Acceptable core temperature range/heat sink help?

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Ambular

Ambular

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Mar 25, 2016
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So, I carefully removed the stock Intel cooler and the old thermal paste from my 4790k, thoroughly cleaned the surface of the processor with rubbing alcohol and a coffee filter, installed the bracket, and screwed a new ArcticFreezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 in place (and then tightened the screws down further when I got unacceptably high temperatures on my first boot afterward and found that the cooler wasn't fully secure.)

What I'm seeing now is temperatures that seem to range from slightly lower than before to slightly higher, jump around more dramatically than they did, and have a much wider variation between the hottest and coolest cores (as much as 20 degrees Celcius, where it was around 10 degrees with the stock cooler.) Is that something to be worried about? So far nothing's gotten alarmingly hot, but it's a cool day.

Thoughts, advice? I'm a bit reluctant to tighten those screws down any further than they are, but if that's likely still the issue, I can try. Or I can remove, re-paste and reset the cooler again if that's likely to yield better results.
 
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thor220


Yes please. Try to turn them as evenly as possible.
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KKAW

KKAW

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Apr 29, 2015
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How cold is the ambient temperature that the CPU is 10 degrees celsius!

Did you put a small blob of thermal paste in the center? You should not spread or add too much thermal paste.

Where are you getting these temps from?
 
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thor220

thor220

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Dec 15, 2009
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He means the temperature range was only a 10c variance before and now it is a 20c variance.

10c is a pretty normal temp range for this CPU. 20c on the other hand tells me that your reapplication wasn't done correctly. You need to redo the application procedure. In your above explanation, you neglected to mention whether or not you applied new thermal paste and what application method you used. It would help if we knew that and what kind of paste you are using. If you aren't very skilled at applying paste I would recommend that you clean your dominant index finger with rubbing alcohol and use that to apply the paste evenly to the entire CPU surface. This method is very simply and effective.
 
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Ambular

Ambular

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Thanks for responding, and yes, I mean a 10 to 20 degree variance, not that those are the actual core temperatures! (ETA: I'm using both SpeedFan and RealTemp.)

The cooler came with Arctic MX-2 preapplied. BadActor here told me I'd probably be better off just leaving that in place rather than trying to apply paste myself, since I've never done it manually. I did pick up a tube of MX-4 in case anything went wrong, though, so I can use that.
 
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thor220

thor220

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Ok, if the paste came pre-applied than that shouldn't be causing the issue. When you were tightening down the heatsink's screws, did you make sure to tighten each side evenly? If they are not done is such a manner the heatsink will only make partial contact with the CPU.
 
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Ambular

Ambular

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I don't think they were tightened very evenly, actually. When I went back in after my first attempt, one side was significantly looser than the other and took a lot more turns to tighten down. Should I remove them and try that again?
 
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thor220

thor220

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Yes please. Try to turn them as evenly as possible.
 
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Ambular

Ambular

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Mar 25, 2016
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I think that must have been the problem. I unscrewed both sides and alternately tightened each one a half-turn until they both stopped turning easily. My core temperature variance is now running anywhere from less than five to fifteen degrees, but seems to be averaging about twelve. All four cores are staying comfortably at fifty Celcius or below, even with a game and several other programs running and my highest-performance power profile selected. With the stock cooler, they'd have been consistently over sixty degrees and occasionally spiking over seventy.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the help!
 
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Ambular

Ambular

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I did this, and I've been keeping an eye on my temperatures for the past several days in various weather and usage scenarios. The core temperature variance is sitting at around ten degrees or so during routine use (actually at this moment it's closer to eight degrees.) It increases somewhat when the processor is under heavy load, but even the hottest core doesn't overheat. I think I should be all set for summer. Thank you so much for all your help!
 
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