i7 2600K: load temperature "spike" normal?

[Rogue505]

Hello all,

I know this may be an unusual question but I haven't been in touch with latest info regarding overclocking in quite a while.

The slowness of my old E5200 angered me and I bough a new system:
- i7 2600K
- Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5-B3
- 16GB HyperX DDR3 1600
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 (nothing bigger will fit in my case )

My question:
My system is right now running at 4500 MHz. At idle my temps are 28 degrees C. When I run 8 prime95 workers, the temperature instantly spikes to 55C and then slowly increases to 66C (takes about 10-15 minutes) and then stays there (even if running prime for hours).

What I'm not sure about is if this sudden "spike" from 28C to 55C is normal. My old systems never spiked like this. The increase was much more gradual, although I'm not sure how accurate the sensors were.

I'm worried that the heatsink might not be making good contact with the chip; however I did double check that the screws were as tightened as I dare tighten them (quite hard to move with only one hand). The heatsink itself does heat up nicely so it's safe to say it's at least making some contact. I cleaned the stock stuff off freezer 13 and applied arctic silver.

I also use 4x120mm intake fans at the side of the case and 2x80mm fans on top for exhaust. Does 66C seem high to you for 4.5GHz under load (small FFTs)?

Thanks for any feedback

p.s.
I did try Googling this, but I found no conclusive or reliable answers. I decided to play it safe and ask members of a community that I trust to be well informed about this.

 

[RollingThunder]

Hello all,

I know this may be an unusual question but I haven't been in touch with latest info regarding overclocking in quite a while.

The slowness of my old E5200 angered me and I bough a new system:
- i7 2600K
- Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD5-B3
- 16GB HyperX DDR3 1600
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 (nothing bigger will fit in my case )

My question:
My system is right now running at 4500 MHz. At idle my temps are 28 degrees C. When I run 8 prime95 workers, the temperature instantly spikes to 55C and then slowly increases to 66C (takes about 10-15 minutes) and then stays there (even if running prime for hours).

What I'm not sure about is if this sudden "spike" from 28C to 55C is normal. My old systems never spiked like this. The increase was much more gradual, although I'm not sure how accurate the sensors were.

I'm worried that the heatsink might not be making good contact with the chip; however I did double check that the screws were as tightened as I dare tighten them (quite hard to move with only one hand). The heatsink itself does heat up nicely so it's safe to say it's at least making some contact. I cleaned the stock stuff off freezer 13 and applied arctic silver.

I also use 4x120mm intake fans at the side of the case and 2x80mm fans on top for exhaust. Does 66C seem high to you for 4.5GHz under load (small FFTs)?

Thanks for any feedback

p.s.
I did try Googling this, but I found no conclusive or reliable answers. I decided to play it safe and ask members of a community that I trust to be well informed about this.

The spike in temps is normal and your temps are excellent. Whatever you did, you did it right!

 

[Rogue505]

The spike in temps is normal and your temps are excellent. Whatever you did, you did it right!

Thanks for the quick reply! What you said puts my mind at ease. Now I can finally enjoy the absence of constant system slowness without the fear of a "meltdown"

 

[RollingThunder]

Thanks for the quick reply! What you said puts my mind at ease. Now I can finally enjoy the absence of constant system slowness without the fear of a "meltdown"

Intel recommends 73C max. You're well within that. With a longer Prime run of a few hours, you may go a little higher.

 

[Bobnova]

That's tCase, it's simply the temp that the chip will run at stock settings with the stock fan in 30*c ambient air.
Not a recommendation or a limit of any sort.

Intel doesn't have a recommendation that I know of, tJunction(the point when the chip considers itself too hot) is in the 95*c area.

(More info on tCase is in the stickies of this section)

 

[RollingThunder]

That's tCase, it's simply the temp that the chip will run at stock settings with the stock fan in 30*c ambient air.
Not a recommendation or a limit of any sort.

Intel doesn't have a recommendation that I know of, tJunction(the point when the chip considers itself too hot) is in the 95*c area.

(More info on tCase is in the stickies of this section)

Bob,

Thank you, I forgot to add "tCase."