CPU Temps

[carenrose]

Hello, me and my old hardware here again ...

 

I had an Intel Core 2 Duo (not sure which model, was maybe 2.3GHz?), and I found the best CPU this board would support, a Core 2 Quad Q9650, 3GHz for about $25.

 

It's my first time installing a CPU, though I've built/disassembled/reassembled computers many times, I've always avoided CPU installation cuz it scared me lol.

 

Anyways, I'm currently using this machine with 14 DVD drives hooked up, open case, ripping/encoding my entire DVD collection. The old CPU was handling this at 100% usage, about 30-40°. Newly installed CPU is 80-100% usage but is at 70+°!

 

I can think of a few things, but wonder which it is.

• This CPU, because it's got more power! just runs hotter
• Not enough or too much thermal paste (I did a single line down the middle, but it glopped a bit)
• The thermal paste was old (I got it and first used it maybe 5 years ago, but the consistency seems the same as then?)
• Switched the two rear case fans from intake to outtake (blowing away from the CPU) though with the open case I'm not sure this makes any difference

Edit: stock Intel heatsink/fan

Edited December 30, 2019 by carenrose
Added another thing

[Levent]

If we were to assume your old CPU was another run of the mill 60-70W C2D, adding another 35-25w on top of that is a significant increase. I would say as long as its not throttling everything is just fine. Thermal paste dont really go bad, my current tube of AS5 is older than my computer. Third edit: Also lack of thermal paste is much worse than too much thermal paste.

[martward]

Well if it's a more powerful chip from the same generation it's bound to run hotter. Did you use the same cooler?

70C really shouldn't be a problem although it is rather hot. I wouldn't worry about it though, just keep an eye out for throttling.

[Radium_Angel]

21 minutes ago, carenrose said:

but is at 70+°!

I swapped out a C2D for a C2Q 9550 and went from 21 degrees C to 39 degrees C. 70 is too much.

I'd re-apply paste more carefully, after cleaning off old paste off cooler and CPU

[Constantin]

20 minutes ago, Levent said:

Third edit: Also lack of thermal paste is much worse than too much thermal paste.

It  depend what is little and much for you

[Levent]

Just now, Constantin said:

It  depend what is little and much for you

Unless you make a thermal paste cake on top your CPU, that would be the case.

[carenrose]

8 minutes ago, martward said:

Did you use the same cooler?

Yeah, same stock Intel cooler.

 

It doesn't seem to be throttling, though to be honest I'm live-booting an unfamiliar Linux distro and I don't know where I can find a way to monitor it (and /proc/cpuinfo and lscpu apparently show different and not necessarily accurate numbers, tho I haven't tried it)

[carenrose]

This is not my picture, just an example.

 

This is approx how much I put on, except the line was a bit longer and a tiny bit gloopier in the middle.

 

I cleaned the cooler thoroughly of the old thermal compound, and the new CPU had none on it. I did wipe it down with alcohol anyway.

[martward]

46 minutes ago, carenrose said:

Yeah, same stock Intel cooler.

 

It doesn't seem to be throttling, though to be honest I'm live-booting an unfamiliar Linux distro and I don't know where I can find a way to monitor it (and /proc/cpuinfo and lscpu apparently show different and not necessarily accurate numbers, tho I haven't tried it)

Hmm well I wouldn't worry about it too much. You could try to take off the CPU cooler and have a look at the thermal paste, though that's a lot of effort for something that's probably not a problem. Otherwise you'd need to either lower the voltage in the bios or buy a better cooler I guess. If you have a licence on hand I'd probably get a windows boot drive and do testing there, since Linux and sensors are a bit of a hit and miss in my experience.

[unclewebb]

Hopefully you did not follow that picture too closely.  The Core 2 Quad consists of two separate Core 2 Duo CPUs and these are placed side by side.  The line of thermal paste in that picture should be going from side to side and needs to be a little longer.  It should not be going from top to bottom.  Beneath where that line sits is actually dead space underneath the heatspreader.  The cores are on either side of that line but not directly under that line.

 

 

As for your heatsink, is it the all aluminium one that was originally being used on your Core 2 Duo?  The Core 2 Quads with their higher TDP usually had a round copper slug within the cooler to improve cooling.   

 

[carenrose]

2 hours ago, unclewebb said:

Hopefully you did not follow that picture too closely.  The Core 2 Quad consists of two separate Core 2 Duo CPUs and these are placed side by side.  The line of thermal paste in that picture should be going from side to side and needs to be a little longer.  It should not be going from top to bottom.  

Tbh I don't know if I went side-to-side or top-to-bottom. I wasn't aware of the layout. I kind of thought it'd spread out to sufficiently cover the entire heat spreader when the heatsink was pressed on.

 

2 hours ago, unclewebb said:

As for your heatsink, is it the all aluminium one that was originally being used on your Core 2 Duo?  The Core 2 Quads with their higher TDP usually had a round copper slug within the cooler to improve cooling.   

It's not all aluminium, it does have the copper slug. It looks just like that picture but without the grey stripes, which I'm guessing are thermal pads?

 

I do plan to get a better and fancier cooler in the future, when I upgrade the case and everything.

[Mark Kaine]

Just looking at that pic makes me think maybe the heat sink doesn't have proper contact?   Although I'm not sure how to check this (never installed an Intel CPU...) 

 

And honestly I would make an X for the thermal paste... This line doesn't look like it'd ever spread evenly...

 

I made just a little dot in the middle but my CPU may be smaller. 

 

 

[Kilrah]

70° is no issue at all. Not even worth looking into it. And yes the reason is just that this CPU dissipates significantly more power than the previous one.

[carenrose]

I looked up the specifications for this processor

• T_CASE (Case Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS).) - 71.4°C
• TDP - 95 W

[unclewebb]

Keep in mind that monitoring software does not report the Case Temperature.  Software only reports the peak core temperature and these are two different things.  The Tcase spec is a meaningless spec to the end user. 

 

A Q9650 will not start to thermal throttle until it hits a peak core temperature of 100°C.  Tcase is intended for system builders.  Intel found that keeping the Tcase temperature under 71°C would reduce the chance of the CPU cores hitting 100°C.  

 

Your peak core temperatures are fine and well within spec.

 

  

31 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

I made just a little dot in the middle

This method was not recommended for the Core 2 Quads due to how the CPU cores are laid out.

[carenrose]

Now that I'm home, the old CPU was an E6550, 65W TDP, vs the new, which is 95W.

[Mark Kaine]

34 minutes ago, carenrose said:

Now that I'm home, the old CPU was an E6550, 65W TDP, vs the new, which is 95W.

I just looked this up without knowing your current cpu exactly,  70-90C under load seems indeed normal apparently.  I wouldn't change anything right now,  just keep an eye on it,  if it ever goes  above 90C there might be an issue,  otherwise seems fine tbh. 

[LogicalDrm]

9 hours ago, carenrose said:

Now that I'm home, the old CPU was an E6550, 65W TDP, vs the new, which is 95W.

70C max is still fine. You could get cheap aftermarket cooler for it. I had Noctua U9 on E8400 and Q6600 for years.