i5-2500k idle temp too high?

[fr33man]

hi,

I just finished building my pc and I think my cpu idle temperature is a little high given that I have the cooler master hyper 212+. It idles around 30-35 C and I haven't even overclocked it yet. Do you guys think that I need to try reapplying the thermal paste or something?

Here's my system specs:
Motherboard: MSI Z68A-GD65
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 rpm 6GB/s
Memory: 8 GB G Skill Ripjaws 1600 Mhz
PSU: Corsair TX650
Lite-on DVD burner
Video Card: Haven't bought yet. Will probably get the Sapphire HD 6870

 

[dma0991]

30-35C at idle seems pretty normal to me. How high your temperatures are at idle is relative to the variable ambient temps at your place and case airflow restriction.

 

[betasub]

Firstly, idle temps are notoriously inaccurate. See the other threads in this forum about CPU temps/sensors/calibration.

Secondly, how low did you expect? Air cooling isn't going to push your temps below ambient, so results will also vary depending on whether your computer room is baking sub-tropical or chilly polar. And even that requires adequate case air-flow.

 

[fr33man]

I have the cooler master haf 912 case and the temps showed no difference from the first time before I closed the case, so I think I have good airflow. It must be the ambient temperature then since it's hot here in Seattle.

I was curious because most people are reporting 30-35 idle temperature @ 4.5 ghz after overclocking with the hyper 212+.

 

[Diogenes2]

For most people, Idle with SB is 1.6ghz...

 

[Zap]

I was curious because most people are reporting 30-35 idle temperature @ 4.5 ghz after overclocking with the hyper 212+.

Uh yeah, first is that your idle temperatures are below your body temperature (unless you were a fish or reptile) so if you touched the CPU heatsink, it wouldn't even feel warm. Second, get with the Sandy Bridge bandwagon and enable power management so the CPU can throttle properly when idle.

 

[Blastman]

There are 2 different temperature readings one can get from a CPU.

1) CPU temperature
2) Core temperature

#1 is from the sensor under the heatspreader. #2 is from a sensor on each CPU die. Programs like Coretemp read the on-die Core temperature (2) which is typically 10-12C higher than the CPU temperature (1) that is from the sensor in the middle of the CPU.

My i3-530 is currently idling at …

1) CPU … 24C
2)
Core (1) … 32C
Core (2) … 36C

I just finished building my pc and I think my cpu idle temperature is a little high given that I have the cooler master hyper 212+. It idles around 30-35 C and I haven't even overclocked it yet. Do you guys think that I need to try reapplying the thermal paste or something?

Which temperature reading is the 30-35C you are reporting … 1 or 2 … ?

 

[fr33man]

yeah I know the different temperatures that can be seen. I am not talking about the core temperatures. I can see that they are different. I am using AIDA64 Extreme edition...

 

[fr33man]

this morning its a little cool inside the room and I am seeing a temperature of 28 C

 

[Blastman]

28C looks OK. In other threads people were reporting 25-30C for idle and sometimes a little higher than that for the 2500K . It's going to depend on how warm the environment is where your computer is and cooling.

 

[rms8]

I recently completed an i7-2600K + ASRock Z68 Extreme4 build. It is water cooled.

I have the "Advanced Turbo 50" enabled in BIOS plus Intel Speedstep.

My idle speed is 1.6GHhz and the Vcore is 1.424VDC. I have several temp probes mounted in the case at various points. One is strictly for the ambient case temp.

With a case temp of 24.5C and H20 temp of 25.7C , my core idle temps range from 28-34C for the 4 cores. This is with all fans at 600RPM (min) and the PWM Pump running at it's min of 2770RPM.

With all fans run at max RPM (1300), the case temp drops to 23.0C, H20 temp is 24.0C and CPU cores are 25-30C.

I thought the Vcore would be less since I have Speedstep activated ???

 

[Diogenes2]

I thought the Vcore would be less since I have Speedstep activated ???

If you set vcore manually, it will not change.. You have to leave it on auto or use the offset mode..

Also, I think a blue font will make things run cooler...:biggrin:

 

[rms8]

I turned off the "Advanced Turbo 50" and instead used the load optimized setting at 4.8Ghz.

So now at idle, I see a Vcore of 1.024, idle speed of 1.6Ghz, and temps of 23-30C between the 4 cores.

Love this CPU, and love more the fact that my PC is inaudible. My laptop is more audible and it's about 3 feet away.....

 

[john3850]

I recently completed an i7-2600K + ASRock Z68 Extreme4 build. It is water cooled.

I have the "Advanced Turbo 50" enabled in BIOS plus Intel Speedstep.

My idle speed is 1.6GHhz and the Vcore is 1.424VDC. I have several temp probes mounted in the case at various points. One is strictly for the ambient case temp.

With a case temp of 24.5C and H20 temp of 25.7C , my core idle temps range from 28-34C for the 4 cores. This is with all fans at 600RPM (min) and the PWM Pump running at it's min of 2770RPM.

With all fans run at max RPM (1300), the case temp drops to 23.0C, H20 temp is 24.0C and CPU cores are 25-30C.

I thought the Vcore would be less since I have Speedstep activated ???

With Turbo 50 your vcore voltage is only on auto and your vcore is hidden in the bios. {bad idea }
When I turn Turbo 50 on my vcore hits 1.437 and cant be lowered and the temps increase by 7c at 4800mhz.
These mb have poor VRM Power so I try to keep the volts low to avoid voltage problems

 

[86waterpumper]

just curious, I don't know much about the sandy bridge systems, as I currently have a phenom amd rig, but why do the intel cpus only idle down to 1600mhz? It seems temps would be lower and alot more power could be saved if they would idle down to 800 at least? I know on a amd system, alot of regular web surfing and things can be accomplished even such as low quality video streaming without any of the cores ever going above 800...

 

[Ratman6161]

hi,

I just finished building my pc and I think my cpu idle temperature is a little high given that I have the cooler master hyper 212+. It idles around 30-35 C and I haven't even overclocked it yet. Do you guys think that I need to try reapplying the thermal paste or something?

I have a 2600K and the identical cooler you have. My individual cores idle in the high 20's (i.e. 27 - 29). So accounting for differences in cases, room temperatures, etc, your's doesn't seem out of line to me.

 

[Subyman]

Who cares what the idle is? Load means much more. What's your load? My idle temperature barely changed at all when going from the stock cooler to a Tuniq tower. My loads dropped 20C though... FWIW my idle is 28-32C. Prime95 load is 52-56C.

 

[tweakboy]

What matters is load temprature . Who cares about idle. When its 100 percent usage then go check your temps . gl