Over heating issue i could not find the answer to online

ihashishin

Distinguished
Mar 7, 2010
5
0
18,510
hi

my rig is:
MB: intel 946GZIS
PROC:E4400 @ 2Ghz
RAM:Kingston DDR2@800 1GB
HD: Maxtor/Seagate 200GB

i bought it 3 years ago and have had issues with it from the start. while under warranty i went through (bad sectors ) 8 HDs which were WD 160GB sata drives, so i decided to try a old drive which i had sitting around - which has now also developed bad sectors and the last sata160gb is still sitting brand new with me.
i took the rig back to them and told them that its probably not the drive and something else needs to be changed but they told me to F off

now i was about to upgrade the system to (have not done it yet)

PRO: E4400 OC to 2.5-3
MB:ASUS P5QLD PRO
RAM: 2GB Kingston DDR2@800Mhz + 1GB Kingston DDR2@800Mhz
GC: 5750 ATI PCX 1GB (128-BITS) DDR5
PSU: CM500 extreme
HD: WD 160GB sata

and wanted to overclock it to save some cash but when i started looking into my computer it seems to run pretty hot - cores @ 50-52C idle with the main board at 36C and the HD at 40C / running prime for 10mins cores@78-80C, HD 42/43C

after reading up i removed the hsf control in the bios to have it running at 2200RPM vs 1100rpm before, also i added a inlet fan at the front and now my cores idle at 48-50, mainboards at 32/33C and the HD is down to 35/36
running prime for 10mins cores@75-77C, HD 39/40C

ambient temperature is about 28/30C. temps using pcwizard2010 and hwmonitor

ive considered reseating the hsf but you can not buy thermal grease here so i dont want to try reseating it unless i have to....

1. what do you think the problem is? could it be the case(mid-atx, unbranded "legend")? add more fans? faulty MB/PROC/RAM?
2. will these temps wreck my new parts - so would it be better to just sell this and buy a new system? i dont want to invest the money and have a repeat of what happened with this
3. should i just reseat the hsf without thermal grease or is there something else i can use?
4. is it the ambient temp?
5. comments on the upgrades so as to be able to game on it aswell would be appreciated...

i have now found a more reputable vendor so as to not make the mistake with some d**kwad

thanks in advance

H
 
Solution
Continue to look for new thermal grease, and get some help installing it if you need it. Those Intel push pin heatsinks are a pain for some folks to install. If you can't find it, don't remove the heatsink. Your temps are within acceptable range. If your climate is warm all year, this will also affect your cpu temp.
Continue to look for new thermal grease, and get some help installing it if you need it. Those Intel push pin heatsinks are a pain for some folks to install. If you can't find it, don't remove the heatsink. Your temps are within acceptable range. If your climate is warm all year, this will also affect your cpu temp.
 
Solution

ihashishin

Distinguished
Mar 7, 2010
5
0
18,510
thanks for the reply...

what about the harddrives that went bad, do you think that could be the MB or RAM or PROC or TEMP?

i guess im going to put the upgrade on hold because ill need the TIM to swap out the proc for that....

also how much above ambient should the cores normally be in C?

and would these temps wreck the graphics card?

sorry about this bombardment with the questions

 
You are asking the right questions, but I think your present troubleshooting is more than adequate. If you want to change out some more parts, you have to weigh the cost versus benefit. It may be time to change motherboards, but don't take my work for it. I live near frys electronics, the best vender in the world for cpus and boards, so I'm spoiled.
 

ihashishin

Distinguished
Mar 7, 2010
5
0
18,510


hi again

i did some more research and found that the hsf with the e4400 comes with a thermal pad rather then paste, does that mean i can just take it out and put it on another board without adding new TIMpaste?

also as a side note i moved my inlet fan to direct the air a little more towards the board and something unexpected happened the HD temps dropped to 33C idle and 36C loaded while the cores remained the same @ 48C / 77C ..... why do you think that is?

 
The thermal pad you are talking about is not actully a pad its just a pre applied thermal paste on the heatsink you will have to clean it off with rubbing alchohol and re apply your own paste. Basically once you put the heatsink on the processor and use it the thermal paste can not be reused so go get some artic silver 5 and re apply. Those heatsinks with those pre applied thermal pads never work to good IMO the reason you might not be getting the best cooling is your heatsink is either A not seated fully or B the thermal paste just not doing its job. Like i said try reapplying some new paste you might see an improvement also clean any dust off heatsinks while you have it off.
 
I recommend the thermal pad. Never seen more than a 3-4 degree drop with thermal paste. If you still want to use the paste, I recommend you use it on the heatsink, not the cpu. It's easy to use too much, which is worse than using the thermal pad.
 

ihashishin

Distinguished
Mar 7, 2010
5
0
18,510
thanks both of you for your valuable insight and answers

im going to look for thermal paste and when i find it im going to upgrade my computer and swap out the mb and psu and case so i can add in some after market cooling to be able to overclock my e4400

@ADMIN: please close this thread

@BEST ANS: i just clicked the first responder