OC temp concerns and advice needed

instinct

instinct

instinct

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26 Sep 2006
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Recently got myself a q6600 and decided to give overclocking a shot, first time i'm having a shot at it so i aimed my targets for 3ghz which seemed to be a reasonable overclock.

My first concern is the temp, after only three mins on Prime95, i'm worryingly receiving rather high temps in core temps and using speedfan... and confusingly am receiving a 15 degree difference in the two applications!

http://www.firestorm3d.co.uk/random/temps.jpg

Using a TR ultra 120 extreme, 2 120mm fans already in the sytem and on an Abit IP35 Pro mobo.

Could anyone advise which of the two temps recorded i should be following, and secondly any advice on how to drop this cooler? It's not a huge overclock or anything like that and so I wouldnt really expect such temps after 3 mins, i'm currently pondering about re-seating the cooler, though initial glance seem to indicate that it's seated fine. Using Vista 64.

Any advice would be great =)
 
It's well known that Speedfan is out by 15c, although as I don't use it I can't remember which way it's out, up or down.

Get Intels Tat and check temps with that, Quads do run warm as well....there is 4 cores.

EDIT

A little googling suggests thats it is normaly out by 15C under, so if thats the case your temps are high 70C. Get Intels tat, check the temps and take it from there. I would imagine high 70's is a little too warm for a quad on a aftermarket cooler. It's also showing your 12V line as 7v and the system would'nt boot if that was the case so yer, scrap speedfan.
 
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I would try Everest as well as CoreTemp.

Everest and CoreTemp are normally preferred, some people have reported Speedfan reporting incorrectly.

I'd simply run some intensive applications at the stock speed of 2.4 followed by Prime95 and be ready to stop the test.

The TR Ultra Extreme coolers have been known to have problems seating well and/or your application of the paste may not have been ideal.

Average temps of 60 C should be ok if they are correct.

You need greater certainty in the temperatures before being able to investigate further - that's if you have a problem.

Edit:

What sort of voltages, especially Vcore, are you using to achieve 3 GHz.
 
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Thanks for the replies - just reseated cooler and re-running tests again now on the main machine - whilst stable the heat is now around 75-80 degrees c for the core temps, but cpu temp is showing a 58?

For vcore i'm using 1.34 - the only one i've upped from the standard 1.3.

Any suggestions would be great, from what i've seen on the forums, people with very similar rigs seem to be getting temps a good 10 - 15 degrees cooler - checked temps now with everest and core temp

Shall clock it back down to stock and check outcome then too, it may well be my overclocking method? Although really all i've done is up the fsb to 333 and core volatage to 1.34, not a particularly mind boggling overclock but as i say, i'm rather new to overclocking and so may have overlooked something stupid
 
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75 to 80 C on Everest or CoreTemp is very high I would stop testing once the temp gets up to 70 C !
 
Quick update:-
CPU core voltage - 1.34
ddr2 voltage - 2.050
cpu vtt 1.2 voltage - 1.2
mch 1.25 voltage - 1.25
ich 1.05 voltage - 1.05
ddr2 reference voltage - 0
cpu gtlrefef 0&2 - 67%
cpu gtlref 1&3 - 67%

external clock - 334mhz
multiplier - x9

dram speed - 1:1
pcie clock: 101mhz

Tis just starting back up on stock settings now... running a gtx in there that seems to be a tad warm too, just pondering if i'm feeding too much power in anywhere at all, though i know strictly power doesnt equate heat... bah, there's always something methinks! Any suggestions appreciated =) will update with results of stock settings test
 
Setting Vcore in the BIOS at 1.4v or less shouldn’t cause a problem.

As I suggested try testing on Stock Speed to play safe ie put everything back to default settings.
Check what the temps are when idle – with normal ambient temps they should be in the 30’s C or thereabouts.
On normal/heavy load they could be into the 40’s C or slightly higher.

When stress testing ideally they shouldn’t be higher than 70 C although some people are happy to go a bit higher.
At 3 GHz and stress testing you would be looking for something in the 60’s C or thereabouts – no higher.

It sounds like:

1. Either your cooler isn’t seated properly – which can be the fault of the cooler
2. The case cooling is inadequate
3. The paste you put on isn’t right

You could try taking the side off the PC and see if it makes a difference but with those temps I would be surprised if it's all down to poor case ventilation.

The cooler could be the most likely and they often need lapping.

Those temps are way too high.
 
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Thanks for the update Marse - Tried on stock settings, temp still breaches 70. Idle is currently sat at 52.

The case i'm using is an akasa eclipse 62, fair bit of room for air flow but the old gtx takes a fair bit.

I've reseated the cooler before the last two tests but the same issue occurs, as far as i can tell it covers the cpu however from what i've read about the cooler on the ocuk reviews it may not be sat completely flat against it. The paste i've used was that which came with the thermalright, just applied it as per the coolers directions.

Possible issues with the cooler you think? If there's anything that anyone can suggest to give a go then please advise =) Cheers for the help so far!

Just a quick edit, the tjunction never shows as anything other than 100 degrees, is this right?
 
The paste you’ve used may not be the best but it obviously isn’t the real problem.

It looks like sorting the Heatsink is required.

Someone with experience of this Heatsink in terms of the basic seating of it or lapping hopefully will advise.

I don’t think you need worry about Tjunction – I think it always displays 100 C simply to tell you not to exceed that value.

Most of us don’t get anywhere near :)

Good Luck

Edit:
Further to the comment below I assumed a G0 chip.
Either way your temps even on idle are high.
 
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I recently had a Q6600 B3 revision, and I could not overclock it. At stock (2.4ghz) I was getting load temps of 70 using an Arctic Freezer 7 pro. I sold the B3 on the bay for £150 odd and bought an OEM Q6600 G0 here from Overclockers for £160 odd.

With my arctic freezer (nothing compared to the T120 Ultra Extreme) I am at 3.2ghz at 59 degrees load.

Edit: Both B3 and G0 were using Arctic Silver 5 too.
 
Yeah, i purchased the G0 edition about 4 days ago or so, bit of a bugger to have to go through this with a really new build!

Going to remove the heatsink tomorrow and check the base, if it's not level then i guess i'll have to judge the flatness, if it's too far out then return it to ocuk, though if it's a reasonable amount then give lapping a shot and get some as5. I can handle it if it's just the heatsink, i'm more worried if it's the cpu at fault and overheating, though at the moment things all seem to point to the cooling side. I'm just hoping that when i remove it tomorrow that it's actually not sat plush, at least then i'll be able to see the reason! =)

As I say, I was looking at the specs from other people and there's just that gutting feeling when you know that your almost identical rig is being well outperformed!
 
instinct said:
Yeah, i purchased the G0 edition about 4 days ago or so, bit of a bugger to have to go through this with a really new build!

Going to remove the heatsink tomorrow and check the base, if it's not level then i guess i'll have to judge the flatness, if it's too far out then return it to ocuk, though if it's a reasonable amount then give lapping a shot and get some as5. I can handle it if it's just the heatsink, i'm more worried if it's the cpu at fault and overheating, though at the moment things all seem to point to the cooling side. I'm just hoping that when i remove it tomorrow that it's actually not sat plush, at least then i'll be able to see the reason! =)

As I say, I was looking at the specs from other people and there's just that gutting feeling when you know that your almost identical rig is being well outperformed!
Click to expand...

So these temps are with a G0?? If so that is REALLY high.

The problem seems almost definitely with your seating of your heatsink, apparently the T120 Ultra Extremes are difficult to mount and you have to really screw them in good and proper. Although take what I say with a pinch of salt, as I am not speaking from experience.
 
Yeah the heatsink was a bit of a tough one to mount, though the 62's removable motherboard tray was a great help as you could just watch the alignment of the screws. Put it in twice now though have yet to check the actual surface of the underside... one of those things i think that i'd overlooked in my hurry to get the system up and running! Thanks for your post though, and others =) It re-assures me to know that firstly i'm not just nit-picking, and secondly that the fault is likely to lie with the cooler rather than something that i cant attempt to fix =)
 
The temps are definately very high even with the stock cooler you should be under 70c on full load at 3.2ghz... would have a check of the base of the heatsink for sure
 
Okay dokay,

Whipped off the TR120 this morning, from what i can tell the base seems to be ok and fitted correctly too.
Ran prime95 for about an hour this morning on stock settings and got temp of 61 on core 1+2 and 52 on core 3+4 - bit confused by the almost 10 degree difference on the cores.

To me though on stock settings this still seems to be running a wee bit too hot? From what I can tell i'd guess that the result from cores 3+4 - 52 degrees should really be what i'm looking at with this kind of cooling setup for the entire chip?

In idle, temps are: core 1+2 - 40 degress, core 3+4 - 35 degrees, stock settings.
 
Well I guess its now down to a personal choice I would say those temps are still high... If the base of the heatsink is ok then try reapplying the paste make sure you dont apply to much you should only need a small amount and follow the manufactures instructions or there are plenty of guides to be had either google or lots of advice on these forums..

Leave the machine to run for 6 hours after you have applied the paste, turn the PC off let it cool down to room temp and then fire her back up and see what temps you are getting..

Out of interest you said you had two 120mm system fans... what size/make of fan are you using on the TR120?
 
May have to have a look into clearing off the thermal compound that came with the TR120 - as per the instructions though i applied a layer on both the cpu and bottom of heatsink, using the full syringe.

I'm now pondering as to whether too much was used!
 
Rightyo, ever so carefully cleaned up the themal paste and re-applied as per the arctic silver instructions, re-ran test and still getting the same temperatures :<

Fan on the TR is a Scythe 1600 120mm.

With the roomy case, fans and TR120 I think i should be getting cooler results than what I am, guess i'll have to give OC a call tomorrow and get advice / possible replacement
 
The paste takes sometime to get up to full potential from memory 6 hours I think then you need to let it cool down...

Maybe someone more experienced here can comment! but the if heatspreader on the CPU is uneven given a poor contact with the heatsink could be the reason, the difference in the core temps may suggest this in which case you would need to lap the CPU... but I would wait for someone of the more experienced guys to confirm this as lapping the CPU would void its warrenty.

Did you get an OEM chip or do you have the stock heatsink? If you have the stock heatsink you could compaire the results from the two and ruleout the heatsink as the problem if you were still getting the really high temps
 
Went for the OEM, so unfortunately no stock cooler to test on, but yeah i think i'm slowly running out of things to check! Cheers for your help though =)
 
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