Is my old thermal paste causing CPU overheating??

[treacotton]

Hello,

I built my PC back in 2010 and have been running it steady since. I have an I7 950 CPU that I never really overclocked and the stock heatsink which I know sucks.

I am getting ready to upgrade my PC and overclock this CPU. I plan to put a Cooler Master 212 Evo on it to replace the stock cooler and upgrade my fan casing as well.

When I installed the stock heatsink originally, I used probably the thermal paste that came with the processor not knowing any better. Again, that was 6 years ago.

While learning about overlocking, I decided to use prime95 to stress my CPU (which is still not OC currently) and look at the temps to see what it got with the stock setup.

I was surprised to find that within 30 seconds, the CPU was at 70C and after maybe 2 mins it was hovering around 80C which I heard was sort of getting into the red zone.

This is in stock mode so it shouldnt be anywhere near these temps. My thought is that maybe my crappy thermal paste has dried up into cement and is causing such heat spikes. Just want to know if you guys think that is plausible and heard of this before?

Also, is the Coolemaster 212 evo a good choice for overclocking the i7-950 from 3.0ghz to 4.0ghz? I know some have gotten 4 ghz with air cooling without having to switch to liquid but even if I get 3.8ghz out of it I will be happy.

I'd appreciate any advice.. thanks!

NOTE: I will be using Artic Silver when I get the new cooler and install it.

 

[Mark_1970]

Hello,

I built my PC back in 2010 and have been running it steady since. I have an I7 950 CPU that I never really overclocked and the stock heatsink which I know sucks.

I am getting ready to upgrade my PC and overclock this CPU. I plan to put a Cooler Master 212 Evo on it to replace the stock cooler and upgrade my fan casing as well.

When I installed the stock heatsink originally, I used probably the thermal paste that came with the processor not knowing any better. Again, that was 6 years ago.

While learning about overlocking, I decided to use prime95 to stress my CPU (which is still not OC currently) and look at the temps to see what it got with the stock setup.

I was surprised to find that within 30 seconds, the CPU was at 70C and after maybe 2 mins it was hovering around 80C which I heard was sort of getting into the red zone.

This is in stock mode so it shouldnt be anywhere near these temps. My thought is that maybe my crappy thermal paste has dried up into cement and is causing such heat spikes. Just want to know if you guys think that is plausible and heard of this before?

Also, is the Coolemaster 212 evo a good choice for overclocking the i7-950 from 3.0ghz to 4.0ghz? I know some have gotten 4 ghz with air cooling without having to switch to liquid but even if I get 3.8ghz out of it I will be happy.

I'd appreciate any advice.. thanks!

NOTE: I will be using Artic Silver when I get the new cooler and install it.

Sounds like you are on the right track

 

[treacotton]

Hello,

I built my PC back in 2010 and have been running it steady since. I have an I7 950 CPU that I never really overclocked and the stock heatsink which I know sucks.

I am getting ready to upgrade my PC and overclock this CPU. I plan to put a Cooler Master 212 Evo on it to replace the stock cooler and upgrade my fan casing as well.

When I installed the stock heatsink originally, I used probably the thermal paste that came with the processor not knowing any better. Again, that was 6 years ago.

While learning about overlocking, I decided to use prime95 to stress my CPU (which is still not OC currently) and look at the temps to see what it got with the stock setup.

I was surprised to find that within 30 seconds, the CPU was at 70C and after maybe 2 mins it was hovering around 80C which I heard was sort of getting into the red zone.

This is in stock mode so it shouldnt be anywhere near these temps. My thought is that maybe my crappy thermal paste has dried up into cement and is causing such heat spikes. Just want to know if you guys think that is plausible and heard of this before?

Also, is the Coolemaster 212 evo a good choice for overclocking the i7-950 from 3.0ghz to 4.0ghz? I know some have gotten 4 ghz with air cooling without having to switch to liquid but even if I get 3.8ghz out of it I will be happy.

I'd appreciate any advice.. thanks!

NOTE: I will be using Artic Silver when I get the new cooler and install it.

Sounds like you are on the right track

Good to hear.. there are 2 options in the BIOS that I am wondering about also. One has something to do with P4 CPU throttling (not sure if that is compatible with my CPU) and the other is Speedstep (there is an AUTO option for this one.)

Should these things be enabled when overclocking? Also Turboboost is currently turned off. Would turboboost need to be enabled when overclocking or would that risk damage cause it would be pushing it too hard?

Thx

 

[Mark_1970]

Hello,

I built my PC back in 2010 and have been running it steady since. I have an I7 950 CPU that I never really overclocked and the stock heatsink which I know sucks.

I am getting ready to upgrade my PC and overclock this CPU. I plan to put a Cooler Master 212 Evo on it to replace the stock cooler and upgrade my fan casing as well.

When I installed the stock heatsink originally, I used probably the thermal paste that came with the processor not knowing any better. Again, that was 6 years ago.

While learning about overlocking, I decided to use prime95 to stress my CPU (which is still not OC currently) and look at the temps to see what it got with the stock setup.

I was surprised to find that within 30 seconds, the CPU was at 70C and after maybe 2 mins it was hovering around 80C which I heard was sort of getting into the red zone.

This is in stock mode so it shouldnt be anywhere near these temps. My thought is that maybe my crappy thermal paste has dried up into cement and is causing such heat spikes. Just want to know if you guys think that is plausible and heard of this before?

Also, is the Coolemaster 212 evo a good choice for overclocking the i7-950 from 3.0ghz to 4.0ghz? I know some have gotten 4 ghz with air cooling without having to switch to liquid but even if I get 3.8ghz out of it I will be happy.

I'd appreciate any advice.. thanks!

NOTE: I will be using Artic Silver when I get the new cooler and install it.

Sounds like you are on the right track

Good to hear.. there are 2 options in the BIOS that I am wondering about also. One has something to do with P4 CPU throttling (not sure if that is compatible with my CPU) and the other is Speedstep (there is an AUTO option for this one.)

Should these things be enabled when overclocking? Also Turboboost is currently turned off. Would turboboost need to be enabled when overclocking or would that risk damage cause it would be pushing it too hard?

Thx

I will let the overclockers handle this one