Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong section of the board.



I have an Intel Core 2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz. Recently I have had some computer troubles, and have a couple of questions:



1 - I have recently made upgrades to my computer. New RAM (2x1GHz sticks instead of 1x1GHz), new graphics card (Radeon HD 3850 instead of Nvidia 7300 GS), new PSU (Corsair 550 instead of a different companies 250) and a new monitor. Can any of these changes cause an added strain to the CPU, causing them to heat up more?


2 - I wanted to check my temperatures. Use Speedfan, my Core 0 (Core 1 is pretty much the same) reads:

Idle - 41-44C
Load - 55-57C when I am playing games

Also using the TAT program, if I put the workload level at 100% for CPU 0 (Which I assume is the same one), after five minutes I start to scrap 65C.

Is this too hot for my CPU?



Apologies if these questions are simple, I have searched around. For a guy who went to University to do Computing and spent a year working in IT, I'm a bit stupid

This should help.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ture-guide

I did read that, but it went over my head a bit

Good to go.

Under 65c on that cpu is ok. My old b3 stepping 6600 ran almost the same temps, till I watercooled it and jacked it to 3.1, with a load temp in the low 50's.

My current 6750, at 3.4 runs at 32 with the same load. GO stepping and a smaller die really takes the heat out!

The new vid card will add more heat to your case, as will the larger psu, unless it has a good fan to remove the hot air it produces from the case.

Remember to compare the wattage to a light bulb (incandescent type). The more wattage, the higher the heat load it generates. ie, a 100 watt light bulb is way hotter than a 60 watt light bulb. Either remove the heat from the case, or your cpu, northbridge, and southbridge run hotter in the newly hotter environment.

Upgrading you pc shouldn't strain your cpu. It should help it.

You should use coretemps to read your cpu core temps. TAT usually reports the temps a little too high.

Although 41C for idle and 55C for load is normal, you could lower it a bit more. Go into your bios and reduce the cpu voltage. Then test the stability of your system by using Prime95 small FTT's for 6hours. Do this until you minimize your voltage.

Re-reading the linked to thread I got to an intel site, and according to that the Thermal Specification for my mboard (I think) is 60.1°C. Does that mean I shouldn't go over 60?

Anything under 65C is fine. If you're worried, then under 60C.

I'm guessing this is a diys build.
Are you sure you got the hsf properly seated?
To test it, turn the power supply off at the back, then give the hsf a few rotating turns. (only a degree or two in easch direction) If this is easy to do, you may not have tightened the unit down well enough. If it seems tight, those turns will have helped settle out the TIM, and given you a better contact between chip and heatsink.

One simple thing to understand about air cooling, your temps are going to be reactive to the ambient temp of your room/pc case.

So it's mainly important to state your ambient temps. For example, if your case temp (using an IR thermometer) around 80F chances are, your temps are going to be higher then normal.

But if your ambient temps are around 68-70F (your sure you have good airflow in your case) and your getting high temps, chances are your HSF are not install properly.

Edit:

Its also important to state what program your using, since some may read the sensor wrong (TAT / Speedfan 4.33) on the tjunction side.

There are 3 sensors on a C2D chip. Tjunction is basically the sensors on each your cores (2). The Tcase is the sensor between the 2 cores, which is the sensor that used by your bios for the single temp. Usually the Tcase sensor will be about 10-13C cooler, then the tjunction temps.