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VERY hot CPU please help

Godofthegeeks

Junior Member
My system:
i5 2500k
radeon hd 6850
Zalman CNPS9900 Aftermarket CPU fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118046
Antec High Current Gamer series 750W PSU
Antec 900 Case
Asus P8Z68-V Pro Mobo

I have plenty of fans and all fans are fully functioning, everything is brand new i just bought EVERYTHING last month. My problems that i am seeing is that i just downloaded the Battlefield 3 Open Beta, and im experiencing temps of 70-75C. With my nice aftermarket Zalman cpu fan you would think it would be lower than those temps. I have never seen my computer go above 55C before this Battlefield 3 open beta. right now I have the stock thermal paste that came with the Zalman fan applied, it is probly not the best paste in the world so i'm replacing it next week. I just bought MX-4 Arctic cooling thermal paste, and i hope that this will help drop my temps. Any other ideas as to whats going on? Thanks so much!
 
You didn't say if your 2500k is overclocked or by how much. It could be that the paste wasn't applied as well as it could have.
 
More information would help.
Whats is your oc at and most important what is your vcore voltage listed on cpu-z.
Temperature at idle.
Temp at load.
 
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I had a old Zalman 9700 that wasnt any better then stock intel c2d hsf.
Make sure your fan is set to full on in bios.
Hope you went easy on the tim a very thin coat spread with a razor to were you can almost see through it is enough.
Your Zalman should not move when you try to wiggle it slightly.
 
Zalman is a brand that I hardly regard as the best in cooling performance. It is more towards silence than cooling performance although I do expect it to be at least slightly better than stock heatsinks. TIM is not going to have a drastic improvement in temps and a better paste could be 5C less in a best case scenario.

Try remounting your heatsink instead if improper contact with the heat spreader might be the problem.
 
First of all, ditch the Zalman. They're worthless. For a cheap and effective fix, use the Cooler Master unit in my sig. There are many other modern coolers that will do just was well or better but may cost more.
 
First of all, ditch the Zalman. They're worthless. For a cheap and effective fix, use the Cooler Master unit in my sig. There are many other modern coolers that will do just was well or better but may cost more.

i just requested an RMA for my Zalman and Purchased The Collermaster 212+, hoping this will work a lot better, does anyone have the cm212+ facing towards the top of there case? I mean blowing air out towards the top exhaust fan?? Seeing as I have a top exhaust fan, it would seem smart to aim it up but im afraid its gonna block my ram with my P8Z68 VPro
 
LOL @ the 212 being a better cooler than the zalman. It may cool better but that's only because of it's huge size and loud fan. The link you posted to newegg's sale page shows plenty of people getting 60c on load with a 2500k and the zalman. The problem is either excessive voltage, or a bad installation.
 
i just requested an RMA for my Zalman and Purchased The Collermaster 212+, hoping this will work a lot better, does anyone have the cm212+ facing towards the top of there case? I mean blowing air out towards the top exhaust fan?? Seeing as I have a top exhaust fan, it would seem smart to aim it up but im afraid its gonna block my ram with my P8Z68 VPro

Use a second fan with the 212+ so you don't need to get it spinning at full speed
 
When you reapply with the new thermal paste, make sure that its just the right amount and not too much. Clean the old paste well and properly (google if you don't know how). And also, make sure that the heatsink has a tight fit to the CPU. Just one slightly loose bolt can ruin your temps.
 
My system:
i5 2500k
radeon hd 6850
Zalman CNPS9900 Aftermarket CPU fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118046
Antec High Current Gamer series 750W PSU
Antec 900 Case
Asus P8Z68-V Pro Mobo

I have plenty of fans and all fans are fully functioning, everything is brand new i just bought EVERYTHING last month. My problems that i am seeing is that i just downloaded the Battlefield 3 Open Beta, and im experiencing temps of 70-75C. With my nice aftermarket Zalman cpu fan you would think it would be lower than those temps. I have never seen my computer go above 55C before this Battlefield 3 open beta. right now I have the stock thermal paste that came with the Zalman fan applied, it is probly not the best paste in the world so i'm replacing it next week. I just bought MX-4 Arctic cooling thermal paste, and i hope that this will help drop my temps. Any other ideas as to whats going on? Thanks so much!
You said the setup is new, did you play any other games or run any stress program before? BF3 is pretty demanding.
 
first question, and by that i mean the first question that should have been asked in this thread.... what are your ambient temps while you are playing. If you are sat in a "warm" room then 70-75 degrees C is nothing to be overly concerned about. Also do you have a customisable fan profile for your CPU/case fans or both if so choose a more agressive setting.

EDIT. P.s 70-75 degrees isn't "very hot" don't exagerate 😛
 
I wouldn't worry about the thermal paste. As long as you have some on there you'll be fine. A blob the size of a grain of rice is sufficient. Sombody tested toothpaste and vegemite it worked as well as arctic silver.
 
P.s 70-75 degrees isn't "very hot" don't exagerate

This is very true. If this is the hottest that it gets you are fine. In fact my current setup gets this warm as well, I have it set that way on purpose so I don't have to listen to a loud fan roaring. Some seem to want their chips to stay 50c or something very cool I guess it all depends on what you want, but until you see 80c I would not worry too much
 
first question, and by that i mean the first question that should have been asked in this thread.... what are your ambient temps while you are playing. If you are sat in a "warm" room then 70-75 degrees C is nothing to be overly concerned about. Also do you have a customisable fan profile for your CPU/case fans or both if so choose a more agressive setting.

EDIT. P.s 70-75 degrees isn't "very hot" don't exagerate 😛

This. :thumbsup:
 
70-75 is beyond the danger zone for most cpus, but im not familiar with the specs for your Sandybridge (its certainly the danger zone for my PhenomII, anything beyond 65c is bad & beyond 70c is damaging it)

When i upgraded to a quad core from my dual core with my old yet big TT Big Typhoon, temps went through the roof like u. The old aftermarket coolers were not designed for quad-cores or hecta cores as all those cores in close proximity produce ALOT more heat than dualcores.

Assuming

1. u've installed the heatsink correctly & its not a little off,

2. u didnt use too much/little thermal paste

then that only leaves the old heatsink as the main culprit. its very simple. not sure what everyone else is going on about especially these people saying a cpu @ 75c is fine.lol
 
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first question, and by that i mean the first question that should have been asked in this thread.... what are your ambient temps while you are playing. If you are sat in a "warm" room then 70-75 degrees C is nothing to be overly concerned about. Also do you have a customisable fan profile for your CPU/case fans or both if so choose a more agressive setting.

EDIT. P.s 70-75 degrees isn't "very hot" don't exagerate 😛

how does this matter? if ambient temps are 50c then sure 70-75 is "normal". nevermind that his CPU will be toast in 2-3 years instead of 8-10 years.

Assuming his computer is'nt setup in a desert just outside Dubai, 70-75c should not be happening with his Sandy Bridge CPU regardless of his ambient temps.
 
70-75 is beyond the danger zone for most cpus, but im not familiar with the specs for your Sandybridge

The sandy bridge cpus have a WAY higher heat tolerance than a phenom II to the tune of about 20c higher. On the stock heatsink/fan in a non overclocked situation, a 2500k or 2600k always run mid 70s to 80c when running all cores doing something like prime or intel burntest etc. It's simply not something to worry about. Now if for instance he runs handbrake and it hits 80c or better then I'd start to worry.
 
how does this matter? if ambient temps are 50c then sure 70-75 is "normal". nevermind that his CPU will be toast in 2-3 years instead of 8-10 years.

Assuming his computer is'nt setup in a desert just outside Dubai, 70-75c should not be happening with his Sandy Bridge CPU regardless of his ambient temps.


Do you have any idea what you are talking about or did you just put some numbers and letters into a random order and hit post? If all 4 of his cores are turbo boosting durting a CPU intensive game and he is in a reasonably "hot" room (lets say 30 degrees C) 70-75 is perfectly acceptable, he may be able to bring that down by 5-10 degrees with more case fans or a better CPU cooler but anything other than that just isn't going to happen without something drastic like watercooling. If on the other hand he is in an airconditioned room at 18 degrees and he is getting these numbers then something is wrong. That is how it matters.
 
how does this matter? if ambient temps are 50c then sure 70-75 is "normal". nevermind that his CPU will be toast in 2-3 years instead of 8-10 years.

Assuming his computer is'nt setup in a desert just outside Dubai, 70-75c should not be happening with his Sandy Bridge CPU regardless of his ambient temps.

I didn't realize how low the temperature needs to be for AMD processors. I think the Phenom II 840 (which by the way is really a propus core and not a true Phenom II) will be the last AMD processor I buy unless things changes. I checked and it's only rated at 71 degrees C max temp @ 95 W. That is unreasonable considering the wide range of operation conditon AMD should be accounting for. I don't want to have worry about the processor when its summer and the room temperature is suddenly 10 degrees hotter. Couple with the fact that the included heatsink was pathetic.

The 2600K is rated at 98 degrees C max temp @ 95 W. Even overclocked to 4.4 Ghz I only reach 70 degrees. Theorectically my room could get 28 degrees hotter and I would still be ok. Can't say that about the AMD processor.
 
I didn't realize how low the temperature needs to be for AMD processors. I think the Phenom II 840 (which by the way is really a propus core and not a true Phenom II) will be the last AMD processor I buy unless things changes. I checked and it's only rated at 71 degrees C max temp @ 95 W. That is unreasonable considering the wide range of operation conditon AMD should be accounting for. I don't want to have worry about the processor when its summer and the room temperature is suddenly 10 degrees hotter. Couple with the fact that the included heatsink was pathetic.

The 2600K is rated at 98 degrees C max temp @ 95 W. Even overclocked to 4.4 Ghz I only reach 70 degrees. Theorectically my room could get 28 degrees hotter and I would still be ok. Can't say that about the AMD processor.
Well it might be changing. Zacate is rated for 90 C and Llano is rated up to 100 C (I think). I have no idea how BD will be spec'ed though.
 
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I didn't realize how low the temperature needs to be for AMD processors. I think the Phenom II 840 (which by the way is really a propus core and not a true Phenom II) will be the last AMD processor I buy unless things changes. I checked and it's only rated at 71 degrees C max temp @ 95 W. That is unreasonable considering the wide range of operation conditon AMD should be accounting for. I don't want to have worry about the processor when its summer and the room temperature is suddenly 10 degrees hotter. Couple with the fact that the included heatsink was pathetic.

The 2600K is rated at 98 degrees C max temp @ 95 W. Even overclocked to 4.4 Ghz I only reach 70 degrees. Theorectically my room could get 28 degrees hotter and I would still be ok. Can't say that about the AMD processor.

The operating temps can't be translated the way you are attempting. AMD chips have different thermal to load characteristics than Intel chips. The operating temperatures are important when evaluating cooling solutions, they aren't meant for comparison purposes.
 
The operating temps can't be translated the way you are attempting. AMD chips have different thermal to load characteristics than Intel chips. The operating temperatures are important when evaluating cooling solutions, they aren't meant for comparison purposes.

I don't think that matters. At the end of the day AMD states that it's TDP is 95W. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean the processor can produce that much heat at full load? So that's 95 W of heat that needs to be disspated regardless if it’s from an AMD or Intel processor.

Thus at the same ambient temperature, the AMD processor has a lower temperture rise than the Intel processor and will require a larger heatsink. If the heatsinks are the same for argument sake, then AMD risk hitting it's max operating temperaure if the ambient temperaure rises too high before Intel will.

Now given that AMD provides crappy heatsinks for some of their processors, I'm not to confident using them in a warm environment. My Phenom II 840 isn't exactly a cool running processor. It hasn't crashed or anything so maybe AMD is under rating the max temperature of their processors.

I may be out to lunch so if anybody can provide some insight that would be helpful.
 
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