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I bought brand new Core i7 2600 (socket 1155) CPU with box cooler on it. I assembled a minimum booting configuration and in the BIOS it shows steady 73-78 degrees CPU temperature right off the bat. It seems very high to me, considering that all the case fans are working and the case isn't even closed yet. The fan is working at 1800+ RPM. Motherboard temperature is at 26-27C.

Now, it's not my first build and I'm pretty sure that I didn't do anything idiotic. The radiator is well placed and doesn't move. Cooler is plugged in the CPU_FAN socket on motherboard. First I was using the termopaste that was attached to the radiator. Then I tried to apply the one I had in place, which worked great the last time I used it. With new termopaste things don't change, it still hovers just below 80 after few minutes of work in BIOS.

I'm aware that stock cooler are considered crap, but 75-80С idle seems ounreasonably high. Will good aftermarket cooler help or is it something wrong with the CPU itself? Does warranty apply in such cases?

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  • have you applied the thermal paste correctly?
    – Sathyajith Bhat ♦
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 5:07
  • @Sathya: I applied a thin layer spreading it all over the chip and then put the heatsink of top and kinda nudged it back and forth a little.. The same as usual, and this technique never let me down before
    – Dyppl
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 5:20

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Something is definitely wrong; two of mine idle at less than 45C with ac off, 33 with ac on; stock cooler. Ones on Hyper 212+ are 30 idle. I would try reinstalling a few more times with the motherboard out but if it's still the same problem then definitely send in for return or warranty.

A way to judge how well you installed is to clean the processor and heatsink, drip four similarly sized drops of heatsink paste to form a "+" and then install the processor. Then remove the heatsink and see if any of the flattened cakes are way smaller than the others etc...

Here's a good guide on heatsink thermal interfaces

I had a C2D that came out of the box hot at half speed- speedstep never actually ramped it up to full speed and the fan would spin up to max at the slightest load. Needless to say that's definitely not right for a new processor. If the situation doesn't improve then it would be a less extreme version of my experience but it's still not supposed to happen on a new expensive part.

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  • Do you have any idea if applying my own paste voids the warranty? I'm kinda nervous about reinstalling it multiple times because every time it's possible to scratch or break something, but I will try
    – Dyppl
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 5:23
  • More to my question though: is it possible that while the stock cooler doesn't perform well att the aftermarket one will work great? Is it possible that the problem is in CPU itself, not the cooler?
    – Dyppl
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 5:24
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    What is the room temperature and case you are using? The stock cooler and thermal paste is adequate; to reach 80C while still in bios is definitely not the stock coolers fault(performance wise) unless installed improperly or the cpu is defective. If convenient could you remove the the heatsink then take a photo of the underside of the heatsink as well as the top of the cpu? Here's an even better link to installing thermal paste Spreading the paste with a razer or credit card into a very thin and flat layer should give better temps vs a glob.
    – sauceboat
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 5:46
  • it was pretty chilly in the room, I guess around 19C, and the case is a good coolermaster model with 120 and 140 fans, front and rear, so there isn't any reason for CPU to run that hot. I will gladly upload photos when I'm home
    – Dyppl
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 5:53
  • I want to make clear though that playing around with the thermal paste should be done when you get an aftermarket cooler. Wiping clean the included paste on the cpu and Intel heatsink and using your may void the warranty. The safest bet would be to take the mobo out on a desk, install the heatsink again very carefully then run the whole thing outside the case. If still 80C then return the processor asap. If the replacement comes and same thing then look into an aftermarket cooler. I'd rather not invest extra time and gear into a potentially defective product.
    – sauceboat
    Commented Aug 2, 2011 at 6:04
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Okay, turned out that it's pretty common for my motherboard (P8Z68) to show about 58-60C in BIOS because the CPU runs at full speed there. There are people who experienced the same problem with this motherboard (this thread is an example and there are others that are similar to it). Once you boot the OS the CPU runs at 35-38 degrees which is fine for stock cooler.

My temp was still a little high (70-77C) so I reapplied the thermal paste and reinstalled the cooler like sauceboat kindly advised, and got the "normal" 59-61 in BIOS and 35-37 at Windows 7 idle. So it turns out that BIOS isn't always the best place to look at your cooling system.

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