E4400 running too hot?

perdomot

Golden Member
Dec 7, 2004
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Got an e4400 running at 3Ghz with 1.4 vcore and using the Arctic Cooling 7 Pro HSF to cool it. With the case open and cpu at idle my coretemp reading is 43 degrees with an ambient temp of 19 degrees. I've re-seated the HSF with a thin layer of AS5 and this temp stays constant. When I used orthos to test my system, the temp jumps up to 70 degrees. I let it run for 10 minutes and temp remained at 70. The HSF is not even warm to the touch but the NB heatsink of my Gigabyte P965-S3 mobo is too hot to touch. Are my temps too high or is this what I should be seeing?
 

Team42

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Dec 24, 2007
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I'd suggest you have a problem. 43 degrees (centigrade?) is very high at idle.

My e4300 runs at the same speed (at slightly higher voltage) but much cooler (34 degrees C idle with fans on low, and 61 degrees C under full load with fans on high) at roughly the same ambient temp. And I use the same cooler as you.

Your cooler may not be making good contact with the CPU despite the AS5. Firstly check the mounting pins. They can be a tad tricky to secure. If that's not the problem, it could have a concave base. Mine was slightly concave when I got it but lapping it slightly has helped. It's still not totally flat or mirror finished, but my temps are ok. You might want to take the AC F7P off and check the base of the heatsink for flatness. If it isn't flat, lap it a bit and check again.

Also, make sure you apply the AS5 the right way. Too much is as bad as too little.

Having the case sides off isn't necessarily going to cool the components. If you have stagnant air, it will not assist cooling and may actually increase the temps. Having the sides on, and the fans working, will create a throughput of air: cold air in, hot air out. Make sure you have enough forced ventilation. I need 3 intake and 2 exhaust fans to keep my rig cool.

What version of CoreTemp are you using? Do you use any other thermal monitor? It might be worthwhile downlaoding the latest version of CoreTemp and using it alongside SpeedFan to make sure there are no reporting errors.

Good luck.

T42
 

perdomot

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Dec 7, 2004
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Thanks for the advice Team42. I think it might need lapping as the HSF is secure and I know not to use too much AS5. I was thinking it might be a sensor problem as all the reviews I've seen have temps similar to yours. I'm using coretemp 0.95 to measure temps. Is there a guide you followed to lapping the AC7P?
 

Team42

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Dec 24, 2007
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I haven't seen a guide specific to the AC7P. It's a bit of a ah heck though. The retaining pins get in the way, but you can prise them away from the heatsink base. They aren't held on by a pin that runs through the base, just dimples sitting fairly tightly in recesses. Use a fine screwdriver to prise the retaining pin structure away from the copper heatsink. Mind you, it's fun getting it back on again. But I've done it twice. It doesn't do any harm.

When lapping, make sure you hold the heatsink flat to the abrasive surface (wet and dry paper taped to a good solid flat base). Lap it 10 or 20 times one direction, rotate it 90 degrees, repeat, repeat, and check for flatness (a known flat edge held against a strong light to see if there are any undulations in the surface of the heatsink). You should check this across the centre, diagonally and at the edges.

I'll keep an eye on this thread to see how you get on, or if you need any more help.
 

Doclife

Senior member
Oct 7, 2007
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You probably don't have good contact between the cooler and CPU. I'm using the Intel stock cooler with the E4500 CPU OCing to 3GHz and my idle temperature is 30C, Orthos temp is 60C. Give the Intel stock cooler a try and you'll be surprised how quiet it is , even under load.
 

perdomot

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Dec 7, 2004
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Well I decided to change my cooler and got the Thermaltake Big Typhoon. Got it on now and am idle at 42 degrees. Pretty quiet cooler but when I do orthos, I jump to the high 60's. Ambient temp is 21 degrees right now. I'm suspecting this mobo is messed up because when I do anything like open My Documets, the numbers on Coretemp shoot up into the 50's momentarily. Maybe I'll go for a nice P35 mobo since I only need 1 vid card slot.
 

Team42

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Dec 24, 2007
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High 60's under ORTHOS is not bad, but it could be a bit better even for that ambient temp. Idle temp is still high though. You should be able to get down to the low 30's. Make sure your fans are all blowing the right way (with the CPU fan, not against it). Do you have SpeedFan enabled? Are your fans on min or max settings?
 

perdomot

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Dec 7, 2004
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The Big Typhoon is at 1400 RPM. All fans are oriented correctly I believe. Speedfan says the core temperatures are at 30 degrees while Coretemp registers 45 degrees. Supossedly, Coretemp is the more accurate measure even though its higher by about 15 degrees than most measuring programs.
 

Team42

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Dec 24, 2007
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Hmmm... two different temp reports. Are both tools reporting the same max temp under load, or are they offset the same way (SpeedFan 15 degrees below CoreTemp)? Certain versions of SpeedFan are known to under report by approx 15 degrees C. Update your software to CoreTemp 0.95 or 0.96 and SpeedFan 4.34 beta 37. I'd suggest downloading Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool (TAT) which will help you decide which piece of software is reporting accurately. TAT typically reports a couple of degrees higher than SF or CT but it'll be close.

Check out this link for information about the thermal monitoring of Intel CPUs. It's very informative.

Have fun and good luck.

T42
 

watek

Senior member
Apr 21, 2004
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Something is wrong. I have a E4500 running at 333 x 10 with 1.4 vcore on stock HS. Idles at 20, loads upper 60's :). Using Coretemp for readings.
 

DerwenArtos12

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Apr 7, 2003
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Take off the typhoon and clean off all the thermal paste from the cpu and HSF, make sure their nice and clean with some isopropyl alcohol and re-apply. The dab adn squish method is by far the easiest and most fool proof. Then re-install the HSF. If you're spreading on the TIM it's possible you're getting air bubbles. I still tint the heatsink side and use the spread method on the processor side but, some people get better results with the squish method.
 

perdomot

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Dec 7, 2004
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I got Coretemp 0.96 and it still reports about the same. Couldn't get the new speedfan as I have to register and get enough spam as it is but I figure it will be 15 degrees lower again. I know that the 15 degree difference is caused by the 85 vs 100 Tjunction of the 2 programs so that doesn't worry me. I've used TAT before and the temps are about the same as Coretemp.

The heatsink is properly set up with a think layer of AS5 so that's not an issue. Only thing I can deduce is that the sensors for the cpu are off somehow. Its either the mobo sensor or the cpu sensor.

Team42, what prog are you using to measure that 34 degree idle and whats your ambient temp? I got the AC on in my room and with the side panel off, I'm at around 36 degrees as I type this.
 

Team42

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Dec 24, 2007
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Originally posted by: perdomot
Team42, what prog are you using to measure that 34 degree idle and whats your ambient temp? I got the AC on in my room and with the side panel off, I'm at around 36 degrees as I type this.

I use CoreTemp and SpeedFan (and sometimes TAT). My ambient is about 20 degrees C (and that's with the heating on - no air-conditioning needed here - this is Northern Ireland. The weather does a great job lowering CPU temps on its own!)

Just back from Wales. Got off the plane in Belfast about 2 hours ago and it was raining, blowing and hailing. If I could waterproof my PC, I'd stick it outside and get CPU temps in the mid-teens under load!
 

perdomot

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Dec 7, 2004
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I live in Miami so I'm always fighting against high temps. The 34 degree reading is from Coretemp which would make Speedfan about 19 degrees right?
 

DerwenArtos12

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Apr 7, 2003
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Originally posted by: Team42
Originally posted by: perdomot
Team42, what prog are you using to measure that 34 degree idle and whats your ambient temp? I got the AC on in my room and with the side panel off, I'm at around 36 degrees as I type this.

I use CoreTemp and SpeedFan (and sometimes TAT). My ambient is about 20 degrees C (and that's with the heating on - no air-conditioning needed here - this is Northern Ireland. The weather does a great job lowering CPU temps on its own!)

Just back from Wales. Got off the plane in Belfast about 2 hours ago and it was raining, blowing and hailing. If I could waterproof my PC, I'd stick it outside and get CPU temps in the mid-teens under load!

Set-up some water cooling and use a heat exchanger inside with a big ol passive radiator outiside. you'll have to do some serious insulating of components around your CPU but, would be as efficient any of the chilled water set-ups. Talk to the guys over at xtremesystems.com/forums. I'm sure one of them has done it.
 

Team42

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Dec 24, 2007
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Originally posted by: perdomot
I live in Miami so I'm always fighting against high temps. The 34 degree reading is from Coretemp which would make Speedfan about 19 degrees right?

My SpeedFan and CoreTemp values match. If I was using v4.33 SpedFan would read 19 to CoreTemp's 34.

I registered with SpeedFan for the latest beta version: I haven't recieved any unsolicitoted e-mails from them or any other groups.

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12Set-up some water cooling and use a heat exchanger inside with a big ol passive radiator outiside. you'll have to do some serious insulating of components around your CPU but, would be as efficient any of the chilled water set-ups. Talk to the guys over at xtremesystems.com/forums. I'm sure one of them has done it.

Nice idea. I had thought about watercooling with an external rad. I don't think I need it yet. My mobo/CPU combo won't allow me to get to the stage where such a system is required, although I'm not quite done trying. Besides, my workstation is in the wrong place to have any external venting. If I upgrade to e8400 later in the year, I might consider watercooling just to get the PC running more quietly, but I don't think temps are going to be an issue with what I've heard about the CPU so far.
 

DerwenArtos12

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
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Originally posted by: Team42
Originally posted by: perdomot
I live in Miami so I'm always fighting against high temps. The 34 degree reading is from Coretemp which would make Speedfan about 19 degrees right?

My SpeedFan and CoreTemp values match. If I was using v4.33 SpedFan would read 19 to CoreTemp's 34.

I registered with SpeedFan for the latest beta version: I haven't recieved any unsolicitoted e-mails from them or any other groups.

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12Set-up some water cooling and use a heat exchanger inside with a big ol passive radiator outiside. you'll have to do some serious insulating of components around your CPU but, would be as efficient any of the chilled water set-ups. Talk to the guys over at xtremesystems.com/forums. I'm sure one of them has done it.

Nice idea. I had thought about watercooling with an external rad. I don't think I need it yet. My mobo/CPU combo won't allow me to get to the stage where such a system is required, although I'm not quite done trying. Besides, my workstation is in the wrong place to have any external venting. If I upgrade to e8400 later in the year, I might consider watercooling just to get the PC running more quietly, but I don't think temps are going to be an issue with what I've heard about the CPU so far.

thanks to the 45nm it's more efficient so it requires less voltage therefore less wattage and therefore cooler however, the commonly overlooked downside to lowering the fab process is that processors get less and less responsive to over-volting and less and less capable of handling voltage. Obviously the actual design of the chip and it's internal insulation are a much bigger factor here but, all else being the same though hotter, if properly cooled and with the extra voltage capabilities the 65nm would theoretically overclock better.

Quite frankly the reality of the matter is that cooler always ends up equalizing with a higher overclock because the colder the chip the better the internal insulation is able to work and signal jumping becomes the 3rd problem down the line.