Is my 2500K temperature too high?

G

Guest

Guest
I finally got i5 2500K yesterday and noticed in BIOS that CPU temperature is about 55 °C which seemed way too high for idle CPU. I figured I didn't attach the CPU heatsink properly so I reattached it. BIOS then showed about 45-58 °C.

I installed RealTemp and did some testing, turns out temperature is in anywhere between mid 30s and low 40s when idle and in all ranges of 60 when under 100% load.

Are these temperatures normal for stock heatsink? I'm also using the default thermal compound. I can't say I'm not worried about temperatures being to high.

I'm getting Zalman CNPS9900 MAX next month and I hope idle temperatures could be below 30 °C and 100% load temperatures below 50 °C on stock clock speeds. I plan to OC to 4.0-4.5 GHz as well.

Help is much appreciated.
 

dane332

Distinguished
Sep 9, 2011
247
0
18,710
I have never used the intel stock heatsink before. But i do know that with my i5 2300(i'm cheap and was able to find it on ebay for 100 dollars great deal)
idles on low 40c and then goes into low 50s with an after market cooler.(my thermal paste is not well spread, and i didn't have enough to reapply.)

i suggest you get new thermal paste at least until your new heatsink gets in.

it will make a world of difference
 
G

Guest

Guest
I swear I had some Arctic Ceramique lying around that I bought for my ex laptop, but I can't find it anwhere.

Maybe I should just hurry up and buy CNPS9900 MAX this month instead of next?

Anyway, I'd like to hear some more opinions.

I did more testing with Prime95 and looks like idle is low-mid 30s and load is mid 60s to low 70s even.
 
G

Guest

Guest
I searched for more similar threads and people say BIOS temperature is not idle... My idle desktop temperature is much closer to 40 (from both sides).

Prime95 testing didn't exceed 72 °C.

Should I be worried about my chip or something?
 

tajisi

Distinguished
Jan 15, 2011
179
0
18,710
72 C? That's just a little toasty. :) The numbers are within the average margins for an Intel boxed cooler. Keep in mind the crappiness of boxed coolers helps drive the sales of aftermarket coolers for people who like to tinker with their chips.

I think your chip is fine. You just need the better cooler. :)
 
First your tems are fine for the Blankity blank Stock HSF. With the i5-2500k, max temp is 95 C at which point it will throttle down.

Dif between bios and in win 7 at idle. In bios the the CPU is running at advertized speed. once windows has loaded and at Idle, if you look at your CPU speed it will be about 1.6 GHz, way lower than in bios.

I have the 9900max and love it. Have a mild OC on my i5-2500k (4.2) and temps runing prime 95 are below 60 C. Side Comment the 9900 max was a little hard getting the 4 screws into the backing plate, hope thy increased the screw lenght a little.
Also have the 9700LED HSF on my i5-750 OCed to 3.2 Ghz and it works very well.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Thanks for replies, I feel more at ease now. :) I guess I'll just hurry up with buying CNPS9900 MAX. :)

Now when I think about it, in every CPU heatsink benchmark/review stock heatsink was miles behind any and every aftermarket heatsink (especially for OCing). I guess that explains a lot.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Well, my idle temperatures don't exceed 38 °C now and one core is even below 30 °C. Maybe that's because thermal compound isn't fresh out of the box any more.

Still, I have my eyes on that aftermarket cooler. :)
 
G

Guest

Guest
I bought Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO after all. Here are the results of 10 minute Prime95 test:

Link to screenshot (1680x1050)

Ambient temperature: 26 °C
Average max temperature: 52.75 °C
Average delta over ambient: 26.75 °C

Is it normal that core 1 and 2 are closer to average, core 3 is above and core 4 is below? There's 8 °C difference between core 3 and 4, should I worry?
 
No, Your OK. I see many that the core temps differ By ± 5 C. and 8 C is not a concern unless the Highes core is above your confort level. Generally cause by a slight diff in Thermal paste variance on CPU.

53 C is very good with prime 95.
 
G

Guest

Guest
I remember reading that pea size is too much when applying thermal grease and it should be more like rice grain.

Rice grain seemed too little so I applied something in between those sizes, but I'm not sure if that was enough. Should I reapply or...?

Do you have idea how high temperature can I expect at 4 GHz?