Q6600 B3 Safe Temperatures

[Cyos]

Hello everyone.

I'm wondering what the safe temperatures are for a Q6600 Core 2 Quad at all stock clocks and other settings, including stock heatsink, for revision B3. Yes, I know G0 is better, but I guess that's what you get for being an early adopter . I've checked that my heatsink is on tight, all fans are spinning properly, airflow is good, and the heatsink is as free of dust as I can get it.

Core Temp reports around 45-50 at idle. It fluctuates, of course, and different cores get different temps; the most common temperature reading in the log is 47. It's under load that the temperatures scare me. Intense activity (playing a game while listening to music, with downloads going in the background) gets me temperatures from 55 all the way up to 63, although getting that high is pretty rare; the average seems to be around 59. Using the Cinebench R10 benchmark, however, can give me temperatures up to 65 - I even hit 66 on one core towards the end of the test.

Are these temps safe? Please put my fears to rest, or, alternatively, tell me how to fix this problem. Thanks in advance, you guys rock!

 

[fortyways]

I believe the Q6600 is rated up to 65C, but you should probably look it up to double check (I don't wanna). If you're sure you've got good airflow around the heatsink, I'd go ahead and remove the heatsink and re-install it, just to be sure.

If you don't have any thermal paste it's a good idea to invest in some AS5.

If and when you take the heatsink off, check how much surface area you got with the thermal paste.

 

[Cyos]

I removed and reinstalled the heatsink, and the average temperatures, both idle and under load, seem to have dropped one or two degrees. It looked like there was some thermal paste; whether it was AS5, I don't know, I didn't put the system together.

Official Intel spec for the B3 is 62 degrees, so I am running a bit hot, albeit not for hours on end. It still seems stable though, so am I safe? Thanks for the help so far.