CPU Heatsink too tight?

mattgal · 1 Sep 2010 at 12:10

Hi

I installed my Xigmatek Balder about a month ago. ever since, temperatures have been raging from 39 to 42 (42 39 41 39) at stock (idle) and 70-73 (73 71 72 70) on load.

a friend of mine had the exact processor but with an Arctic freezer 7 pro rev2 and have temps of (39 37 38 36)

Can this be an issue of the heatsink being too tight? i've screwed all the way in till it stopped (about 1cm thread).

Podmonkey · 1 Sep 2010 at 12:38

no I dont think so. It could be any or all of these variables:
Different thermal paste
Different amount of thermal paste
Different room temperatures
Different case fans + case
Overclocking

Any of these will increase or decrease your temps by a bit so if your friend has a better cooled case in a colder room and doesnt overclock then its going to be cooler.

Frozennova · 1 Sep 2010 at 13:00

Theres no point comparing idle temps as you they vary too much, your best of running ibt or prime on both for 30 mins then comparing load temps

mattgal · 1 Sep 2010 at 13:16

load temps after/during 2 loops of intel burn test are 59 for him, 66+ for me

mp260767 · 1 Sep 2010 at 14:13

would have thought it was more likely the cooler wasnt tight enough if the temps are higher, as the cooler isn't removing the heat.

plus as pod mentioned various other things can affect it, main ones to consider would be room temp and temp of other system parts.

as for thermal paste did you both use the stuff that came on the coolers ?

Podmonkey · 1 Sep 2010 at 14:20

How did you apply the paste could be quite a big thing. Did you spread it about like a jam sandwich? Rubbed a tiny bit on? If theres too much or not enough that the cpu is coming into full contact with the heatsink then it is going to heat it up mightily.

ThomasTheTankEngine · 1 Sep 2010 at 17:25

What's your cpu clocked at? If it's around 4.0ghz, those temperatures are perfectly normal for your chip. Pretty good actually. Mine gets up to the high 70's when stress testing, and around 65-70 when gaming.

R.C.Anderson · 1 Sep 2010 at 18:08

Is your friend undervolting his CPU? (either manually, or being done automatically by the motherboard) If he is, that could give lower temps.

mattgal · 1 Sep 2010 at 21:32

hi

sry i wasn't able to reply earlier.

@ mp260..... room temperatures are sort of the same. i'm on 2nd floor and he's on 1st.

other components are roughly 2*C higher or lower (his 5770 gets to 75+ when gaming. mine never exceeds 68*C)

hdd is the same or 1* difference (mine being 1* less)

@ Pod.. I used the blob method. a single blob in the middle. unfortunately i'm using the stock Xigmatek paste which i'm not really confident with. he's using the stock MX3 that came with his HSF

@ jimbob.. i'm currently at 3.67ghz (1.24v as anything lower than that makes it unstable) and gets to (73 72 72 71) during IBT at maximum stress and 3/4 loops.

@ RC... yes it is, but so was i. 0.88v for both of us.

mattgal · 1 Sep 2010 at 22:23

Also, are my voltages good for my frequencies?

Vcore 1.24
DIMM 1.65
PLL 1.84v
IMC/QPI/VTT 1.16v

Clocks:

CPU 3.68MHz
RAM 1775MHz 9-9-9-24 1T