Did I just destroy CPU? =(

yocheco619

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Mar 18, 2009
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Ok so this is my first system build. two questions here.
1. When I was putting the cpu fan on the motherboard it was tricky getting the pins to click (cpu is the E8400 and stock fan), I incedently removed the fan after it was placed on the CPU. As soon as I saw this happen (took 1 second) I immediately put it back on the same way it was (at tops the grease was stuck to cpu for about 3 seconds). Did I just destroy the cpu?

2. The cable for the fan is to short to reach the connection of the motherboard. However, I see that the cable of the cpu stock fan goes around the fan, can i take it out a few notches then connect it?
 

kubes

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Nov 4, 2008
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Just becareful that when you unwind it around the heat sink that its still out of the way of the fan. You don't want the fan to be clipping the wire.
 
The grease belongs there, it is the thermal interface material. Hopefully you didn't wipe it all off. You did not damage your CPU.
+1@kubes. Unclip the wire as necessary, making sure it stays clear of the fan.
 

yocheco619

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Mar 18, 2009
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thanks for the replies guys. Me and my buddy hooked everything up and it seems to be running fine. Windows is coming in the mail soon, only thing i noticed was that the temperature of the cpu was 40C when i turned it on and checked in bios. thats kinda up there for a system i just turned on isnt it?
 

xthekidx

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Dec 24, 2008
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That is a fairly high idle temp, you aren't getting proper cooling. Make sure you installed the CPU heatsink properly, check to make sure all the pins are down and you turned them in the opposite direction of the arrows to secure the heatsink. If you wiped off the thermal grease on the bottom of the heatsink, then you will need to get some more to replace it, otherwise your thermal conductivity will be low.
 
Not to worry, the cpu takes care of itself, throttling back or shutting down if it gets too hot. 40c might be ok for a stock cooler, depending on the ambient temperature of the room.

It is a pain, but the ONLY way to mount the cooler is to do it outside of the case.
1) The pushpins are hard to get down. If you try to do it with the mobo in the case, you will bend the motherboard and possibly cause other problems. Just put the mobo on a piece of cardboard.
2) You need to be able to look at the back of the motherboard to be certain that all 4 pins are through and locked.

First, look at the cooler, and play with the pins, until you understand how they work. Read the Intel instructions that came with your cpu. The trick is to push in a diagonal pair of pins at the same time.


The fan cable should be long enough, depending on how you oriented the cooler. As long as it does not interfere with the turning of the fan, you are OK with any routing.

Do some testing while waiting for the OS. Run memtest86+ for a few passes to make certain that all the RAM is solid. There should be NO errors.