Q6600 B3 stock @ 71C prime95, too hot?

[neosapien]

On thanksgiving I ordered an intel Q6600 processor from mwave.com, and they sent me a B3 stepping. D'oh. Oh well, I hadn't intended to OC it anyway. The push-pin design of the HSF seemed strange to me, as I was upgrading from an Opteron 165 with stock HSF. My first installation of the CPU was a bit hairy - I heard a clicking sound from the first 3 push-pins, but not from the 4th. So, I undid the push-pins, pulled off the HSF and reseated it (without removing the stock intel thermal interface material) and installed it again, this time hearing a click from all 4 push-pins. When I tested it in Prime95, the hottest of my 4 cores was 72C, and the hottest core idled at about 37C.

So, I ordered some Arcticlean 1 and 2, uninstalled the processor, removed the old thermal interface material and then purified both the CPU and the HSF (however, not having any lint-free cloth lying around I used toilet paper to wipe off the old TIM and the cleaners), and reinstalled the processor and HSF, this time using Arctic Silver 5 as per their instructions on their site. I had the motherboard installed in the case when I reinstalled them, which would later cause a problem, for you see this time I heard a clicking sound from all 4 push-pins, yet the clicking sound from the push-pin in the upper-right hand corner had been deceptive, because the push-pin hadn't gone through the mounting hole, it just clicked into place while it sat on top of the mounting hole, which wasn't visible to me because since I was looking down at it through the case. I should have taken the motherboard out of the case to get a better view, and then installed the HSF so I could confirm that the push-pins were in fact properly mounted. Well, when I turned on the computer, and as it loaded into Vista the computer shut itself down. "Oh crap", I thought. I removed the motherboard from the case and saw the 4th push-pin wasn't in the mounting hole, and pushed it in.

Now, my CPU idles at about 36C (hottest core), and in prime95 the hottest core is 71C, while the Tcase temperature is 52C. 1C difference between the stock TIM and the arctic silver 5, negligable. As I understand it from Computronic's Core 2 temperature guide, the recommended "safe" load temperature for a q6600 B3 stepping is 60C on the Tjunction, and 70C or above is "hot" while 65C is "warm". During temperature testing, I turned up my 3 120mm case fans, my 1 200mm case fan, and the intel stock HSF to 100%. Here are my specs:

Antec Nine Hundred case
Vantec Nexus fan controller
Corsair 520W PSU
Intel Q6600 quad core CPU, B3 stepping, stock intel HSF, arctic silver 5 applied
Corsair Value Select DDR667 2x1GB ram
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard
PNY Geforce 8800GTS 320MB
Samsung 250GB SP2504C HDD
Seagate 500GB 7200.11 ST3500320AS HDD
Pioneer DVR-112D ATA dvd burner
Diamond Xtremesound DDL sound card
Windows Vista Business

My temperatures were acquired in EVEREST Ultimate and Speedfan 4.34 beta 36, which I found to be reporting the same temps as CoreTemp.

Are B3 Q6600s supposed to be this hot? It shouldn't be necessary for me to buy a Zalman 9500 HSF to cool it down if I'm only running it at stock speeds, but I suppose if it comes down to that, I'll do it, as all the other HSFs I've seen appear to use those infernal push-pins.

 

[aigomorla]

you really should try to keep the cores not hotter then 70C. Meaning if your going higher, you should try to turn things down a bit, or get better cooling.

:\

You'll hear a lot of debate in this area tho. And no i cant prove to anyone where i saw a quad die because it was loaded at higher then 70C. But i can tell you many experts in ocing i talk to say the upper wall should be 70C

 

[graysky]

71 °C load is too hot. Quads need better-than-stock cooling in my opinion. You can also verify what your vcore is set to and try to minimize it. See my overclocking guide for minimizing vcore and also see the temp. management section.

 

[neosapien]

During Prime95, Core Temp 0.95.4 reports that the VID is 1.3250v. CPU-Z reports that the Core Voltage is 1.248V. Speedfan 4.34 beta 36 reports that Vcore1 is 1.25V. While Idle, Core Temp 0.95.4 reports VID 1.1625v, CPU-Z 1.120V, Speedfan 1.12V.

In the BIOS, under PC Health Status, the Vcore is reported as 1.300V. Under "MB Intelligent Tweaker" and "Normal CPU Voltage Control" the voltage is listed as Normal, and below that line, Normal CPU Vcore is listed as 1.32500V.

 

[ViRGE]

1.325v is the highest stock voltage on a Q6600, you basically got unlucky and got a hot chip. 71C is still well below the temp that Intel feels is too hot and kicks in thermal throttling, but it's definitely as high as you want to go and not a degree more. You'll probably be fine over the lifetime of the chip with that configuration, but I think you'd sleep better at night if you had a better HSF.

 

[neosapien]

Ouch. So other B3 stepping Q6600s sometimes have a lower stock voltage than 1.325v, and G0s have a lower stock voltage as well? Did I get doubly unlucky in that not only did mwave.com send me a B3 stepping, they sent me the hottest B3 stepping they could find?

 

[ViRGE]

I think the G0s actually go just as high, but either way getting a 1.325v chip is basically unlucky. The B3s go down to 1.1v or so, and the G0s even a bit lower than that. It's not the end of the world, but it's part of the reason your chip is so hot.

 

[spinejam]

I have a hottie too! I've got a Q6600 G0 3200mhz (1.3 VID) that hits ~ 69-72 degrees w/ prime using 1.36 vCore @ load. Been running fine for several weeks now!

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: neosapien
Ouch. So other B3 stepping Q6600s sometimes have a lower stock voltage than 1.325v, and G0s have a lower stock voltage as well? Did I get doubly unlucky in that not only did mwave.com send me a B3 stepping, they sent me the hottest B3 stepping they could find?

If it is OEM then you likely got the hottest B3 and highest Vid that was previously RMA'ed to them.

These things will get recycled from one unlucky customer to the next until someone becomes the happy owner of something that doesn't bother them (not everyone overclocks their Q6600, and for them a B3 with high Vid is just fine).

 

[ArchAngel777]

This is a debated topic... I am of the opinion that you should do everything reasonable to lower temperatures. However, keep in mind that many OEM computers than run the Q6600's idle in the 50c range and load 75c+.

I don't think 71c is too hot at all. But that is my opinion. My viewpoint is this - performance now, pay later (if at all). If my Q6600 dies on me, I have learned something more valueable than the 266 I paid. Besides, the Q6600 will be picked up off of Ebay for ~100 in a few months anyway. So, again, performance now, pay later if at all.

I did however upgrade to watercooling... But that was not so much because of thermals with my speed I had chosen, but because I wanted to get 3.6Ghz out of my chip AND because I wanted to watercool just because it is cool.

Water rocks, BTW...

 

[neosapien]

It was a retail boxed processor, not OEM.

I went ahead and ordered the Zalman 9500 HSF

 

[GeezerMan]

Toilet paper will leave lots of lint when cleaning thermal interface. Try coffee filters to clean with. It works well.

 

[Saiyukimot]

71 degrees is the hottest it should ever go to....ever.....anything more and it starts to damage the chip.

Try remounting your heatsink, or getting a new better one

Even with my G0 at 1.32v I have load temps of 64.......bad chip indeed.


I have mine at 1.275v and its 59max load...usually mid 50's, with high 20's idle.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

71C is fine with P95. Subtract 10 and that's the highest you'll probably ever really hit during regular use.

 

[GeezerMan]

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
This is a debated topic... I am of the opinion that you should do everything reasonable to lower temperatures. However, keep in mind that many OEM computers than run the Q6600's idle in the 50c range and load 75c+.

I don't think 71c is too hot at all. But that is my opinion. My viewpoint is this - performance now, pay later (if at all). If my Q6600 dies on me, I have learned something more valueable than the 266 I paid. Besides, the Q6600 will be picked up off of Ebay for ~100 in a few months anyway. So, again, performance now, pay later if at all.

I did however upgrade to watercooling... But that was not so much because of thermals with my speed I had chosen, but because I wanted to get 3.6Ghz out of my chip AND because I wanted to watercool just because it is cool.

Water rocks, BTW...

Yep, my neighbors Acer with Q6600 will hit 70c while video encoding. It's the cpu fan on his. It's set to go high based upon case air temp, not cpu temp. A warmer room, and his runs MUCH cooler since the cpu fan will then go high. I think their focus was on quiet computing first.

 

[neosapien]

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
This is a debated topic... I am of the opinion that you should do everything reasonable to lower temperatures. However, keep in mind that many OEM computers than run the Q6600's idle in the 50c range and load 75c+.

I wonder how people with Dell and Acer etc computers deal with this situation. My Antec 900 case has much better airflow than a Dell or Acer case, so I imagine there are indeed people out there with 75C+ q6600s. If the CPU dies before it reaches its 3rd year, I imagine Intel has to replace it. I wonder how many computers built by these OEMs with q6600s will have their CPUs die before the warranty is up. Probably a lot, if running at 75C+ really is harmful. Intel should include a better HSF with their retail boxed CPUs.

Thank you GeezerMan, I will use coffee filters to wipe off the old arctic silver 5 and the arctic clean.

 

[sharad]

I don't think 70C is bad or even unusual for Quad chips with stock cooler.

My G0 revision Q6600 used to have Prime95 load temps of 72-75C at around 24C ambient with stock heatsink and no overclock. Adding a couple of noisy case fans would lower it to around 67C. I got rid of the stock heatsink fast. Now I am running Thermalright 128-SE with a Panaflo fan and my Prime95 load temps are ~55-58C at 24C ambient @ 3Ghz.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: neosapien

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
This is a debated topic... I am of the opinion that you should do everything reasonable to lower temperatures. However, keep in mind that many OEM computers than run the Q6600's idle in the 50c range and load 75c+.

I wonder how people with Dell and Acer etc computers deal with this situation. My Antec 900 case has much better airflow than a Dell or Acer case, so I imagine there are indeed people out there with 75C+ q6600s. If the CPU dies before it reaches its 3rd year, I imagine Intel has to replace it. I wonder how many computers built by these OEMs with q6600s will have their CPUs die before the warranty is up. Probably a lot, if running at 75C+ really is harmful. Intel should include a better HSF with their retail boxed CPUs.

Thank you GeezerMan, I will use coffee filters to wipe off the old arctic silver 5 and the arctic clean.

Ducts. They augment their generally poor cooling with cheap but effective ducting that ensures that hot air from the processor is getting directed right out of the case. Combined with integrated graphics and small PSUs, there isn't a lot of other heat being dumped in to the case that needs to be dealt with or that would be heating up the air going in to the processor.

 

[sharad]

The E6600 dual core Dell machine (Dimension E5xx something) I use at work has pretty good mid-tower case with front intake fan. Prime95 load temps of 46C.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

The last Dell I took apart had this large tube from the CPU leading to a fan and vent in the back... Yea, I think it's ducts.

 

[GeezerMan]

Well, my neighbor's Acer Q6600 came with a very tall Foxconn made CPU heatsink, and a duct to the side of the case. His problem is just the thermistor on the CPU fan that controls fan speed.
Under a load of about 85% on all cores, fan on low, temps hit 70c, but with the cpu fan on high, in the 50c range.

 

[neosapien]

With regards to undervolting my q6600 to get it to cool off as graysky suggested, would this article on Undervolting a laptop also mostly apply to undervolting my q6600? Or are there better guides out there for my situation?

That guide's method of lowering your vcore in increments of 0.025V using RM-Clock Utility and running prime95 for a few minutes, then repeating until your computer crashes and reboots, then adjusting it upwards by 0.025V and testing it for hours in prime95 to make sure it's stable, seems pretty hassle-free, but that article is 2 years old now. Is that still a good method?

 

[wileyum]

I hope you did not buy the zalman 9500 yet because it wont drop those temps by much!!
i have a b3 q6600 with the zalman 9500 and i idle at 51c on a SMALL overclock. currently at 2.66ghz 1333fsb 1.375v. i even have the same ram as you, corsair ddr667 that i did not overclock.

on load, i reach about 66-68c.

u need to look into the thermalright extreme with an s-flex fan.

here are my specs:
q6600 @2.66ghz 1333fsb 8x multiplier with zalman 9500 and as5.
corsair xms 667 2gb. (unlinked settings)
xfx sli 680i a+ motherboard
bfg 8800gts 512
ocz 520w ps

 

[neosapien]

I ordered the zalman 9500 from newegg 2 days ago

 

[wileyum]

refuse delivery then! u need to get the 9700 with the bigger fan. its worth the extra money!