Question regarding different core temps on C2D chips

[Evoic]

If the cores randomly read a difference of up to 5 degrees, is that any cause for concern?

It is a fairly rare occurrence, but every once in a while - I spot the temps on each core showing up with as much as a 5 degree difference.

One will be 30c, the other will be 30, 31, 32c......always within a degree or two......

And then for 2 seconds, it will read 31c on the first core, 36c on the second.

Is this common?

Any cause for alarm?

Like I said - it's rare, but still a bit peculiar to me, so I thought I would ask the experts.

Thanks!

 

[SentToSchool]

No, it's normal. Windows give different loads to each core.

There really should be a sticky on this topic. A lot of people have asked the same question.

 

[Evoic]

Sorry for the redundancy.

You know how it goes though......

As soon as someone (me) has a burning internet forum question, we jump right online and post away as if it were the only time it's ever happened to anyone in the history of personal computing.

My apologies and thanks for the answer.

 

[SentToSchool]

I know how it is. Don't worry, I wasn't directing anything to you. I am just saying that it's useful to sticky something like this.

 

[Evoic]

I did happen to recently read that someone RMA'd a chip because of a 4 degree fluctuation between cores, which - according to this person - falls under Intel's guidelines of a reason to replace.

Seems odd to me.

 

[BillParrish]

"someone"' and there are a lot of them out there, dont know jack.

 

[Terc]

So far, I got a very bad chip, probably defective with L707A323 as batch. Impossible to reach 3.0 GHz at stock voltage and even at stock speed/stock voltage, it's a bit unstable with OCCT crashing 1 in 3 runs It also managed to fry my RAM and my 120 Gb hard disk while running this... I know my motherboard and the rest is ok since my E4300 on the same setup can go up to 3.6 GHz at 1.54v with no issues (9x400).

I'm setting up a RMA with my online store.

What the hell would a "CPU swap" have to do with the health of someone's hard drive?
Operating System...maybe. Hard drive lifespan - not remotely.

My own topic at http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1192608 sum pretty well the issues. I may be able to RMA the chip solely on the basis that the 2 core temps vary between 3 and 6 degrees I believe it's a badly assembled IHS causing partial contact.

I put back my E4300 now and things is back to normal beside the dead FireStix and WD 120 Gb

I wonder who it could have been that Evoic saw....

Oh, and has ANYONE EVER heard of "frying" a hard drive, or for that matter, RAM because of a bad cpu?

Also interesting:
He'd mentioned here http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1031074728&postcount=1 that he raised vcore to 1.6v, FSB to 1.6v and MCH to 1.4v. Unfortunately, he didn't mention what ridiculous voltage he must have pumped through his [now dead] RAM....

These are the people that make others weary of overclocking... They all want people to hear how it "ruined" their computer.... and how it's just "so hard"

 

[Xilikon]

I did happen to recently read that someone RMA'd a chip because of a 4 degree fluctuation between cores, which - according to this person - falls under Intel's guidelines of a reason to replace.

Seems odd to me.

That's what the store said, not Intel since I can get a refund within 15 days of purchase. I don't know what Intel would say honestly so YMMV The store technician also noticed it's pretty unstable at stock speed/voltage so I have some ground anyway.

However, core temp differences by itself may be normal as long as it's running stable. I have a total of almost 30 C2D machines and I did check all of them with CoreTemp and only 2-3 out of them reached over 3C difference. Most of them is always within 1-3C top.

Terc : You may have missed a post where I said the harddisk is fine, only a broken SATA cable. I may have broken on it by accident while I pulled the motherboard tray. For the RAM, I didn't even touch the voltage and it ran at 2.2v and it's a different issue. The D975XBX2 board has a tendency to kill ram so do a search on google for it. There are many reports in http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=124131 and most of them, me included think the board will overvolt briefly to allow ram who can't be booted at 1.84v with higher fsb/tighter timings. Someone with a DMM noticed a surge to 3v briefly at boot, which can kill. I'm simply pissed off to have issues with a stupid defective CPU when I should have ignored it and kept my E4300.