Did I install the thermal paste wrong?

[Steve Libby]

i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing
Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
NZXT Tempest 210 ATX Mid Tower
EVGA 650W ATX12V / EPS12V

The case has two exhaust fans. One on the top and one on the back. I mounted the tower cooler so it was blowing the air right into the two exhaust fans. I decided to test out the cooler by OC with Asus AI suit III which got it to 4.6 GHz at 1.252 V. Idling the temps are right around 30 C but under tests with Prime95 I am seeing temperatures of 90 - 100 C. I have immediatly stopped the testing and am about to uninstall AS suite III and put the bios settings back to default as well as run the cleaner app to remove all components until I figure why it is running so hot. I guess I just want to know if this a function of not installing the thermal paste right (I used the pea method in the middle of the CPU as per several youtube videos) or do I just need a few more case fans for when I really try to OC. Or is this just a function of me being lazy and not using the BIOS to OC? Any help would be welcome, thanks.

 

[cozmium]

Personally, the first thing i would do is very gently touch the cooling components. If the cpu IS actually getting that hot, then that isn't good so i'd firstly try it under load @ stock speed and see what temps it was. Then i'd touch the heat sink and the heat pipes near the base to get an idea of how close the temperature is (although somewhat dissipated) compared to the reported temp.

On that note, what are you using to check the temps? Many programs differ in their report and many people will recommend different things - Realtemp for example is quite popular and people seem to think it is trustworthy (personally I think it reports a touch high, albeit by a few degrees).

I don't think you could have failed to install the paste correctly from what you describe, but is it possible you could have failed to install the cooler properly? is it seated properly? Don't do too many thing at once though - like I say have a feel around (very very gently) and see if things actually feel like they are getting hot enough to correlate with what temps you are seeing, then go from there.

 

[Steve Libby]

Okay all great advise. Touching the heat sink first doesn't feel that hot actually even when running prime 95. I have been using HWmonitor as that seemed to be well reviewed and deemed as accurate based on initial google searches. But touching the components did tell me one thing I had not realized as of yet... I thought the cpu was a blowing cool air over the heat sink and I was wrong about that. Need to move fan to other side of the heat sink.