CPU running very hot

coopsjc21 · 9 Jan 2012 at 18:31

Hi,
I just moved my system into a smaller case so it will fit under my computer desk as the other case was too big. I ran HWMonitor to keep an eye on the temps and noticed my CPU temperature was quite high, especially when running games.

It seems to idle at around 50c, using the internet/Adobe photoshop etc it goes up to about 75-80c and playing games it gets up to 99-100c. This seems very high. I have put an extra fan in the back (Zalman 80mm) but this doesn't seem to have made any difference.

As far as Im aware it was running this hot before I changed cases. The cpu cooler has been removed a couple of times in the past to clean dust from it. I did this again but it was fairly clean. I've ordered some of this Akasa thermal compound & cleaner for it.

Any other suggestions. Has a 120mm fan in front, 80mm fan in rear and cpu has the stock cooler. Nothing has been clocked.

OcUK Flamingo FM-12A Midi Tower Case
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ StealthXStream 600w
Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 3.00GHz
4gb ram
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4870 Glaciator+ 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express

Zybekk · 9 Jan 2012 at 18:33

My CPU hits 1.38 when overclocked, is that high? :S

djabs786 · 9 Jan 2012 at 18:35

When you removed the cooler to clean did you clear the CPU/heatsink's old paste and put on new thermal paste? if not that could explain the high temps

Hybridtheory · 9 Jan 2012 at 18:37

o.0 What CPU cooler are you using ?

I have the same board and cpu in another rig, no where near them temps !!

Anyway to see your system/motherboard temp also ? system temp on mine is around 30-32, cpu is around the same or slightly lower on idle and in the 50's when gaming

coopsjc21 · 9 Jan 2012 at 18:42

djabs786 said:
When you removed the cooler to clean did you clear the CPU/heatsink's old paste and put on new thermal paste? if not that could explain the high temps

No, just left it as it was. When I removed it earlier today the paste was looking a little sorry for itself. Would the temps get as high as this though if the paste was in need of replacing? I didn't think the thermal paste made that much of a difference?

coopsjc21 · 9 Jan 2012 at 18:46

Hybridtheory said:
o.0 What CPU cooler are you using ?

I have the same board and cpu in another rig, no where near them temps !!

Anyway to see your system/motherboard temp also ? system temp on mine is around 30-32, cpu is around the same or slightly lower on idle and in the 50's when gaming

Stock cooler that came with the Intel e8400.

System temps are around the 50s under load (games) and the graphics card goes to around 80-85c.

I'm doing some editing in photoshop at the minute and I'm hitting 90c on the cpu!

Hybridtheory · 9 Jan 2012 at 19:04

Sounds more like a general case cooling issue to me rather than just the cpu, id make sure the case fans are push/pulling air the right way too just incase.

I'd also try another temp program just to be certain, like coretemp or speccy for example and double check what temps are in bios

djabs786 · 9 Jan 2012 at 19:46

I think once you get a new set of paste on it and its seated nicely, temps should sort themselves out. It's probably best to change paste every time you remove cooler, as gaps of air can form between cooler and CPU, and seeing that you removed the cooler a couple of times, my guess would be that's the reason for the high temps.

coopsjc21 · 9 Jan 2012 at 19:52

Hybridtheory said:
Sounds more like a general case cooling issue to me rather than just the cpu, id make sure the case fans are push/pulling air the right way too just incase.

I'd also try another temp program just to be certain, like coretemp or speccy for example and double check what temps are in bios

Push/pulling air the right way? The only fan I added was the 80mm one at the back, that seems to be taking air out of the case, is that right? Same as the lower front fan. Should 1 be pushing air in and the other taking air out at the other end?

Tealc · 9 Jan 2012 at 21:18

It's almost certainly not making a good contact if you've removed the cooler and just put it back on. Thermal interface material is never the same once it's been through a few heat cycles and won't fill the micro cavities and grooves in the CPU heat spreader and the contact area of the cooler itself.

A blob of new TIM should sort out your temperature issue. In the meantime your CPU is probably throttling down speed when it gets up to those 99-100 temperatures. I'd avoid running anything too intensive until you get your TIM sorted.

In all likelihood you'd get better results if both CPU heat spreader and cooler contact area were clean rather than have caked on TIM on there.

Case cooling would not be solely responsible for a drastic rise in temps,

And push/pull would not apply to the intel stock cooler.

Hybridtheory · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:18

I meant push/pull for his case fans (making sure he'd fitted them right way around which it seems he has) sorry for the confusion.

50c seems high to me for case temps, which would reduce cpu cooling capacity. my 2 systems are hardly ever over 30c even after heavy loads.

But agreed, make sure you have good cooler cpu contact and reclean/reseat with some fresh paste.

I know from experiance stock intel coolers can be a bit funny fitting sometimes, if you havent clipped the legs/anchors down fully.. maybe this is the problem ?

coopsjc21 · 10 Jan 2012 at 09:06

Tealc said:
A blob of new TIM should sort out your temperature issue. In the meantime your CPU is probably throttling down speed when it gets up to those 99-100 temperatures. I'd avoid running anything too intensive until you get your TIM sorted.

Yes, I've noticed with the game I've been playing (Deus Ex: HR) once I've been playing for a few minutes and the temp rises the game stutters and lags a bit. I've stopped doing anything too intensive until the problem is sorted.

Hybridtheory said:
I meant push/pull for his case fans (making sure he'd fitted them right way around which it seems he has) sorry for the confusion.

50c seems high to me for case temps, which would reduce cpu cooling capacity. my 2 systems are hardly ever over 30c even after heavy loads.

But agreed, make sure you have good cooler cpu contact and reclean/reseat with some fresh paste.

I know from experiance stock intel coolers can be a bit funny fitting sometimes, if you havent clipped the legs/anchors down fully.. maybe this is the problem ?

The front 120mm fan that came pre-installed in the case seems a little flimsy to me, it appears to be blowing air into the case, (I can feel a draught either side of the fan but it seems stronger inside), but it doesn't seem to be running very fast. I might try and remove the front fan from the old case and use it to replace the front fan in the new case.

In the mean time I'll wait for the new paste to arrive and see what difference that makes (was ordered and shipped yesterday, so hopefully will arrive today).

Below is a HWMonitor screen, I've only been running Chrome browser on this website and listening to a little music (also in browser) to achieve these temperatures.

coopsjc21 · 10 Jan 2012 at 10:55

Much better!

The TIM kit arrived just now (thank you OCUK for fast delivery), cleaned it up and applied new paste.

Now running at only 49-50c under load on games. Thanks for all the help everyone, problem sorted.