New machine - Intel i5 2400 overheating before OS even installs

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dannCustom

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I just put together a new machine, including an i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz CPU. I have yet to install Windows 7 on it, but when I take a look at the BIOS, my CPU temp rises to over the reccomended max (72 degrees) within a minute or so. Once I saw it hit 77 degrees, I shut it off.

I read on another forum that if I use the stock heat sink with the stock paste that that paste will melt into place pretty soon after the initial use. Is it just overheating now because the paste hasn't done that yet? Or am I probably doing something else wrong? I know that getting a name brand thermal paste and that sort of thing might help, but my problem is more than a few degrees.

My build:
Rosewill THOR V2
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz
ASUS P8Z68-V LE
EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti

The THOR box comes with 4 fans, three of which are 230mm.
 

dannCustom

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I can stop somewhere after work to grab some new paste, but even without thermal paste... I'm only running the BIOS - nothing else is started up yet. It seems fishy that this is heating up so fast. Could it be something else?
 

87ninefiveone

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It's not fishy. The CPU is running full blast in BIOS since none of the power saving features are active yet. You'll actually use less power sitting on your desktop since the CPU will throttle down via speedstep if enabled.

Also, I wouldn't trust your reported BIOS temperatures. I know on my board BIOS will usually report mid 40's, but once I'm in windows every other program reports high 20'C to low 30'C range.
 

bwrlane

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My guess in order of likelihood is

- fan and heat sink not installed properly
- bios misreporting temps
- something fishy

But don't worry, the CPU will shut itself down if it is overheating. Try testing it in windows.
 

dannCustom

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Thanks for the responses everyone, I really do appreciate the help. I think I'll try moving forward and installing Windows (once the motherboard recognizes my optical drive) and getting some 3rd party software to view temps.

As a side note - if the BIOS might be giving me the wrong temp, what is the best software to use instead? I searched and saw people talking up Speedfan and Core Temp so far. Thanks
 

bwrlane

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I use Realtemp
 

dannCustom

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Thanks everyone for the help! I took off the heatsink and cleaned off the stock paste, then applied some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste instead. I then put the heatsink back in and triple checked that it was in correctly. after staring at the speeds in the BIOS for about 30 seconds and then seeing it get to only 40, I went ahead and installed Windows 7. So far its been hanging out between 26 degrees and 30 degrees!

Now i just need to decide how fast I should let my fans run (cost vs cool decisions)
 
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