CPU overheating?

**willyboy** · 9th March 2006

A friend of mine is having pc problems, he emailed me what is wrong with it, I thought someone on here may know what the problem is?

"I have built a new PC specs are:

Asus P5WD2 Premium
P4 560 3.6Ghz
Zalman CNPS9500 LED
1GB DDR2-5300
Leadtek PX7800 GT xtreme 256MB

The CPU is running at 50-55 Degrees when in windows desktop.
When I run a app or a game it can go to 60-70 degrees.
Is the CPU running too hot? I am also getting graphics break ups in some games, the main one is Final Fantasy online."

**Mule** · 9th March 2006

CPU overheating?

It does sound that way.

Cleaning out the heatsink and fans would probably be a good idea if it's not already been tried, other than that then fitting extra fans, buying a better heatsink and fan and making sure the thermal grease is properly applied are all things to try.

**Swiss Tony** · 9th March 2006

that model cpu needs a massive amount of cooling, if you've just stuck a five quid fan on the top then you will be lucky not to fry the chip....

something like this may help you http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=90448
about 48 Deg is normal running

**willyboy** · 9th March 2006

He is using the Zalman CNPS9500 LED heatsink, which is �50 so he thought it would be ample for the cpu, although running at the temps it is can't be right.

Could he of put too much thermal compund on it?

**Mule** · 9th March 2006

Originally Posted by willyboy

Could he of put too much thermal compund on it?

I suppose so, however I wouldn't have thought it would make that much of a difference, I could be wrong though. Is the fan on the heatsink definately working ok? Perhaps the heatsink is not sitting on the processor correctly?

**willyboy** · 9th March 2006

Yeah it is def on the correctly. I thought that if you put too much thermal paste on it, it will have the opposite effect.

When he plays a game the CPU reaches around 60-70 I personally think this is way too high. Its a spanking brand new pc, so I guess it could be any of the components in there, as he has never used any of it before. How could he check that the heatsink is working?

**{{909}}** · 9th March 2006

do u have plenty of case fans in there too? most modern PCs need atleast 1 at the front for intake and one at the back for out take, check the gfx card fan is working too, mine packed up on a fairly new card and that caused lock ups, a ghetto 80mm mod soon sorted that out tho

Something alot of people overlook is cooling for harddives, certain models can get incredibly hot, ive opened a few machines before and found the harddrive too hot to touch, not only is that causing a great deal of heat in your case, but the harddrive wont last as long.

**willyboy** · 9th March 2006

He is getting another 120mm for the back, to suck some air out of it, which runs at 2600rpm so hopefully that should do the trick.

Is it worth him getting 2, 60mm at the front of the case for intake?

**TIME LORD** · 9th March 2006

I would get the extra fans. I have put a nice big case fan and a cheap booster fan that fits in to the back pci slots. It droped the temp down to 50c

**willyboy** · 9th March 2006

That sounds like the simple solution. Thanks alot, will get him to try that first.

Cheers guys

**Swiss Tony** · 9th March 2006

Mine has five fans, in and out of case running at 5000rpm one cooler master on the cpu, another on the graphics card (binned the shite one that was originally on that) and a side on to blast in the air....and most importantly, removed the heatsink on the AGP chip on the main board and replaced it with a fan/sink......

**{{909}}** · 9th March 2006

id definetly have an 80mm intake fan, and if possible have it blowing directly over your main harddrive, thats the default config in my coolermaster case which only has 2 fans, a 120 on the back and an 80 on the front (theres a 120 in the PSU and an 80 on the GFX card too) but thats not alot really and its very quiet.

Its worth spending a few quid on the fans as the cheapos can get rather noisy if u have alot of em, some coolermaster ones are about 8quid each but theyre so much quieter than the ones for about 80p, depend on where your pc is gonna be used and how much noise annoys you.