i5 2500k Is Overheating?

[Masternaut]

I have just bought and been using a new i5 2500 k for about 2 days now and the heat is to much. I have the chip oced to 4.5ghz running stable with 1.35 volts. I have a zalman 92mm ball cooler and from the reviews I read on newegg people say it keeps their chips under 55c tops. My chip hits 70c sometimes just playing a simple game like modern warfare 3. I have applied arctic silver propery two times just to make sure and that made no difference and put the fan to 100%. The case has 4 120mm fans so that cant be the problem. So I hope someone knows what the issue is. I am thinking that the mobo is not good or the chip is bad. BTW everything is brand new.

 

[muddocktor]

Which Zalman cooler are you running exactly? Zalman makes many different models and some work better than others. And don't take reviews at Newegg too seriously, especially for heatsinks. There are a bunch of people posting reviews there that don't know what is a good cooler. With that said, temps in the 70's aren't too bad. But check what your temps do with a program such as Prime95 or IBT, which will load the hell out of your processor and report back what your temps are like.

 

[Masternaut]

Well that's where its odd because it wont go past 70c on prime 95 but somehow hits it playing mf3. My cpu cooler is here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

 

[muddocktor]

I was afraid of that when you said 92 mm fan. That is a pretty old design heatsink and I think you are getting about as good performance out of it as it can give you. Zalman has better heatsinks than that one if you don't mind paying for the "bling" factor. The 9900 Max (and 9900 NT) use a 120 mm fan instead of a 92 mm and works much better and is quieter to boot. It's also more expensive too. When you buy Zalman, you are paying for more "bling" factor than outright performance for most of their offerings. Their fit and finish is extremely good, but you can buy better coolers for equal or less money that offer much better performance. I don't know what else to tell you except that you might try returning it, eating the restocking costs and getting a better cooler from someone else.

 

[Masternaut]

Is it a terrible thing that it hits those temp or should I not worry. And I think thermal paste gets better over time, according the arctic silvers site they say give it 200hrs before its at its best. My idle temps are 40c btw.

 

[Divey]

I wouldn't worry to much on those temps. And that is only when the cpu is loaded which for most is not much. I have the same cpu and same oc with the same voltage and it idles at 35+C and loads at 60-65+C. That is with an extreme TR Silver Arrow cooler with 2 120mm fans at 100%. Your temps based off that cooler look fine to me.
I had used this cooler first while waiting for the big one and it held temps pretty well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118020

Terry

 

[txus.palacios]

I wouldn't worry to much on those temps. And that is only when the cpu is loaded which for most is not much. I have the same cpu and same oc with the same voltage and it idles at 35+C and loads at 60-65+C. That is with an extreme TR Silver Arrow cooler with 2 120mm fans at 100%. Your temps based off that cooler look fine to me.
I had used this cooler first while waiting for the big one and it held temps pretty well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118020

Terry

I would care, IIRC, max safe temperature for Sandy Bridge was about 72ºC.

 

[Theocnoob]

I would care, IIRC, max safe temperature for Sandy Bridge was about 72ºC.

That's the max IHS temp AFAIK the max core temp is about 100.
The max IHS temp if I recall on Bloomfield was 70.

Still, a 2500K hitting 70 playing BF3 is crying out for a better heatsink IMO. 212+ for 25 bucks time methinks.

 

[Masternaut]

Yeah I may just wait a little longer to see if the paste gets better and my temps go down a bit. Thanks for the info though and to be honest by the time it breaks ill probably upgrade anyway .

 

[Deltafan909]

Yeah I may just wait a little longer to see if the paste gets better and my temps go down a bit. Thanks for the info though and to be honest by the time it breaks ill probably upgrade anyway .

Yeah I would just go for the upgrade. I've never heard of paste getting better over time. Only certain pastes have to set, but that only takes minutes, not weeks.

 

[txus.palacios]

Well, AS5 used to take about 100 hours for curing time, that would be roughly 4 days. :3

Anyway, AS5 is a poor TIM for today standards. Kinda expensive, conductive, very messy, and can't beat TIMs like GC-2, HeGrease or MX-3 on performance.

 

[rustyfender]

um i had one of those 92mm ball coolers from zalman i stopped using it 3 years ago. just to give you a sence of how old that design is. you can get some offereings from arctic cooling for about 45$ that will handily outperform that thing.

 

[SMOKEU]

I'd be worried if I got anywhere near 70°C on a 2500K while playing MW3. That temperature is fine for stress testing, but very hot for gaming, especially since MW3 isn't particularly resource intensive.