Temperature Seem High For Stock Q6600?

[ddarko]

For the first time, I built my own system. I have a Q6600, a Zerotherm Nirvana heat sink and a Maximus Formula motherboard. With the CPU at stock speed and the fan set to the lowest speed, I'm getting Core Temp readings of any from the low to high 40 degrees celsius. When there's activity like syncing with iTunes, the first core breaks 50 degrees. This is also with Speed Step enabled.

These temperatures seems high to me but I don't have much experience in this. I realize I can set the fan to a higher rotation but I was expecting, based on reviews of the Zerotherm that I read, including the one here on Anandtech, that even at the lowest setting, I'd see lower temperatures at stock speeds. Were my expectations too high? I'm concerned I didn't apply the thermal grease properly and will have to reseat the heat sink, which, with the Zerotherm, will require me to remove the motherboard from the case, a big big pain which I'd like to avoid. I spread a thin layer of the thermal grease that came with the Zerotherm across the entire face of the CPU. Should have placed a thin line across the face of the CPU instead? Or is it too early to tell at this stage? The computer has only been up and running for 10 hours so far. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Did you mount the cooler correctly? Also what's the temperature delta? At full load with my improperly mounted cooler and incredibly sloppy job with the TIM I barely break 42 under full load for 30 minutes in Prime so I'm not sure why your temp readings are so high.

 

[Amaroque]

My OC'd Q6600 @ 3GHz stock Vcore hits low to mid 60's with the XP90c. My OC'd X2 4800+ @ 2.8 GHz stock Vcore hits low to mid 50's with the XP90c. This is with AS5 used on both machines.

Also, both machines are at 100% CPU usage 24/7, so I have no idea of idle temps.

 

[ddarko]

Thank you for your feedback. It confirmed my suspicion that my temps were too high so I reseated and cleaned the CPU and reapplied the thermal grease and now my temps are hovering in the mid to high 30s. That's much more in line with where I would expect them to be. I think my problem was that I so concerned with applying too much grease that I didn't apply enough. I used more this time and it seems to have made the difference, lowering my temperature range a full 10 degrees. Now for some overclocking...

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: ddarko
Thank you for your feedback. It confirmed my suspicion that my temps were too high so I reseated and cleaned the CPU and reapplied the thermal grease and now my temps are hovering in the mid to high 30s. That's much more in line with where I would expect them to be. I think my problem was that I so concerned with applying too much grease that I didn't apply enough. I used more this time and it seems to have made the difference, lowering my temperature range a full 10 degrees. Now for some overclocking...

Try loading all your cores with Prime95 stress test, and see what temps you get. Also, I didn't see you list what TIM you are using.

 

[ddarko]

I just used the thermal grease included in the Zerotherm box. It's branded as "Zerotherm High Performance Thermal Grease." I don't know if Zerotherm actually makes it or rebrands. The tube has limited info on it, says the density is 2.7 g/cc, temperature range is -40 to 150 degrees celsius but that's it. Thanks for the link to Prime95, I haven't run it or overclocked yet but I'll run it before trying. I'm just happy with the new system.

 

[krnmastersgt]

There's such a thing as not putting enough? From my understanding TIM is only applied to fill in the small imperfections between the plate from the cooler and the plate on the cpu to get maximum conductivity of the heat, I thought the ideal situation was to have a near perfectly flat surface on both and just mount without any TIM or just a very thin layer so you get the best conductivity, am I wrong on this or what?

 

[ddarko]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
There's such a thing as not putting enough? From my understanding TIM is only applied to fill in the small imperfections between the plate from the cooler and the plate on the cpu to get maximum conductivity of the heat, I thought the ideal situation was to have a near perfectly flat surface on both and just mount without any TIM or just a very thin layer so you get the best conductivity, am I wrong on this or what?

I guess I can't rule out that I mounted the heat sink incorrectly but I can't think of how I could have done it wrong. It was right over the CPU, it was screwed it tight but not too tight. Maybe I didn't ensure that there was enough contact between the heat sink plate and the CPU? When I removed the cooler to reseat the CPU, there was some grease on the cooler plate but not a lot. Dunno if that's expected.

Whatever I did this second time around, the temperature drop is holding, even though the fan is now set at the slowest setting and I've added two more hard drives.

 

[Amaroque]

I'm not sure why that link isn't working... did this morning.

 

[krnmastersgt]

I've had problems with that site before Amaroque, booted my system with XP then decided to upgrade to vista, didn't want a dual boot so I just formatted etc. and when I went to get Prime 95 since I hadn't really overclocked + stress tested I couldn't get the site to show or let me download -_- and ddarko I didn't mean that you mounted incorrectly but that maybe there was too much TIM in the wrong places?

 

[ddarko]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgtI didn't mean that you mounted incorrectly but that maybe there was too much TIM in the wrong places?

The first time, I used a lens cloth to apply and spread the grease and left only a very thin layer across the entire face of the CPU. It was more like a light dusting, not enough to leave too much grease anywhere. This second time, I wasn't so miserly and left the grease more uneven than before; I figured if the heat sink was mounted properly, it would flatten out the grease.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Well that's a rather odd scenario, I've seen inaccurate temps because of too much TIM but not because of too little, guess I was wrong on that one.

 

[ddarko]

I just briefly overclocked my CPU today to 3.0 ghz without changing CPU voltage. At idle, the core temperatures rose to the high 40s to low 50s. When I ran Prime95 for about 15 minutes, the temps rose further into the 60s. This seems higher than I feel comfortable with, although it seems to match what user Amaroque described as his experience with overclocking to 3.0 ghz. Obviously, I didn't run the stress test for very long but I was happy to see it booted into Windows and ran without any problems for the period of time.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: ddarko
I just briefly overclocked my CPU today to 3.0 ghz without changing CPU voltage. At idle, the core temperatures rose to the high 40s to low 50s. When I ran Prime95 for about 15 minutes, the temps rose further into the 60s. This seems higher than I feel comfortable with, although it seems to match what user Amaroque described as his experience with overclocking to 3.0 ghz. Obviously, I didn't run the stress test for very long but I was happy to see it booted into Windows and ran without any problems for the period of time.

Let it Prime for a while (as in a few hours). If the temps stay under 70 - 75C its fine (I assume you have a G0 stepping)

Just in comparison my q6600 gets to 80C under prime, and its perfectly normal for a B3 to do that. (I have a TR 120 ultra heatsink and both it and cpu are lapped, ambient temps are high though cause of australian summer)

 

[apesoccer]

I'm having a similar issue...

My q6600 runs about 42c with no load, and around 70-72c with 2 cores running p95, and 2 cores running folding@home. Right now its sitting at about 52-55c (depending on room temp) with 2 instances of fah running. I've been trying to keep fah running while i do other things...like gaming. Running CSS and 2 instances of fah puts the temp in to the medium 60's. Grounding myself out, if i touch the hs(f), it's very warm, so i assumed it was just that the cpu ran hot. Could it be that i don't have it seated as well as it should be? I'm using the stock intel cooler. It was a bit of a pain to get on, the pegs kept popping back out when i'd tighten(twist) the 3rd or 4th one. They're all 4 turned in towardds the hsf now (as they should be), so it should be on correctly as far as i can tell.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: apesoccer
I'm having a similar issue...

My q6600 runs about 42c with no load, and around 70-72c with 2 cores running p95, and 2 cores running folding@home. Right now its sitting at about 52-55c (depending on room temp) with 2 instances of fah running. I've been trying to keep fah running while i do other things...like gaming. Running CSS and 2 instances of fah puts the temp in to the medium 60's. Grounding myself out, if i touch the hs(f), it's very warm, so i assumed it was just that the cpu ran hot. Could it be that i don't have it seated as well as it should be? I'm using the stock intel cooler. It was a bit of a pain to get on, the pegs kept popping back out when i'd tighten(twist) the 3rd or 4th one. They're all 4 turned in towardds the hsf now (as they should be), so it should be on correctly as far as i can tell.

If the heatsink is warm that can be a good thing, it indicates that it is making good contact with the CPU. I wouldn't reseat it.

 

[apesoccer]

What's a good temperature to have it running at? I've been reading different things in different forums (and different quad oc'ing forums...).

And while i'm picking your brains...are there any hsf's for under $50 that don't sound like i'm taking off from O'hare, that you guys would recommend?

 

[ddarko]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

If the heatsink is warm that can be a good thing, it indicates that it is making good contact with the CPU. I wouldn't reseat it.

This is what concerns me because my heat sink is cool to the touch yet I can't for the life of me figure out how I could have incorrectly installed the heat sink. I put the CPU in the slot, I closed the CPU latch, put the mounting bracket on the bottom of the motherboard, added the thermal grease to the CPU, lined up the heat sink above the CPU and tighted the screw. What could I have done wrong?