e6600

[Supergoal]

Right now as I type this, my CPU cores are coming at 40c and 45c respectively.

Now, is it normal for the cores to have a different temperature by 5c?

Also what is the average temperature I should be getting with no overclocking?

I'm using the stock FAN with thermal pads (Intel's).

 

[endyen]

Yes, it is normal. They are different temps because they are doing different amounts of work.
@ 40c the one core is fairly close to idle. your temps are fine.

 

[Supergoal]

Strangely though, within the BIOS It says around 10C higher than running temperature monitoring software in Windows!

Wonder which one is telling the truth?! :?

 

[endyen]

Older bios had trouble reading temps. If there is a new bios available, see if it fixes temp readings. I dont suggest you flash the bios though, unless it fixes a bigger problem. Just knowing that it reads 10c high is good enough.

 

[Supergoal]

I see.

Still, when I have several browsers open at once it quickly goes up to 50C + 8O

I definitely won't be overclocking with this current fan and I should whip out the thermal paste before too long!

 

[Supergoal]

Just loaded up a game. Sure enough, the temperatures increased to 70C +.

Looks like I better get that paste out now :roll:

 

[bydesign]

Clean it off and apply a transparent layer. I use the Zaleman which is painted on like nail polish it's extremely thin and works great temp while gaming never over 55C

 

[Supergoal]

Any tips for cleaning off thermal pads? I assume that since I'm using the pads now, they'll be abit tougher to clean of than if I cleaned them off before using them.

Scared of touching the CPU though 8O

 

[jaguarskx]

A clean lint free cloth and rubbing alcohol is all you need for cleaning off thermal paste on both CPU and heatsink.

 

[306maxi]

Any tips for cleaning off thermal pads? I assume that since I'm using the pads now, they'll be abit tougher to clean of than if I cleaned them off before using them.

Scared of touching the CPU though 8O

Before going through all this make sure your heatsink is seated properly. methinks not....

 

[Guest]

Yeah I agree if one step doesn't work skipp to the next one

Step one: Heatsink seated properly, not 'jiggly'

Step two: Make sure the airflow is good, clean air intake, no cables blocking airflow and so on, good exhaust to, no dust bunnies, etc.

Step three: take off clean well apply Zalman/AS

Step 4: find out if the Heatsink/Cpu is convexe/concave resulting in bad contact, do the necessay lapping. This step is extreme for noobs...

 

[Supergoal]

Will check those out asap.

It clicks as you may know, onto the motherboard the fan does so that usually means it is making a good connection I'm guessing.

Even with the thermal pads, once the heatsink is removed, I cannot replace the heatsink back on right? Of course this is the case with thermal pase.

After hearing so many people going with paste I'm confident if I do the same my temperature would also decrease significantly... :!:

 

[306maxi]

Will check those out asap.

It clicks as you may know, onto the motherboard the fan does so that usually means it is making a good connection I'm guessing.

Even with the thermal pads, once the heatsink is removed, I cannot replace the heatsink back on right? Of course this is the case with thermal pase.

After hearing so many people going with paste I'm confident if I do the same my temperature would also decrease significantly... :!:

I can tell you for certain that one of your clips is loose.......

 

[Supergoal]

How could I check if so in a sensible way as not to nudge the CPU?

I'm sure they all clicked into place....

 

[306maxi]

How could I check if so in a sensible way as not to nudge the CPU?

I'm sure they all clicked into place....

You don't need to worry about "nudging" the CPU. It's not as fragile as you seem to think. As long as you don't lick it or throw it against the wall or drive over it you'll be fine.

 

[Nova46]

Wow, I guess my Zalman CNPS9500 heatsink really is pretty good. I just built my new comp and my E6600 idles at 25C.

 

[Supergoal]

Well, that's it, more and more I hear folk have cooler chips even though I have the same version I just want to cry.

TODAY I will be buying some paste and a better cooler!

 

[WR]

I recently messed up a stock installation of an Athlon64 x2 HSF. I had aligned the HSF to some components on the motherboard but realized after planting it down that part of the CPU heatspreader wasn't even covered. I took off the HSF (had to pull slightly to unstick the thermal paste, part of which transferred to the CPU spreader) and then aligned it properly and planted it down again, this time fitting the screws in.

Under Core Temp, idle temperatures of both cores looked fine and within 1-2C of each other. During load, one core would reach 58 while the other remained at 53. Suspicious, I took the case apart and reinstalled the HSF, this time cleaning both surfaces and putting on AS5 (which looked the same to me as the stock paste - opaque gray and highly viscous). Afterward, Core Temp reported 48-50C for both cores under load.

Based on this, I've come to think that in cases where the cores don't reach the same temperature under load, there's likely a problem with the HSF installation. Perhaps there was too much paste on one side... or perhaps the screws on one side are looser than on the other. This probably won't break a stock processor, but I'd think it would significantly affect one's overclocking success.

 

[Supergoal]

Thanks for the insight into your CPU HSF experience.
I didn't think that both cores should be equal at first anyway, since I thought one does the hardwork and the other does sod all. So it now looks like they both try and share the workload as equal as possible, thus should be giving a similar temperature reading on both cores under load.

I'd say roughly I get a 5C variation between the cores all of the time. Though this has been on occasion even 10C more when loading a program.