Are these temperatures ok, or way too hot??

This is just while the computer is idling. Well, one app open, nothing going on really. The case is well ventilated. There are two fans on the front, and one on the top.

The mobo (P5N-E SLI), doesn't seem to allow me to adjust fan speeds. Neither does Speedfan. Are those temps too hot? What should I do? Get a different fan, let them be...?

those core temps are insane, have you tried any other apps to try and read the temps?

if you try hwmonitor and everest with the same results, shutdown and reseat the heatsink, make sure all pushpins are in securely (click) and that the heatsink seems completely sturdy

@ apache_lives

maybe you didnt c the cpu usage bar is empty

Here's a reading with HWMonitor



Doesn't seem very different to me. Looks about the same. Ok I need some good advice, because I'd rather not ruin this PC (I don't know if running those temps long terms is dangerous or not... but I suspected that they were a little too high).

There are two fans on the front sucking in air, and one larger one on the top of the case blowing it out. The GPU has a rather large heat sink attached to some pipes. The CPU has a very typical looking heat sink, with a stock intel labeled fan.

Should I buy better quality thermal paste and reapply? Should I buy a bigger fan for the CPU? Do something else??

I'm able to follow directions when working on a PC, but I'm a noob when it comes to figuring out problems on my own.

is this the heatsink?

http://www.frostytech.com/articlev [...] 025&page=2

thermalpaste is not usually the problem to my knowledge

sounds crazy, but try turning off the intake fans

These temperatures are with the side of the case off. The exhaust fan is working and blowing out air. When I installed the heat sink, I applied a thin horizontal line (as specified by Arctic Silver for the Quad core, since the chip below the surface is more horizontal in width). The only thing I can think of is that I gave the heat sink a significant amount of pressure when applying it. Perhaps in doing so I smooshed the thermal paste and it got spread out too thin? I'm not greatly experienced with this, so I don't know if that could be the case, or if it would make a difference.

That looks like my heat sink. More or less. I can try turning off or lowering the speed of the intake fans.

Yeah it seems low compared with my last PC. I looked up my mobo specs, and found out there is no manual control for the fan speed. Nothing in Bios, no switch on the fan itself. Should I just buy a different one? Would it make a difference? Think I'm gonna power it down for now and boot again in the evening when it's cooler. LA sucks right now, heat's unbearable.

Thanks for the replies! I'll check back in...

I have the same problem as you. Insanely hot temps! If I were you I try checking out the underside of the fan for dried out cheap thermal paste. That's typically the problem for insanely hot cpus while still in idle or your cpu is one of a kind (defective) or you live in the desert. Try what ares1214 said, reapply the thermal paste and clean out your fan.

Koinos, thanks for your insight, and for the links. I'll be sure to give those a good look over.

Alright... I bought a new hsf. Nothing fancy, but the heatsink is much taller, and fan looks a little bigger. The thing came with some cheap thermal paste so I just decided to apply that (probably should have just bought some ). Also bought a side-fan for a couple bucks (now it's got 6 fans total including PSU (lol.. staying pretty quite though). I also rearranged the HDDs down to the bottom of the case, so that they are out of the way of the GPU, now one of the fans in the front is hitting it directly. Temps down about 10C over all.



Ok. I didn't build this PC myself, it's a custom rig, got it off of someone else - so I don't know a whole lot about it.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33ghz
4GB DDR2 OCZ2G8001G Ram
Asus Pn5-e SLI board
Nvidia Geforce 8600GTS (512 DDR3)

Not sure about the PSU.

So should I bother trying to get the temperatures down further?

Btw, being an amateur, I don't know much about voltage (although I did increase my Ram voltage to get the system to boot and stay stable). Should I change the voltage for anything else?

That voltage seems high if its idling, the VID range for the Q8200 is 0.8500V-1.3625V.

I'm currently on a Pentium Dual Core at idle and its showing at 1.06v, so that maybe one of your issues.

Also the P5N-e doesn't show any support for the Q8200 as far as I can see!

Hmmm, can't edit my messages for some reason, it supports up to the Q6700 actually, see http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=KyHOsOKWujC2QguJ

maybe those temps are just a glitch?

Everything is hot, check to see if your rear exhaust is working

go aftermarket dude, something with hella heatpipes

Yes, I understand it.. I just bought a new HSF, about twice the size as the stock one. I mentioned it above... Maybe I'll play with the configuration a bit. My case is an Antec 900

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B [...] d_i=507846

Two intake on the front, one rear exhaust and one huge 200mm exhaust fan on top. Perhaps turning one of those fans around would help? The computer really doesn't need two exhaust fans does it?

Surely its possible that too many exhaust fans will cause the computer to exhaust cool air before it can cool components

Your -12V is still looking way high. xaira could be right and its just a glitch, as the +3.3 is showing 0.00V. Check in bios and see if the numbers are close. Should also confirm the temp shown in bios as well.
Let it sit in the bios screen for a 30 minutes when you check to see if you start to see it rise over time.
Double check the bios setting and review the setup info shown here;
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/m [...] N-ESLI.pdf

If you're not certain what the setting should be I'd suggest going page by page and checking all the current bios setting.

Its possible there's something wacky setup in your bios as well. Looking at the manual for your machine you can save the current setting and then load the setup default setting. Just a suggestion to try and see if things cool down and get stable.

Normally, depending on bios setting it would detect and set the voltages as needed. However its possible to manually change almost all of them. As it appears you've found out. Makes me wonder how this machine was setup initially. As all stock or tweaked.

Just looked up the specs for your MB and the processor detected isn't listed?
http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P [...] ifications
I'm not certain what icraig was looking at but I don't see the Q8200 listed... Although his last post from 7-21-10 at 10:41 makes good sense that you might be looking at catastrophic failure until its confirmed one way or another the MB and CPU are a viable match.