Worrying about installing CPU cooler wrong

[MRPyro]

I installed my first after market cooler (Noctua NH-U12S) and I'm being paranoid that maybe I didn't install it right. When I put i together everything went smooth and in the 20 mins I got to test it my temps weren't crazy. I guess I'm just being paranoid but how long would it take to know that somethings not right?

 

[R_1]

about .5 seconds.
if it ran for 20 minutes my vote is that its good.
if it is bothering you you can remove it and replace everything, but that will introduce a chance to kill something.
if you do remove and replace, clean the old thermal paste off the CPU and cooler with alcohol and a coffee filter before replacing with fresh paste

 

[synphul]

It will generally show up right away. If using an amd cpu use their overdrive software and it will show how many degrees until you reach throttle temps (thermal margin). If using an intel cpu, try using something like realtemp. Without knowing which cpu, what ambient room temps are and what your idle/load temps are it's difficult to guess. Load temps are generally more important since that's when your cpu is liable to overheat.

 

[rhysiam]

Just watch a youtube video or two if you're not sure. That Noctua system is fantastic though, pretty hard to make a mistake and 20 minutes is a solid stress test for temps.

 

[MRPyro]

It will generally show up right away. If using an amd cpu use their overdrive software and it will show how many degrees until you reach throttle temps (thermal margin). If using an intel cpu, try using something like realtemp. Without knowing which cpu, what ambient room temps are and what your idle/load temps are it's difficult to guess. Load temps are generally more important since that's when your cpu is liable to overheat.

It's an 4790k and I was getting between 30-40 idle and I believe it didn't go over 60 in game.

 

[synphul]

Sounds about normal.