I have a brand new build, my first one in two years:
-Intel C2D E6600
-HSF: Zalman 9700 (cut a little off the bottom to make room for the bottom resistors)
-EVGA 680i
-EVGA 8800GTS
-2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1000
-PCP&C 750W Silencer
-Antec SOHO Fileserver case w/ x4 case fans (low speed 20db noise)
Temp Monitor:
-Using Intel TAT
1st Try:
-I used the Thermal Goop that came with the Zalman and brushed a thin layer over the whole top of the processor. The temps were much higher than I expected: about 32c/36c at the desktop and 38c/42c under full load at the default cloc.
2nd Try:
-I used some Artic Silver 5 as per the directions from their website for a C2D. I applied a single thin line directly over the chip area. This bought me about 2c better temps. I
Zalman 9700 Problem?
-I mounted the bracket on where one side is pointing toward the RAM and the other side is pointing toward the rear of the case. I don't know if this is normal or not but while it seemed like it was on tight I could rotate it pretty freely.
I just did my first overclock:
-3.0Ghz
-Vcore: 1.40v
Under 100% load from a Prime95 instance on each core (1 hour into it) I'm getting temps that are bouncing around between 51c -to- 57c. The average seems to be about 54c on each core, although from looking at the TAT log they can stay around 52c for long periods. The 57c hit only happened once during the hour Prime95 has been on so far.
From what I've read you shouldn't go over 60c and this is a pretty early overclock (and it's winter!) Should I be worried, or what should I do? I'd really like to get to 3.4 and that seems like a realistic goal aside from the temps I'm getting.
Thanks for any advice.
