Is This Temp OK?

[BigDave]

I just finished my build this week and ran Memtest overnight for about 11 hrs. I rebooted and checked the BIOS temp and it said 51 C. Is that high?

Intel DG965WH
Core 2 Duo E4300
EVGA 9600GT
Patriot 4GB (2*2GB)

The reason I am concerned is that I really struggled to get the heatsink/fan on the CPU. I thought I finally got it right, but now I am not sure.

Thanks.
Dave

[Cricket]

It's not that high, but if you had a hard time with the heatsink there is a good chance it's not installed properly (especially if you installed it with the motherboard already installed in the case). LGA775 heatsink installation guide.

How many case fans do you have installed and how are they installed? 1 up front bringing cool air in and out on the back blowing warm air out? One on the side bringing cool air in?

Cricket

[LeftyAce]

51 C is a little high, but I discovered when I built with the e6600 that the bios was reading the temperature inaccurately. Apparently the cpu reports 3 temperature readings; 1 for each core plus 1 that's permenantly 85 degrees....just indicating the shutdown temp! My motherboard was averaging the three. Install Windows and download CoreTemp; it'll tell you the temperature for each core.

[XenaWP]

Originally Posted by BigDave ... The reason I am concerned is that I really struggled to get the heatsink/fan on the CPU. I thought I finally got it right, but now I am not sure. Thanks. Dave

I had a beech of a time with that thing too. If you do it outside the case, the little spike feet have nowhere to go. If you do it inside the case, you have to press pretty hard and make the motherboard flex.

Plus, 2 of the sets of instructions didn't bother to show how the feet have to be oriented to get the spikes to lock in place. I know I tried to get that thing on 10x.

Anyway, my internal core temp is running about 40 when it's cool in the room and about 44-45 when it's warm in the room. That's a few degrees higher than the manual says it should be.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by XenaWP If you do it outside the case, the little spike feet have nowhere to go. If you do it inside the case, you have to press pretty hard and make the motherboard flex.

What are you trying to say here? It's better to install the heatsink with the motherboard in or out of the case?

Cricket

[BigDave]

I installed the heatsink/fan outside the case, I just couldn't get the feet to lock down. It's almost like you need a wooden jig under the MOBO to support it, but leave room underneath for the feat to catch the backside of the board.

I have 120mm exhaust fan on the back of the case. There are vent holes on the side of the case directly over the CPU and the entire front of the case is mesh (Thermaltake Matrix).

How CPU intensive is Memtest? I did run it for 11 hrs.

-Dave

[XenaWP]

Originally Posted by Cricket What are you trying to say here? It's better to install the heatsink with the motherboard in or out of the case? Cricket

Well, I did it outside the case and didn't enjoy it at all. As I said, I had to keep pulling it back off because I didn't get a nice reassuring little *click* telling me the foot had locked in place. After several times the thermal goo was looking a mite annoyed.

One set of instructions did say to put the hsf on with the mb mounted.

I dunno. Next time I may try that. It's all very scary when it's your first time

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by XenaWP Well, I did it outside the case and didn't enjoy it at all. As I said, I had to keep pulling it back off because I didn't get a nice reassuring little *click* telling me the foot had locked in place. After several times the thermal goo was looking a mite annoyed.

I've been installing the LGA775 heatsink with the motherboard out of the case for the past two years and have never had a problem with the installation. I might not always get the click sound but when I check visually the outer split pin is through the motherboard hole and the center locking pin is locked down properly. I've tried it with the motherboard in the case and it was a very frustrating experience...won't do that again.

Cricket

[chuck4456]

If you ran MEMTEST for 11 hours and your CPU Temp is 51C, there's probably nothing wrong with the way that you have your heatsink installed. Try ORTHOS now.

[XenaWP]

Cricket, you've never led me wrong ... I'll take your word that it would have been worse if I had tried it with the mb already mounted.

[chuck4456]

What did your CPU temp drop to after unloading MEMTEST?

[BigDave]

Originally Posted by chuck4456 What did your CPU temp drop to after unloading MEMTEST?

I knew someone was going to ask that. I will let you know in an hour. I had to get back to work and I wanted teh systems to idle for an hour before I took another reading. I will let you know in about 45 minutes.

-Dave

[BigDave]

Originally Posted by chuck4456 If you ran MEMTEST for 11 hours and your CPU Temp is 51C, there's probably nothing wrong with the way that you have your heatsink installed. Try ORTHOS now.

What is ORTHOS? Is that another temp monitoring tool? I've heard of CoreTemp but not ORTHOS.

-Dave

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by BigDave What is ORTHOS? Is that another temp monitoring tool? I've heard of CoreTemp but not ORTHOS.

ORTHOS is like a system torture test...gives your rig a workout to see if anything will fold under the stress.

Cricket

[BigDave]

Originally Posted by chuck4456 What did your CPU temp drop to after unloading MEMTEST?

According to CoreTemp it is idling 46~47 deg.


BTW - Where can I get ORTHOS? I have done some searches and found random downloads, but nothing that looks remotely official. I would like to have some confidence I am not downloading some nasty virus.

-Dave

[Alaron]

Originally Posted by BigDave BTW - Where can I get ORTHOS? -Dave

Click Cricket's link above.

[BigDave]

Originally Posted by Alaron Click Cricket's link above.

DUHH That is what I get for working on 3 hours sleep 2 days in a row.

[BigDave]

I just ran ORTHOS for an hour and after the CPU temp jumped to 70 deg it quickly went down to 66-67 deg. I guess the CPU fan kicked up a few notches when the heat rose.

These temps are OK?

-Dave

[minsonngo]

Those temps are still pretty high.

They should be between 35 to 50 degrees celcius.

[BigDave]

I see some posts that say E4300 run a little hotter. I am not sure what todo now.

I could disassemble and clean the heat sink and re-apply artci silver, but it was a fight last time and I would rather not risk any damage. The board made som pretty bad cracking sounds the last time.



-Dave

[BigDave]

I just took the side cover off the case for a few minutes and no change in the temp. The wierd thing is the CPU heatsink and the area just below it on the board are barely warm to the touch. 67 deg C is about 150 F, that means this board should feel pretty darn hot to the touch.

I am not so sure these readings are right. Hmmmm what to do what to do?

-Dave

[Cricket]

The temp you're seeing could be from within the core itself instead of CPU surface temps (which is what we used to see before). If the computer isn't locking up, freezing, randomly reboot, randomly shutting down or slowing down then the computer is okay. I've also heard that the Dual Core processors run a little hotter than single core processors. If the computer is running stable, don't worry about it. I never check the CPU or system temps on my own computers.

Cricket

[BigDave]

I did some digging around the Intel site and found a Desktop Utilities program that has hardware monitoring just for my board. The CPU temp on this S/W is significantly lower than the CoreTemp readings.

I am currently running ORTHOS and CoreTemp is showing Core 0 = 67 & Core 1 = 67. The utilities program is reading 61.

When it is Idle the CoreTemp readings are 47/48 and Desktop Utilities is 40.

I am going to assume that a utility written by Intel for their MOBO and CPU is the most accurate. So I would say I am fine.

-Dave

[Mr.Ferrari]

Don't worry, its just your motherboard ramping the fan up and down as it needs. Your intel motherboard has a certain pre set temperature at which it will ramp up in order to stay below or at it.

[BigDave]

Originally Posted by Mr.Ferrari Don't worry, its just your motherboard ramping the fan up and down as it needs. Your intel motherboard has a certain pre set temperature at which it will ramp up in order to stay below or at it.

I understand the "up and down" and the fan speed adjusting. The real question was is the system overall too hot. "minsonngo" thought the temps were too high.

It is interesting to see the huge difference between CoreTemp and Desktop Utilities. Mkaes me wonder how accurate is CoreTemp or if it is just an issue with my board. A 6 deg difference at at these temps is about a 15% difference. That is significant.

-Dave

[Mr.Ferrari]

Intel's desktop utilities weren't received has being all that accurate, but it may be different in your case. I know I and many, many others trust CoreTemp.

Just saying because we did have this issue with that motherboard a few times before, as it came defaulted with automatic fan control to keep <70c.

[Cricket]

If your computer is running stable without any odd heat related problems (freezing, slowdowns, reboots, shutdowns) then you really don't have anything to worry about. Forget about the temps and just enjoy using your new computer.

Cricket

[Mr.Ferrari]

Originally Posted by Cricket If your computer is running stable without any odd heat related problems (freezing, slowdowns, reboots, shutdowns) then you really don't have anything to worry about. Forget about the temps and just enjoy using your new computer. Cricket

x2, your cpu, even in worst case scenarios, wont let itself die.

[DarkPacMan77]

Processors are smart enough to crash before failure.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by DarkPacMan77 Processors are smart enough to crash before failure.

What? Do you mean they'll either throttle down or shut the computer off long before they let themselves get overheated to the point of frying themselves to death?

Cricket