Q9550 on Striker II Extreme heating up, please help

[Murq]

Hello all!

I'm new here and wish that someone could give me some advice on my current problem.

First off, here's my setup:
Q9550
Asus striker II extreme
OCZ vendetta 2 cpu cooler
OCZ ddr3 2gb 1600 MHz platinum
Asus 900 ultimate gamer case
2 x 9800gt
Vista home premium

The "problem" is the heating quad core. Ambient temp is 20'C, case air flow is good. I could also bet my left nut that the cooler is seated right.
None of the parts are oc'd (yet, because of this current issue).
There is no unstability at all and the CPU temp in bios is 31'C.
Asus probe II shows 27 celsius on idle.
BUT it is the core temperatures that I am worried about, here are the temperatures other programs give me:

IDLE

SpeedFan 52, 41, 32, 52
Core Temp 58, 45, 42, 58
Real Temp 47, 47, 32, 35
nvidia system monitor 57, 45, 43, 58

LOAD (prime95)
SpeedFan 60, 53, 50, 60
Core Temp 65,58, 55, 65
Real Temp 55, 55, 45, 48
nvidia system monitor 64, 57, 54, 64

Core Temp sensor test also shows 0 for sensor movement for all cores (stuck?) but this should only mean that idle temps are not accurate, right?

Anyway, what should I do and how big is my problem?
All help is greatly appreciated!
Cheers!

 

[videogames101]

What thermal grease are you using?

 

[Murq]

Some unlabeled silicon thermal grease that came with the OCZ cooler

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If there is a problem, my first remark won't much address it. "To H*** with the OCZ thermal grease." In fact, "To H*** with Arctic Silver 5 -- use IC Diamond." Even so, the grease that came with it should be enough to make the cooler work according to spec.

Now. I have the OLD Striker Extreme 680i board. Unlike you, I cannot run a Yorkfield, but I can run the Penryn Wolfdales.

You should ask and answer some questions before you panic. Read, for instance, the skinny on the Penryn temperature sensors in the March 08 Anandtech article about the Wolfdale E8500. I just posted that link in another thread for someone all worried about their E8400 Wolfdale.

Your BIOS temperature (~ 30C) is the tCASE temperature, and that sounds perfectly correct. The sensor readings for the tJunction core temperatures sound high for idle values, and I have a good guess as to why.

After scanning through that material in the E8500 Anandtech article, proceed with this "investigation" and possible solution as follows:

1) your current BIOS revision for the Striker Extreme II. [And I'm trying to remember just when the board was released, but if it was released just before Intel released the Penryn CPUs, then all the more reason to proceed as follows.]

2) The BIOS history of the board.

If there are "problems" with the temperature sensors, it is most likely the way the BIOS reads them. It may be a "BIOS bug." Remember that ASUS and nVidia must depend on mobo-maker-competitor Intel for the processor specs per BIOS upgrade and chipset features. It is MORE likely that they were LESS likely to "get it right the first time around."

3) Flash to the latest BIOS revision for the Striker II.

Your Striker Extreme II board -- pricey as it is -- has been highly touted in some reviews. Customer reviews, such as those at NewEgg, are reflecting the ambivalence of the enthusiast community that includes newbie-noobs and "old-hands." This was the same pattern I had discovered before buying the earlier Striker Extreme. But reviewers like Maximum PC are more favorable, and Max PC gave the board a "Kick-Ass 9" (out of 10) award. While I take Max PC with a grain of salt, with suspicions that they are driven to promote hardware of their big-ticket advertisers, I can accept their pronouncements on the motherboard.

EDIT: The OCZ Vendetta 2. Before I discovered my own problems and solutions pertaining to the core temperatures, I suspected the OCZ cooler. I HATE the pushpin approach. But the cooler was INDEED properly seated and secured. I SUGGEST for the joints of your thumbs or fingers, and your convenience and blood-pressure, that you don't remove the OCZ cooler -- given your tCASE vs TJunction temperatures. Look at the BIOS possibilities first. I am absolutely sure the Vend 2 performs as well as the TRUE cooler, and definitely good enough for your system. IN FACT, the construction of the cooler is solid. Only the pushpins suck like an old Victorian bathtub drain. My best assessment: You could actually replace the pushpins with the bracket and spring-loaded screws from other coolers, like the TR U120Ext or Ultima 90 or the Noctua NH-U12P. But the various risks and uncertainties are unnecessary. Just soak your thumbs in Epsom Salt water-bath when you're done, if you think you've sprained them.

 

[videogames101]

Make sure you apply the grease in a horizontal line for your quad core, as shown here. http://www.arcticsilver.com/pd...s5_intel_quad_wcap.pdf

 

[Murq]

Thanks guys, especially BonzaiDuck for your in-depth advice!
Yeah, they didn't have arctic silver so I thought I'll just go with the paste that's bundled.
Gave a good press on the push-pins, they were all good.
1. and 3. I have the latest bios, i flashed it two days ago.
2. The bios that came with the board I can't remember, might have been a couple of revisions older.

I've removed a couple of pushpin coolers earlier, and decided that I'll only do it after months of research with no other options to resolve the issue.
I hate to clean the paste too plus I'm afraid most coolers with pushpins are not designed to be removed and reinstalled and might get looser.
I'm not too handy so I rather invest on a better cooler than start fiddling around with the pins on the cooler.

What is interesting is that the tcase temp is exactly what I'm supposed to be getting with this setup.
I mean if there was a problem with the cooler, the tcase temp would ALSO give some indication of that, right?
It can't be that my tcase cooling is alright but the core cooling is not, or can it? Haha, you smarter people tell me.

 

[Murq]

Ok, this thing started bugging me too much, so I removed the Vendetta 2. A big mistake. The pushpins felt more fragile than the one's on intel stock coolers. For the first time in my life there now blood on the heatsink, haha.
Cleaned the sink and cpu with spirit, applied the grease correctly (which had been done in the first time already, but well, glad I checked, haha) and slammed the vendetta on top of the cpu.

The temps are the same, what a let down. Anyways, maybe I'll just try to be happy that it actually isn't my fault.

Anymore suggestions, maybe a better fan for the vendetta (the current is a bit over 1400rpm) or trying the stock cooler for comparison?