CPU Cooling and Temp Question

[TestudoAubreii]

Hey everyone,

I just replaced my PSU to a Cosair 750w PSU, and replaced my stock Intel i7 920 heatsink with an Ultra U12-40656 Carbon X7 Multi-Socket CPU Cooler. My temps are idling in the mid 40's and under load they rise to 70. Are those temps alright or should they be running a bit cooler with that CPU cooler?

Thanks in advance for all responses.

Testudo

[Crazyeyesreaper]

those temps are fine I7 chips wont throttle till they hit 90c so while 70c is hot its fine

but what concerns me is if your at STOCK cpu frequency it shouldnt be that hot with said cooler,

did you properly apply thermal paste and is the heatsink full secured? because you really should only be in the 60c range with stock speeds,

i dont know what mounting system they have, but i do know push pin coolers on intel suck, they just never apply good enough pressure for adequate thermal transfer. so if it is pushpin then that explains alot but if its using a backplate. it still seems odd for 70c temps.

unless your in an area with high ambient aka the room the PC is in is hot thus warm air circulating causes temps to rise a bit.

reference here
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1212/6/

stock cooler is mid 30c idle 74c load at stock speeds, the cooler you have should be doing ALOT better then that.

[TestudoAubreii]

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I took out everything and put the backplate on the back of the motherboard and installed the cooler the way I was supposed to. I applied the thermal paste and made sure that all of my spring loaded screws were nice and snug. I did notice, however, that my back chassis fan stopped working. As far as I know, it was working fine before I replaced the cooler and the PSU. So, I took off the side panel and set a fan point towards the back of the case and my temps went down to idling in between the mid to high 30's and did not go above 60 when under load. This may be a silly question, but could that fan not working make that much of a difference?

Thanks again,
Testudo

[Crazyeyesreaper]

depends if you mean rear chassis fan then yes it CAN on some occasions as temps increase inside the case it creates heat build up.

most likely the rear fan got unplugged if theres no fan headers to connect to, use a 3pin to molex instead,

for best results on tower cpu coolers you want the air flow to be consistent

aka front fan intake cpu fan point to blow out the back and a rear fan to suck said hot air out and finish the job its about efficiency

but yea mid to high 30s and 60c sounds about right for your cooler much better. and where it should be.

[TestudoAubreii]

Thanks! Yeah, the front chassis fan is running like it is supposed to, but the back one stopped. I have the cooler fan pointed towards that back fan and I can feel it pushing the air out, but I can feel next to nothing when I put my hand in front on the fan grid on the outside of the case. Sometimes the fan moves, but I actually think that it is the CPU cooler fan that is pushing it.

Testudo

[TestudoAubreii]

Sorry for the new post, but I thought that I should mention that I have my i7 920 2.68 overclocked @ 3.33 right now, too. So, that will run up the temps, as well. I think that I want to try and push it just a bit more. Do you think that once I have that fan fixed and I am getting decent temp readings, that I can OC my CPU to around 3.4-3.6 on that cooler?

Testudo

[Crazyeyesreaper]

it probably is i would open the case up look at the rear fan follow the wire see if its plugged in if its not plug it in,

if your lucky the fan has a Molex 4pin header and you can just hook it to the PSU problem solved. that seems to be the situation i think when you swapped the PSU out you didnt rehook the fans molex connector its just a guess.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

you shouldnt have any problems

just run Intel Burn Test

or Lin X minimum 15 runs at MAX ram usage, if it passes 15 runs your pretty much 90% stable, then just test games and apps and go from there i prefer IBT / LinX over the typical OCCT or Prime 95 runs less time consuming and lets you test OC settings quicker so you can get in the ballpark then just fine tweak later

just try and keep load temps under 80c for long term stability

other then that just tinker with it i would expect 3.6ghz is doable maybe even 3.8 if temps remain solid. anything higher youll end up in trouble with that cooler, id suggest 3.6 as a nice 24.7 clock temps should remain decent, and the speed should be noticeable increase.

[TestudoAubreii]

Thanks for your help, Crazy. Would you happen to know the best settings for a 3.6 OC? I have a ASUS P6T. I suppose that I can look online, but I thought I would ask. Worth a shot .

Testudo

[Crazyeyesreaper]

sorry got nothing off the top of my head, i havent personally owned a 1336 rig only built them for customers and overclocked that way so never really had time to learn the ins and outs i just tinkered till i got a stable clock the cooler i used at the time could handle

aka trial and error method lol

[TestudoAubreii]

Cool. Well, thanks for the help and the speedy responses . I really appreciate it.

Testudo

[mrmouth]

Thanks for your help, Crazy. Would you happen to know the best settings for a 3.6 OC? I have a ASUS P6T. I suppose that I can look online, but I thought I would ask. Worth a shot .

Testudo

Its just 20x180. If you have ram with XMP profiles that will set the CPU ratio setting to 20, and then just set the BCLK freq to 180. If you need help with any of the other settings, just ask. 3.33 is the sweet spot for the 920. Anything over that gets minimal return for a lot more power and heat. I have mine at 3.5 because my 920 seems to really like that spot, at really low voltage. If you are trying for 3.6, you might as well just go for 4GHz.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

no 3.6ghz can be done at decent volts 4ghz that cooler wont handle it and takes more volts, he will be running load temps close to 90c throttle point

the cooler he has will probably top out at 3.6-3.8 range, before it gets saturated with heat,

from what i can tell that cooler he has looks to be a carbon copy of the swiftech polaris / EVGA cooler cant remember its name

its a mid range tower cooler something that wont handle an i7 full bore at 4ghz,

3.8 might be doable but 3.6 should be a safe 24/7 clock that wont saturate the heatsink, with shifting temps depending on the region,

and the i7s performance keeps scaling even at higher speeds, 3.33 isnt the sweet spot sweet spot on return is around 3.5-3.7ghz because after that more volts is needed and it climbs rather quickly 4ghz i7 will pull around 300w where as if properly overclocked and tested at 3.6 should be doable with low volts, its after that point things begin to get a bit more difficult, as many i7 920s can hit 3.8ghz some hit 4.0ghz but they tend to top out about there due to heat problems unless on full on custom water cooling,

that said

3.6ghz should come in around 1.2-1.25 volts on the CPU its about all i can remember right now.

in reality 3.3ghz is the speed where a CPU wont bottleneck high end gpus, for the most part this applies to intel and amd, 3.6-4ghz gives the best increase in performance with lower end of that being easier to maintain,

another way to look at it is from 3.8ghz to 4ghz on a Phenom II youll go from 1.35-1.4v to 1.55-1.6 volts thats alot of voltage same can be said of the I7 920s 4ghz is doable but some chips are just way better at this then others,

Intel recommends no more then 1.35volts altho some clockers swear that up to 1.55 is safe if you have good cooling, i recommend staying under 1.35 and see how far you can go and just test it.

in my situation i just push untill stuff breaks i dont suggest doing that tho lol

[mrmouth]

in reality 3.3ghz is the speed where a CPU wont bottleneck high end gpus

Its just what I said. Its the sweet spot. Not my opinion, but that of people who test and review for a living. Anything over that gives minimal return vs voltage and heat. What is there to argue about that?

And form a ing paragraph for once.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

uh theres still gains to be made you are on the Total War Forums so i would expect you've noticed CPU performance scales in Shogun 2 ridiculously well, especially for i7 systems

and again up to 3.6 dosent need much power, at all its after 3.5-3.6 that temps and power climb expotentially even then its mostly C0 chips that hit the temp / power limit early D0 chips can usually make it to 3.8 without much problem and with easily maintain temps,

the point is on a decent i7 920 the power and heat from 3.3 to 3.6 is minor were talking 3-4'c temp difference

i7 920 at 2.6ghz stock is 130w TDP it will reach up to 145w under max load
i7 920 at 3.3ghz should be 145-150w but uses stock volts
i7 920 at 3.6 will hit 180-195w
3.6 is the sweet spot as its the maximum most air coolers can sustain without issue, 3.8 and 4.0ghz will take you 250-300w depending on voltages Ram settings QPI etc etc

but the biggest issue is the chips VID, which has a massive impact on temps and overclocking.

high VID means the chip can handle a bit higher voltage and keep going aka high VID chips tend to make good Liquid Nitrogen or Liquid Helium bench chips low VIDs allow the average user to hit 3.8ghz - 4ghz and use less voltage then is normal, comes down to luck of the draw.

Nehalems sweet spot is 3.6ghz its attainable on C0 and D0 chips almost all air coolers aka 120mm tower HSFs etc, have 0 issues keeping things running stable 24.7, once you push past 3.6 thats when you enter the diminsihing returns in regard to heat and power, but even then 3.8ghz is attainable and without much more power draw, after 3.8 power skyrockets.

that said i will agree that on CERTAIN chips 3.3ghz is the sweet spot i say this because some low VID 920s will hit 3.3ghz with lower volts aka 1.08-1.1v which less then the stock 1.2v used by the 920.

a good way to look at it is the 920 vs higher end chips in the lineup 3.3 is doable at stock volts or less then stock and its just a binning process, 950 / 960 of course being 3.06 and 3.2ghz respectively, this is why many consider 3.3 as a sweet spot as it only requires stock volts or less then stock for a sizeable jump, that said pushing to 3.6ghz should only result in a 50w TDP increase

that said most 3.6 is the best long term overclock in terms of performance gain to power and heat used, its not a big enough increase to matter in terms of power and heat, but offers a bit more leg room, which is becoming more noticeable in games now. especially the battlefield series and Total War series.

[TestudoAubreii]

Thanks for the input, fellas.

I tried it at 3.6 and it crashed during some testing. Here were the settings for that:
CPU Ratio Settings: 20.0
BCLK Freq: : 183
DRAM Freq : DRR3-1467MHz

CPU Voltage : 1.25

Everything else was on Auto.

Here is the settings that I have it on now @ 3.36:
CPU Ratio Settings: Auto
BCLK Freq: : 168
DRAM Freq : DRR3-1467MHz

CPU Voltage : Auto

Everything else is Auto.

Here is what it looked like right after testing it out a bit:


My temps stayed the same for both OC's. Mid to high 30's idle and not over 60 when under load.

I would really like to get it between 3.5 & 3.6. Will I really notice that much of a difference between 3.36 and 3.6?

Thanks.

Testudo

[Totalheadache]

read up on some guides http://www.google.co.uk/#pq=overcloc...6&bih=894&bs=1

mines at 3.8ghz 24/7 but have managed 4ghz which isnt bad on a CO. Is yours a do or co chip?(makes a diff).

Your temps sound high op. I'll post back with my settings if you dont have any luck. I use xmp profiles.

I have hyper-threading on and as a general rule dont overclock on your ram. Have actually run mine a fair bit lower than my stock 1600mhz.

P.s banarby stop spouting BS. A 920 can do 4.2ghz with a DO chip as long as it has very good air cooling but most on air oc the 920's to 3.8ghz - 4ghz.

if you want more help go to www.guru3d.com/forums.

next time i boot up i'll write down my settings. am on a p6t deluxe.

theres another good website at the asus forums but the link isnt working for me...i'll try again later.

p.p.s reason i am not on 4ghz atm is temps were high in summer and was hitting 75c which i didnt like so am running 3.8ghz which takes a load less vcore and therefore doesnt get much over 55c atm. yeah its cold here. my gpu boots at 18c hehe..(its on water).

[Crazyeyesreaper]

in shogun 2 and Bad Company 2 yes theres performance to be had it helps the minimum fps greatly especially in SHogun 2 lol

[TestudoAubreii]

Do you think that I can get a stable 3.6 by upping the BCLK to 180, the DRAM to the highest to 1600 (without going over) and perhaps raise the CPU Voltage to 1.25 or even leave it on auto?

Do those temps look ok?

Thanks.

Testudo

[Totalheadache]

ok here's mine

xmp profile 1
cpu ratio setting 21
intel speedstrap disabled
bclk 180
ddr3 1443mhz
uclk (auto)
qpi link data rate (auto)
cpu voltage 1.27500
cpu pll 1.88
qpi dram/core voltage 1.36250
dram bus voltage (1.66) (even though this is in the red its ok)
load-line calibration on
c1e support disabled

3.78 although thats a baby oc really. for 4ghz i have to set the uclk and qpi data rate i recall. i needed 1.35vcore to get stable for 4ghz. if yours is a do chip (you can check by looking at the batch number online) it might need less vcore. or it might say on your box it came in.

3.8ghz should be do-able. check your temps though always.

p.s mine is a deluxe board but its more or less the same as yours. oh and before overclocking i would have updated the bios (not completely necessary but if you are still using the original bios there have been several updates).

update bios in the bios with a usb stick (pre formatted with bios on it) not via online method in windows. updating bios is more risky than overclocking. so be sure you know what you are doing.

you have another ten c or so to play with i reckon. 70c is fine considering thats ibt temps which you will hardly ever see in real life usuage. ok a game like bf3 will push the temps up. shogun2 isnt as bad as that (i.e it doesnt use all the cores).