Intel i5 3570K only recently overheating

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ZeronOfTheCouch

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Feb 2, 2016
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My tower is about 3.5 years old and has worked great during most of that time. In just the last couple weeks, the CPU, an i5 3570K, has been overheating at the drop of a hat. I figured it was dust, so I cleaned out a good deal from the heatsink and the rest of the interior and applied new thermal paste. The thermal paste came from a friend who does large scale IT stuff, so it may not be great quality. After the dusting and thermal paste switch, it's running a little cooler but still runs above 50C for the core temperatures when not under load and runs up to 90+ easily when playing a game. The ambient temperature in the room is about 22C, all the fans work, and the airflow is all directed outward from the case. I'm out of ideas for what could cause such a dramatic change. Any ideas? Thanks!
 
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synphul

synphul

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Mar 11, 2011
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Some of the air needs to be moving into the case as well, you need intake and exhaust not all exhaust or the air won't move much through the case to cool everything properly. Aka, front intake, rear or rear + top exhaust depending on your case.

Are you using the stock cooler? If so you may need to check the push pins to make sure the cooler is still firmly seated, all 4 needs to be fully locked into place. If one pops loose the cooler won't make good contact. There's a possibility that the cooler pins may be worn/damaged and you might consider an aftermarket cooler like a cryorig h7.

Thermal paste is similar from brand to brand and worst case scenario would be maybe 5-10c difference (being really generous as most pastes are within 1-3c cooling capability of one another). It's possible you used too much or too little paste, it only needs about the size of a grain of rice or pea or a thin line. Thermal paste itself won't cause temps to be as high as you're seeing.
 
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Z

ZeronOfTheCouch

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Feb 2, 2016
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Sorry, I didn't word the bit about the fans well. The fans on the top, back, and side of the case are all moving air out of the case. The large intake fan on the front is blowing cooler air in as well. In addition, the case is very porous letting air come in easily. I've double-checked and every fan is working.

I am using a stock cooler with cheap plastic pins that are a little bent. However, none of the corners of the heatsink wiggle at all and all four pins appear to be in as far as they go.

Any other ideas? Is it possible for a CPU to overheat due to age/wear?
 
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