i5-2500K temps high?

addylad · 6 Feb 2016 at 15:39

Hi all

I have had my PC for about 4 years and thought I might as well try OCing it. I understand that I should be able to set the multiplier to ~42 without too many issues.

I downloaded SpeedFan and at least one of my core temps is showing as about 81 deg C! I recently cleaned up my PC's inside with compressed air, so I was a little surprised to say the least.

Maybe this could be a driver issue (Gigabyte UD3P mobo) or something else, like an issue with the way the thermal compound was applied 4 years ago.

I wonder whether my CPU is being throttled due to the temps and that's why it's ruining my day-to-day experience.

Booting from cold, the BIOS is showing the CPU temp as about 70 deg C. Something is definitely wrong!

Thanks in advance!

Finners · 6 Feb 2016 at 17:49

Thats pretty warm and certainly there is no headroom for overclocking, If its 70 degrees in BIOS I would be worried as its not really under any load at that point.

What cooler do you have, is it the stock cooler or aftermarket?

Forst port of call will be to re-mount the cooler you have now with fresh thermal paste

addylad · 6 Feb 2016 at 18:01

Thanks for the reply. The cooler is an Arctic Cooling Freezer, can't remember exactly which one.

I think as you say, I'll try remounting and hope that solves it. Thanks.

5960xNvidiaGamer · 6 Feb 2016 at 19:25

Would get a much better cooler.

addylad · 5 Mar 2016 at 19:41

Finners said:
Thats pretty warm and certainly there is no headroom for overclocking, If its 70 degrees in BIOS I would be worried as its not really under any load at that point.

What cooler do you have, is it the stock cooler or aftermarket?

Forst port of call will be to re-mount the cooler you have now with fresh thermal paste

A week or so ago I discovered that the mounting plate was broken, so the heat sink didn't appear to be held as tight as it could be. So, Arctic sent out a new mounting plate, and I cleaned everything and reapplied the paste before remounting.

Unfortunately, the core temps are still around 90+ degrees C and the CPU fan is whirring away constantly. I'm not sure what to try next and I have no spares to switch out.

One theory that comes to mind, assuming I am doing a decent job with the paste and applying sufficient pressure to the heat sink, is that the heat sink no longer sits quite right on the CPU, and needs to be replaced.

Any ideas? This PC has lasted four years with no issues whatsoever.

Edit: and the cooler is the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2.

wazza300 · 5 Mar 2016 at 20:41

check that ones not broke aswell and that its mounted correctly

addylad · 5 Mar 2016 at 20:48

wazza300 said:
check that ones not broke aswell and that its mounted correctly

Thanks for the reply.

All looks okay from what I can see. Very snug and seems to be firmly pressed against the CPU, and no damage to the plate.

I will probably remove the heat sink tomorrow and look at the thermal paste. Every time I've removed it there's been a nice circular patch, so I'm quite happy that my application has been good enough (using the 'grain of rice' method).

I've emailed Arctic support about the issue. In the meantime, any advice would be appreciated. I'll update tomorrow if I get chance to remove the HS and reapply.

henson0115 · 5 Mar 2016 at 22:47

Auto or manual voltage? Either way have you monitored them and if so what are your readings?

addylad · 5 Mar 2016 at 23:11

henson0115 said:
Auto or manual voltage? Either way have you monitors them and if so what are your readings?

Everything is at stock but I can check and report back. Thanks for the suggestion.

Upgrade · 6 Mar 2016 at 00:52

Well, you did say you noticed the mounting plate to be broken and that the heatsink wasn't properly fitted, so maybe you did some damage to the cpu? Idk if that would even be a thing, but eh.. those temps are crazy high.

henson0115 · 6 Mar 2016 at 19:42

addylad said:
Everything is at stock but I can check and report back. Thanks for the suggestion.

I would just have a look and see what's happening, also when your backplate broke, how did you apply your paste and did you clean all of the old stuff off?

C64 · 7 Mar 2016 at 22:47

fresh thermal compound and a de dust might work wonders

addylad · 7 Mar 2016 at 23:59

Hi all

Got a message back telling me that there is a version of my heat sink (presumably two versions of the Rev. 2) which has "silvery solder paste on the top of the heatpipe". This type apparently can have this issue, and I recall this solder being there on installation (looked as if I'd smeared AS 5 over it). I'll send them some pictures tomorrow and update when I get a reply.

Thanks for the help and suggestions so far.

Sherbs · 8 Mar 2016 at 00:04

For reference.. My stock cooler @ 3.30ghz is 39c idle on all 4 cores.

bledd · 8 Mar 2016 at 00:35

At 4 years old, I'd suggest taking the cpu cooler off, putting some fresh Arctic Silver 5 on there and removing all the dust.

addylad · 8 Mar 2016 at 13:08

henson0115 said:
I would just have a look and see what's happening, also when your backplate broke, how did you apply your paste and did you clean all of the old stuff off?

I did clean everything off. I would've used IPA, but since I didn't have any to hand, just used some kitchen roll until it was nice and clean. I reapplied with the 'grain of rice method' which seems to be the favoured method of application, i.e. a small line the size of an uncooked grain of rice, place heatsink on CPU and screw carefully into place. Having removed the heatsink after each (failed) attempt, the application to me looks fine. I've done it about four times now, so I could be awful at it, but I don't think so.

C64 said:
fresh thermal compound and a de dust might work wonders

I've done the above. The heat sink was removed and got the airline treatment.

Sherbs said:
For reference.. My stock cooler @ 3.30ghz is 39c idle on all 4 cores.

Thanks for the info. That's really useful to know!

bledd. said:
At 4 years old, I'd suggest taking the cpu cooler off, putting some fresh Arctic Silver 5 on there and removing all the dust.

Done that.

Thanks again all, I will continue to update as I get the feeling from Arctic's response that this is a known issue.

It may be that Arctic offer me a replacement. The i30 seems to have a similar design for a tenner more than I paid, so I might try to convince them to send me that!

If all else fails, I'm tempted to go for the H600/H1200. However, I don't know whether it will fit in my Zalman Z9 case alongside the Radeon 6850.

zipp0r · 8 Mar 2016 at 19:42

its a completely crap heatsink. either get something way better like a nh-d14 or a cheaper coolermaster 212+.

turbot1984 · 9 Mar 2016 at 15:42

zipp0r said:
its a completely crap heatsink. either get something way better like a nh-d14 or a cheaper coolermaster 212+.

Agree, the Freezer 13 is totally lame, noisy, and well, just chod. The racket that thing used to make when CPU was OC'd to anything over 4.2ghz was nerve-jangling...its not really an OC cooler, better for keeping stock and lowering temps a tiny bit... anyway I realised the error of my ways and bought a BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro for £50, and there I was at 4.6ghz, 66 degrees max and a gentle hum in the background...YGWYPF.

at3k- · 23 Mar 2016 at 12:11

I just changed from a freezer 13 to the cooler master 212 and the difference in temps is huge. My 2500k at 4.4ghz was running up to 88c in intelburntest then my pc would freeze and I'd have to reboot.
Since fitting the 212 it's much cooler around 34c idle and in the early 70's when running intelburntest(no freezing or crashing), doesn't jump out of the 60's in demanding games either.

Just proves the 13 freezer was **** and not up to overclocking temps.

henson0115 · 23 Mar 2016 at 21:59

Glad you got it sorted. Good called replacing the cooler.