Disparity in core temps

In tandem with my dead mobo thread.... I now have an apparently fully-functional PC, it wound up being a dead PSU after swapping out the mobo with an identical one.

Anyway, I had some alarm issues on it after resetting the CMOS and swapping the CPU back and forth, so I installed speedfan and cpuid to look at temps and be sure I seated the HS properly.

I left it alone all night on its side with the case open and both cores were 41C (I didn't log it). I put the side back on and put it upright before I left for class (~ 4:30 PM); upon returning home (9:30 PM), I find the screens on, PC frozen. I had CPUID and Speedfan on simultaneously, so I thought they may have not gotten along so well so I rebooted to find that Core0 is now 45-47C and Core1 is 41C solid. Core0 bops around a bit (up to 49) but is mostly steady between 46 and 47C. Jostling the tower doesn't do anything to the temps (E.g. if it were bad contact, the weight of the HS may have skewed things)

If I try to load up the CPU (50%), both cores come up in temp by 5-6C evenly (as far as I can tell)

Do multicore CPU's distribute load similar to a mobile processor (thus explaining why 1 core is hotter than the other)? Note that I never paid attention to temps before this fiasco, so this all may be a normal trait of the CPU.

One processor is often a couple of degrees off of the other.
I think it's less about load and more about location (how much cooling access it has).
It's also normal (unfortunately) to have different temp programs give different readings, by several degrees.
If your puter is freezing up on that original mobo, don't discount possible damage from that crackling PSU.

The cores generally do NOT load evenly unless the computer is under very heavy load. It's not unusual for one to be working harder than the other, esp. for general/daily tasks.

Quote from Jeffbx : The cores generally do NOT load evenly unless the computer is under very heavy load. It's not unusual for one to be working harder than the other, esp. for general/daily tasks.

Agreed, but over and above that, some cores simply run cooler or hotter than others.
In the screenshots below, you'll see that core 4 is consistently lower than core 3.

Quote from RockySosua : One processor is often a couple of degrees off of the other. I think it's less about load and more about location (how much cooling access it has). It's also normal (unfortunately) to have different temp programs give different readings, by several degrees. If your puter is freezing up on that original mobo, don't discount possible damage from that crackling PSU.

That's what I thought. Overnight I had CPU temp monitoring off (no progs monitoring) and it was still honkey dorey this AM.

not sure if your processor is an intel or not but they do offer testing software

http://www.intel.com/support/proc...031726.htm