E6300 Running Hot on Stock Cooling

[Killers411]

My C2D E6300 build is idling at 50ºC (idling in the BIOS, no HDDs or I/O devices connected). The E6300 is running at its default speed and I'm using the provided Intel stock cooler.

The BIOS reports that System Temp is at 28ºC, which doesn't seem to out of the ordinary.

Reading other threads, most people are reporting temps of ~40ºC. Is the stock Intel cooler that bad that I should look to after-market products?

 

[jaykishankrk]

is it individual core temps or what??

i use TAT from intel, it tells me that temps on core 1 and core 2 are about 52deg and pretty fine for a stock cooler and i am running my e6300 at 3.0 ghz, well that tells you that its a quite a safe temp isnt it??

 

[JustStarting]

are you just running default speeds? Are you using the Intel TIM that was on the HSF?

The stock cooler should be OK if you remove the Intel TIM and use AS 5 or Ceramique and not the Intel stuff.

Try some new AS 5 and reseat the HSF. If you can keeep it below 60C loaded on stock voltage, you are doing real good. You should be able to keep idle temps below 35C without issues.

 

[toto4398]

My e6300 is running 56C on idle and 64-65C on full load (Prime95 stable for 24hrs). I've OC'ed it to 2.33GHz (all voltages at stock) and I'm using the stock cooler...I was very, very concerned in the beginning but now, after like two and a half weeks of running it, I've not had a single problem. Will be getting some after-market cooling now though. From personal experience (and panic!) I should think that you're OK on your temps!

ps: The rig runs in a non-ac'ed environment and does not run 24/7 and ambient temps are pretty high where I'm from anyways!

 

[shabby]

Doesnt the bios normally run your cpu at full load?

 

[EarthwormJim]

Originally posted by: shabby
Doesnt the bios normally run your cpu at full load?

Boot-up does put a lot of load on the processor, but idling in the bios should not.

 

[nyker96]

I think idling at 50 is kinda high but maybe your temp software is not reporting correctly. check heatsink to make sure its working correctly. did you overclock this cpu? at stock definitely should not be this high.

 

[skriefal]

Yes, sitting at the BIOS screen will usually raise your CPU temp -- often up to the same temp you'd get at 100% CPU usage under Windows. This is because the CPU isn't idling. There are special CPU instructions that must be issued to the CPU to tell it to power down and generate less heat. Windows has a background service that runs and sends these instructions to the CPU if nothing else is running, thereby allowing the CPU to generate less heat. Linux and other operating systems have something similar. The BIOS generally does not.

 

[Roguestar]

^^^ Um, no? The instruction sent to tell it to slow down and therefore cool down are just the Cool 'n' Quiet. Without those turned on your CPU is still idling, even in windows. Sitting at your BIOS screen is not putting your CPU under load as it is not processing anything. The BIOS screen itself requires little to no CPU overhead, even with you navigating through it. The temperature you see in your BIOS screen is the idle temperature.

 

[skriefal]

No, I'm not referring to Cool 'n Quiet, SpeedStep, or anything like that. Those lower the operating frequency of the processor, but usually not while sitting at the BIOS screen.

What I'm referring to is the HLT instruction, which operates differently. This is a special CPU instruction that tells the processor to power itself down until the next interrupt. See here for more info. Most BIOS'es do not issue the HLT instruction when you're staring at the BIOS screen, so the processor will run hotter than it would when idling in the OS.

So yes... you can expect to see higher temps when in the BIOS because the CPU really isn't "idling" (it's still powered up between interrupts, even if it's doing nothing).