T5600 Thermal Issues Following CPU Upgrade

Question

Hello everyone!

So this is something that I have been troubleshooting for almost three weeks. I purchased a refurbed T5600 with a single E5-2640. I then purchased a second Dell branded heatsink for the second socket (tall heatsink) and two E5-2687W CPUs. Additional specs as follows:

635W Power supply

AMD Radeon RX540

32 GB ECC RAM

Tested BIOS Version A18/19

After installing the CPUs I get the boot up power configuration error (not worried about it currently). But more importantly, my CPUs are running REALLY hot! With the single 2640 it would idle in the mid 40Cs to mid 50Cs. Following the upgrades, socket0 idles between high 60Cs and high 70Cs and socket1 idles between high 70Cs to high 80Cs. If I simply open up Google Chrome or another application, socket1 spikes into the 90Cs, begins thermal throttling and if left to idle the system powers down after a period of time.

If I remove the CPU from socket1 and run it with a single 2687W the temps return to somewhat normal (50C-60C which is expected as it's a 150W chip). Also with both chips in they both seem to be receiving near max wattage at all times. When only a single chip is installed the wattage seems to stay pretty low untill proccesses start causing the CPU to ramp up in utilization.

All fans are plugged in a running. They do spool up as temps increase. BIOS settings for the fans are set to Auto, but I also attempted High and Medium. I removed the heatsinks and reapplied themal paste (added less, added more). I have always just used a bit more than a pea sized dot on the CPU but also tried the X method etc. I also removed the CPUs and swapped sockets to see if the thermals followed a CPU, but that didn't change anything either.

My only other thoughts is that A) the motherboard is going bad, or B) maybe upgrading the PSU will help? The latter doesn't seem plausable to me, but I know that weird things can happen in proprietary system configurations sometimes.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar to this?

Thank you for your help!

bmcowboy · Accepted Answer

Hi&#xa0;@ASMl8Bit&#xa0;,2687w is the hottest lady among all Xeon E5 v1 family members, with TDP at 150w, maximum case temperature at 67‎°C and maximum operating temperature at 84.8‎°C. When my T5600 works under room temperature&#xa0;without air-conditioning, CPU temperature often lays between 65+ to 70 something during idle.And of course temperature&#xa0;range drops when air-conditioning opened, around 60~65°C. I consider it as a normal range while we are talking about dual units of highest frequency E5 v1 CPUs.For the&#xa0;power configuration error you&#xa0;mentioned, I believe it's an alert like this:'Your current power supply does not support the recent configuration changes made to your system. Please contact Dell Technical support team to learn about upgrading to a higher wattage power supply.'Although you still can get into Windows after pressing F1, you should have worried about it. Whenever your system is overloaded due to insufficient&#xa0;power supply, it will shut down all of a sudden. Try to get a proper 825w PSU.

ASMl8Bit · Answer

Thank you bmcowboy! That is the information that I needed. I am upgrading the PSU, that is why I said I wasn't concerned about it since it will be done this week. I just wanted to make sure that others were seeing around the same temps as I was. I was worried that I may fry the CPUs if I continued to run it with those temps.

bmcowboy · Answer

Hi&#xa0;@ASMl8Bit&#xa0;,Just an updates for your reference that you may interested with.Recently I tried replace the stock CPU fan with a Corsair H80i v2 liquid cooler, like this:Results:Yes, you can see the big difference between two CPU's temperature.&#xa0;PROS: CPU temperature drops significantly.&#xa0;&#xa0;CONS: Cannot close side panel anymore.I'll try replacing the second CPU fan this weekend and wishing to have a heather system at lower temperature.

ASMl8Bit · Answer

Hey there @bmcowboy ,

Just as a follow up, as I realized I didn’t come back to post about it, it was definitely the power supply.

After installing the 800w psu temps were normal even under heavy load.

I thought about doing exactly what you did. I even went so far as to plan for cutting the top so that I could mount the cooler there. But since the upgraded PSU, it runs pretty dang quiet now.

AndyB98 · Answer

Since installing the 800W PSU do you still get the warning on bootup and need to press F1?

I installed two E5-2665 CPU's in my T5600, replacing the original single E5-2603 and I get the warning on boot telling me:

"Your current power supply does not support the recent configuration changes made to your system. Please contact Dell Technical support team to learn about upgrading to a higher wattage power supply."

According to the label on the PSU it is 825W and I don't think there is a bigger PSU for the T5600 is there?

Derker · Answer

The breakout board for the power supply has two outlets for each processor are they both plugged in to the mainboard?

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T5600 Thermal Issues Following CPU Upgrade

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