Is my idle temps for my CPU a little too high?

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Hi there. Lately I've been using my Noctua NH-D14 cooler for my system because I thought I was gonna be doing some OC'ing a while ago. I decided not to OC and got the Cooler Master 212 EVO instead because not only is it not "overkill" for someone who isn't OC'ing, but it's also less bulkier. Now, when I had the NH-D14 installed my idle temps were between 39 degrees and 42 degrees. I don't know what my ambient temps are in my house because it's a old house with no temp monitor or any way to indicate what the temps are so please keep that in mind when you do read this. All I know about the temps in my house is that it doesn't get hot, like in the states. Depending on the time of year it can get cold. As for my Enermax Ostrog GT case, I have one 120mm rear exhaust, two 140mm blue LED fans on the front and one 120mm on my 212 EVO. I could leave a fan on the top, but I tried putting the spare Noctua fan there and it was too loud. I'm only able to control my front fans and my 212 EVO fan because I honestly hate my ASRock Z75 Pro3 BIOS control for my fans. I don't like having to go back and fourth into my BIOS just to change the fan speeds. I'm planning on getting a third-party fan controller, like the Sentry 2 Mix controlle. I'm looking to have a quiet, but cool efficient gaming rig. At the momett my front fans and 212 EVO fan are at the lowest setting in my BIOS. Just to get my temps to 42-43 degrees I have to turn my front fans on max settings and my 212 EVO on half. So with the 212 EVO installed I'm getting between 42 degrees and 46 degrees. Slightly higher than when I had the NH-D14 installed, but I assume that's only because the NH-D14 has two heatsink towers and two Noctua fans, where the 212 EVO has only 1 heatsink tower and only 1 fan. Now, while I believe my idle temps are okay, there's some that don't think so. I reallllllly don't want to have to reinstall my NH-D14 for the 4th time because not only am I running out of thermal paste that came with my 212 EVO, it's so tedious to install it and route the cables so it looks clean. Bad enough the installation for the 212 EVO was complete torture when I first installed it. =/ Not only that, but the Noctua fans are hella loud! I can't find the low-noise adapter that came with it so that option is out the window. I do have a simple 3-pin y splitter to hook two fans into and plug that splitter into the CPU header, but I was told that it'd be a bad idea to do. I don't play many CPU intensive games so it's not an issue for me. I'd say the only CPU intensive game I played was Final Fantasy 13 for the PC. Some may not think it takes a powerful CPU to run it, but I believe it does. I want my rig to be as quiet as can be, but I don't want to have to keep my fans on 100% speed just to cool it down by a few degrees. =/ Anyway, I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on this topic for me. Thanks in advance! ^_^
 
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Don't worry about your idle temps. Only full load temp will cause your CPU to throttle.
If your full load temperatures are higher than recommended for your CPU, clean the dust out of your cooler. If that doesn't work, re-apply thermal paste properly.
Also note that my build has a small cheap case, a stock cooler, a couple of 120mm exhaust fans running at low speed, and I never get problems with temperature.
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Don't worry about your idle temps. Only full load temp will cause your CPU to throttle.
If your full load temperatures are higher than recommended for your CPU, clean the dust out of your cooler. If that doesn't work, re-apply thermal paste properly.
Also note that my build has a small cheap case, a stock cooler, a couple of 120mm exhaust fans running at low speed, and I never get problems with temperature.
 
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Hey man. Thanks for the reply. Well, everyone's telling me that 43-46 degrees at idle is a little too high. =/ I mean, of course the NH-D14 I have on me made it a few degrees cooler, but I didn't think it was that bad of a idle temp range. I switched to the Cooler Master 212 EVO because I wasn't gonna be doing any OC'ing and it's less bulky and quieter than two Noctua fans going at full speed. My fan controll in my BIOS sucks. =/ That's why I plan on getting this fan controller very soon. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992012&cm_re=nzxt_sentry_mix-_-11-992-012-_-Product

I don't play very many games that are CPU heavy, but I do play Bioshock, Borderlands, League of Legends, FF13 (which I know is VERY taxing on the CPU), Metro 2033, etc etc; all on very high settings. Even then my temps might be anywhere between 60-70 degrees. I don't really know cause I don't have my CPUID HWMonitor open all the time. lol. So you're saying that I shouldn't worry about my idle temps? Cause I'm very cautious about temps when it comes to my only gaming rig I have. >_< I put a lot of time and money into this. So you've read all of my initial post, right? Just wanna make sure you fully understand what I am saying. :p

Also, keep in mind that the Noctua NH-D14 is about 5 months old and the Cooler Master 212 EVO I got about two days ago. So it's rather new.
 
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Run a program to deliberately make your processor work hard, and watch your temperatures while it is running.
I use Hyper Pi for the processor or Furmark for the graphics card.
You don't say what processor you have, but on my computer anything below 70°C is fine. Google it to check
If you are not overclocked, you might be able to disconnect a lot of your fans and make your computer more quiet.
 
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Oh! I'm sorry! xD I should have told you that my processor is the i5-2500k @3.3Ghz; and it is not overlocked! :) I'll try using the Hyper Pi program you just mentioned. How long do I run it for? Or is there a set duration already into the program? That program says it's to calculate for overclocked machines. But mine isn't overclocked. Do I still use the program? I don't want to damage my CPU if the program is meant for people with overclocked CPU's. >_< Apparently this is the google tells me about the max temps and safe temps are for my CPU: "Temperatures max for the 2500k are around 80-90C. 72C is perfectly fine" I know that when I open up a simple webpage the temps spike up just a little for a second and then drop back to normal. I just noticed that having 7 Google Chrome pages made the temps spike up to 48-49 degrees for a moment. I was told this was normal. I'd rather try avoid disconnecting any of my fans. That might just raise my temps a bit. I don't have many to start with. As it says in my initial post: I have two 140mm fans in the front (came with the case), one 120mm rear exhaust fan (came with the case) and one 120mm fan on my 212 EVO. I have places for top fans and bottom. Now, as I mentioned before that I'll be buying the fan controller that I linked you to. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992012&cm_re=nzxt_sentry_mix-_-11-992-012-_-Product
 
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Hyper Pi will run on anything. Overclocking not necessary. Useful tool for checking CPU performance
My PC will do Pi to 1 million places on all 4 cores in under 10 seconds,
Start small, say 256K, and work up.
If your temperatures go above 70, your cooler is not working properly.
If temperatures stay OK, run to 4 million then 8 million, then more. Even running at full power for 10 mins your CPU should stay at a sensible temperature. I sometimes use my PC for video editing or rendering. The CPU goes to maximum power for half an hour. It is not a problem, all computers are designed to cope with this.
 
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Wait. xD Can you simplify that for me? I'm not familiar with that program so just saying that is a little confusing lol Also did you read all my comments? Seems like you're replying to certain parts I just wanna make sure you fully understand my problems. :p
 
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I'll answer that if you make more sense and speak proper English. But I can tell you this much: when I had my NH-D14 installed, my fans were always running at full speed. With my 212 EVO, I can control my fan speed because it has a 4-pin connector. It's quieter than my NH-D14. I don't do any OC'ing so I'm not even sure why I got the NH-D14 in the first place. So I switched to a 212 EVO. Also, when have I ever implied that the 212 EVO doesn't have a fan? o_O Of course it has a fan!
 
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My experience with building and overclocking computers tells me that you do not need great big cases with large CPU coolers and lots of extra fans unless you are attempting an extreme overclock.
All the CPUs I have used will run quite happily at stock speeds on the free cooler that comes with the CPU in the box. You can put them in a normal case with a single exhaust fan, and they will run all day with no problems.
Two of the PCs in our family are powerful machines built 7 years ago. They are overclocked with decent sized aftermarket coolers . To run modern games or applications they have to run near to 100% at their maximum overclocked speed a lot of the time. They never overheat, they are still going strong, and neither of them has as many fans as you do.
You are worried about idle temperatures, but google will tell you that idle temperatures are mostly irrelevant.
High voltage can cause overheating, but your voltage is fine.
So I think that you are probably worrying unnecessarily.
However to make sure, I suggest you run Hyper PI, which is a simple, free CPU performance tool to check your CPU is running OK and that your cooler is working properly.
 
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So everything is okay, though? I shouldn't be worrying so much about my idle temps? Even though League of Legends isn't that much of a CPU intensive game, I still got temps of 50 max at ultra high settings. I'm not sure if that's good or not lol But anyway. I'm still interested in buy that Sentry 2 mix fan controller I gave you the link to. Check it out! ^_^ http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992012&cm_re=nzxt_sentry_mix-_-11-992-012-_-Product

But other than that, my set up is just fine, right? I have the Enermax Ostrog GT mid tower case. I think it's one of the best mid size cases out there and I got it for a really good price, too. :) I do have room on the top for either two 120mm fans or a 200mm fan.
 
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Can you tell me how to use the program, please? :) I'm new with it.
 
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I have some screen shots for you, but I don't know how to attach them to this forum :-(

Start your CPU temperature monitor.
Open Hyper Pi
At the top, select number of digits of Pi to be calculated = 128K
Priority normal
processors 4
press start.
That should set your CPU to full power for a second or two.
When it finishes press OK

If your temperature stayed below 70°C, try again with more digits.
keep watching your temperature
Any computer should run for several minutes calculating millions of digits and CPU will stay below 75°C
If your CPU cooler is OK, yours should do the same. You will probably find you can disconnect most of your fans and it will still stay at OK temperature.
If your cooler is broken or incorrectly set, temperatures will only take a few seconds to go above 80
If so, fix / replace your cooler, and still get rid of the noisy fans
 
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I don't even understand a word you're saying cause you're not speaking in proper English and your sentences are hard to follow. From what I can understand, you're saying that I'm having issues with my 212 EVO? No, I'm not. As I said in my recent posts, I had temps around this range even with the Noctua NH-D14. And what on earth are you talking about when you say "$29"
 
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Maybe if you spoke in proper English and use proper sentencing, then maybe I could actually understand what the hell you're frickin' saying! Geesh! >_< You're not even understanding what I'm trying to convey to others here in my posts.
 
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