Is this too hot for non-OC'ed i7?

[mdpilam]

I just built my system, first time builder, yesterday, and have been reading through alot of threads here, and DLed RealTemp and CoreTemp to monitor my CPU temp (out of curiosity and plans for OCing in the future). My 4 cores range from 38 - 40 deg C. Is that too hot (i7 920 2.66Ghz, 6GB DDR3 1600, Asus P6T Deluxe V2, OCZ SSD, Xigmatek Dark Knight & Element S Case)? It seems that people's idle temps are around low 30s or in the low 40s with OC systems. My computer has been on all day and I have been doing alot of file transferring and such, but I am not doing anything other than web browsing when the temp was measured.

Thanks!

PS - I wanted to say THANKS!!! for helping me in choosing components and giving me confidence in being able to do a build.

 

[jsc]

A better measure of cooling capacity are load temps. What are they?

 

[mdpilam]

Is this using Prime95? Sorry, I am a complete noob, and have just started to read about all this stuff just before I bought my components and now more specifically towards performance once I got it assembled. I don't have it, but should I DL it and run it? I don't know how comfortable I am running it for long periods unattended in case it is too hot... Is there a quick test I can do to get my load Temps?

Thanks again for helping the noob.

 

[mdpilam]

Ok, after a bunch of reading about i7 temps (still can't figure out if my idle temps are normal, good or a bit high) and Prime95 and such, I DL'ed Prime95, and got my temps up to about 67-69; though the CPU was only at 50%... Not sure how I get it to 100%. The temps rose almost instantly to low-to-mid 60s (I thought it would be a slow rise), but after about 30 min were hovering around upper 60s (I stopped it after 30min, is that enough?).

So, thoughts?

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[RJR]

I would remove and reinstall the heat sink, that does seem a little high for stock temps.

Run it for at least 8-24 hours prime95 blend (100% load) to verify stability, just to check temps 30 minutes is fine.

 

[mdpilam]

Not sure how big of a difference this makes, but ambient temp is 24C. Oh, and btw, idle temps are now about 36C.

Not too excited about removing the HSF, but if it is recommended I will (but I could wait a week or so for this, right? I don't do any gaming).

I have done alot of research since installing the HSF about applying thermal paste, and it seems like everyone does it different. Originally, I used the Arctic Silver recommended line method and then applied about 4-5 thin horizontal lines on the base of the cooler and seated it. Was this not optimal? I think I found a Proximon guide here last night that rec'd the line method followed by small pea amount to base spread very thin to get in gaps and then a thin line each pipe. Is this the best for Xigmatek Dark Knight?

 

[mdpilam]

Ok, well I did quite a bit more research, and figured I'd try and re-seat my HSF to get a little lower temps (I did buy a supposed good Xigmatek cooler after all). There did appear to be a little too much thermal paste on. I spent about 2 hrs doing this (along with adding a new drive), taking care to clean the old thermal paste off and using the method that seemed to be the best for applying thermal paste ( http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=5 ) and now my temps are still the same! About 39-40 (though they were idling about 38 last night before I did this. I expect the temps to drop a little once the paste sets). My ambient is 23C and this temp is with the case closed.

I got a little scare (I'm a noob) when I started my computer and it said a new CPU was found and to run setup, but everything works fine (though startup took a little longer).

EDIT: just ran a load test for about 5 min... temps got up into the low to mid 70s. Isn't this kinda high?

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