temp for my temp readings.
 
I think I'm just going to leave it like that for the time being. I'll upgrade other parts in the mean time and then get back to this issue in the future. Thanks to everyone for the help.
 
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