My computer seems to be overheating.?

I just built a computer for the first time, with an E8500 cpu. I felt pretty sure I had all my bases covered; however, it has shut down three times not. Not shutting down and restarting, but just shutting down.



I looked around and checked the temperature, with varying results:

Speed Fan has Core 0 and Core 1 at 69C each.

RealTemp 2.70 has both cores at 59C each.

After turning the computer off and letting it sit and cool down for maybe ten minutes (I opened the case and didn't feel any residual or radiating warmth anywhere inside), I restarted it into BIOS, and under PC Health, it lists %26quot;System%26quot; at 39C and %26quot;CPU%26quot; at 91C, and this is within a minute or so of turning it on.



The warmest thing in there seems to be the radeon 3870 graphics card, and I don't know how to get a reading on that.



There does seem to be a faint scent of hot plastic, but I cannot track that down either.



In addition to the cpu, power supply, and graphics card fans, there are two 120mm fans blowing in and ont 120mm fan blowing out of the case. In addition, I ran it for a while with the case open (both side walls removed), and none of these temp readings changed more than a degree.



Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!My computer seems to be overheating.?
you have either to much or to little thermal compound sitting under the cpu cooler fan. remove the fan assembly wipe the cpu with a tissue to remove any thermal compound apply a pea size amount reinstall the fan assembly an turn on My computer seems to be overheating.?
Yes. Below 40c is a good idle start up temperature.

ALWAYS below 75c is a good temperature when you stress the core, Any more up till 90 = throttling = shutdown.My computer seems to be overheating.?
OMG! That CPU temperature is OUTRAGEOUS! Don't turn that computer back on...already, you are smelling the CPU burning up.



Obviously, your cooling for the CPU is not working or is inadequate or wrong. Did you use THERMAL COMPOUND on the CPU when you installed the fan/heatsink to the processor? If you did not, you are burning up your CPU!!!!!



Immediately, remove the fan/heatsink from the processor,and when cool, take the CPU out. Get some thermal compound, like ARCTIC SILVER, and apply a thin coating to the processor. Put the fan/heatsink unit back on and try it then. I bet you see a significant drop in temps.



The temp of that processor shouldn't be over 45 - 50 C at the most!My computer seems to be overheating.?
It would appear you may not have installed your CPU heatsink correctly as your CPU temperature is far too high (it shouldn't be any higher than 60c at the most ideally).



Ensure that the heatsink is secured correctly and does not move about when positioned on the CPU.



Make sure you have applied thermal paste or a thermal pad onto the CPU before adding the heatsink. If using thermal paste ensure you have not applied too much - you should apply a pea-sizea amount and spread it evenly across the CPU so that there is a thin layer - too much paste can cause overheating.My computer seems to be overheating.?
Jim has a pretty good answer up there but I thought I would inquire as to what kind of heat sink you have on your CPU. If it's the stock Intel heatsink, then it should already have a little square patch of heatsink compound on there and you shouldn't apply more. Too much heat sink compound can be just as bad as no heat sink compound.



Assuming you are using an Intel heatsink specifically designed for your CPU (IE it came boxed with it), then you probably didn't attach it firmly enough to the motherboard. The heatsink should be firmly attached with absolutely no wiggle room.My computer seems to be overheating.?
Did you remember to put thermal %26quot;glue%26quot; under the CPU heat-sink?



Another thing to check is that all the fans are blowing the right way... might sound silly, but if you have a fan in the front of the case and a fan in the back, and they're both blowing %26quot;in%26quot;, they're opposing one another and there is a dead zone right in the middle... just about where you need lots of air movement.