Core 2 Quad and Duo Temperature Guide
 

It certainly answers some of the "funny" situation people reporting temperatures, and it all makes sense.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/22...perature-guide

useful info there, but don't agree with CPU load software used, Prime95 doesn't tax the C2D at 100%...

WoW great, Sidney: I was just wondering about tipical temps for Q6600, during setup, the MB reported from the BIOS 63C with stock cooler (no thermal paste, cooler based cleared of the "yuck" they put) and I feared that is was a bit high... gonna read carefully the link you posted

SpeedFan 4.33, CoreTemp Beta 0.94 and NoteBookHardware register the same core temps in two systems. TAT should not be totally trusted when OC'ed due to too many variables in calculated temp. Surprised to see Video card temp being reported in SpeedFan 4.33

depends on your VGA card, drivers and motherboard, but NVIDIA GPU temp I've seen pop up in Speedfan too:)

Speedfan detects a 8600 temp but not the 8800, interestingly. Might be the difference in my test boards, but unlikely.

Lino, you must use thermal paste. Doesn't matter what kind, you will eventually cook the CPU without it.

oké, I'll try some tooth paste, peppermint, even cooler :D :D :D :D :D
If CPU+HSF won't like it, perhaps anchovies paste will taste better :o

Well, you did make it sound like you were not using any thermal paste.

And that is a rather high temp for a Q6600 in the BIOS, my Q6600 does not read that high even under 100% load @ 3Ghz, using the much higher core temp readings. I use water though so I couldn't say for sure... I installed one of those Intel coolers once, and I will never again as long as I live. :)

in the preliminary assembly, no you're correct, I did not use any thermal paste, just cleaned off that "yuck" under the HSF, perhaps will have to be more thorough cleaning. I had a problem with one of the for pins that latch the stock Intel HSF with the motherboardso it's even possibile that the coupling CPU/HSP is not perfect.
In the final assembly will be more careful and apply thermal paste, eventually I'll come back on this forum if temp stay that high still

Thanx!

Well, its not a good example but thermal compound is like engine oil. You can run without it but not for long... thermal compound is the oil that ensures heat transfers quickly and smoothly between the CPU surface and the bottom of the cooler... without it the surfaces will not be making much contact to transfer any heat and you would get the same result... the CPU would burn up just like an engine.

If it was an old AthlonXP CPU that lacked thermal safegaurds it could likely have even been damaged by what you did. ;) Honestly if you are using the stock Intel cooler, it wouldn't matter much if you used their default pre-applied paste or Arctic Silver 5... the cooler just is not good enough that it matters in my opinion.