Q6600 driving me nuts...

BoboKatt

Senior member
Nov 18, 2004
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Well I am about to snap. No matter what I do, what I try, I cannot seem to get decent and even temps on my Q6600 G0 using the Ninja Rev B. with a 72 CFM fan on full. The CPU is running at 3GHz so all I did was OC the FSB to 333 and kept the multi at 9. My Vcore is the ONLY volt I increased? all others are the lowest I can place on my board. I raised my volts to 1.225.

My idle temps are 38c, 36c, 28c, 31c. Under load if I let it go for hours with two instances of Orthos or Prime I can get the first core to 61c and others are between 57 and 50, and 47.

Asus P5KE-Wifi is my board. I am using 4 x 1024 PC26400 RAM stable at its rated 4-4-4-12 speed. Using just one WD 500GB drive SATA. One DVD-RW, and one ATI X1950XTX. PS is an OCZ 650 all housed in an Antec 182 SE case.

Anyhow I have installed, removed, installed, removed, installed removed my CPU and HS/FAN 1000 times. I have applied the AC5 at least 20 times trying everything from the recommended way, to my way, to his way, to her way etc. I tried 3 different fans. I went and ordered an aftermarket mounting kit to replace the stupid push pins of the Ninja Rev B?. I got this kick ass kit which essentially installs a backplate, and 4 large bolts with springs and the Ninja is now 100 times more secure and tight but still, not one degree of difference between the regular push pins and the new setup and still the difference between cores.

I have not lapped either the CPU or HS but man I have checked them at least 10 times for any sight of convex or concave surfaces and both look actually good. I cannot see any irregularities. I have used 3 different methods to judge it.

So? uh? is it me, the Ninja or what?
 

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
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That is a huge delta between the four cores... I don't think I have ever heard of that one that bad.... Which leads me to believe that you do not have the heatsink sitting flat or your TIM is not applied correctly. As far as the temps themselves, they are fine.
 

BoboKatt

Senior member
Nov 18, 2004
529
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Yah sorry I should have mentioned that my real issue was the difference between cores. That is one thing. The other I guess is that I am comparing it to my e6850 using a Tunic Tower, which is also running at 3Ghz, albeit with only 2 cores. The cores are almost all the time identical in temps but most of all is that at idle it never even goes over 30c and with load rarely over 47c using the newest Coretemp.

Again, it's driving me nuts that no matter how I place the HS on the CPU, thinking I am doing it correctly, applying AC5 etc there is such a variance in temps between cores and at idle it?s 38c for the first core and at times even 40 while doing absolutely nothing.

Anyhow guess I will have to lap both HS and CPU. I see no other option really.
 

The-Noid

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2005
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It is fine to have a delta that is that large.

I saw 11 degrees on a QX6850 at one point.
 

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
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Originally posted by: Yoxxy
It is fine to have a delta that is that large.

I saw 11 degrees on a QX6850 at one point.

There may be no realistic consequences as a result, but that is certainly NOT normal for a properly mounted heat sink under load. Idle is one thing, but under load that is not normal. The reason you will see that in idle is because one core still has to maintain the OS and therefore it is truly not idle. But under 100% load, a delta of 11 degrees is certainly not normal... Tom's Hardware C2D/C2Q Temperature guide states that 3-5c delta is acceptable and normal...

Will this kill your CPU? No... Will it cause problems? No... Does it bother you? Yes. So you either need to fix the issue, or let it go which is really hard to do sometimes!


Edit ** BTW, his delta is 14 degrees under load 61c and 47c. This tells me that possibly only two cores are being stressed. 50/47 are not and 61/57 are. Are you loading up all four cores OP?
 

BoboKatt

Senior member
Nov 18, 2004
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I was at home and decided to try again to run two instances of Orthos and manually setting the 0 and 1 core to the first instance and then 2 and 3 to the other.

After 50 min, ok... I might have screwed up, the first core is still 60-61c, second core is 57, third is 53 and last is 55 so way way closer. Thus at this stage from all your suggestions, really although I THINK the base of the HS and CPU are linear and smooth, it simply must not be and the HS is NOT sitting completely flush with CPU.

Although what others have said makes sense... yeah under idle the OS and other crap things running in the background are sorta "working" the first and second core so this makes sense.

Thanks all.
 

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
5,223
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Cool, good to see we were able to narrow down the huge delta to two cores not being worked fully. Anyway, a delta of 6c is totally acceptable and normal. I would not lap the chip, or a G0 for that matter as they tend to hit their safe voltage limit before their heat limit with a good heatsink. Just keep the cores under 75c under maximum load and overclock away. Again, I don't see the need to lap your chip at this point, but it is a fun thing to do :D
 

abumuqaatil

Junior Member
Oct 30, 2007
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I have my q6600 running at 3.55 Ghz lapped. Under prime 95 my highest core hits 85 degrees and lowest is around 79.
But i dont care cos when i use coretemp when playing crysis ut3 etc highest core only hits around 73 max.
Vcore at 1.45 volts with vdroop.
So dont worry about prime95 no gamer will ever stress that much.
 

F1shF4t

Golden Member
Oct 18, 2005
1,583
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Originally posted by: abumuqaatil
I have my q6600 running at 3.55 Ghz lapped. Under prime 95 my highest core hits 85 degrees and lowest is around 79.
But i dont care cos when i use coretemp when playing crysis ut3 etc highest core only hits around 73 max.
Vcore at 1.45 volts with vdroop.
So dont worry about prime95 no gamer will ever stress that much.

I assume you have B3 stepping? Cause G0 stepping should switch off at 85C (and throttle at 80C).
If it is B3 the temps are fine, my one runs under prime at 82C.
 

firewolfsm

Golden Member
Oct 16, 2005
1,848
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So?

Your temps are fine.

If you really care that much, sanding the IHS should eliminate most of the delta (lower the temp of your hottest core down to that of your coolest core.)

Also, your temps are quite low, you could definitely add a little juice to the vcore and oc more.
 

SniperDaws

Senior member
Aug 14, 2007
762
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Buy a Tuniq Tower, my temps are at full prime95 (working on all for cores) and a ambient of 23-25 degree's is 61-58-58-61 my temps with the stock cooler and same setup were 85-81-83-81 so for lower temps you need to chuck that ninja and get a bigger cooler.

oh and those temps are at 3.2Ghz 400x8.
 

bluerains

Junior Member
Nov 19, 2007
1
0
0
Originally posted by: abumuqaatil
I have my q6600 running at 3.55 Ghz lapped. Under prime 95 my highest core hits 85 degrees and lowest is around 79.
But i dont care cos when i use coretemp when playing crysis ut3 etc highest core only hits around 73 max.
Vcore at 1.45 volts with vdroop.
So dont worry about prime95 no gamer will ever stress that much.


Wow q6600 can go that high?? I thought I read somewhere that the safe top limit should be around 61C. Or I guess I read wrong? What's the safe top limit? And what should be a safe normal range for Q6600 underload?
 

darckhart

Senior member
Jul 6, 2004
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Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
Will this kill your CPU? No... Will it cause problems? No... Does it bother you? Yes. So you either need to fix the issue, or let it go which is really hard to do sometimes!

@BoboKatt: I have the same cpu and hsf as you, and I have the same unbalance between halves of the cpu cores (not as drastically different under load, but large enough to look funny). When remounting the hsf didn't work I considered lapping, but eventually decided it was easier to just let go. Anyway, regular use won't make those temps an issue.

@bluerains: you're probably thinking of the 71C Thermal Spec number for G0 steppings. "Safe" top limit is whatever you're comfortable with really... ;)