I5 3550.

[apocalypse619]

Hello all first time poster here hope you guys can help.
I Recently built my first computer with a 500$ budget for gaming.
My build,
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit.
I5-3550 Ivy bridge 3.3Ghz (3.7Ghz turbo)
ASRock H77M LGA 1155 Intel
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-550-PCAR-E3 550W ATX12V V2.3
COOLER MASTER Elite 335 Case.
Arctic silver 5


Now my question is, i have been monitoring my Cpu's Core temps and 2 of the cores run slightly more hot. Averages of each processor idle is around 22-28 for two of the processors and the other two 30-36. Under load none of them i have seen go over 55c.
I have stock cooling but used arctic silver compound and removed the compound that was on the Stock fan cooler. I'm thinking maybe i didn't get full coverage over the processors?
I used the guide for the processor from Arctic silver to apply it. The build was completed yesterday so its been running fine and stable i'm just concerned on the temp difference.

 

[InvalidError]

Doesn't matter how you apply paste. Temperature discrepancies between cores is normal since the temperature-sensing diodes are non-calibrated.

Other reasons for temperatures to vary is scheduling and physical location on the die. If the OS tends to schedule more stuff to a particular core, it will get hotter. If an active core is sandwiched between two idle cores, you are going to get a bunch of different values due to uneven heat distribution. If the active core is closer to a die edge, temperatures are going to be hotter due to not having any neighboring silicon to leverage as a heatsink and if the active core is closer to a disabled IGP, it will not warm up quite as much since it has a large neighbor to dump heat into.

The IHS spreads heat fairly evenly across the die and HSF, it is unlikely that paste application mistakes could have significant hot-spot effect on any CPU core.

 

[twelve25]

Also, those core sensors aren't really calibrated for accurate temp measurement at low temp. They are designed to tell you when the CPU is getting hot. Comparing one cool temp to another is not really what it was designed for. They don't really get accurate until you put some load under it, which is what you are seeing when you say they level off around 55, which is a nice safe temp.

 

[apocalypse619]

Thank you for your answers. Im currently playing D3 low-medium settings not going above 53c.

 

[apocalypse619]

Best answer selected by apocalypse619.