My pc set up is a Quad Core 6600 running on a Gigabyte GA 965P with 2 gigs ram and stock cooling. It is 18 months old. So far 2 cpus have died. The original was a core duo and when that bit the dust I upgraded to a quad core. The second chip was only 4 months old when it died. The guys at the store say that Intel chips never die. There were no surges, no over-clocking nothing. Any ideas why something like this might happen? Could it be my power supply? (850w). I'm getting tired of having to replace these chips - should I be using an aftermarket cooling fan or something? The replacement cpu I am temporarily using (an old pentium 4) is currently running at 57C - 60C or 134F - 140F. . . is that too hot?
That's pretty hot for an old P4 (if it's the latest Prescott core, then that's actually pretty normal). I'd guess your Quad crapped out due to the stock cooling, but I have no idea what your climate is like down there.
yeah i'm gonna agree on cooling or perhaps a faulty board/chipset mount. it really sounds like the chips were fried via heat or bad power.
Thanks guys - I've done some reading around and it does seem that those temps are hot. Being in Australia the room temperature is often around 26C as well - which surely isnt helping. I'll be picking up a third party cooler in the next few days - so far the Termaltake Big Typhoon seems highly recommended. Any other suggestions?
toasty in Australia this time of year. seems fine. but if the air is hot outside the compy and the computer is using that hot air to blow off it's hotter air then all you are doing is moving hotter and hotter air around. it doesn't matter how awesome the fan is, if there isn't a sufficiently lower ambient temperature it wont do much good. especially in gaming. have you considered getting a portable AC? I don't know how much electricity is there, but they do a world of difference and are only $300 to $1000 USD depending on what you get. there is also the option of water cooling your system and taking most of the ambient air out of the equation as long as you can keep that radiator cool. ideally you set it up so you radiator blows outside your house as similar to a room ac unit. see references like: http://www.dangerden.com/ http://www.koolance.com/ http://www.frozencpu.com/ and the like....there are tons of these companies.
Cheers Molotof - good point about the water cooling - just seems a little weird that the temps are so damned high running at stock but I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles. I have got AC in the room where my pc is installed - but we only ever turn it on when it's 30C + outside. . .
makes sense. processors are hot, regardless of build...especially modern multi cores (although they are getting slightly cooler than their predecessors). fans are only part of the equation. if the fan doesn't have a clean air flow out of the case via smart case design or ducting then they are all just inefficient blowers. many poorly design cases don't take air flow into consideration at all so you get great fans blowing on to other hardware or onto the side of a case panel as opposed to a vent or venting fan (see example). in many cases this can all be solved with proper case purchases that take airflow and thermodynamics into consideration or liquid cooling. i am a fan of Gigabyte boards and yours look like it has some nice plate cooling and odds are the V on the chip is fine. you didn't mention the case, but perhaps that may be your next consideration for the heat issue?
Like I said in the other thread... All stock Intel heatsinks are faulty and extremely difficult to mount properly. A better copper heatsink only costs $20-$30, and improves performance considerably. No one should ever use stock Intel heatsinks for a gaming PC.
I built a few machines with the core2duo chips, and I found the heatsink to be more than suffecient and had no problems installing it.
agreed. same in all the machines i have built. sure there are better out there, but 99% of stock heatsink are more than sufficient. most specialty heatsink/fans out there are more marketing than usefulness. unless of course one is made of out gold, then that would be better.
I've ordered a Thermaltake Big Typhoon to replace the stock equipment. Interestingly I've set up a full on pedestal room fan and pointed it at the pc while it's on, with the side removed, and the cpu idle temp drops to 50C with the reported system temp sitting at 36C. When I switch it off, the temps increase to 68C+ and 45C respectively. The pc case is a Mitac. The software I use to track temps is Easy Tune 6. I'll post the results of the new cooler when I've set it up.
my c2d at load is generally around the 65-67 degree mark and its run like that for more than a year now. Maybe im just lucky ( a 1Ghz oc on a 1.8ghz chip, Zalman 9500 cooler)
I doubt they were installed properly to levels where your CPU idles at 30º C, because they take a MASSIVE amount of force, and if you did install them properly then you'd know how difficult they are. BUT, if you say you did, then I believe you. I'm just sharing my personal experience and those of other highly experienced techs I work with.
Installed a Big Typhoon VX1 jobbie today (jesus it's huge!). . . I immediately whacked the case closed and happily my cpu now idles at 45C and hit 54C under load - i.e. when Im playing WAR. This contrasts with 53Cish idle and 68C+ under load with the stock cooler.
Not sure if you've already got this but Real Temp is good for the Q6600. Thats what i was told to get im the other thread and im aways running it now. http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/