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Core i7 2600k temps

G

GCC

Junior Member
Just got this new PC up and running, first time ever builder. Bios reports CPU temp @ 58-62c. HWMonitor reports cores 0,1,2,3 around 37c idle, and 58-60 under load. I can't help but think these temps are too high. I'm using the stock heatsink / fan combo at the moment. Wondering if it might be time to attempt to remount the heatsink and apply new thermal compound.

I applied some Arctic Silver 5, in a line down the middle of the processor and slapped the heatsink on. Worried that I may have applied too much. Room temp is around 77 degrees F.

Edit: I have some isopropyl alcohol to remove the compound but what should I wipe the compound off with?
Also forgot to mention I'm running an Asus Maximus Gene-Z board with all bios settings on "Auto". I didn't overclock anything yet and the processors turbo mode is enabled by default...
 
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If you drink coffee the filters work great to clean off the thermal compound. Use them dry to get most of it off then with a little of the alcohol to finish cleaning them.
 
stock heatsink, that temp is roughly accurate.

if you want an inexpensive way, a cooler master 212+ for under $30 will put the chip stress stock clocks under 50c, 4.6ghz around 60c

for Sandy Bridge, the temp inside BIOS is not idle temp. some reason the CPU is on load...
 
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Re-applied the thermal compound, knocked 20c off the temp while in bios. In HWMonitor while listening to windows media player and web browsing temps for cores 0,1,2 and 3 are 35~38c. Almost want do over the compound once more and put even less, but I'm not so sure I can hope for much better temps with the stock cooler. Also disabled turbo boost for the time being... didn't seem to affect temps too much either way but until I get a better cooler I just feel safer.
 
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Just built one myself over the weekend and spent a good amount of time trying to figure out why the volts didn't idle down with speedstep. The board defaults to a semi-overclocked state, meaning Turbo is applied to all 4 cores. Also, one of the power management options defaults to 'extreme which disables the chips ability to power down during idle states. Mine would be stuck at 1.24 v, regardless of CPU speed.

Go into the uefi/BIOS and change the setting from extreme to optimized or offset (sorry,its late and I'm typing this away from the comp) it's one of those two choices. Your idle temps should lower by at least 5c.
 
Around 30 is perfectly fine for idle in windows, it all depends on ambient also. In BIOs you see the chip at stock 3.4 GHz so that's why the temps are up. Relax. If you have until 70C on heavy load then it's fine with stock cooler.
 
toyota said:
I was going to get that cooler but no way will it clear my ram. I really do not understand all these high end coolers that are basically guaranteed to hit any ram that has heatsinks.
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Well, it's going to hit the RAM or hit the side of your case..


I don't understand these high end RAM heat spreaders, that don't do anything other than interfere with high end CPU coolers ..

( I know, they just look so cool ... )
 
toyota said:
I was going to get that cooler but no way will it clear my ram. I really do not understand all these high end coolers that are basically guaranteed to hit any ram that has heatsinks.
Click to expand...

Did you find a comparison review pitting that cooler against some of the others we've seen -- ThermalRight, Noctua, Prolimatech, Spire Genesis -- showing same test-bed and either idle-to-load spreads or thermal-resistance and fan speeds?

There is now quite a proliferation of good heatpipe coolers. For instance, the Spire Genesis 6 -- I'd never heard of it, but it boasts a rated thermal resistance of 0.09 C/W. That comes close to old data on the TRUE, and the Prolimatech or Noctua couldn't really improve on that by a quantum level. Certain water-cooling kits like the Swiftech H20-220-Apex Ultima boast a thermal resistance of 0.10 C/W at the noisier fan speed, which is higher.

GCC said:
Re-applied the thermal compound, knocked 20c off the temp while in bios. In HWMonitor while listening to windows media player and web browsing temps for cores 0,1,2 and 3 are 35~38c. Almost want do over the compound once more and put even less, but I'm not so sure I can hope for much better temps with the stock cooler. Also disabled turbo boost for the time being... didn't seem to affect temps too much either way but until I get a better cooler I just feel safer.
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I'm puzzled. What did you do to get the BIOS-monitor's reported idle to drop? The BIOS will always report a higher temperature than the OS, and I think the processor would be in a non-energy-saving state -- no EIST.
 
BonzaiDuck said:
I'm puzzled. What did you do to get the BIOS-monitor's reported idle to drop? The BIOS will always report a higher temperature than the OS, and I think the processor would be in a non-energy-saving state -- no EIST.
Click to expand...

Most likely it was due to the xtra compound he added the first time or one of the push pins wasn't all the way down. His original idle temp in bios was pretty high 😀
 
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