Windows 7 - Core 2 Duo E6400 OC'ed to 2.67ghz idling at 73C??

Hello. I just upgraded my (i prety much fixed up a new rig) gaming machine and have enjoyed it very much so far. I've been dealing with various issues (the latests of which happened to be a faulty graphics card) and now my newest issue seems to be with my processor.

Crysis crashes on me and after much thought I finally downloaded speedfan and checked out my CPU temp. I"m not exactly sure how to read the info but it says that core0 and core1 are idling at ~72C. In games it goes up to around 80C!! crysis regularly crashes and FPS frequently drop particullary during noised induced by object interation.

Stock the CPU runs at 2.13Ghz so OC'ing to 2.67 shouldn't be that bad should it? also i've got a third party heatsink and fan on it so it definately should be that high right?

If i'm right then what can i do to resolve this issue? does the thermal compound make that much difference? i clumsily installed the heatsink and fan so many the compound got unevenly spread? If need be... i'll get a new processor and use this on another mobo i've got laying around, but it doesn't seem right that my CPU is registerying those kinds of temperatures. Please help!

72c is really high for idle. It would concern me. Your crashing is probably due to heat. First make sure you have good airflow (cable management helps here) Also the direction the fan is blowing through the cooler should be faced toward the rear of the case,with hopefully a case fan exhausting air. Make sure the fins are clean of debris, If everything looks OK, then I would suggest re seating my cooler with a VERY EVENLY APPLIED THIN LAYER of Artic silver 5 thermal grease. And yes the thermal compound makes a big difference. As well as carefully seating your heatsink. If you can tell the thermal compound got unevenly spread I would say you applied to much of it. Fabe

If you overclocked the cpu without changing the vcore, then you have a problem with your heatsink. That overclock on stock voltage would not produce those temps.

Hi chiefboo,

Those temps are really high. My e6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz is idling just now at 31C. If you can, post a picture of the side of your pc case when its open as that would really help. Make sure the picture you post shows the entire side of the case so we can see where all the cables are, drives are etc...

Also tell us which way your fans are blowing the air.

You can also download HWmonitor and post a screenshot of it fully open so we can see all the values.

70c is a horrid load temp let alone idle

you need to reseat the cooler, by the sounds of it you've got a bad contact between the cooler & the CPU IHS.

im running that exact cooler on my Quad @ 3.6GHZ with an idle temp of 23c..... the AC7 PRO has excellent heat dissipation..

id remove the cooler, re apply TIM (thermal paste), & reseat.....

Thanks for all the replies guys! I'll get on that picture taking. Right now I"ve got the case open with a big fan blowing into hA hA. now its dropped to around mid-60's. hopefully it will be enough to get me through the final stage of crysis.

also.. the heatsink came with some thermal compound already on it. I was clumsy and made contact acouple of times before i got the thing on securely. should i get a cleaning kit and then reapply thermal greese?

You shouldn't need anything other than alcohol and Q tips, maybe a fingernail, to get all that stuff off the heatsink. You don't need a cleaning kit. Take your time.

The tendency is to over-apply the new thermal compound.

You don't need much.

Look here for instructions:

Arctic Silver, Inc. - Instructions

Thanks for the quick reply. Will try this and get back to you all.

sometimes there is a clear plastic film on the heatsink to keep the thermal compound from spreading around during transport - you want to make sure you remove that film

UH...... lol

SKUNKSMASH: do you remember a film being on your heatsink? i just remember a thin white compound.