CPU Temps a bit too high(Core 2 Duo E8400)

[parmpreet001]

I bought a SFF PC a few weeks ago and something that I noticed was that the heat coming from the CPU seemed a bit abnormal. When Idle, the CPU temps seem to be in the mid to high 40s, capping at 50. I've had chrome open for several minutes and the CPU temps are reaching 70...Something is clearly wrong here and it seems as if I need to reapply thermal paste or something. The CPU fan seems to be spinning, but im not sure what the speed is since Open HW monitor doesn't display it for some reason.

Personally, I'd prefer not to have to reapply the thermal paste, since it can be a bit troublesome. It should also be noted that im sitting in a room where the temperature seems to be 80+Fahrenheit.

 

[nozzy7]

What CPU cooler do you have and is the CPU overclocked? Also yes those temps are high you may want to use speed fan to see how fast the cpu cooler fan is spinning.

 

[geofelt]

Older intel chips ran much hotter than they do today.
That is normal.
SFF usually means a small case designed for silence not cooling.
70c. does not seem unusual to me.
The cpu will downclock or even shut off if it reached dangerous thermal limits.
That is about 100c.

It is possible that you did not mount the cooler well, It is tricky to do.
Nudge it, if it wiggles, remount.
Here is how:
----------------how to mount the stock Intel cooler--------------

The stock Intel cooler can be tricky to install.
A poor installation will result in higher cpu temperatures.
If properly mounted, you should expect temperatures at idle to be 10-15c. over ambient.

To mount the Intel stock cooler properly, place the motherboard on top of the foam or cardboard backing that was packed with the motherboard.
The stock cooler will come with paste pre applied, it looks like three grey strips.
The 4 push pins should come in the proper position for installation, that is with the pins rotated in the opposite direction of the arrow,(clockwise)
and pulled up as far as they can go.
Take the time to play with the pushpin mechanism until you know how they work.

Orient the 4 pins so that they are exactly over the motherboard holes.
If one is out of place, you will damage the pins which are delicate.
Push down on a DIAGONAL pair of pins at the same time. Then the other pair.

When you push down on the top black pins, it expands the white plastic pins to fix the cooler in place.

If you do them one at a time, you will not get the cooler on straight.
Lastly, look at the back of the motherboard to verify that all 4 pins are equally through the motherboard, and that the cooler is on firmly.
This last step must be done, which is why the motherboard should be out of the case to do the job. Or you need a case with a opening that lets you see the pins.
It is possible to mount the cooler with the motherboard mounted in the case, but you can then never be certain that the push pins are inserted properly
unless you can verify that the pins are through the motherboard and locked.

If you should need to remove the cooler, turn the pins counter clockwise to unlock them.
You will need to clean off the old paste and reapply new if you ever take the cooler off.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[parmpreet001]

What CPU cooler do you have and is the CPU overclocked? Also yes those temps are high you may want to use speed fan to see how fast the cpu cooler fan is spinning.

I'm using the stock cooler. I tried using speed fan like you said, but for some reason it is not showing the fan speeds. It seems as if something is wrong with the fan. I'll try checking the bios tomorrow, I don't have time at the moment.

 

[lordmogul]

On the stock cooler I would say that temperature is fine.

I've run my E8400 clocked to 3.6 GHz and undervolted (1.22 v) with an aftermarked cooler with a maximum of 56°C
After cloking further to 4.2 GHz (1.38 v) I topped slightly above 70°C

You could try to lower your Vcore a bit. A lot of the E8xxx Core 2 Duos run on more voltage that is really needed for ease of stability under less than ideal situations (e.g. power supplies that struggle to deliver the needed current)

You might be able to lower to around 1.15 - 1.2 v when not overclocked.

 

[GhislainG]

On the stock cooler I would say that temperature is fine.

I've run my E8400 clocked to 3.6 GHz and undervolted (1.22 v) with an aftermarked cooler with a maximum of 56°C
After cloking further to 4.2 GHz (1.38 v) I topped slightly above 70°C

You could try to lower your Vcore a bit. A lot of the E8xxx Core 2 Duos run on more voltage that is really needed for ease of stability under less than ideal situations (e.g. power supplies that struggle to deliver the needed current)

You might be able to lower to around 1.15 - 1.2 v when not overclocked.

Changing voltages and other settings rarely is available if the SFF is from HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc.