Processor over heating and MB

ThomasReilly

Hi need some advice. CPU and MB is starting to overheat when under stress. Have the Intel Q6600 and the Asus P5K. CPU was at like 85C when playing Crysis 2. Have been running this build for 2 years now. I think its down to the build up of dust in the CPU's heatsink and this extra heat is then transferred onto the MB. I have ran the stock cooler since I installed it but as I am going to have disassemble the stock cooler I might as well upgrade it to a better one. So just asking the question(If anybody knows), which would be a good/recommended upgrade????

Shy_Dave!

Right, I have a Q6600 and an ASUS P5Q Deluxe so hope I can help.
Firstly use a can of compressed air (available in all good computer shops) to blow dust out of your heatsink and case, everywhere basically.
Also if your overclocked, or your CPU voltage is set to AUTO in BIOS and you are experienced in overclocking see if you can reduce your CPU voltage in your bios, which would lower your temps.
Try lowering and stress test until you find a stable voltage.
When set to AUTO the computer usually uses a higher voltage than actually needed, thus raising the temperatures.
See if it helps.

As for a good cooler, I bought a Zalman CNPS 9500 about a year ago an it made an incredible difference to my temperatures. We're talkng 45 idle down to 20 degrees.
Oviously your case/fans and other factor will effect how well yours will cool, but hope I give you a general idea of the difference.
It allowed me to overclock my CPU yet still have lower temperatures than I had on stock speed with the stock cooler.
Make sure you measure whatever cooler you choose so it fits your case. :P

Perhaps the Zalman CNPS10X- Quiet CPU Cooler on special this week on Overclockers:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-044-ZA

ThomasReilly

Brilliant Dave cheers for that info. i didnt go near overclocking cause it always did the job with no problems. Ill try lowering the voltage and stress testing it. Which program do you use for stress testing. I have a PI calculating one but don't think its stressing it enough.

Shy_Dave!

Prime95, blend test to check stability (or torture test to generate maximum temperatures) for a couple of hours.
If you get any errors on one of the workers (1 worker for each core = 4) then you need more to supply the cpu with more volts.
Your trying to use the minimum amount of cpu voltage while still keeping the computer stable, should lower your temperatures down a few degrees if you manage to drop the voltage a bit.

Serephucus

Usually Intel way over-specs their processors voltages. Example: my i7-950 runs by default at 1.22V. A while back I tried to see how low I could get it on stock speeds. I managed 0.98V. I think I got somewhere in the region of a 10°C drop in temps.

ThomasReilly

Cheers I will try it later on. Wonder why they have them clocked with such high voltages?

Serephucus

Since a line of processors is the same chip with different clocks, I'd assume it's easier for Intel to go one notch above lowest stable voltage for the highest rated chip, and use that for all their chips; saves them having to worry about returns from unstable chips that don't have enough voltage, and the time of having to calculate voltages for each chip.

Just a guess. Never really looked into it.

Shy_Dave!

Yea each individual processor has a different VID (I think it's called), or minimum voltage needed to run stable, so even though we both have a Q6600 your one may need less volts than mine to run stable!

ThomasReilly

That makes sense alright. Will let ye know how I get on when I do it

ThomasReilly

Got it down to 1.075. Its 38C at Idle and 69C at load. Cheers again for that info. Just waiting on the Zalman cooler to arrive should go down a lot more.

Shy_Dave!

Great, let us know how much the cooler helps!

ThomasReilly

Will do

ThomasReilly

Just when I think everything is sort the MB starts to overheat. I have the threshold set a 50C to warn me. Thought it was overheating because of processor but it appears not. What can the MB take temp wise? Im wondering now is one of my fans of the case beginning to fail.

Trevor451

which motherboard TEMP sensor is this? My motherboards northbridge gets to around 50C while playing games and my system is stable.

Shy_Dave!

Well I dunno, my motherboard temp is idling 35 now for instance in a cool room while my cpu is 18, never worried about it really.
I think it running in the 50's can be expected, not ideal but acceptable. Above 60 would be a problem.
This is just my opinion, not saying I'm right!

ThomasReilly

I don't know what sensor it is? Im running PC Probe so whatever one that goes to by default. I tried finding out how much temp it can take on google but can't find anything on it. Another thing, Dave is there anywhere I could find the model MB you have cause it has the wireless card build in which would be handy for me plus is it any good at picking up signals? USB wireless device I have is useless.

Trevor451

Is the system crashing at all?

ThomasReilly

No alls fine with it just don't want to damage anything with the heat

Shy_Dave!

I have the ASUS P5Q Deluxe Thomas, it doesn't have wireless on it, just two LAN connections.

ThomasReilly

Oh right I thought it had. Read somewhere saying it had probably a spec above yours.

ThomasReilly

I got the Zalman yesterday and installed. Its now 19C at Idle and 40C on load but I am having awful problems with it. My machine crashes sometimes and its a hit and miss to start it up. I turned up the volts on the CPU again and still crashing. I think its down to the Zalman cooler not been firmly on the CPU. I can move it a slight bit still even do its fully tightened.

Serephucus

If by "move" you mean "twist" that's normal. If you can actually pull it up off the CPU, then you have a problem. If that's the case, re-read the mounting instructions, be sure you've done everything exactly as specified, then try a remount anyway.

Also, I wouldn't go screwing with CPU voltages. That just adds another variable to the equation. Put everything back where you had it. Or bet yet, back to stock. (If you don't know stock voltages, you can restore defaults from BIOS)

ThomasReilly

Yeah it twists. I found out my problem do. Because I had the CPU out the computer went back to default. I bought more RAM a while ago which was the same modules but different voltages and there wasn't enough volts supplying the extra RAM at default. I turned the volts up so running stable again.

Serephucus

Glad you got it sorted.

Shy_Dave!

Good to hear