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Noob questions on X2 temps

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i) How high is too high?
ii) Is it normal for one core to run up to 7C hotter than the other?

I'm getting 56/63 at stock under full load and that's much hotter than any CPU I've had and monitored before. Winding my case intake and CPU cooler (which doubles as case extract) fans up to max only drops the temps to 56/61 - just 2C on just one core going from minimum fan speed (1100 rpm) to maxium (2000rpm).
 
What motherboard is it and what's the PWMIC and chipset temps and what CPU cooler? Check the TCaseMax via CoreTemp 0.94. Mine is rated up to 65c and I've had it at that at one point although preferably you want to keep the cores below ~55c.

 
I mentioned 0.94 because it's known to work well. Also 0.95 doesn't show the TCaseMax or TDP and maybe your post suggests you know already but it's true that 0.95 causes many systems to quickly blue screen.
 
[chastened]yeah it's never given me the bsod but it's just switched me off once or twice, which I assumed was just me. I assumed there must be a valid reason for sugesting 0.94 though, cheers for the heads up. (the other hald would kill me if she heard me speaking like that though). [/chastened]
 
Even in my cramped MATX HTPC case (4200x2 at stock) It doesn't go above 43 degrees at 100%x2 full load (Ninja with stock fan at 800rpm) Case fans at 7v too. Sig PC is the same, even when overclocked from 2.2ghz to 2.7ghz, doesn't go above 47. Ninja at 1200rpm.
 
Yes. Under full load x2. At idle it's 24-25 (HTPC that I'm using now) CAQ enabled on the HTPC. With coretemp.

Threshold is 50, over that and look at new cooler.
 
More info, as requested:

The board is an Asrock 939 Dual-SATA2.

Cooling is a 120mm Akasa Ultra Quiet ("Amber") as case intake and an Akasa EVO 120 with the same model fan as CPU cooler and case extract (the EVO 120 design has the fins and fan pointing at the rear case extract fan mounting, a couple of inches away from it).

Fan speeds are adjustable from 1100rpm to 2000rpm for the case fan and something similar for the CPU/extract fan. Varying from min to max has no effect on the temp of one of the cores and drops the other by 2-3C.

Core Temp 0.94 pic:
coretemp3.jpg


I'd been using 0.95 without any problems, but 0.94 does show more information...so what is the point of 0.95?

Speedfan 4.32 pic, to show other temps. I'm not sure which is which. Not taken at the same time, so the core temps vary slightly. The other temps are the same, though.

speedfan4.jpg


The cores idle at 39-41C, too. The core that reaches 62C jumps 14 or 15C as soon as load is applied and drops 14-18C as soon as it is removed, whereas the core that reaches 56C immediately jumps and drops only 8 or 9C.

I think something is awry. I don't even know if these are true readings or not.
 
Other than the CPU temp everything else looks good especially with the HDD at 30c. The CPU heatsink should be reasonably hot to the touch at 60c so I'd make sure that's the case and if it is then it could be you are unlucky and your CPU is producing so much heat causing the heatsink to reach it's heat saturation point. If it isn't hot to the touch then it's likely it's not contacting properly with the CPU resulting in the high CPU temp.

The core temp differential happens a lot with dual core CPUs. There's a 7c difference with my X2 4200+ and many others report similar differences.
 
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I mounted the HDD slightly above the case intake fan, so it's thoroughly cooled.

I'll check the heatsink temp tomorrow, as I'm about to go to bed. If the heatsink is fairly cool, I'll take the chip out again, clean everything again and do the ruler test to see if the IHS is bent. Maybe I'll try spreading the MX-1 in a thin layer, even though the instructions say not to. Maybe not - MX-1 isn't very spreadable.

What do you think that the very minor difference in temps when the fan speeds are doubled indicates? Airflow is obviously not the issue.

Is it possible that one or more of the heatpipes could have been broken (internally) when I swapped CPUs? How fragile are they?

Thanks for the straightforward answer about the different core temperatures.

What's really bugging me is that I know this chip will overlock a lot, but I don't want to overclock it at all with those temps.
 
Iirc did'nt the Evo120 get rather poor reviews when used with dual cores? :confused: In any case thouse temps are very poor, the 4 pipe dual core stock AMD cooler would perform better than that Evo there (im not joking :) )
 
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Sean_UK said:
Iirc did'nt the Evo120 get rather poor reviews when used with dual cores? :confused: In any case thouse temps are very poor, the 4 pipe dual core stock AMD cooler would perform better than that Evo there (im not joking :) )
I don't know - a quick look found a couple of very good reviews and a lot of rubbish that had nothing to to with them. Before I buy a new cooler...do you have any links to any of these rather poor reviews?
 
No, as i said iirc. ;) Havent seen or read any review of said cooler since it hit retail; which was quite a while back now tbh. Did it have 'Dual Core supported' stamped on box or maybe instal manual, if not then...
 
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Sean_UK said:
No, as i said iirc. ;) Havent seen or read any review of said cooler since it hit retail; which was quite a while back now tbh. Did it have 'Dual Core supported' stamped on box or maybe instal manual, if not then...
Akasa's website says it's for dual cores. No direct link, but it's on http://www.akasa.co.uk/ as AK-920.

Why is specifically dual cores an issue, as opposed to the amount of heat generated?
 
Just the heat tbh, if they added that support to website then clearly the boxed retail cooler was out & intended for single core at the time of production (March 2005 iirc). Yes it will fit (there for support), dual core as they say via website tech info update, however i dont recall dual core been around to buy back in March 2005, although i could be wrong? :confused:

Edit: Here's something you should consider, they also claim the AK-859 supports dual core. Well i tried AK-859 which i carried over from a previous single core build, on my former s939 4800+ cpu and temps were awfull. So on went the Scythe Infinity and job done. :)
 
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Just for reference I get 52/48 degrees max (35/30 idle) from each core of my 4400+ (939) with a Freezer 64 Pro and dual 12 cm case fans (1200 rpm).
 
I get around 36-38c idle and 58-61c max load. I think im ok as these can take it to 65c max i think. Im on toledo x2 3800+ skt939. Running at 2.6ghz.

Using mx-1 paste but the heatsink freezer 64pro does get warm tho.
 
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