Intel i-5 2500k core temps during Prime95

[pater familias]

Coretemp shows my i-5 2500k coretemps are running 70-76 degrees C when running Prime95.

What should the temps be running?

I'm only running the stock cooler that came with the CPU as recommended to be okay here on the forum. I noticed there was only a small pattern of thermal paste on the cooler when installing it.

Should I go and get some thermal paste and re-mount the cooler?

Or should I bite the bullet and just install an aftermarket?

My system:

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500

GIGABYTE GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

XFX HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBXL

Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM

 

[ps3hacker12]

what are idle temps? and which prime95 test are we talking about here?

 

[pater familias]

what are idle temps? and which prime95 test are we talking about here?

Don't know idle temps yet. What's the best method of determining those, that is how long should I let it idle?

I was running the "stress test" on Prime95 I think.

But I'll be honest, this is my first build and I don't have a very good concept of what I'm doing here. I just bought components based on recommendations here, carefully put it all together, turned it on yesterday, loaded the OS, and it's working great as far I know.

I was just following the thread on here re: Step-by-Step building where it recommended stress and stability testing. But I don't really know what I'm doing.

 

[internetlad]

the general rule is that if it's over 60 degrees celcius, that's no good. I'd make sure your heatsink is on there all the way. Intel coolers have a pattern that looks like a backwards D, a line and a regular D ( C| || D sort of)
Edit: A picture is worth a thousand letters : http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.frostytech.com/articleimages/200706/intelC2Dstock_bot.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t158058.html&usg=__nnalUJn7h268AQ3-5gNXQ5Gdgk0=&h=363&w=350&sz=64&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=07xYhkWJF8HYcM:&tbnh=152&tbnw=147&ei=KLD3TaamMOHm0QGGifSDCw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dintel%2Bheatsink%2Bpaste%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1518%26bih%3D802%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=1&page=1&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=65&ty=79

I've never seen one that had any less or more thermal paste than another. In fact having "too much" paste can be worse than having not enough for heat transfer, about the size smaller than a pea in the middle should be about right. You're not looking to coat it on, just to have a thin layer to bridge the gap of metal to metal.

If you are paranoid about it there's no harm in scraping off the factory paste and putting your own on, a tube is like 3 or 4 bucks from a local store most likely. That would at least eliminate that possibility.

Another is if the top of the proc got dirty before you mounted the heatsink that could cause heat buildup, in which case cleaning off the paste and re-mounting should fix that too.


A third possibility is that some intel chips don't seem to play very well with temp programs, i remember there were some core 2's that would give out crazy readings but in reality be running totally fine.

Is this the first proc you've had running in this case? Could it be an airflow issue? Perhaps the ambient temperature in the room is causing it to run hot as well.


Some food for thought, but the first thing i'd check is that the heatsink is mounted correctly on all four pegs. just twist the peg to the left with a screwdriver, pop it out , twist it to the right and pop it back in. I've seen some come with one of the pins pushed in already (oops!) and you have to pull it out before it will go in properly, but normally this is pretty obvious that it didn't go through, although I have had a couple times where it appears to be in, but is only about halfway in. It's harder to tell if the motherboard is mounted because the PCB will tend to bend to the point you might be afraid of breaking something, but about 98 percent of the time there's a telltale *POP* when the peg goes in correctly.

 

[pater familias]

I shut down the system for approx 30 min. Then restarted and just let it "idle" I guess with only Windows open.

It's fairly warm in my house....75-82 degrees F (101 here in South Ga today).

The temps are running:

Tj. max 98

22-38
27-44
26-38
26-40

My pattern of thermal compound looked just liked that linked pic.

I did remove the cooler and remount it once during build to turn it around for better cable management. I assumed since it was all cold and had only been mounted a few minutes it would be okay. Did I screw it up?

 

[ps3hacker12]

dont worry, those temps seem fine, prime95 creates unrealistic conditions in which it stresses your CPU to the max, in which case 70C is pretty ok (max reccommended by intel is 72.5C).

 

[internetlad]

while you're not *really* supposed to remove and replace a heatsink without replacing the thermal paste, the effects would be negligable to anybody but an enthusiast overclocker.

I'm surprised the new "standard" is 70c, I thought it was still 60.

 

[pater familias]

dont worry, those temps seem fine, prime95 creates unrealistic conditions in which it stresses your CPU to the max, in which case 70C is pretty ok (max reccommended by intel is 72.5C).

So do I still need to run Prime95 on this thing? Or some other kind of stability test?

I'm not interested in overclocking on this one. Just wanna get it running okay for my 14-yo to be good to go on his WOW and Strategy games.

I honestly don't have a clue what I'm doing when running these tests or what the various things on the screen mean.

Hell, I didn't even do anything to the Bios. The first time I turned it on it stayed in DOS briefly with some messages about SATA ide and ACI, and then prompted me to load the OS. I loaded it, worked fine, and haven't done anything else since yesterday other than load and update drivers, etc.

 

[internetlad]

certainly if you think there's a problem you'd be on the right track running tests on it, but as for a new build it wouldn't hurt but if it's just a pain then it's not neccessary either. As long as you set everything up right (hardware wise, IE, mounting the heatsink right) then it should be covered by warranty if anything goes south.

In my opinion you'd be fine handing it off to your son and letting him run with it. I'm sure he'll put it through enough "testing" if he's eager to get his hands on it. Incidentally that sounds like somewhat of a beast to be running WoW on lol.

As far as breaking into the computer building world, there isn't a whole lot to it. Certainly there's stuff to know but just building the box with the parts in it and getting an OS on and configured is pretty easy, and more importantly fun. Sounds like you did a good job.

 

[ps3hacker12]

So do I still need to run Prime95 on this thing? Or some other kind of stability test?

I'm not interested in overclocking on this one. Just wanna get it running okay for my 14-yo to be good to go on his WOW and Strategy games.

I honestly don't have a clue what I'm doing when running these tests or what the various things on the screen mean.

Hell, I didn't even do anything to the Bios. The first time I turned it on it stayed in DOS briefly with some messages about SATA ide and ACI, and then prompted me to load the OS. I loaded it, worked fine, and haven't done anything else since yesterday other than load and update drivers, etc.

yeah, should be fine, WoW isnt really that demanding anyways.

 

[pater familias]

Best answer selected by pater familias.