One core running hotter than the other three

[niepelm]

I recently built an core i5 based system. It's not overclocked, running Win 7 and has been puttering along stably for about a week now. To see if cooling (using a ZALMAN CNPS7000C-ALCU cooler).

Here is my question: Using the little Utility 'Core Temp', it appears that core 0 through core 2 are generally at about 22-23C at idle temp. Yet, core 3 has an idle temp of 30-31C. The lowest temp for core 0-2 is 22C while the lowest temp on core 3 is 28C.

So far, I have not tested under continuous load, but at around 10% load all cores are in the low 40% with core 3 always running slightly hotter.

Is this something I should be worried about. I know the temperatures are so far extremely low, but I am simply wondering if this might mean that the cooler is not seated properly or that I put the paste unevenly onto the CPU. Any thoughts?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Usually core 1 will be highest....run OCCT to get a real idea of what's happening

http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/

If you get thru 60 minutes of OCCT, next step is Prime 95 w/ small FFT's.

 

[niepelm]

Hey Jack, I am just running OCCT. I'm halfway through and at load all four cores are stable in the low sixties (62-64C).

What does 'Prime 95 w/ small FFT's' tell me that OCCT does not?

 

[oc_4life]

happens all the time dont worry about it

 

[niepelm]

Finished running OCCT o/n. Temps and core voltage remained stable throughout the test. Max temp was at 67C for one core and the temps hovered mainly around 62-64C.

I would like to run the other tests OCCT is capable of running, but it seems that two GPU tests and the PSU tests are grayed out and not accessible. Does anybody know the reason for that? And is there another program that I can use to test the system on '100%GPU+100%CPU' at the same time? I have a passively cooled Radeon HD5750, so I would like to know how it affects the temperature of the whole system.

Thanks for everybody's help so far.

 

[oc_4life]

well your GPU is dumping heat into your case so if you cant exhaust it then yes it would raise your case temps and yes even your CPU temps...

 

[niepelm]

well your GPU is dumping heat into your case so if you cant exhaust it then yes it would raise your case temps and yes even your CPU temps...

Exactly, so that's why I would like to test under conditions where both the CPU and the GPU are running at 100% at the same time. Is there a Utility that runs such a stress test?

 

[oc_4life]

run LinX Linpack and ATI tool at the same time