AMD FX8350 hot as hell (80 degrees idle)

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
S

stielar

Reputable
Aug 25, 2014
17
0
4,510
I've just received my new PC build and I spent almost all evening trying to put everything together - first time I do that by the way.

Here are my specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3
CPU: AMD FX8350 4.0 GH
PSU: Crucial RM550
Hard Disk: Crucial MX100 512 GB
RAM: Gskill TridentX 1833 16GB
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S
Fans: 2 X Noctua NF-F12 120MM FAN
Case: Fractal Design Define R4

My problem:

I turned on the PC (being absolutely terrified of what might happen since this is the first time I am building my own PC and I spent a lot of money for all of this) and went into bios as I hadn't installed an OS yet. The bios shows the CPU's temperature 79 - 80 degrees Celcius.

All fans were running at full speed, and didn't sound silent at all (1500 RPM if I remember correctly according to BIOS).

I did apply thermal paste, and it was Noctua's stock paste which is supposed to be very good. The case was open as I wanted to see if any lights would turn on on the motherboard in case something went wrong.

Any idea what might be wrong? And what should I do now? Is some component not compatible with the rest? Did I connect something the wrong way? I'm really surprised the PC turned on at first, but I was affraid I might damage the CPU at this temperature so I don't know if I should turn it on again unless I know what I should do about it.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
kanewolf

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
May 29, 2013
37,318
3,275
156,790
It is probably an alignment/contact problem between the CPU and the heatsink. Assuming you followed the included directions that were included with the heatsink as far as thermal compound, you MUST have an alignment, or contact pressure from the heatsink. Check the torque of the hold down device on the heatsink.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stielar

Reputable
Aug 25, 2014
17
0
4,510


What is GPU?



I am so tired that I really can't remember if I have removed the plastic protector or not. Can I just take the CPU cooler off and check and then just take away the plastic cover and replace it? Or do I have to clean the thermal paste already applied and apply new one in such a case?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stielar

Reputable
Aug 25, 2014
17
0
4,510


Where and how should I touch the heatsink as to not damage anything?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I

iamlegend

Admirable
Aug 19, 2014
1,885
1
6,460
Lol, you`re very tense I guess. GPU is Graphics Processing Unit. Your Graphics card.

By the way, I agree with the post above. Check the plastic in your cooler. lol it is OK to remove it but clean and reapply thermal paste when you put it back.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
COLGeek

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
Apr 6, 2009
54,225
3,430
179,340

GPU = video card

Yes, you will have to replace the thermal compound if you remove the heatsink. If that little plastic film protector is still on there, that is likely the problem. You have an excellent heatsink, more than capable of cooling the FX-8350.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stielar

Reputable
Aug 25, 2014
17
0
4,510
It seems that this was actually the problem, I had forgotten the plastic in the cooler. I feel like an idiot now. How do I clear the thermal paste now? I tried using a rag but it's hard to come off and I don't want to scratch anything there.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stielar

Reputable
Aug 25, 2014
17
0
4,510
Crap, I have no alcohol at home and it's 5 in the morning over here. As you can imagine it's been a long night. Guess it'll have to wait for tomorrow then, unless someone can suggest some ingenious alternative to alcohol for removing thermal paste.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stielar

Reputable
Aug 25, 2014
17
0
4,510
It worked... 25 - 30 degrees. Thanks a bunch everyone. Now one more question:

Now next question on my quest for a new PC. I had a Windows boot DVD, but I didn't get a new DVD player and my old DVD player didn't have a SATA connection so I can't connect it to the motherboard. I have an external DVDRW that is connected via USB, can I install a Windows version using that?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stielar

Reputable
Aug 25, 2014
17
0
4,510
Actually it worked. I'm installing windows as we speak. I wonder about something else now:

I had a 400GB SATA hard drive that was quite old. I run Vista on my old system. I want to add this 400 GB hard drive to my new system, but I wonder if Windows 8.1 will be able to see the files or if it will ask me to format the drive.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

Montblanchill

Reputable
Jul 28, 2014
140
0
4,760
You should be able to see the files, though it may complain a bit about the formatting of the drive depending on its age. Worst case scenario it just wont read it at all, but putting it in there wont cause any problems so give it a try.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

stielar

Reputable
Aug 25, 2014
17
0
4,510
Thanks so much everyone, I'm enjoying my new PC now. It was so hectic last night, it was the first time I built my own PC. I felt like an idiot when I saw that I had forgotten to take off the plastic cover from the heatsink.

The PC is more silent than I could ever imagine. Sometimes I wonder if it is really on. I can definetely recommend the Noctua fans / cooler and the Fractal Design case. It's like I developed new hearing powers, I keep noticing small sounds here and there that would just fade in the humming of my old PC.

I still have some fine-tuning to do. I tried to run The Witcher 2 earlier and I was a bit disappointed with the performance of my PC, as it struggled to reach 20 FPS with all settings to Ultra plus and Ubersampling enabled. I guess you really need a beast to run this game in max settings with full FPS. People say that you need at least two graphic cards, I didn't know it was that important.

By the way, it did recognize the old hard drive and all its files. I had a little trouble with getting permission to access some files stored in my Documents folder but I managed to find a way around it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom