CPU Temperatures Going Up

[wulf109]

I've been reading reviews of the i7 CPU's and I notice that it seems much higher temperatures are being accepted as normal. I see load temps in 70's C now called normal? I personally try not to exceed load temps of 50C. Am I being too conservative?

[poisondeathray]

i7 's hyperthreading increases CPU temps by 8-10 degrees on full load compared to core2 penryn's. The TJMax is still ~30 degrees away though, so it's safe. No question that running cooler is better. You can disable HT, underclock and/or undervolt if it makes you feel "safer".

[redwudz]

It sometimes also depends on the program that is reading the temps. The ones in BIOS are usually the most correct, though they don't show the CPU temps under load. The ones included with the motherboard should work properly, if they are configured properly for the CPU. Aftermarket temp reading programs may not be configured properly. If you try several different ones, you may get completely different readings, at least until they update their programs.

I agree, I would prefer CPU temps below 50C under load, but 60C under load is becoming more common with newer high performance CPUs. A good aftermarket CPU cooler would be a good choice, especially for OCing. Encoding puts quite a load on a CPU, especially with a codec that can use all cores at 100% for extended times.

Another problem with elevated CPU temps is the thermal grease between the CPU and the CPU cooler. High temps can dry it out and the heat transfer may suffer. Use of a good compound will help. And long term monitoring of the CPU temps to see if the transfer quality is degrading. And, of course, blowing out the accumulated dust and cleaning the air filters will help also.

Along with improved CPU cooling, the case also needs extra cooling or the improved CPU cooler won't perform properly. I monitor both temperatures during a long encode. So far, even my OC'd CPUs stay below 60C and case temps stay below 40C. But even lower is better.