Core 2 Extreme X9100 cooling problems

I bought a X9100 for my 8735G. It is working great, but Core 1 heats up very hard. Core 2 doesn't heats up that much. the difference is very high when I overlock it to 3,46 GHZ and 1,2125V.The Temperature in BF3 on core 1 was abou 102°C and on core 2 about 93° ( ambient temperature was really high, about 28°C). I also had this prob with my T9600, but the difference between the cores was only 2 degrees. thermal compound is MX-4- What can I do?

 

It's normal that the cores have different temperatures, however the cause for this can also be a bad mount of the heatsink (bad contact between the heatsink and the CPU). You can try reapplying the thermal compound and re-mount the heatsink. If you get the same results I wouldn't worry about it.

Also, the 102°C is really high (specs for the X9100 say that 105°C is maximum), the chip can degrade because of high temperatures or start throttling down.

 

I'm afraid chances are you can't do anything much.

I suffered same problems on my Acer 5930G - I ended up removing the X9100 and putting back my P7350 inside because the X9100 would run on standard temperatures for a few days (about 70 degrees C under load), then inevitably would rise in heat output and shutdown the system if under load (I had to underclock the CPU down to 2.6GhZ along with severe undervolt just to keep it at 90 or 95 degrees C under full load - which is where it remained mostly).

The issue is that I (and likely you) got the X9100 with C0 revision - which is notorious for temperature problems (even on systems that have better cooling).
The E0 revision of the CPU (next to impossible to find anymore) apparently has no such temperature problems, and can also be overclocked to about 4GhZ stable with temperatures rising to about 80 degrees or maybe 85 degrees C - but of course, your power brick needs to be able to supply proper power to the thing when overclocking and overvolting.

I will sell this X9100 I have and simply replace it with P9600 or P9700 (both are 25W and of good enough speed).

 

9 degrees C between the 2 cores are much I think. I will reapply the paste and re-mount the heatsink. Yes, 102°C is really high. Now on 22°C ambient temperature I get about 95°C, but sometimes my laptop shuts down at that point. Maybe the CPU reaches the 105 °C. At 3,2 GHz and 1,1125 V I can run the CPU under 80 degrees C on prime95. My CPU is C0 revision with 45 W TDP.

 

Yup.
That sounds about right.
Either try to find a X9100 which has an E0 revision, or you could try getting a T9800 cpu... or a P9700.

 

I checked the heatsink's position and applied new thermal paste. Now it's a little better than before. The difference between the cores is 5 °C at the most time. What can I do to optimize my cooling system. Maybe a better fan with more airflow?

 

On my Acer i noticed only a few pin holes in the cover over the cpu fan to i opened it by enlarging the hole. it definitely it increase the air coming out the back and i can also feel it sucking in more air.

 

5*C diff. in cores are normal for Core2 series. When I used my quad there's 5-7*C diff. in core temps. Get better thermal paste and a notebook cooler.

 

Sounds like you changed the design of the cooling system. For the worse.

Instead of pulling air through the parts that need cooling - it is now simply pulling in more (outside) air.

 

I already have a notebook cooler and good paste. Notepal U3 + Arctic Cooling MX-4. Better fan is not available?

 

The way the had it before was a joke, the intake holes were very very restrictive i simply enlarged them the fan sucks in and more in the intakes and blows more air out the back. I don't see how thats bad it wasn't pulling in air from any where else on/in the notebook.

EDIT: Also cooling pads in my experience only a big difference if there are vents on the bottom of the laptop or in my case removing the bottom cover, of course in my case my cooling system was never meant to cool such a gfx card. (an upgrade i kind of regret)

 

Trying to understand...


The 'intake holes' are right below the fan? Does the fan directly blow on/cool the cpu/gpu?

I would have thought that the fan is pulling air through the whole chassis and by opening up the holes right under the fan you are defeating the design of the cooling system, no?

Anyway - how much of an improvement (in degrees celsius) did you achieve with your modifications?