Temperature: Fans, Thermal Paste, Both?

Scott Sullivan

Honorable
Apr 18, 2013
34
0
10,530
I'm running:
CM Storm Scout 2 Advanced
Gigabyte 7ZZX-D3H Mobo
Corsair GS 700W PSU
Sapphire Radeon 7950 HD
8GB (4x2) Corsair Vengeance Memory
Cooler Master 212 Evo Fan
Intel i5 3570k Processory (3.4 GHz)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Seagate Barracuda 500GB HDD

My case comes with 2 Intake fans in the bottom front panel of the case and 1 Exhaust fan in the top back of the case.

However, the case comes with a rather large open vent in the top (space for 2 Fans) and large 'grill/wide mesh' on the side for another two fans.

I was wondering if installing a second exhaust fan on the top (to create a balanced intake/exhaust) would be beneficial?

My Idle Temps, in a room around 13C are roughly CPU 30/GPU 24 C. Which is a bit more/less (respectively) than twice the ambient temperatures.

I've also noted that under load, Core 1 runs a good 4-8C hotter than Core 0. Is this an issue of thermal paste not spreading properly? A bubble? Too much thermal paste? Perfectly normal?

Finally, if slightly off-topic, speedfan is listing my "GPU Vddc" as 0.95V. Is this what it's supposed to be?

(This is my first build, and I had a faulty PSU, so I know very little about fluid dynamics (air flow), voltage, etc. I'm sure I'm being silly somewhere)
 
Solution
I think your temps are fine.
Idle temperatures arent a good indicator of cooling performance since they are largely dictated by Ambient temp (and roughly 15°C above ambient is about what I would expect for a 212 EVO). If under load your hitting bad temperatures is when you might have a cooling problem.

Suggest running Prime 95 and Furmarks, which will stress your CPU and GPU to 100% respectively. That will represent a worst case scenario when it comes to temperatures, if everything stays under maybe 80°C then your fine for temperatures.

One core running hotter is normal, that particular core might just be under a bit more load or its lower quality.

GPU VDDC is the voltage going through your GPU. What its supposed to be varies...
I think your temps are fine.
Idle temperatures arent a good indicator of cooling performance since they are largely dictated by Ambient temp (and roughly 15°C above ambient is about what I would expect for a 212 EVO). If under load your hitting bad temperatures is when you might have a cooling problem.

Suggest running Prime 95 and Furmarks, which will stress your CPU and GPU to 100% respectively. That will represent a worst case scenario when it comes to temperatures, if everything stays under maybe 80°C then your fine for temperatures.

One core running hotter is normal, that particular core might just be under a bit more load or its lower quality.

GPU VDDC is the voltage going through your GPU. What its supposed to be varies depending on load, whether you have overclocked and what model it is. There is no set stock voltage that anything runs at.
 
Solution