CPU Temp seems hot to me

[fishacura]

Recently built my own PC with an ASUS p5b deluxe board and a Core 2 Duo e4300 1.8 chip. Been monitoring the temps. Board is steady around 30-33 C but chip is between 50-55 C and consistent. I am not even gaming or anything yet....this is simply when I am surfing the net or checking email. Isn't this hot for the CPU that's not under stress?

 

[Kari]

yep that is on the warm side, hottish even. Try reseating the heatsink with new thermal paste, see if that helps. Make sure the fan on the heatsink is spinning aswell. I'd gues from the board temps that you have good enough air circulation in your case.

 

[ethel]

Definitely too hot, especially for a 1.8GHz chip.

 

[merc14]

Yep, those are very cool running chips. Cut down cores, half the cache, low voltage and low speed which means less heat and yours is running hotter than a q6800.

 

[fishacura]

I had to pull the fan off at one point for a week or so (while I swapped boards) and then re-seat it. If the thermal paste is not on well (which it most likely isn't) could it be that simple? That couldn't make a 10-15 degree difference could it?

 

[goldragon_70]

I had to pull the fan off at one point for a week or so (while I swapped boards) and then re-seat it. If the thermal paste is not on well (which it most likely isn't) could it be that simple? That couldn't make a 10-15 degree difference could it?

The thermal paste dried out in that time, buy some new past, it's usually $5-$10 depending on quality, and you will have some around for latter too. take off the HSF, clean the bottom of it and the top of the CPU with %90 or better rubbing alcohol (The Alcohol swabs work great). Apply just a small plop of paste in the middle of the cpu, and reapply the HSF as evenly as you can. This will drop the temp.

Dried paste can actually resist heat transference instead of promote it.

 

[jitpublisher]

Really now, pardon me please, I am not trying to be a horse's a** but if you removed the heatsink, and did not clean and re-apply thermal paste, then notice that the thing is running hot...hmmm what in the world could be causing this? :roll:

 

[fishacura]

Yes it may seem simple to you but

a. this is the first pc I have built
b. the thermal paste came pre-applied so I didn't even apply it the first time
c. because I did not apply it I didn't think about re-applying it (again...newbie here)
d. until I talked through it with the good resources here I didn't put it all together nor did
I realize that paste could dry out

make more sense to you now?

 

[jitpublisher]

I guess I am am being a jerk, sorry I got up this morning with the flu and kind of grumpy. Yes, if you remove your heatsink, you should clean and reapply to be sure of getting the best cooling.

 

[fishacura]

not at all...I have beem there too. I am simply new to this and am glad I did it (built my own) since it was fairly easy to do and now I have a great PC with everything I want with good components at about the same price or less than I'd have dell build it with who knows what kind of components!

 

[merc14]

99% chance it is a Thermal Paste issue and yes, absolutely dried out Thermal Paste (TP) or applying to much TP will raise your temperatures drastically. On Core 2 CPUs the TP must be applied in a very specific way as well due to the alighnment of the cores on the die. Arctic Silver has very detailed instructions on applying TP to Core 2s right here. http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2intelas5.html

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[geofelt]

This may be normal for the stock cooler. I have been experimenting with a E4300 on a gigabyte p965-ds3 board(no overclocking). Measuring with intel thermal analysis tool(TAT) It shows the two cores at 52c-54c at idle. Speedfan shows the same for core0 and core1. Speedfan shows temp1=40c, and temp2=38c, which I assume is some case temperature. The ambient temperature is 29c. The case is very well ventilated and the heat sink fan is operating.
With TAT stressing the cpu, the core1 & core0 rise to 67c. It seems stable. I removed the stock heat sink, and checked both the cpu and heat sink for flatness, and they seemed to be ok. Initially, I may have had too much as5, and I tried using very little, but this gave no real change. I am now running with as5 using the recommended application method. I have some shin-etsu x23 on order, and I will see how that works. At this point, I think that either the stock cooler is not as effective as I had first thought, or there is some issue of quality control between the cpu chip and the heat spreader.
I am not overly worried because this is a test machine, and the cpu is supposed to throttle back or shut down if it gets too hot.

 

[merc14]

I installed a 4300, with stock HSF, in a microATX system and overclocked it slightly to 2.0GHz at 1.35v. Ths cores idle at around 28c-32c if I remember correctly. AS5 was used vice the preapplied TP from Intel but that is the only difference. Orthos pushed it to 47c or so after an hour. Ambient air was 75f.

If you guys are seeing those temps then you are:
1. In a very hot room.
2. The case has bad ventilation.
3. Thermal interface material is gooned up.

 

[goldragon_70]

99% chance it is a Thermal Paste issue and yes, absolutely dried out Thermal Paste (TP) or applying to much TP will raise your temperatures drastically. On Core 2 CPUs the TP must be applied in a very specific way as well due to the alighnment of the cores on the die. Arctic Silver has very detailed instructions on applying TP to Core 2s right here. http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2intelas5.html

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

This is a good guide, thankx for the link, merc14.