CPU hot after system build

lucasite

lucasite

lucasite

Associate
Joined
31 Dec 2010
Posts
16
Hi all,
Ive just finished building my new system, booted up into bios and was surprised by the temperature of the cpu.

Its a new ASUS motherboard, new I7 950 chip.
I used my old Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro heatsink. Started by cleaning the base with tissue, then thermal cleaner using cotton buds. Applied a slim line of thermal silver to the cpu, and put on the heatsink. A little swivel and screwed it in.

But even with the tower cover off, I was getting these temps:
MB: 30c
CPU: 45c

My first thought is I should take off the heatsink, clean it and the cpu. and start again. Maybe I didnt apply the compound properly.

My question is, what temperature should I be expecting?
45c just feels abit too hot for my liking.

Plus, can a heatsink base get damaged over time? I noticed whilst cleaning the heatsink base (with a tissue to remove the previous compound) that it was entirely flat. there are several tiny craters. Could this be a problem?

An alternative is to try the stock cpu heatsink, but I was expecting much better performance from the arctic cooler.

Luca
 
Havent tried on max load yet. I dont even have any drives plugged in yet. Just wanted to boot into the bios and check memory, cpu, temps.

So are saying I'd get better temps from the stock heatsink, than from the AC7?
Maybe I should put the stock on instead?
 
Well I left it sitting in the bios screen for 20 minutes, with the tower case off. And its slowly crept up to 50c now.

Like you say, I'll run it for another day, see if its settles in. If not, I guess I'll try again.
 
Im still convinced I didnt do the thermal compound very well. I tried doing a small pea sized blob but the compound is quite sticky so it ended up as a trail across the cpu. I then struggled to line up the heatsink with the screws, so I mustve smudged it quite abit, whilst moving it around.
 
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Ok, so I cleaned up the heatsink and chip, reapplied some grease. And got bios temps of 45-50c.
Installed windows 7, and HWMonitor. From that I saw temps around 50-55c for the cores.

Installed prime95 and ran a blend test. And within about 2 minutes, the core temperatures reached 81c. At which point I paniced and shut everything down.

I know that i7's run hot, Ive read that everywhere. But 81c after 2 minutes of stressing just feels scarey.

Maybe I should replace my heatsink, I saw some good comments for a coolmaster?

And for now, maybe I should remove the AC7 and put the stock cooler on. Because the AC7 just feels terrible from what Ive seen.
 
Well I had a couple of attempts. Once, I put a small line of compound, and spread it around completely. But that was too much, I had bios temps of 55c.
Then I tried again with just a small pea size in the middle of the cpu, placed the heatsink on and swivelled it abit to help spread it around. then screwed it down.

Maybe it wasnt enough this time.

And yes I did clean off the heatsink and cpu each time. firstly with tissue to remove the old compound, then with some compound cleaner using cotton bud sticks.
 
ok. Im going to put the stock cooler back on because that should definitely keep it under control for stock use. And if that doesnt, then I must have some other serious issue.

And in the mean time, order a new cooler. Is it the Titan Fenrir youre referring to?
 
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Well Ive ordered it now. Along with some mx-4.

Incidentally, which direction should the fan face on the heatsink, facing the exhaust fan (which is only a few centimetres away), or on the otherside towards the memory?

The heatsink is a pull fan right?

Edit:
I have a horrible feeling that my whole problem has been the heatsink around the wrong way. Currently the fan is next to the chassis exhaust because I was assuming the heatsink fan was pulling hot air out.
If its actually pushing, then it wouldve been losing a fight against the large exhaust fan.
 
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Oh the shame! :(

Well, i turned the heatsink around and surprise, got 35c in the bios.
Idle windows was 40c.
A quick 5 minute run of prime95 got the cores slowly up to 75c.
But the second I stopped prime95, they instantly dropped to 50c, and then slowly decreased. (I guess prime95 is extreme testing isnt it?)

So its a improvement, not great but definitely better.

And I have the Titan on route now anyway.
 
Its a Thermaltake case. Had it a few years.
Yeh, they are alittle high arent they. And I was getting this when the case was open, lid off. But hopefully when the Titan arrives, it'll do a better job.
 
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