Managing Heat on Intel based boards

[bigbeark]

I have two boards, one ASUS and one Intel, that run too hot. The Intel board gets core temps of 71C just doing regular browsing. I changed the resolution to 1024x768 just to see if it would lower the temps which it did - to 68C. Fan runs about 1500 RPM, which seems slow. Should say these are Core 2 E4400 CPUs.

The ASUS board will get to 80C at which time it locks up and I power down.

I checked the heatsink mounting pins and all seems OK.

I'm running Linux Mint. Has anyone tried running Speedfan under Wine? Can't find a SpeedFan download.

I did download fancontrol (linux app) but it's not GUI.

Anyone have any ideas?

[ChaosLegionnaire]

for temperature monitoring in linux, u have to use psensor and xsensors which are gui programs but they use the commandline program, lm-sensor to get their data which is what u need to install and initialise first. type this in the terminal

sudo apt-get install lm-sensor psensor xsensors

then do a sensor detection to detect all the available sensors

sudo sensors-detect

then answer yes to all the questions to load all the available detectable sensors then for 64-bit based linux type

sudo service kmod restart

for 32-bit linux type

sudo service module-init-tools restart

this restarts the service with the new sensor detection settings so they can be read by psensor and xsensors. i use both of them at the same time because they each have their shortcomings but if u use both of them together they complement each other.

psensor has graphing ablity so u can check the sensor history but it doesnt read voltages. xsensors can read voltages but it doesnt have graphing ability or keep a log of the sensors history.

also try going into the motherboard bios and disable cpu smart fan control or some such, see if it helps. to help solve the temperature issue, we need to know more about your setup and what u are using. what heatsink are u using? stock intel hsf?

[eccerr0r]

Knowing is one thing, doing something about it is something else...
usually if it's getting too hot, there's some sort of cooling problem. I have to clean the dust out of my heatsink/fans frequently.
Else it's what it is, my Core2 Duo E6700 die temp idles around 59°C, and can readily get it up into the 70s. No crash problems however...

Does BIOS have fan speed control? If it does and it can't get the RPMs up you may need to look at cleaning/replacing.

My Core2Quad is a bit cooler, idles close to room temperature, but it's a different chip rev., and fan is only like 1000RPM.

[bigbeark]

The motherboard is a DQ965GF, Intel support has ended. I'm surprised it doesn't run cooler than the Netburst CPU it replaced. The Heatsink is the copper cored full-size type that was used on the Netburst CPUs so should be sufficient. So perhaps it's just defaulting the fan speed to the lowest speed and that's not enough.
This board has the large finned heatsink on the ICH - temps on this is hot, but nowhere near the max of 111C.
***OOPS! I just found the Intel CPU support docs and YES - E4400 is supported.

Everything is clean, no dust problems.

I'm thinking that if I can persuade the fan to run a little faster it might cool thins down a bit.

I'm also running an ATI passive cooled video card. This runs hot as suggested by the label warning to avoid touching the heatsink.

I'm going to remove the ASUS board from it's case to check the heatsink has not come loose. It's one of those "Lan Party" cases with a carrying handle on top. It's a P5 series motherboard so it should handle the E4400, but it looks to have the low-profile Intel heatsink so it may need a bigger one.

Sorry for the delay in responding. Hope this helps. Thanks for all suggestions.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

all core 2 duo cpus have a tdp of 65w so it shouldnt be running hot at all, so something is wrong. try to disable cpu smart fan control in the bios like i said. if u cant, use a safety pin and remove the blue wire from the cpu 4-pin pwm fan plug. that would force the fan to spin at full speed.

also make sure the casing fan orientation of your chassis is correct. the optimal case fan orientation as stated on xtremesystems is all intake and only one exhaust.

[linuxguru]

Originally Posted by bigbeark

I'm going to remove the ASUS board from it's case to check the heatsink has not come loose. It's one of those "Lan Party" cases with a carrying handle on top. It's a P5 series motherboard so it should handle the E4400, but it looks to have the low-profile Intel heatsink so it may need a bigger one.

The Allendale E4400 runs really cool, with lots of overclock margin, so I'd guess something is wrong with the heatsink contact. It works fine for me with a low-profile aluminium-only Intel HSF.

1) Clean the surfaces of the IHS as well as the heatsink with IPA, and apply fresh TIM on both surfaces (plain white goop is fine). I lowered the idle die temp reported by BIOS on an i5-2320 from ~99c to ~70c just by ensuring clean surfaces with a thin layer of TIM.

2) Check the HSF sits flat against the IHS. If even a single nylon peg isn't seated correctly, the contact will be poor (this is one of the main deficiencies in the design of the
4-point Intel HSF, as compared to the 2-point AMD clip - the latter pretty much ensures good contact all the time, and is also more reliable).

3) The board may have E4400 support, but may still need microcode updates to ensure that VID, fan and sensor calibration are correct for all supported S-specs. Check that the BIOS is up to date for the specific proccy.

If everything is OK, the E4400 should idle in the low-40s (maybe lower in temperate climates).

[bigbeark]

The solution proved to be simple. I swapped out the passive-cooled video card for another ATI card which is fan cooled.

I can now play youtube video on my 24-inch monitor and the the core temps are 58C. Idle temp is 49C.

I guess that really hot passive heat sink was too close to the ICH and the two of them produced an ambient temp around the CPU that the fan could not clear.

Or possibly the passive video card was defective in some way,

The temp on the new fan-cooled video card is 50C according to XSensors .

I'' have to tear down the other pne in the LanParty case and see what's going on there.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by bigbeark

The solution proved to be simple. I swapped out the passive-cooled video card for another ATI card which is fan cooled.

I can now play youtube video on my 24-inch monitor and the the core temps are 58C. Idle temp is 49C.

I guess that really hot passive heat sink was too close to the ICH and the two of them produced an ambient temp around the CPU that the fan could not clear.

I highly doubt that passively-cooled video card and the ICH produced so much more heat that the CPU couldn't handle the "hotter" environment around it. If anything, most passively-cooled cards can't have high TDP (high heat dissipation) because passive heatsinks are many times less effective at removing heat compared to an actively-cooled HS. Your active cooling video card (for lack of calling it its proper name, as I don't see any model number info) probably has higher overall TDP than the card it replaced.

So more than likely (at least without knowing more details about the old and new GPUs), the new video card has video hardware acceleration that the old one perhaps didn't, and this is helping the CPU stay cool, as the GPU is doing the work instead of the CPU.

Run a OCCT stress-test on the CPU, and I bet you will see your temps skyrocket again. If that's the case, you haven't really eliminated the problem.

The only other thing I can think of is perhaps is whatever software you were using to read your CPU temps was actually picking up the temps on the old passive video card.

On that note, I'm curious what your old passive card is. Radeon HD4350/4550/5450?? Or something else?? Either way, best trick with passively-cooled video cards is to take an 80 mm fan, mount it so that it is close to the video card and directing airflow towards it, then run it on 5V. This will ensure the 80 mm fan is quiet. Yet even with this little airflow, you will likely see your GPU temps drop by at least 20C, if not more.

Originally Posted by bigbeark

but it looks to have the low-profile Intel heatsink so it may need a bigger one.

Yup, that about sums it up.

Those low-profile coolers are marginal at best for the 60-odd Watts that most C2D CPUs put out. E4400 is also pretty old line of C2D, and I believe the older ones didn't have the heatspreader soldered/epoxied to the die, so they always ran hot with low-profile coolers.

Originally Posted by linuxguru

If... the cooler has... even a single nylon peg... it's a piece of garbage!

Fixed that for you.

The Intel push-pin design is absolutely moronic. It warps the shit out of most motherboards and indeed often has problems with the heatsink not sitting flush on the CPU, thanks to uneven pressure from the push pins.

Otherwise, the stock Intel heatsinks themselves - at least the aluminum part - are not that terrible. In fact, I do like the full height ones quite a bit.

As I don't like to waste things, I often "mod" these Intel push-pin heatsinks by getting rid of the push pins and mounting the heatsink with nuts and bolts to the board (or screws and wooden "thumb" nuts). To ensure proper balancing, I use springs to keep pressure on the heatsink. And to prevent board warping under the CPU, I always install a back plate (either make my own or re-purpose from another cooler.)

[TechGeek]

Easy fix.
1) Sell Intel board and CPU
2) Buy used AMD board and budget Ryzen CPU
3) Install components
4) Enjoy

[stj]

put a fan on the ICH heatsink if you want it stable - i have to do that on 2 of those chipset types.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by stj

put a fan on the ICH heatsink if you want it stable - i have to do that on 2 of those chipset types.

Intel chipsets can take quite a bit of beating and nasty heat without croaking.
But I do fully support your idea of adding a fan on the NB heatsink and in fact do it myself all the time, as most Intel chipsets tend to run very hot. Usually, I just install a 40 or 50 mm fan and run it on 5-7V, where it is barely moving any air. But even with that, the drop in temperatures are dramatic.