I3-2120 temperature over 70C degrees!

[richardgal]

Hey everyone! I've been playing Bad Company 2 a lot recently, and have just shut the game when I saw my CoreTemp gadget showing 76C Celsius on both cores. Moments have passed and I saw temps dropping down to mid-low 50s, and finally my idle temp is 45-48 degrees. Ran the game once more to make sure it wasn't a bug, same results.
(Checked via CoreTemp and Speedfan)

Now I know I shouldn't expect much from a stock cooler, but nearly (if not, haven't checked in game during heavy fights) 80Celsius is way out of the comfort zone in my opinion, even under extreme load.

Even the side panel is off right now. My (recently, like a week ago) OC'd HD 6850 didn't go above 66C, I was running Afterburner so I was able to check. (Note: The GPU was getting above 80C until I stripped it down and had it cleaned/tightened an hour ago. Now it's runing under 68C with the same amount of OC. Core 800- Memory 1000.)

Haven't shown any issues, no freezing/ blue screen of death etc... What do you guys think?
Should I carry on with the stock cooler or cease gaming immediately until I get a new one ?

 

[o1die]

The hyper 212 and rosewill 92mm are both in today's promos. Both should offer some relief over the stock cooler. You can sell it to help pay for them. http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Nov-0-2012/Haloweekly06/index-landing.html?nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL110612&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL110612-_-EMC-110612-Index-_-E0-_-Core#weekly

 

[dscudella]

Wow, your i3-2120 is running very warm. You should get some thermal paste clean your HSF and reseat it.

Here's my i3-2100 with stock HSF

And here's my OC'ed 6850 with on stock vcore

 

[nukemaster]

How is the air flow in your case? Try with the side panel off.

You should make sure that the cooler in on right because if all the pins do not snap, you will get poor contact and higher temps.

If you do remove to have another try with the stock cooler, Please replace the thermal paste.

I full support the 212 idea. It is VERY good for the price as long as it fits your care(most cases with a 120mm rear fan will take it).

dscudella, How are your loads?

 

[InvalidError]

Probably a so-so stock HSF installation.

My i5-3470 peaks at 75C running Prime95 in a cheap (temporary) closed case with only the top-mount PSU and GPU acting as case fans. Under gaming conditions (40-60% CPU load), I get 58-65C.

 

[dscudella]

Under Furmark my 6850 hits 74c at 99-100%

Here's my i3 running Prime 95 for ~5 mins.

Edit: If given the chance to run for a full hour it would probably hit 60c. I also loaded realtemp after I had already started Prime. I should have opened it before to show my real min/max.

Edit #2: My case setup is the Antec Gaming One with 4x Rosewill 120mm 74cfm case fans. 1x Front Intake, 1x Side Panel Intake, 1x Rear Exhaust, 1x Top Exhaust. Overkill for my current components but oh well.

 

[blacknemesist]

I would cease gaming until the problem is solved.
Is the Heat sink correctly installed?Did you removed the small plastic protecting the Thermal paste?
Get a house fan(yes,those huge fans for when it is hot) and put it on max blowing towards the cpu directly.Watch is temps drop on the cpu.If they drop drasticaly your HSF was poorly installed and there is insufficient connection between the HSF and the CPU so the CPU runs hot.

 

[nukemaster]

I would figure that with poor contact, the drop would be LESS with the box fan(because the heatsink is not taking heat away like it should).

While good contact would drop more meaning a lack of case air flow.

 

[richardgal]

Thanks guys! I will give it a try and strip the whole thing apart tonight, for cleaning/making sure it fits correctly. Unfortunately I cannot apply new paste as I can't just run into a store downtown, we are pretty much non-supplied for PC stuff here in Eastern-Europe. (Eastern-Europe Style!)

I'm gonna have to order some online,probably some Antec/CoolerMaster/Thermaltake stuff, no cheapo.

I'm about to turn my mom's old stuff in tomorrow, (Pentium 1.5 Ghz, 512mb DDR-400) if things don't work out with the paste, I will grab a Hyper 212 EVO. I've been sneaking around that piece for a while now, great cooler Keeps the OC'd Phenom2 955B of a family member cool

 

[richardgal]

I have an 80mm fan exhaust at the back, a top-mounted FSP hexa PSU with a fan (but my guess is that doesn't matter) a CoolerMaster 120mm Red LED fan aiming towards the VGA when the side panel is on, but it just sits in the case since morning with the side panel off (It's 7 pm here,18:37)

 

[dscudella]

I wouldn't reseat your HSF without being able to apply a new layer of paste. Just let it be or use the box fan idea until you can get some.

Also, most thermal pastes are pretty much created equal right now. AS5 used to be the go to but everyone else has caught up. The stock paste on OEM coolers do the same cooling job as AS5.

 

[richardgal]

Alright, taking the cooler apart, hang on for results.

 

[nukemaster]

but you should have new paste ready when you do this.

 

[richardgal]

I have no choice, I have already removed it once during the set-up (turned out to be a faulty ram which got replaced later) but I haven't had these problems until recently so It couldn't get more s*itty than this.

 

[InvalidError]

Did you removed the small plastic protecting the Thermal paste?

The plastic "cradle" protecting the paste on Intel's stock HSF is not attached to the HSF in any way and would fall off as you pull it out of the box, which makes it practically impossible to "install" the plastic cap by accident. The extra thickness would likely also make it impossible to successfully pin the HSF down.

If there was plastic between the HSF and IHS, the OP's temperatures would likely be over 80C idle instead of 80C load since plastic is a relatively good thermal insulator.

 

[o1die]

I reused my Intel thermal pad material, and my idle temp is 47c, which isn't bad. But if your load temps don't drop, get a new heatsink before you start gaming again.

 

[richardgal]

Re-fitted the stock cooler with no additional paste from outside. Temps are averaging below 45C degrees, 50C with game in background, some stuff going on. It did not exceed 60C in the game, further testing in progress (If NexusBF would actually let me join)

Thank you guys, one nail (HSF lock) got released somehow. With both the CPU and GPU running at temps as they originally did, I can now concentrate on getting a 64gig SSD

 

[nukemaster]

Sometimes the pins just don't make it down all the way. causing 1 or 2 of them to pop back out.

Glad you got it sorted. You should still consider some new thermal paste, but someone did a thermal paste reuse test and notices less then a few degrees of difference. As long as the old past did not get full of dust and hair, you should be ok.

If you keep an eye out, you can pick up a cheap heatsink(212+ or EVO) that bolts on to improve not only temps, but also ensure it will never "pop" off.

 

[richardgal]

Yep, I made sure and turned the headers around until the little black ends were fully out in the back.

I am looking forward to the Hyper 212 Evo, but I didn't want to waste money on it,
(It isn't easy to get, as a student) since I cannot OC an i3-2120. Once I get an i5 and a new Mobo, I'll definitely jump on it. My priorities right now are an SSD and some new paste to make me feel safe. Altough just sitting here browsing didn't brought more than 32C on both cores, so it should be OK now

Thanks again, to you and all the others!

Your avatar reminds me of something;
"What about the game, Duke? Was it any good?"
-"Yeah, but after 12 ******* years it should be!"

 

[nukemaster]

Your avatar reminds me of something;
"What about the game, Duke? Was it any good?"
-"Yeah, but after 12 ******* years it should be!"

Good times.