One CPU hotter than the other

[xeons]

Hello,

I have recently set-up a folding box running two Xeon (Harpertown) E5450 @3ghz CPUs in a HP XW8600 chassis - both CPUs run very hot under full load but one is 10 centigrade hotter than the other (79C vs 69C).

I was suspecting a temperature diode issue but I can feel by touching them that one is noticeably hotter than the other. I cleaned, mounted and re-mounted these several times making sure not too much thermal grease was applied.

I also own a second workstation running two Xeon X5690 @3.4GHz (Westmere) installed in a supermicro case and both run at about the same temps.

Is this normal?

 

[Lonbjerg]

It's normal...

 

[Bill Brasky]

It's normal...

Really? I'm not going to pretend to know anything about Xeons, but 10C sounds like a pretty big difference to me. If I bought two 2600k's and one ran 10C hotter than the other, I would be concerned. Perhaps one socket is getting warmer air than the other?

How is your case cooling situation?

 

[Lonbjerg]

Really? I'm not going to pretend to know anything about Xeons, but 10C sounds like a pretty big difference to me. If I bought two 2600k's and one ran 10C hotter than the other, I would be concerned. Perhaps one socket is getting warmer air than the other?

How is your case cooling situation?

it is.
Not all CPU are created equal, but they may pass the same binning.
That is why no OC is assured, why thermals differ...and why CPU's of the same modelnumber don't act 100% alike.

 

[zebrax2]

^this. The way how air flows in the case could also affect the temperatures.

 

[xeons]

The one that's hotter is surrounded by capacitors, both of them are located next to each other close to the front of the chassis (http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12849_na/12849_na.HTML) where air is sucked in.

There are other two fans, one on the memory slots and one in the rear that pulls all the hot air out.

I suspect the heatsinks aren't doing a good job. In fact the system came with a tall high performance heatsink which I removed after swapping the stock 130W CPUs that came with the box with 80W CPUs. I though the lower TDP wouldn't need the tall heatsinks. Maybe I was wrong...

I'm going to wait until my other high performance heatsink gets shipped and replace the ones I have now.