E6400 too hot?

[rmoan]

I had the cpu for about a year now, but only overclocked it recently so I wanted to know what safe temperatures were, however after searching around i realized the readings im getting on my NOT OC'd E6400 are kinda high.

I am getting read outs from Core Temp that my cores are 55C idle. The gigabyte utilities for my MB say that its running at 41C. Which reading do I follow? I've spent all night reapplying thermal paste but now I'm more confused then before.



ps: I will laugh at myself tomorrow morning broken 5 AM english, sorry.

 

[leo2kp]

Hm, good question. I wonder that myself since my Gigabyte software tells me I'm at 50C OC'd and fully loaded. I hope it's not higher. It also tells me that my CPU fan is running at 35,000 RPM...lol.

 

[pshrk]

Coretemp uses a different sensor inside the chip so it should always be hotter than what the mobo reports. It's usually better to go by what coretemp says. I've read that 70C and below is "safe" however I like to make sure that I stay under 60C.

My overclocked E6400 runs at 50C idle and 60C at 100% load. This is hotter than most and I believe this is because the heat spreader on my processor is concave. Your processor may have the same problem and it can be fixed by "lapping" the processor, however I haven't messed with it because I'm happy as long as my processor is below 60C.

Check your voltages, if i leave my bios settings for my voltages on "auto" my bios/mobo will automatically increase the voltages (much more than necessary) when I overclock my processor. I have to manually set my voltages. Higher voltages mean more heat and high voltages can be destructive over time.

Lots of people like speedfan so try that if you want. I've also heard Intels TAT (thermal anlysis tool) is great but I can't get it to run with my setup for some reason.

I got the best results with Zalman thermal paste, but right now I'm using Artic Silver Ceramiqe and I'm happy with that too. Hope this helps.

One more thing, most thermal pastes will gradually decrease in temp about 5C after it has had a chance to "set." Almost everyone says that you get better results when you apply a very thin layer of thermal paste but for some strange reason i get better results if i put a little more on (again i think this is because my heat spreader is concave)

 

[rmoan]

Woot, I played around with the heat sink and i got it down to 45 idle 60 under full load but thats not clocked. I am going to buy a fan and install it over the intake thing.

Thanks guys

 

[dragonsprayer]

55c at idle is 3.4+ghz with the stock cooler

thats even high for that!


e6400 will run 40-45c at idle at 3.2ghz with the stock intel cooler

something is wrong
!

 

[rmoan]

Lol its Zalman time then.

Thanks.

 

[Mondoman]

Or perhaps you tried to install you 4-pin-attachment CPU cooler with the MB already mounted in the case? It's almost impossible to get the 4 pins properly seated in such a situation -- see this post: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/194385-31-part-assembly#t1184072

 

[rmoan]

Or perhaps you tried to install you 4-pin-attachment CPU cooler with the MB already mounted in the case? It's almost impossible to get the 4 pins properly seated in such a situation -- see this post: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/194385-31-part-assembly#t1184072

Yeah, but I took the MB out today and everything was in fine. its actually not that hard after you cut yourself like 5 times

Here is what I've tried so far:
no paste - booted at 75C
VERY VERY thin layer - booted at 65
thin layer - 45-55 now

Before all that i had it in there with a buttload of thermal paste but it still ran at 55. Come to think of it, there was pretty thick layer of paste on about 70% of the cpu when i took it off last night (5 AM so I didnt think of it at the time), so im guessing that part gets no heat transfer, also i notice 1 core being cooler then the other by 2 degrees so im guessing the heatsink is not touching most of the CPU.

I read about "lapping" but, i dunno... Should i just order the zalman and stop wasting time/blood? lol

 

[pshrk]

I think 45-55C is fine unless your trying to OC more. Whats your vcore set at?

My Zalman wasn't much better than the stock cooler (again, i think thats because my heat spreader is concave). There are better coolers out there than Zalman though.

 

[rmoan]

I'm going to see if I can try and get another intel stock heatsink today.
but yes I'm trying to oc it.

 

[pshrk]

I think 45-55C is fine unless your trying to OC more.

I mean i think it's fine unless you want to overclock more than what you are currently doing.

I don't think a new stock heatsink will do anything for you.

 

[rmoan]

nonono

Its running stock speed and stock voltage

1.325 at 2.1 ghz

 

[pshrk]

I see. Maybe you should try to OC as much as you can without going past 60C. You should be able to get a nice OC without raising the voltages much or at all. Voltage increases cause significantly more heat than cpu frequency increases.

If you want to get it cooler I can only reccomend a new better HSF, and/or lapping your processor. Check out this CPU cooler roundup:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=9

Looks like the OCZ Vendetta 2 is nice. Make sure there is room in your box for whatever cooler you want.

You may want to consider just upgrading your processor instead, an E8400 would be great if your motherboard supports it.

 

[rmoan]

I hear ya,
I can take to about 3.0 but under load it spikes to 70, I am also afraid for the summer because its gonna get hot as hell here, Im going to lap the heatsink tonight and if it doesnt help, tomorrow im going to ninja a heatsink from a new E8400 and if that doesnt help ill put some thought into a new CPU but from what i remember my mobo doesnt support 45nm.

Thanks for the link

 

[rmoan]

Hmm replaced the heatsink, still hot as hell, any idea?

Bw/e im playing with old heatsink with a p4 it sits so tight with thermal paste on it, that i can lift the heatsink by the cpu.