Hey all,
 
About a week ago I bought the Intel e8400 along with an Xfx 780i motherboard. When I initially put the system together I used the stock heatsink fan / compound. System was default settings no overclocking at all. I noticed some temperature issues, not high temperatures though. The problem was and is that each core has a different temperature reading from RealTemp.  
 
Stock HSF/Compound (Idle / Load Temps)  
Core 0 - 30c / 42c
Core 1 - 43c / 53c
 
Now I've searched and seen a few people with the same problem but no real solution why. I also heard alot of people say to reinstall Heatsink and fan. Well I did this and replaced the stock hsf with a nice new Zalman HS/F. I've updated the Motherboard bios to the most recent update. I installed the hs/f and booted up with default bios settings at 3.0ghz and still had a average 13c difference between core 1 and core 0. I've recently overclocked the CPU to 3.6 ghz and my temps are listed below.
 
Zalman HSF/ Arctic 5 Compound (Idle / Load Temps)
 
Core 0 - 25c / 39c
Core 1 - 39c / 53c
 
Whats goin on? I know this isn't normal as I've seen most posts saying that both core temps should remain within a few degrees of difference. 13-15 degrees in difference is off to me. Help me out with some knowledge guys.
 
 

first its not a problem -where is the problem?
 
its an event an occurrence or a phenom
 
 
wait...... its non of the above! its normal are you?
 
nope, wrong again ...13-15c can happend
 
probe placement, load balance .... etc
 
normal! now learn how to use the numbers -- by cranking up your volts and keeping the max load under 65-70c per core  ......when your done welcome to real world of performace computers!

I'm running Orthos now and mine are 39/40 according to real temp, it's not totally normal to have temps that far apart but it does happen.  I have a feeling that one of the temp sensors on your chip isn't reporting correctly and there's nothing you can do about it.

wrong ausch .... it depends - yes orthos is designed to balance the load
 
does it say hes wasting his time with orthos? no he using the pc for what a pc is for not orthos!
 
orthos is like hooking your car to a dyno machine with spinning barrels - its useless - ok orthos has its uses but only for break in and diagonstics
 
ausch: in the real world core 1 does all the work! and 10c difference in not that unusual
 
 
people do not read into programs more then they are good for - if you do not understand the fundmentals do not waste your time -- is your cpu 70c or is one core 70c at max? if not have a happy day and leave the testing to the pros!
 
JUSTIN YOUR SYSTEM IS NORMAL FOR A 3.6GHZ SYSTEM!

Dude you need to get a grip and shut the f**k up.
 
He said that he had a 14c difference under load, I'm sure that he didn't just load one core. Get over yourself.

First, I didn't use Orthos. I tested with Everest benchmark and yes both cores were 100% under load during the test and had a 14c difference. I'm not worried about either of the cores overheating just wondering what the differences in temp's really mean. I'm very pleased with the performance of this processor and I'm sure I could reach 4.0ghz on air. Honestly, I have no need for such a large overclock at the moment.