Q8400 overheating

[mtolgae]

Hello. My rig first:

CPU: Intel q8400 @stock speed (2667) (Intel site Max temp is stated as 70 C)
Mobo: Gigabyte 965p DS3 Rev 3.3 (bios firmware F14) (all drivers installed and are up-to-date)
Ram:4 gb DDR2 800 ram (2x1 Veritech, 1x2 gb Kingston)
HDD: 1. ST3320620AS Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 320-GB
2. SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB
VGA: Gigabyte GTS 450 1gb @stock speed
PSU: Hiper 530W Black Type M PSU
Case: ASUS TA-951
Cooling: Glacial Tech 120mm in the back and a 90 mm coolermaster fan in the front of the case. Cpu has the stock intel cooler.
OS: Windows Xp Pro sp3 & Windows 7 x64 in another partition.
Room temp: 26 C

The problem:

I had this second hand q8400 recently. Before that I had a c2d e4400 @3000 Mhz without any problems at around 30 C idle. Ever since I installed the q8400 idle temp is around 45-50 C and load is incredibly around 70 C after an hour of gaming without ANY OC to any hardware.

I double checked my stock intel fan to see if I placed it right. I reinstalled the heat sink after cleaning it and applying a cheap thermal paste. It doesn't move, placed correctly.

I think the temp is way too high even for a stock cooler. Many people can push a q8400 over 3 ghz with stock cooler. So I don’t think it is all about the stock cooler. Case cooling also seems OK to me. You can see further details in attached pics. Thanks in advance for the help.

Couldn't add small thumbnails, sorry.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

My temps with the stock cooler and a Q6600 were about the same. (50C idle, 75C load.) If it got over 80C at load, I knew it was time to blow the dust out of the HSF again. :lol:

I replaced it with a big honking aftermarket cooler and they dropped to 40C/65C, idle/load. Gave me some OC headroom for the first time ever, too. Used to crash if I bumped it up at all. Now I can do 3.0 GHz w/o a hiccough. (Except for Netflix, which seems odd... Prime95 works, netflix bluescreens. Weird, right?)

I'm not going to tell you which cooler I got because other people would laugh at me and tell you to get that 212+ thing everybody's horny for instead. I can't argue the point. I just found a socket 775 cooler roundup, sorted the list by performance, and went down the list until I found one <$30 & <55dB.

 

[mtolgae]

Thanks for the reply. Didin't know quads were so weak on temperature side. As I mentioned, I never had a hiccup with my good old e4400 @3000 + stock intel cooler. BTW I am in the same boat, ie. on a budget. So if you can share your current cooler I will be very thankful. In fact I was even looking for something even cheaper than your <$30, like a xigmatek hdt-d1284 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835233018) which I can buy only for $17 here. Moreover, silence is not what I am looking for, it's just good cooling, because my headphones are almost always on my ears when I am in front of my PC.

 

[VirtualLarry]

As in sig, I have a couple of Q9300 chips @ 3.0, stock or nearly stock voltage, and they get up to around 80C running F@H on both the CPU and the GPU (GTX460 1GB OC) on a warm day. (CoreTemp shows max temp was 84C on two cores.) Temp on CPU goes down if I stop folding with the GPU. Obviously, the hot air from the GPU is rising up into my CPU cooler.
I'm using a CoolerMaster Hyper TX2, not quite as good as the 212+.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thanks for the reply. Didin't know quads were so weak on temperature side. As I mentioned, I never had a hiccup with my good old e4400 @3000 + stock intel cooler. BTW I am in the same boat, ie. on a budget. So if you can share your current cooler I will be very thankful. In fact I was even looking for something even cheaper than your <$30, like a xigmatek hdt-d1284 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835233018) which I can buy only for $17 here. Moreover, silence is not what I am looking for, it's just good cooling, because my headphones are almost always on my ears when I am in front of my PC.

Well... I ended up with one of these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835207004

Either it was cheaper, or free shipping, or something. Now it's $32 + $3 S'n'H.

 

[dac7nco]

Well... I ended up with one of these.
Either it was cheaper, or free shipping, or something. Now it's $32 + $3 S'n'H.

Heh.

 

[mtolgae]

Did a bit search and here are the coolers that fit my price range and are available here (in Turkey):

XIGMATEK HDT-S963 - LGA775/1156 & AMD AM2
XIGMATEK LOKI SD963 - LGA775/1156/1366 & AM2/AM2+/AM3
XIGMATEK RED SCORPION S1283 - LGA775 & AM2
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 - LGA 775/1156 & AM2 / AM3
Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer 92mm - LGA775 & AM2

I have intentionally wrote the cpu compatiblity in case of any future change of my cpu. I already know there are way better coolers around, however they are not either available here or much pricey (CM Hyper 212 plus is twice as expensive as the ones I wrote above for example). So if you were to choose one of these which one would you choose?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Heh.

See? Told you so.

 

[mtolgae]

If you noticed, I am looking for a cooler worse than yours because these things are usually more expensive here. Your 120 mm Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer is $52 here, 20 bucks more than newegg. And dac7nco-the"Heh"guy "one man's trash is another man's treasure", you know. ^_^http://forum.quoteland.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99191541/m/506105645

 

[dac7nco]

XIGMATEK HDT-S963

Those are very nice & cheap little coolers.

Daimon

 

[tweakboy]

You might need to use -offset

take it down by -15 each core,, and that si your temp. cuz the CPU is shows right but not the cores,, their way up ,, You can do offset

From what i see you need to offset by -15 . It would be 49 minus 15 and that is your core temp in Aida everest etc..

 

[mtolgae]

Thanks for the reply. I am not an overclocker and just struggling with odd temps in my all-stock rig, so I need to do some read about "-offset" and then I must find out how to take it -15 down.

Quick edit: It is reducing the cpu voltage, right? It needs a little visit to bios I guess.

 

[betasub]

Thanks for the reply. I am not an overclocker and just struggling with odd temps in my all-stock rig, so I need to do some read about "-offset" and then I must find out how to take it -15 down.

Quick edit: It is reducing the cpu voltage, right? It needs a little visit to bios I guess.

Firstly, it is an "all-stock" rig & your temps are fine. Don't panic.

Secondly, I think tweak (in his incomprehensible writing style) is referring to using a temperature offset to display a more appropriate reading. If you understand how temperature readings are calculated (as a delta from TJmax) then it is quite easy for displayed temperatures to be consistently out by an offset (incorrect TJmax, different CPU models may have different TJmax - see Intel).

 

[mtolgae]

The best I can do now seems to be just wait the Xigmatek Loki SD963 plus a Xigmatek 120 mm case fan to place into the front of my case. Ordered them yesterday. I was going to buy a Xigmatek Gaia with 120 mm fan but my case is too small for it. I hope it will reduce the temps. I am going to write the result when I get them. Thanks all.

 

[tweakboy]

Thanks for the reply. I am not an overclocker and just struggling with odd temps in my all-stock rig, so I need to do some read about "-offset" and then I must find out how to take it -15 down.

Quick edit: It is reducing the cpu voltage, right? It needs a little visit to bios I guess.

You can adjust offset in Speedfan and Core Temp. AIDA will always show wrong.

their both free small apps.

 

[tweakboy]

Its just a program option , Core Temp is easier tho

u just go and choose each core and put -15 soo if your load right now says 80, it is really 65 which is actually very good temp.

 

[mtolgae]

Good news

Installed XIGMATEK LOKI SD963 (added one more fan) and Xigmatek XLF-F1253. What a drastic change! Not in idle maybe but my load temps are so nice now. Idle is down by 6-7 C (in 30s now), but load (here I mean after playing games for an hour-Crysis 2, Bulletstorm and NFS Shift 2) max 53 C compared to my old 73 C. I tried it with prime95 only for 25 minutes and max was below 60. I will try prime95, Otrhos , maybe for longer hours. Thanks all.

 

[tweakboy]

Good stuff mtolgae ,, Good job with the fans, it will get noisy but oh well.

Nice temp changes there,, real good .. gg