Strange CPU Temperatures?

[hassanje]

Hello,

I'm running are i7-860 at stock speeds and I'm seeing some weird temperature readings. When running prime95 and realtemp, I see the following:

Core 1: 78 C
Core 2: 66 C
Core 3: 80 C
Core 4: 69 C


I actually have two questions with this....the first is, why would the temperatures seem so unbalanced? The second question is, what types of temperatures should I expect out of this thing when running at stock speeds? I know prime95 is a stressful test, but I've got a Zalman CNPS9900 with MX-3 paste on this thing and it's in a RaidMax Smilodon case with an extra 80mm fan in it...am I okay at these speeds? I'm thinking of OC'ing to about 3.36GHz but don't know if I should given the readings I see.

Any advice would really help.

Thanks.

 

[Black Hush]

14°C between min and max is a bit high but I assume not all cores receive as much load. As long as the idle temps are not that far appart I would worry to much.

I sometimes have 6°C difference between min and max when 100% stressed with Prime but I'm only in the higher 40's and low 50's so going as high as 80°C the difference might become bigger. (I run a stock i7 920 but it's watercooled though.)

Maybe the thermal paste wasn't applied the way it should. Also, try running multiple tools. I use HWmonitor, CoreTemp, RealTemp and SpeedFan at the same time along with CPU-Z And they never display the same numbers..ever.

When you reach 80°C I wouldn't overclock too much cause it'll reach temps in the 90's.

 

[hassanje]

Yeah, at idle, I see:

Core 1: 31 C
Core 2: 30 C
Core 3: 35 C
Core 4: 30 C

Still a 5C difference between Core 3 & Cores 2/4. I wonder if I should try reseating the HSF and redoing the thermal paste....I got the impression that it would be kinda tough to mess that up, though...

 

[Black Hush]

I have the exact same idle temps as you do. For core 1,2,3 and 4 I have 30°C, 31°C, 32°C and 36°C respectively. So a 6°C difference between min and max and that's fine. It was that way with the stock cooler, also with stock cooler and AS5 and now with watercooling it's still a 6 degree difference so I'm not worried.

Aslong as you don't overheat the CPU on 1 core I wouldn't worry. Although 14 degrees is a big difference I doubt the thermal paste will make any difference. You could always try though.