CPU running too hot?

[Madoc Comadrin]

My CPU is AMD Phenom II X4 955BE.
CPU's fan is Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/cpu/4/freezer-7-pro-rev.-2.html?c=2181

When processor usage is about 25% CPU's core temp is 55-60 Celsius.
Is this too much?
I haven't over clocked anything.

Airflow in my chassis should be good, because HDD's temp is 35 Celsius and GPU 40.

[mannsupreme]

what temperature does it run at idle?
have you tried seeing what the temperature will reach under full load?
try running prime 95.
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103
it will put your CPU under full load and you can record a good spectrum of results with it.
use the 'In-place large FFT's' test.
in any case having a CPU run at around 55 Degrees Celsius isn't bad

[Madoc Comadrin]

I ran that test for about 10 minutes, temps rose to 71 Celsius.
Idle temps are 45 C. (Running only HWmonitor to see temps.)

[patio]

Dload and install SpeedFan for a 2nd set of 3's....
Those are probably within range for that CPU.

[Salmon Trout]

I ran that test for about 10 minutes, temps rose to 71 Celsius.

The maximum safe temperature for the 955 BE is given by AMD as 62 degrees C. Those temps are WAY too high. Particularly that 71 C reading. How are you measuring this?

http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=618&f1=&f2=&f3=&f4=&f5=&f6=&f7=&f8=&f9=&f10=&f11=&f12=

I have a 945 which in most respects is similar and even in my little Shuttle SN78SH7 with its heat pipe cooler I can get the following temps:

I have Cool 'n' Quiet enabled in the BIOS, and the power schemes are the 3 standard Windows 7 options. I have Speedfan set with a desired CPU temp of 40 C and fan speeds set to a very quiet range.

Power Scheme        Idle    after 20 mins of Hyper-Pi
-----------------------------------------------------
Power Saving        28              43-45
Balanced            32              43-45
High Performance    38              43-45

I see this is a BE part, so are the clocks and voltages standard? I would want to know if the heatsink compound was properly applied and that the heatsink was fitted properly and the fan speed was appropriate. If you have any fan speed options in the BIOS I would review those too.

in any case having a CPU run at around 55 Degrees Celsius isn't bad

I wish people would confine themselves to what they know about. 25% cpu causing this CPU to run a temp of 55 C is bad news. This is only 7 degrees C below the max safe temp for a 955. This is not a Pentium 4 we are talking about. CPUs differ.

[Madoc Comadrin]

I see this is a BE part, so are the clocks and voltages standard? I would want to know if the heatsink compound was properly applied and that the heatsink was fitted properly and the fan speed was appropriate. If you have any fan speed options in the BIOS I would review those too.

I built this computer from parts and haven't changed any settings nor done any clocking so all voltages and clocks are in default settings.

About that, this was the first time I built computer so can't be 100% sure that I heat sink and such are put to their place correctly.

I use HWmonitor to monitor temps.

[WillyW]

....so can't be 100% sure that I heat sink and such are put to their place correctly.

Here is some reading/reference material:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/274

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=1

http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm



Compare the way you did it, to what you find at those sites.

I hope this helps.....

[Madoc Comadrin]

I'll look into that next.

So normal temps for my CPU would be ~30-45C?

[camerongray]

Yeh, could possibly be the thermal paste, too much or too little can cause temperature issues - You ideally want a piece about the size of a grain of rice to make a thin film over the CPU, no more!  If you remove the cooler you must clean the old paste off of the CPU and cooler and apply fresh stuff before replacing the cooler.

I have seen many cooling issues related to incorrect amounts of thermal paste.

[Salmon Trout]

I'll look into that next.

So normal temps for my CPU would be ~30-45C?

Well, 62 degrees C is specified by AMD as the maximum temperature which is safe, so if you never hit 63 in theory you should be all right. However it is human nature (and common sense!) to desire a safety margin. No matter how powerful the fan and how low the ambient temperature, you are unlikely to get an idle temperature much below 20 C. An idle of around 5 to 10 degrees above ambient is good. With the normal stock AMD cooler it should be possible to get temperature ranges like this: (taken from AMD discussion forums)

Stock AMD cooler...
idle / full load
33 / 58
35 / 55
25 / 45
40 / 55

Other coolers...
Zalman 9700nt (big, nickel plated copper) idle at cold boot 26c and load 45c
Noctua U12P (4 heat pipes) idle 32 and load 48C

You are getting 45 / 71 with this cooler...



So your idle is high unless you live in a rather hot place (I am in England) and your load temp is 9 over the safe limit. I would say your system was running pretty warm considering you have a fairly big cooler with 6 heat pipes. You should see idle below 40 and full load below 50 in my opinion.

[Salmon Trout]

If you remove the cooler you must clean the old paste off of the CPU and cooler

Using isopropyl alcohol and the edge of an old credit card or similar. Not a knife!

[Madoc Comadrin]

I reinstalled the cooler.
Now I am sure that there is not too much thermal paste and that heat sink is placed correctly.
I also made sure that I removed all old paste before adding new.

Temps still stay as high as before.
Both HWmonitor and AMD Overdrive give same numbers, so this probably isn't software giving too high values.

I also checked that CPU fan is working well.

My room's temp is from 22 to 24C.

What should I try next?

[Salmon Trout]

What should I try next?

See if Cool 'n' Quiet is enabled in the BIOS...

See if you have an fan speed options in the BIOS, don't set to "ulta-quiet" or whatever the minimum speed setting is. Try higher speeds.

Check in Control Panel - Power Options - Power Schemes and see which scheme you are using...

[Madoc Comadrin]

See if Cool 'n' Quiet is enabled in the BIOS...

See if you have an fan speed options in the BIOS, don't set to "ulta-quiet" or whatever the minimum speed setting is. Try higher speeds.

Check in Control Panel - Power Options - Power Schemes and see which scheme you are using...

Cool and quiet is enabled in BIOS.
CPU fan was set to "standard" I set it to "Turbo" to see that helps at all.
Power Scheme is Balanced.

[Salmon Trout]

Well, with idle at 45 and full load going up to 71, that processor is not being cooled effectively, unless it is faulty...

Have you checked the processor core voltage setting in the BIOS? A program such as CPU-Z will display this and from what I can gather you should see 1.35 volts when it is running on full power. Your BIOS defaults may not be correct for this CPU. Often the cpu core voltage (vcore) is set too high. Also, is the airflow in the case good? What kind of case is it? Is there lots of clutter (cables etc) in here? Are air inlets blocked? Is it standing on a carpet? Does it get cooler if you run it with the case off (or with it on?) Do we know what motherboard you have?