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Core 2 Quad office computer weekend maintenance

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First post, by dr_st

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Parents called to complain that their office PC is shutting down frequently. Quick remote diagnostics showed the CPU (C2Q QX6700) to be overheating badly (70-80C just idling). Told them to stop using the computer until I got a chance to drop by and inspect it.

Looked at it today to find a multitude of problems. It was very dusty, of course, so cleaned it up; one 120mm case fan was dead, and the CPU fan (Freezer 7 Pro, first revision) was spinning very slowly (<400RPM according to BIOS). Replaced the case fan, as I had a spare, and tried thoroughly cleaning and lubricating the CPU fan, but that didn't work.

As I didn't have a spare HSF, but did have an entire spare system base unit (motherboard + CPU + RAM + HSF), based on the same G41 chipset, I just swapped the entire thing in; Windows 7 recognized all the hardware like a champ, and the system is up and running in less than an hour.

Old system: Gigabyte G41M-ES2L, QX6700 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache), 4GB DDR2-800, AC Freezer 7 Pro
New system: ASUS P5QPL-VM EPU, Q9550 (2.83GHz, 12MB cache), 4GB DDR2-1066, Thermaltake CL-P0497

So in the process they got a slightly better board, slightly faster CPU (though multiplier-locked) with more cache, slightly faster RAM. I don't think the performance differences are going to be in any way noticeable; the nicest thing about the motherboard is that it the onboard video has HDMI output, which is a bit sharper than VGA when outputting to the FHD display. It also has an extra chassis fan connector, so one less molex adapter to use. Some cable rearrangement had to be done to address different location of the SATA and front panel connectors on the board, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Old motherboard (stock photo):
gigabyte-ga-g41m-es2l-lga-775-intel-g41-micro-atx-intel-motherboard-1101-28-joeann@6.jpg

New motherboard (stock photo):
PER.522736_1.jpg

Mini-reviews of the two G41 boards and one P45 board:
https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/retro-m … therboards-775/

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

Reply 1 of 3, by SPBHM

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keeping the stock 45nm C2Qs cool form my experience is very easy, I've ran them with the cooler from a Celeron 430 without any problems, also the QX6700 I think were all B3 and not g0? that's is indeed a much hotter CPU

so it's less likely that dust will cause problems for them anytime soon

and yes, having a digital display output is a big advantage, I've had a lot of problems with the analog cables recently, trying to get a clear picture from the cheap ones and those intel IGPs... I love DVI/HDMI.

Reply 3 of 3, by dr_st

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oeuvre wrote:

You probably could've redone the thermal paste on the QX6700 and it'd run fine.

My experience has been is that when the thermal paste is bad, or the heatsink is not making good contact, the temperatures will immediately be high. In this case, when I turned the computer on, the CPU ran cool (~30-35C); only slowly it started heating up. The heatsink would get very hot, which means the paste was successfully transferring the heat to the heatsink, but the fan was too slow in removing excess heat. Furthermore, when I eventually took the heatsink off, the paste seemed in good condition. Good thermal pastes typically do not need to be "redone" as often as people think (or, ever).

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

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