Asus P5N32-E + E6600 + Ultra120 High CPU Temps

[CHRONiK]

Hi all,

Not sure if anyone can help me with this...

I have recently build a new system as follows:
Asus P5N32-E SLI (n680i) Bios 0302
E6600 using AS5 paste with Ultra-120 wit120mm Scythe Fan (1600rpm 66cfm)
G.Skill 2gb 6400 HZ Ram
Silverstone Zeus 750watt
WD 250gig SATA
XFX 8800GTX
Silverstone TJ-09 with 120mm fans

I am having problems with high CPU temps. At stock bios defaults (ie 1.21 vcore), my temps are 40 idle and 55 orthos load. As soon as i raise vcore only to 1.30 (includes vdroop for this board about 1.4ish in bios). My temps will rise to about 47 idle and 63 under load. Nearly a 10degree increase for 0.10 voltage increase, making it very difficult for me to overclock. I have raised to 1.40 and temps get to close to 70 under load.

From what I am reading everywhere, these temps seem abnormally high. I have tried the following:
- Re-apply AS5 (thin layer allover and line blob in the middle where core is)
- Opened case up. No change, mb temp is low compared to friends setups.
- Room temperature is low at about 23ish degrees when testing was done.

This bios level is 0302. There is a 0402 and 0602, but these have some issues, have not read of any temperature sensor related issues with my 0302 bios and would prefer to wait for next revision before flashing.

Any ideas?

[Shift]

How does this belong in Xtreme Overclocking... I really don't know...

[Kunaak]

How does this belong in Xtreme Overclocking... I really don't know...

it doesn't.
XOC isn't a general help area...

Thread Moved.

[CHRONiK]

Sorry. I am new to these forums, and forums in general. Didnt mean to post here.

Any help would be appreciated.

[hot_fifty]

temps are a bit high yeah, but try a little more AS5 on, check the contact between CPU and Heatsink. If you have a B conroe, they get really hot, but does not use much voltage to oc great.

[CHRONiK]

Originally when I put on the AS5, I only put a line in the middle (didnt spread out), as this is what the AS5 instructions said.

When I re-applied the second time, I completely cleaned it, covered the heatspreader in a thin layer, then a line in the middle also (where the core's are). I am pretty sure I have put sufficient amount on.

I am querying the temps, because a friend bought the same CPU and cooler. Board and everything else different. His temps are significantly lower than mine, even tho his case temperature is higher. If it was < 5 degrees difference, I would not have been asking, buts more like 5-10 degrees hotter, and he is running 1.4volts, and I am on stock.

[msgclb]

Originally when I put on the AS5, I only put a line in the middle (didnt spread out), as this is what the AS5 instructions said.

Here are some questions for you to ponder.

When you removed the heatsink was the as5 spread out evenly?
Do you have anything keeping the heatsink from making a good mount?
Did you follow the install instructions?

[CHRONiK]

Here are some questions for you to ponder.

When you removed the heatsink was the as5 spread out evenly?
Do you have anything keeping the heatsink from making a good mount?
Did you follow the install instructions?

Hi msgclb, thanks for the reply.

After putting the line in the middle only (first attempt with AS5 as per instructions http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appi...dual_wcap.pdf). No the paste was not evenly covering the entire heatspreader when I removed. You can see here that it says nothing about applying a thin layer to cover the entire heat spreader. (unless I am blind or it assumes?)

The second attempt i did put a thin layer as suggested by others and the line in the middle. Am sure its completely covered now! But this has made no difference at all to my temps.

The cooler is a perfect mount, perhaps the easier cooler I have installed. nothing to keep in its way at all. There's is not much to the instructions either (not sure if you have installed one of these before). Bracket underneath the board. Drop cooler on then screw in with spring loader screws. I have installed plenty of machines with aftermarket coolers before (ie Thermaltakes, Zalman 9500, etc).

I am thinking about installing the stock cooler. If there is no changes to temps, then maybe the heatsink is faulty? As wierd as that may sound

[msgclb]

No the paste was not evenly covering the entire heatspreader when I removed. You can see here that it says nothing about applying a thin layer to cover the entire heat spreader. (unless I am blind or it assumes?)

The second attempt i did put a thin layer as suggested by others and the line in the middle. Am sure its completely covered now! But this has made no difference at all to my temps.

The cooler is a perfect mount, perhaps the easier cooler I have installed. nothing to keep in its way at all. There's is not much to the instructions either (not sure if you have installed one of these before). Bracket underneath the board. Drop cooler on then screw in with spring loader screws. I have installed plenty of machines with aftermarket coolers before (ie Thermaltakes, Zalman 9500, etc).

I am thinking about installing the stock cooler. If there is no changes to temps, then maybe the heatsink is faulty? As wierd as that may sound

I've installed my AC Freezer 7 Pro several times using the line in the middle method and each time that it was removed the as5 was evenly applied. I actually think that as long as the as5 ends up evenly applied over the cpu it shouldn't matter what method you use.

Do you and your friend have the same fan? Is the fan running at full speed all the time? I haven't made any fan changes to the bios settings for our board so I don't know if they make any difference.

Does this fan have a 4-pin connector? Is it connected to the CPU_FAN connector?

My idle temps are 31°C for the CPU and 25°C for the M/B. My full load CPU temps reach 45°C to 50°C.

[orion23]

I use an Ultra 120 in my setup and the fan on it never goes above 1500 RPM.
It is a thermaltake blue LED 120mm fan. Very quiet at this speed BTW.

The Ultra 120 is a very simple to install HSF. Much easier than a 9500 LED or Tuniq Tower 120.

There must be something wrong with either your CPU (not flat) or the HSF itself (again, not flat).

If you can, RMA the cooler and get yourself a new one since you've tried all possible methods of installation already. If the new one gives you the same results, well, do something to that CPU of yours!

[CHRONiK]

I have installed paste, coolers several times in the past and also agree that so long as the cpu is covered, should be all good.

My friend is using P5B Deluxe, E6600 and Ultra-120, he is using a Thermaltake smart fan which can crank up to 90cfm's, but keeps in around the 60-70cfm mark/lower rpm's due to the noise. My fan is the Scythe 120mm Blue LED, adjustable pci card knob, I keep it on max rpm which is 1600rpm (66cfm). It uses a 3pin fan connecter, as apposed to the 4pin socket the board has and is connected to CPU_FAN. The fan can monitored through any normal software (ie PC Probe II). I can see the speed increase/decrease when i turn it, the temperature also changes slightly. But I keep it going full at 1600rpm for obvious reasons and have made no changes to bios settings in relation to fan control.

At present I have upped the vcore to 1.28 in PC Probe II. (normally 1.21, setting higher in bios due to drop). Stress testing in Orthos for 3hr 30mins at 3.1ghz (no other voltages changed) Temps have reached 67degrees numerous times, mb temp is high at 37, but it is hot day here today. Even still, my mates machine has mb temps at 38, vcore of 1.4 and cpu temp is 55max. If I changed to 1.4vcore I would need a fire extinguisher!

Agree that I might need to try another Ultra120. But I am sure the first thing they will say is what is the difference between the Ultra120 and stock? Have you tested, etc? At least if I can say there is no improvement from stock cooler then they will probably change for me. I got the cooler from a different place from the cpu, really didnt expect to have an issues with a cooler.

I'll attach some pics shortly...

[CHRONiK]

Pics of my system below in the silverstone Tj09 (Argh, had better pics, but the size limit stopped me!)

The case has decent cooling compared to most others:
- The fan in the middle pulls air directly from the outside over the mainboard (120mm)
- Hard disk 120mm fan/cooling is completely seperate.
- PSU down the bottom. (Silverstone Zeus 750watt).
- Rear 120mm fan sucks air from cpu heatsink/fan.
- Top 2 x 120mm fans can do whatever you like. Not sure how to best set them up. Currently the corner fan is exhaust. Any suggestions for these 2 at the top?

Pretty happy with the case, 100% sure it would not be contributing to the high CPU temps. Nothing as severe as what I am experiencing. (uh oh this is sounding like a case review now..)

Lapping the CPU or Heatsink has been suggested and maybe the fix, but I am not too sure if I am ready to go down this path just yet.

[GrimReaper]

I would try installing the ultra120 the the air blowing upwords..

If your still unable to fix this then you better lap the heatsink, the last resort would be to lap the cpu

[msgclb]

Lapping the CPU or Heatsink has been suggested and maybe the fix, but I am not too sure if I am ready to go down this path just yet.

Are you sure that the fan is blowing in the correct direction? Turn it around and see what happens.

From looking at a couple of reviews the heatsink is positioned the same as what I've seen.

Difficult problems bring silly suggestions.
If you have a piece of glass (maybe from a small picture frame) and some cheap paste then you might be able to find out if the heatsink and cpu is flat.

You could put the paste on in your preferred way and mount the heatsink or cpu on the glass. Look to see if the paste is distributed evenly.

I actually think the fan is blowing in the wrong direction.

[CHRONiK]

The way I have the fan currently, its sucking air from the centre of the case (centre intake fan) then blowing past the ultra120 heatsink, then sucked out of the case by the exhaust (top corner or rear above panel). I checked this when installing by the fans directional arrow and 'feeling' air movement.

I changed the fan around as suggested, but it meant that the fan was drawing air from the rear of case (through the heatsink) and blowing into the middle of case. Which means the rear exhaust and heatsink fan are fighting for air so to speak. Not as ideal. Temps did not change either. Pretty sure I had the fan in the right way.

Not sure the ultra120 facing upwards would make difference. As it would still be directly facing an exhaust fan exiting the case. Might try it tho.

I think the next step would be to install the stock cooler and see what happens. If temps dont change AT ALL, then I may have a 'leg to stand on' when trying to RMA the cooler, or maybe the CPU. If they'll listen to me, probably not. Should I try the stock cooler with AS5 or the normal junk stuck on the heatsink? I am thinking the normal junk..

[msgclb]

The way I have the fan currently, its sucking air from the centre of the case (centre intake fan) then blowing past the ultra120 heatsink, then sucked out of the case by the exhaust (top corner or rear above panel). I checked this when installing by the fans directional arrow and 'feeling' air movement.

That's the way I think it should be installed. From the pics I just thought it looked like it was blowing the other way.

I think the next step would be to install the stock cooler and see what happens. If temps dont change AT ALL, then I may have a 'leg to stand on' when trying to RMA the cooler, or maybe the CPU. If they'll listen to me, probably not. Should I try the stock cooler with AS5 or the normal junk stuck on the heatsink? I am thinking the normal junk..

How rich and how much as5 do you have? I use it on both of my computers but I understand it can make a few degrees difference. Don't take that statement to mean that I'm rich!

[CHRONiK]

I bought the tube new and have used it for 2 installations only. There is a bit still there, I am happy to go through a tube and buy another.

I think if I try the stock cooler (with no As5) and see no changes, then I can at least say the new cooler is ineffective and try and get another. Its possible, however unlikely, it has not been made properly, maybe something isnt touching/welded, etc. If the second cooler is no good. Then I can try and change CPU. But I think the question Ill be asked would be why I'd want to change the cpu, if the temps are higher than the normal but still way within safe...? (err.. coz I want to overclock it!! )

[CHRONiK]

Well. I have done some more testing. I set the CPU speed/voltage back to default (E6600 2400mhz). Shut the PC down for 20mins. Started back up, still using the Ultra120 going 1600rpm with the Scythe fan. The temps were: 45idle, 56 Orthos load, Mb temp was 35degrees (its hot here in Melb/Aus).

I then shut the PC down (waiting about 20-30mins). Removed the Ultra120, cleaned up the precious AS5 from everything. Installed the Stock intel cooler using the normal stuck on heatsink paste junk (first time the stock cooler was used). Powered back up and left it on for 20mins. Then check temps: 48 idle 60 orthos load. Mb temp was 34.

Dunno about you guys. But I would hope that the massive Ultra120 with AS5 and 120mm 66cfm fan would do a little more than 3-4 degrees difference under load and idle compared the stock cooler?? What do you guys think?

[spookz]

Heys! I'm from Sydney, Australia~ its pretty hot here too!

I just recieved a E6600 (L631A500) today. Running it @ stock speeds atm (2.4GHz).

32-36C Idle
44-49C Orthos Load

Currently @ 6hrs 50mins ORTHOS.

Btw it's air cooled by Scythe Ninja Rev.B w/ 120mm Nexus fan =)

EDIT : Oh and AS5 =)

[CHRONiK]

Heys! I'm from Sydney, Australia~ its pretty hot here too!

I just recieved a E6600 (L631A500) today. Running it @ stock speeds atm (2.4GHz).

32-36C Idle
44-49C Orthos Load

Currently @ 6hrs 50mins ORTHOS.

Btw it's air cooled by Scythe Ninja Rev.B w/ 120mm Nexus fan =)

EDIT : Oh and AS5 =)

What mainboard are you using? I am using a B2 processor.

[spookz]

Im using the P5N32-E SLI on bios 0602. The E6600 is a 31A Stepping 6 Revision B2!

[CHRONiK]

Im using the P5N32-E SLI on bios 0602. The E6600 is a 31A Stepping 6 Revision B2!

Did you install the stock cooler at all? Or the Ninja straight away? Would be interested to know what your temps were with the stock cooler...

[spookz]

I ran it straight off with the Ninja. Btw the temps are what reads off ASUS Probe II =)

Atm under orthos (3hrs 4mins), CoreTemp reads:
Tjunction : 85C
Core0 : 54C
Core1 : 56C

Vcore is set at @ 1.28 or something (Asus Probe shows 1.25-1.26). Going to run for atleast 12hrs to test stability @ low vcore.

Nexus fan is running @ 1115rpm on the Ninja!

[Cyaneed]

Well you asked for feedback in another thread so I'll let you know here. I just finished lapping the HS and the Proc and my temps are now down at 50c for 1.39v at 3.2GHz. It easily took 8 to 10c off my temps and now I'm confident to try 500FSB or at least 400FSB with a 9x to get 3.6GHz. I'll see how stable it is at 400 before I try to push it much farther.

if 10 degrees is all thats worrying you give lapping a go. I also applies the AS5 by putting the amount about the size of a large BB in the center of the proc and letting the HS pressure do the spreading. Good luck with your temps.

[Omastar]

Have you ever thought maybe the thermal sensors on the board are wrong? Try measuring temperature with Intel TAT (Thermal Analysis Tool), it gives the most accurate results for me because the thermal sensor on the XBX2 is calibrated about 10C too high, and the same is probably true for your P5N32-E.