Symptoms of overheating

Heat Sink – A heat sink is a thermally conductive device placed over a CPU or a GPU to absorb some of the heat that is being generated. Faster processors, as well as multi-core processors, require bigger and more elaborate heat sinks to keep their temperatures within acceptable levels.

Most computers get warm after a while, and some can get quite hot. This is normal: it is simply part of the way that the computer cools itself. If you have a desktop computer which feels hot to the touch, it may have insufficient cooling.

1. System boots up but shuts down automatically after a short period of time.
2. Reported CPU operating frequency is less than expected.
3. Evidence of CPU throttling.
4. General slowness of system.
5. CPU/system fan noise is excessive.

But, as a generalization that might help you identify a serious problem, if you have an Intel processor, you could say that a CPU core temperature of over 40-45-degrees Celsius while idling and/or a temperature of over 80-85-degrees Celsius while under full load is probably a cause for concern.

When the CPU is idle, or not being used by any program, a healthy temperature is anything under or around 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Under higher load, such as when playing a game, rendering a video, or other intensive tasks, your CPU consumes more power and, thus, runs at a higher temperature.

No matter the case, a CPU temperature should play around 75-80 degrees celsius when gaming. When the computer is doing small processes or in an idle state, it should be around 45 degrees celsius to a little over 60 degrees celsius at most.

Your processor shouldn’t be hotter than 75°C/167°F, nor significantly colder than 20°C/68°F. There are numerous things you can do to keep your PC cool, including: Keep your PC well-ventilated. Clear dust from vents and fans.

As a rule of thumb keep a GPU bellow 80C with maximum load. A GPU can get a lot hotter than a CPU which you should keep under 60C. GPU’s are designed to run hotter than a CPU but if you go over 100C you will damage or severely shorten its life.

Idle around 40–60°, most, if not all, modern GPUs try to switch off fans below 55–60° when idling – and they usually get close to that when case fans are tuned towards silence, too.

If the CPU is overclocked, then water cooling will help achieve higher clock speeds. Otherwise, 50 C shouldn’t harm the CPU or performance, and the stock cooler is fine.

Max, which is the temperature at which the CPU shuts down. In the “Advanced CPU Settings” you can find the Max Temp option. Press Del when it begins to POST. 54 C is slightly higher than average.

Yes, you could use what you have. It probably still works fine, and as long as it’s not dried out and was stored properly (i.e. at room temperature in the dark). It should perform just as well. That being said, you should highly consider buying new thermal paste, or at least a reasonably priced, decent quality one.

You’re right, there is no reasonable way to inspect the thermal paste spread. The best you can do is follow the recommended procedures and then measure the resulting CPU temperatures under no-load and load situations.

Not using thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink will cause it to eventually overheat and fail. This may not happen straight away but it will happen and in a much shorter time than if you use the thermal paste. Modern processors would fail if you repeatedly let them overheat.

Household substitutes for CPU thermal paste

• Butter 53.2°C.
• Moisturizing cream 54°C.
• Hair wax 56°C.
• Toothpaste1°C.
• Banana 58°C.
• Paper 67.2°C.
• Yellow cheese 67.9°C.

How Often Should You Replace Thermal Paste? In most cases, you shouldn’t need to reapply more than once every few years, though you should replace your paste if you remove your cooler for any reason. You may also want to consider reapplying thermal paste if you find your CPU temperatures are climbing.

Putting too much paste on a socket generally won’t hurt thermal performance, because the act of tightening down the cooler squeezes out the excess. Too little paste is bad, but anything above the minimum threshold will have the same effect once the cooler is tightened down.