Is my Q6600 CPU running too hot?

Ledneh

For reference I have an Antec P180 case with stock fans, and an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with stock CPU attached to an Abit IP35 Pro motherboard with a Geforce 8800 GTS 512 video card.

Lately I've been trying to get my PC fans to quiet down a bit. Before now under idle each CPU core would be about 50-55 degrees C, with the GPU only a couple degrees warmer. Under load it would get maybe ten to fifteen degrees warmer all round.

Fiddling with the BIOS a bit I got the fans turned down to a reasonable level (as opposed to the prior "oh am I at an airport?" levels), but now the CPU cores while idle seem to be about 65 degrees C, getting up to between 75 and 80 under load.

Googling isn't helping me for whatever reason, so I bring the question to you all here: is this running too hot, and I should give up and turn my [strike]jet motors[/strike]fans back up? Or can I operate at this temperature without undue risk?

taliosfalcon

You want to keep a Q6600 under 60 C, judging by the temperatures you posted my guess would be that your heatsink is applied incorrectly, even with all your fans turned up that temperature is waaay too high

Ledneh

Really? Ugh, damnit. Now I have to figure out how the hell to get the heatsink off of the motherboard/CPU and redo it this weekend.

(edit) I guess if 60c is the high end, what sort of temp should I be at for idle/middling load?

taliosfalcon

Really as long as you stay under 60 at load idle temperatures don't matter that much. As you've seen going over 60 doesn't immediately melt the processor or anything like that, it will just most likely shorten its lifespan, and could be causing errors. If you're using the stock heatsink 40-45 idle is probably the normal range though.

OremLK

This may seem like a stupid/condescending question, but I just thought I'd be sure:

You used thermal paste between the heat sink and processor, right?

Ledneh

Just what came with/on the heatsink, but yes.

No matter, it'll work for one more night and I'll redo the whole thing tomorrow with a new sink that doesn't give me fits when trying to install/remove it (god fuck the stock intel sink)

zanetheinsane

When you say "on" the heatsink, do you mean that you're using the thermal wax tape that came on the heatsink? If so, you may wish to invest in some thermal grease, as it is much better in almost all cases.

VeritasVR

Make sure you put the heatsink on the correct rotation. My mobo manual and processor manual showed different orientations (90 degree difference) which almost fried my processor. You wouldn't think it makes a huge change but it does.

Ledneh

zanetheinsane wrote: »

When you say "on" the heatsink, do you mean that you're using the thermal wax tape that came on the heatsink? If so, you may wish to invest in some thermal grease, as it is much better in almost all cases.

Yeah, the tape that came on the heatsink. It's moot, though, I'm going out later today to get a better sink (and maybe a new case, because FUCK the Antec P180's cramped-as-fuck wiring :x).

What's a good brand in third party sinks?

Ledneh

Hmm. Went and got a new sink, a Thermaltake, and put it on. Took two hours to do, fucking case. Now it idles much lower at quiet speeds, like 45-50C, but by the end of my L4D session just now the cores were up to 65, 66C. And I know I put it on right this time (the previous heat sink, one of the push clips wasn't fully attached) with proper thermal grease and everything.

Ledneh

Sorry to double post, but I wanted to clarify now that I have SpeedFan working properly. It reads like this idle:

CPU: 42c
System: 32c
Core0: 52c
Core1: 50c
Core2: 49c
Core3: 49c

Which is the reading I want to look at to judge CPU temp, CPU or the core temps? I was told cores, but...

OremLK

Which Thermaltake are you using? Depending on the HSF it may not be much of an improvement over the stock cooler, unfortunately. Also, which thermal grease are you using? Arctic Silver?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835154001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

If you have the space, I can almost guarantee this will solve your problem.

You could also try adding a slot fan beneath the video card to pipe out more of that hot air, which may in turn take some of the heat off your CPU.

Edit: One more thing, with Arctic Silver at least and probably other thermal greases, they have to "cure" over time, and when they do you'll probably drop at least a few more degrees.

Ledneh

Put in this one, the Thermaltake i2, because it was all I could find at Fry's, mainly. And yeah, the paste was arctic silver.

(edit) And quite frankly, it's been going for like a year, year and a half like this, so if it cooled down even a LITTLE (which it did) I'll take it. I just wanted to get rid of the jet engine (mission successful).

OremLK

Ah, I have that exact model. It's dead silent and great for reducing noise, but yeah, it's really only a bit better than most stock coolers out there when it comes to cooling. Still, if quiet is what you want, it's a great HSF.

Ledneh

Quiet was my primary goal, yeah. I figure I'll upgrade within two years anyway, so even if it's warmer than it should be, well, if it'll last that long I'm perfectly happy.

stigweard

Speedfan is garbage for determining the core temps. Use intel Tat unless you are running Vista x64, then use core temp. Most temperature monitor programs get the intrformation from motherboards that use sensors underneath the cpu and not in it. They are never properly calibrated (some getting difference of 5-15c after a bios update), and rarely accurate.

Stormwatcher

Real Temp is really accurate.