i5-2500 temps?
 

We have two boxes we are building that have Intel i5-2500 processors.

With the standard retail HSF and the retail TIM, idle temps are a little under 50°C. We are used to, on previous builds with retail parts, 35-40°C idle.

(We have not built a box in a while so this might be normal.)

We have ordered some [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007&cm_re=arctic_silver_5-_-35-100-007-_-Product"]Arctic Silver 5[/URL] in the hopes that we can replace the retail TIM and get the temps down. It will take a couple of days for the free shipping, so we are left wondering what will happen.

We are not interested in aftermarket HSF deals because we are trying to keep the price reasonable. Plus, they seem pretty complex and expensive.

We think the mechanical deal for for hooking up a HSF to a LGA1155 socket is a bit flimsy, with the push pins and stuff. Maybe we are setting things up wrong? We have read several sets of instructions. We noticed some of the Noctua HSF deals come with a backplate spider, which sounds like a good idea.

Anyways, a few questions:

Will the Arctic Silver lower the temps with the retail HSF? We do not plan to overclock. The case is the Antec Three Hundred with a 140mm fan on top and a 120mm fan on the back.

What is the max temp for a [URL="http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52209&processor=i5-2500&spec-codes=SR00T"]SR00T[/URL] stepping? The spec sheet says 72.6°C. Is this true? The four quads we have now run just under 70C but we worry when the ambient temp in the room goes over 85°C. (We have a dedicated room.) If the i5 throttles and we are not paying attention (for days) we could lose a lot of productivity.

We plan to run Debian Linux.

FWIW, the build:

[URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042"]CASE[/URL], [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812196291"]CORD[/URL], [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073"]CPU[/URL], [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204"]DVD[/URL], [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167030"]HD[/URL], [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148347"]MEM[/URL] × 2, [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131711"]MB[/URL] & [URL="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035"]PSU[/URL]

(We found it a bit weird that the PSU did not come with a cord!)

Our cost per box is around $750 or so.

Thanks for any help!

Xyzzy:
The silver will likely be good for a few degrees. I'll look up some real numbers on this manyana from work. 50C seems a bit high, compared to 35C on my Phenom II x6, which, running the stock cooler, runs mprime under xubuntu 24/7. But there's a distinct airflow over the fins from the case vent, and another mobo chip that needs an airflow I haven't provided before I can think about overclocking.

What you want to look at is whether the thermal interface is smooth, clean, and under some contact pressure, and completely covered with the paste. When the interface is separated, a good joint looks feathery.

My next project is to find out how many watts my system is really using by splitting the power cord and inserting my clamp-on ammeter.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;257808]What is the max temp for a [URL="http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52209&processor=i5-2500&spec-codes=SR00T"]SR00T[/URL] stepping? The spec sheet says 72.6°C. Is this true? The four quads we have now run just under 70C but we worry when the ambient temp in the room goes over 85°C. (We have a dedicated room.) If the i5 throttles and we are not paying attention (for days) we could lose a lot of productivity.[/QUOTE]
Yes, but it's Tcase (for my Q9550 it's 71.4°C) and not the maximum allowed core temp before the throttling starts.

[QUOTE]My next project is to find out how many watts my system is really using by splitting the power cord and inserting my clamp-on ammeter.[/QUOTE]We have a UPS that shows wattage. We have four AMD quads hooked up to it. Idle, they run 240W. With trial factoring only they run around 500-525W. At [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=232166&postcount=3"]full load[/URL] (intensive memory usage) they run right under 600W.

We are not sure if this chart is useful or not.

The chart you show gives the case temperature that will be reached by something as a function of the power it is delivering, assuming perhaps a 25C ambient. It's the exact opposite of what I am used to, which is a maximum safe case temperature as a function of the power dissipated. I assume (with all the risks entailed) that it's for the UPS.

OK, my 400A transistor with a 62mm x 130mm flat heat transfer surface on it (Eupec FZ400R12KE3 IGBT) shows a 10C/KW rise from the heat transfer surface to the heatsink with 1W/mK (normal) heatsink paste. The silver stuff is about 5 times as conductive. Your CPU area is probably 1/5 that, but your power dissipation is probably 1/3 that, giving, with properly applied grease, a 10C * 5/3 rise =~17C with ordinary paste across the junction. Silver paste will probably get that to 3-4C.

Don't forget to ensure you have airflow across the fins.

We applied the Arctic Silver 5 tonight. We downloaded the (interesting) [URL="http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth/int/vl/intel_app_method_vertical_line_v1.1.pdf"]manual[/URL] from the manufacturer and "tinted" the HSF and the heat spreader. BIOS temps (which we do not think are idle temps) are in the 50s but with the OS running the idle temp is 30/32/30/32C for each box. Running the Prime95 benchmark pegs the cores and the max temp is 68-69C. We have "turbo mode" turned off on the CPU and we set the CPU HSF to "turbo" in the BIOS.

So things are looking good. We will leave them running the torture test (blend) overnight and tomorrow. Hopefully "blend" will test all of the memory under load.

Very weird: This chip and mobo were just recently released. We were not able to run any 26-series version of 64-bit Prime95. Version 25.9 works fine. Also weird is that the BIOS and Windows "system" screen shows 16GiB per box but Task Manager only shows 8GiB. No matter, since we will load Debian tomorow. We only loaded Windows to get [URL="http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/"]Core Temp[/URL] running.

Love the number of posts! Xubuntu and I think Ubuntu live CDs start with memory tests and such that you can run before loading the OS. And there's a command-line temp utility for ubuntu, too, which means it's very likely it runs under Debian.

Both boxes passed an 18 hour Prime95 torture test and 1 run of [URL="http://www.memtest.org/"]MemTest86+[/URL], which takes quite a while with 16GiB of memory. Under Prime95, the ambient temperature was 300K and the max temp for all of the cores was 344K.

:smile:

And, in the end, we have all of our boxes up and playing nicely with each other.

From left to right:

1 × 2.2GHz AMD Phenom X4 9550 quad (8GiB)
3 × 2.8GHz AMD Athlon II X4 630 quads (4GiB)
2 × 3.3GHz Intel i5 2500 quads (16GiB)

Overall everything draws ~750W. We have some cores doing TF which greatly reduces current draw.

The rat's nest behind the boxes is awesome.

:blahblah:

Xyzzy,

By looking and the image I would recommend you to separate the boxes between each other a little more and between the back wall. If boundary layer is developed by free convection heat from one box will pass to its adjacent, or in other words, the corner will be a thermal bridge point.