Am I expecting too much from my heatsink?

[blevsta]

I just got my new computer up and running. This is my first try at overclocking, and as it turns out, I didn't have to up the stock voltage to get to my target. A 25% overclock on my Core i7 920. (3.3ghz).

The problem is, load temps (reported by RealTemp) are up around 67°. Ambient room temp is 24°.

I have a Vigor Monsoon III. From all the articles and posts I've seen, it seems 50-55° is what I should be seeing if I've got adequate cooling. But maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges, most peoples reported temps don't have which tool it's being reported by.

I was thinking maybe I didn't put enough thermal grease down (artic silver), because I've noticed two of the core temps are consistently 5-7° cooler than the other two. But in order to apply more paste, I've got to pull EVERYTHING out of the case. Something I really don't want to do.

I used a pea sized amount in the center of the CPU, and smooshed the heatsink down on top of it. No twisting of any sort, as the tutorial I went off of said this would be sufficient. The airflow of the heatsink is directed out the back of the case.

 

[Mondoman]

Try running the system with the case side open. If that helps, it means your internal case ventilation was insufficient. If it doesn't help, it means your CPU cooler is maxed out or not quite properly installed.

The amount of thermal compound should be fine; what are your idle temps?

 

[blevsta]

The idle temps are around 38-42°. I've set the CPU fan to max speed instead of auto for the time being. That's a good idea, I'll try opening up the case tonight. Thanks for the advise. If that doesn't fix things I'll post more settings/details later.

 

[chjade84]

Those temps seem just fine, in fact I'm a tad jealous. My i7 @ 3.11GHz with the same HSF is 70c with Prime95. 50-55c is unrealistic for an overclock like that. In fact it's hard to get that even at stock speeds. This article may help.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/880/1/

@3.5 GHz and full load the stock HSF runs at 83.5, the Vigor at 72 and Noctuna (regarded as one of the best air coolers) at 67.

Be Happy!

 

[Conumdrum]

The diff in the cores isn't an issue, at those differences.

 

[blevsta]

@chjade84
Wow, thanks. That's a great article. I wish I'd seen that before I purchased the Vigor, I'd have gone with Noctuna instead. It's great to see that my overclocked cpu is still cooler than the stock cooler at stock speeds. I'm going to run the temperature monitor program they used in the review just to confirm that. If so, I may bump the speed up a little more.

@Conumdrum
Thanks, I didn't want to reseat my cooler. It's good to know that a variance of temp between cores is normal.

As far as my previous test to remove the side panel on my case: my temps actually went up by 1°. My side panel has a 230mm fan on it. I actually had to remove the fan and place it on the outside of my case due to the Vigor being so frickin' huge.

Everything is still stable. I turned on the auto turbo mode and I'm sitting at 3.4xxx with 70° at full load (Prime 95 + Real Temp) I'm going to push forward until I've got my temps at about the same as the stock intel cooler @ stock speeds.