Overclocking my E8400 - Core #2 stays @ 47° all the time...

[Nefilim]

So, I'm rather new at overclocking, but I know my way around a pc... I just bought a new E8400.

E8400 with Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
4GB G.Skill DDR2 800
Running Vista Ultimate (32bit)

Using Everest & HWMonitor to check core temps... Prime 95 or Orthos to stress test.

When running @ 400Mhz FSB for 3.6Ghz (1.25volts) - Core #1 maxes out at about 54° and about 38°-40° at idle. Core #2 stays at right about 45°-47° no matter what... idle and stressed. Any idea why this would be?

 

[error8]

It's a stuck sensor. Try coretemp, but I doubt it will show a difference. It's not such a big deal, since you can estimate this core's temperature being around the other one (3-6 degrees difference maybe).

 

[Nefilim]

Thx for the quick reply... I figured that it must be something like that...

Is 54° stressed a pretty good result? I haven't messed with the voltages at all either (I think it's @ 1.25 now), but it seems to be pretty stable so far. No errors in Prime 95 or Orthos. I was using a Q6600 (B3 stepping) before I swapped it out for the E8400, and the Q6600 OC'ed @ 3.0ghz was running at close to 60°, which made me a little nervous.

 

[error8]

If you have 54 C on CoreTemp, then you're "cool" enough. You are some 50 degrees until Tjunction, so no reason to worry. My E7200 at 3,8 ghz and 1,36 V ( 1,32 V load ) hits 65-66 C on both cores and I feel "safe" with that.

What I do not understand is why did you swap a quad for a dual core!? It was a B3, but still.....a quad.

 

[Nefilim]

I've got like 3-4 near complete systems sitting around here, I'm going to throw the Q6600 in another box. Was torn between buying another Q6600 (and making sure it was a SLACR G0) and the E8400. I do mostly just gaming, and the E8400 seems to do a little better at gaming at the moment... Plus it was on sale and was like $50 less than the Q6600. I'll likely wait until the price drops on the Q9300 or something and buy one of them in the next 6 months or so. I'm always swapping out parts/upgrading my PC.