- Mar 2, 2012
- 7
- 0
- 10,510
Hi everybody. I'm really worried about this but find myself wanting to believe that there isn't actually a problem. If you wouldn't mind the long read, please help me to figure out what's going on.
If TL;DR, then please answer me this: If my Intel C2D CPU were overheating, I'd expect it to throttle and reduce its voltage and underclock as a built-in safety measure. As far as I can tell, this isn't happening, even when it went as high as 102 C, so I suspect (and hope) my measurements are wrong. Is there any way that I can know for sure? Is there a tool that will record the event of the CPU throttling?
Here's the story:
I've upgraded my Intel CPU a little (from a Core 2 Duo E6550 to an E8400), and now I find that my idle core temperatures are 50 degrees C. When I play games (I tested with Mass Effect and Dead Space because both perform really well all maxed out), the temperatures rapidly rise to around 90 degrees C, and then they basically plateau there, but it seems like over a long session that plateau slowly rises to, say, 91, 92, eventually 93, ten minutes later 94, etc.
My CPU has a temp case rating of 72.4 degrees. My understanding is that it's okay to surpass that but an extended period of like 24 hours running at above that temp will cause damage. The program RealTemp holds my temperatures against 100 degrees as the maximum temperature junction, which I think is the point where the superconductors will melt or something.
Supposedly, 5 degrees below max junction the CPU is supposed to throttle and underclock itself in an attempt to cool down. If the CPU reaches the max junction, the computer is supposed to just shut off as a built-in Intel CPU safety function.
The thing is, there are never any performance hitches or freezing or anything in the games that run well while the temperatures are hiking into the mid-90s Celsius. Can I take this to indicate that the measurements are incorrect?
I ran a stress test thing where the CPU is made to calculate prime numbers and works at 100% load, and one of the cores went as high as 102 degrees C; the PC did not shut down, and as far as I could tell (I wasn't running a game or anything and couldn't judge moment-to-moment performance) there weren't any consequences to the heat. Isn't that odd? I mean, if my cores really hit 96 and 102 degrees C, wouldn't the computer have at least frozen up? But nothing happened. This test lasted about five minutes, and those temperatures remained at that peak for around a full minute, spending most of the rest of the time around 88-95 (one core is always a little hotter than the other).
I really wish I had taken readings before I changed any hardware. When I originally built this thing, the heat sink was a problem, and I was extremely concerned with the temperatures I was getting. I remember reseating it then, but I don't recall whether it made a difference; whatever happened, I've run for five years without issue.
When I installed the new CPU today with that same fiddly stock Intel heat sink, I went back and reseated it twice when I saw the temps. I'm concerned that I may have failed to seat the heat sink properly despite repeated attempts because the pegs do not snap through the motherboard very nicely; I think one corner may be a little loose. But I felt like it was really sturdily on there when I tried to move it. My other worry is that I may have used too much thermal paste. I kind of spread a liberal amount on there using a plastic card (yes, I cleaned all old paste off first).
But maybe everything is exactly the same as it has been for the last five years. I'd really like to believe that everything is fine here despite the readings. I can't afford even a $60 heat sink right now, so there's nothing I can really do about this; even if I went back to my old processor, I'd still have to put the same heat sink back on top and would probably only make that worse if there is really something wrong there. Besides, I'm out of paste. And I've taken next week off from work to play Mass Effect constantly.
I've tried to find stories online of people who have had high CPU heat measurements with none of the problems you would expect to accompany them, but it's kind of a difficult, nuanced search. I'm hoping that someone here might have enough experience or insight to make an educated guess regarding the truth of my situation. Do you think I have a real problem here? Should I drop everything, or should I keep on keepin' on?
Incidentally, both Assassin's Creed and Batman: Arkham Asylum completely crash the computer (it reboots) just before they get to their title screens, but I think that this is a compatibility issue with the Radeon HD4850 that I put in and not due to the CPU.
If TL;DR, then please answer me this: If my Intel C2D CPU were overheating, I'd expect it to throttle and reduce its voltage and underclock as a built-in safety measure. As far as I can tell, this isn't happening, even when it went as high as 102 C, so I suspect (and hope) my measurements are wrong. Is there any way that I can know for sure? Is there a tool that will record the event of the CPU throttling?
Here's the story:
I've upgraded my Intel CPU a little (from a Core 2 Duo E6550 to an E8400), and now I find that my idle core temperatures are 50 degrees C. When I play games (I tested with Mass Effect and Dead Space because both perform really well all maxed out), the temperatures rapidly rise to around 90 degrees C, and then they basically plateau there, but it seems like over a long session that plateau slowly rises to, say, 91, 92, eventually 93, ten minutes later 94, etc.
My CPU has a temp case rating of 72.4 degrees. My understanding is that it's okay to surpass that but an extended period of like 24 hours running at above that temp will cause damage. The program RealTemp holds my temperatures against 100 degrees as the maximum temperature junction, which I think is the point where the superconductors will melt or something.
Supposedly, 5 degrees below max junction the CPU is supposed to throttle and underclock itself in an attempt to cool down. If the CPU reaches the max junction, the computer is supposed to just shut off as a built-in Intel CPU safety function.
The thing is, there are never any performance hitches or freezing or anything in the games that run well while the temperatures are hiking into the mid-90s Celsius. Can I take this to indicate that the measurements are incorrect?
I ran a stress test thing where the CPU is made to calculate prime numbers and works at 100% load, and one of the cores went as high as 102 degrees C; the PC did not shut down, and as far as I could tell (I wasn't running a game or anything and couldn't judge moment-to-moment performance) there weren't any consequences to the heat. Isn't that odd? I mean, if my cores really hit 96 and 102 degrees C, wouldn't the computer have at least frozen up? But nothing happened. This test lasted about five minutes, and those temperatures remained at that peak for around a full minute, spending most of the rest of the time around 88-95 (one core is always a little hotter than the other).
I really wish I had taken readings before I changed any hardware. When I originally built this thing, the heat sink was a problem, and I was extremely concerned with the temperatures I was getting. I remember reseating it then, but I don't recall whether it made a difference; whatever happened, I've run for five years without issue.
When I installed the new CPU today with that same fiddly stock Intel heat sink, I went back and reseated it twice when I saw the temps. I'm concerned that I may have failed to seat the heat sink properly despite repeated attempts because the pegs do not snap through the motherboard very nicely; I think one corner may be a little loose. But I felt like it was really sturdily on there when I tried to move it. My other worry is that I may have used too much thermal paste. I kind of spread a liberal amount on there using a plastic card (yes, I cleaned all old paste off first).
But maybe everything is exactly the same as it has been for the last five years. I'd really like to believe that everything is fine here despite the readings. I can't afford even a $60 heat sink right now, so there's nothing I can really do about this; even if I went back to my old processor, I'd still have to put the same heat sink back on top and would probably only make that worse if there is really something wrong there. Besides, I'm out of paste. And I've taken next week off from work to play Mass Effect constantly.
I've tried to find stories online of people who have had high CPU heat measurements with none of the problems you would expect to accompany them, but it's kind of a difficult, nuanced search. I'm hoping that someone here might have enough experience or insight to make an educated guess regarding the truth of my situation. Do you think I have a real problem here? Should I drop everything, or should I keep on keepin' on?
Incidentally, both Assassin's Creed and Batman: Arkham Asylum completely crash the computer (it reboots) just before they get to their title screens, but I think that this is a compatibility issue with the Radeon HD4850 that I put in and not due to the CPU.
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