New build, High temps, argh!

LgFriess

Member
Nov 17, 2008
38
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0
Well I finally got up the nerve to build my first new system. With the help of many a sticky post and lots of reading here I'm pretty close to having it come out great. However, my CPU does seem to be overheating within a few minutes of running a blend test on Prime 95.
And that's without any overclocking at all.

The system;

q9550 - stock fan/heatspreader (artic 7 pro on the way), cleaned and applied artic silver5
Gygabyte EP45 UD3P
4gb Mushkin
GTX280

So after applying thermal paste, testing w/ Prime 95, removing heatsink, re-applying paste, I've gotten better results. But still, I'm getting temps close to 70C under Prime 95 withing minutes, and then the rounding errors start. Resting temps are 27-31C.

Is this simply due to the stock cooler being insufficent? Should I try re-applying the paste? Or just wait for the artic 7 heatsink to get here? Is it possible the q9550 is the problem? E0 revision btw. I tested the system immediately after I applied the thermal paste. Is there a amount of time I'm supposed to wait for it to "set" before testing?

I was under the impression I should be able to at least get a mild overclock on the stock fan.
 

Flipped Gazelle

Diamond Member
Sep 5, 2004
6,666
3
81
Check to make sure the HSF is securely attached, that the pins are all the way through the holes on the motherboard and secure. It seem that quite a few folks have had issues with Intel's asinine HSF mounting system.
 

LgFriess

Member
Nov 17, 2008
38
0
0
Okay, found part of the problem. I was dinking around with the memory timings having thought the MB was reading it wrong... well I was reading it wrong. So reset them to the correct timings.

Re-ran Prime 95 and it's at least stable. However, temps are still around 68-70 under load.

Are these CPU's generally over volted for running at stock? If I tried a bit of OC'ing (say to 3.0ghz) without upping the voltage, the temps should stay the same correct?

Edited to say heatsink pins are in okay.