Should my CPU be running this hot?

W

Wolfdale75

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
133
Hi Guys,

I've got an Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 running at the stock speed of 3.33GHz, i.e. nothing is overclocked.

On idle and a newly-switched-on PC, the BIOS reports that the CPU is running at 54 degrees.

That seems pretty hot to me for an idle CPU. I would have expected 39-41 degrees.

I'm worried my CPU is going to overheat when I play graphic-intensive games like Mafia II.

Recently I had to reinstall the giant CPU heatsink on a new mobo. Instead of applying new Arctic Silver, I just used the coating that was already on the CPU/heatsink. It looked sufficient enough. Do you think that was my mistake?

Thanks for your good advice. Cheers!
 
Wolfdale75 said:
Recently I had to reinstall the giant CPU heatsink on a new mobo. Instead of applying new Arctic Silver, I just used the coating that was already on the CPU/heatsink. It looked sufficient enough. Do you think that was my mistake?
Click to expand...
Yes. I'm certain that was your mistake.Whenever you remove your heatsink, you re-apply paste, otherwise it's not going to work very well (as you have discovered).

I had an E8500 @ 3.16 that would idle in the 30s C.
 
Don't worry about temps in the BIOS (where power-saving features are not active), or idle temps. Get RealTemp or CoreTemp and check the temperature under load.
 
If the HSF (heatsink/fan) is the stock cooler for your processor reach in and see if you can pull any of the twist clips straight up. If you can, you didn't have the HSF seated well.
 
Thanks guys.

So I reinstalled the heatsink (aftermarket, not stock) and cleaned off the old arctic silver and applied new arctic silver.
Rebooted.
Bang, the BIOS still says the CPU temp is 54 degrees.

Downloaded CoreTemp and RealTemp (from memory) - both say the idle temp is 25 degrees.

I guess the BIOS is lying to me somehow?
 
Bios isn't always right, I had a mobo that would say the chipset was about 3 degrees above room temperature, but if you actually touched the chipset heatsink you would know that the bios was wrong.
 
Bios isn't lying, its just when the system boots its at top VID, top multi, max just about everything. Once in OS the energy saving features come on.
 
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