Very high core0 temp on Q9550 (Not over clocked)

[M1ntsauce]

My brand new build

Q9550
Abit IX48-GT3 Hotfoot Intel X48 DDR3
OCZ 4GB DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz (2x2GB) Ram
Akasa AK-P085FG-BK 850W PSU
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD RW
Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium CPU Cooler
Arctic Silver 5
8800GT GFX
Vista Home Premium 64bit
Antec 900 case

My problem is that Core0 runs between 58c (idle) and 64c (load), 20-30c hotter that the rest of the cores which are within the 30-45c that I was expecting with this build (not OC’d) Highest I've seen the CPU reporting is 66c in SpeedFan.
I've re-seated the CPU fan 3 times (with Artic Silver5) and rotated it 90 degrees once (Antec 900 has a huge extraction fan at the top too) and all the results have been very similar. The Thermal paste was applied according to the instructions for the Quad core and the CPU cooler fins and pipes are cold to the touch,. There’s plenty of airflow through the system and the computers not in a hot room. I haven’t tried the stock cooler as it requires me to remove the motherboard to take off the backing plate, but it’s not going to be cooler… Here’s a sample using SpeedFan 4.35 (the CPU temp is the same reading the Bios gave me and is the same with and without load) There’s nothing on the system apart from SpeedFan and it’s been updated with the latest Vista patches and no Bios update is available

(Sample)
System : 29C
CPU: 61c
AUX: -18c
Core0: 59c
Core1: 43c
Core2: 44c
Core3: 34c

I ran the sensor test and Core0 gave a reading of 3 while the rest are 7/8
I finally got the ABit PGuru software working on Vista64 and it reports very similar Temps, although slightly lower on idle and at last I've got control over the CPU fan that was on 100% and driving me mad (limiting the PWM in the Bios led to the system being unstable!)

What advice can you give me?

Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

the CPU cooler fins and pipes are cold to the touch,.

That's a bad sign! Suggest removing the HSF and checking it's contact patch then reapplying TIM and re-mounting.

 

[M1ntsauce]

I've done that 3 times and rotated it once, nothing changed :/

 

[Fibre_Optic]

It looks like you have been unlucky and got a CPU that has a uneven heatspreader. (You should be able to see what contact it is making my looking at the thermal compound residue on the bottom of the heatsink)

 

[flinco]

are you entirely sure the HSF is completely fixed in? i had problems with mine as one of the pins wasn't in properly and i had very high temps for a while, you might have to take out the mobo and make sure its properly applied. try your stock cooler too to see if your cpu has an uneven heatspreader.

 

[PaulyD]

I'd also put a razer blade across the chip to see how even/uneven that is

 

[M1ntsauce]

The Thermal compound seems to be evenly spread ( I applied the single thin line method as per the Quad core site) I've had the HSF off again and the results are the same. I've already had the MB out and checked the mounting bracket and that looks fine too. The MB is brand new out in the last few weeks, so it's either that not reporting properly or the CPU has a temp sensor error I'm guessing.

Thanks all...

 

[HeX]

Sounds like a dodgy temp sensor to me.

 

[M1ntsauce]

Update: Tried it in a my friends PC (who has an IX48 board and the same chip) had similar results to on my system, with the CPU reporting 60c idle and we put it under stress and had it up to 75c! this was with the stock cooler and unclocked.... It's winging it's way back to OCuk today

Thanks everyone for the advice!