Another 7700k thread....

bsullivan1983

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Feb 29, 2012
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Hey all. Just finished building a new PC:

BeQuiet! Dark Base Pro 900
Intel Core i7-7700k
Gigabyte GA-Z270X-Gaming K7
Deepcool Captain 240EX cooler
32GB G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 3200
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FE
500GB Samsung 960 Evo M.2
BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 750w PSU

I'm very worried about the core temp spikes and idle temps of the 7700k, but from what I'm hearing my temps are normal (34C idle on cold boot, non-OC, 44C while gaming). I imagine if my cooler wasn't performing adequately I'd be seeing higher temps, so I'm ruling that out. My ambient room temp was around 25C (77-78F) when taking these readings. If you all think these base temps seem fine, I'd like to proceed to some stress testing before my RMA time is up with Newegg (I have about two weeks left). Which programs and methods/process will be the safest way to stress the CPU to see if I should RMA or not? I don't want it to hit max or possibly cause any damage to it if I don't have to. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
 
Solution
bsullivan1983,

Here's the operating range for Core temperature:

Core temperatures above 85°C aren't recommended.

Core temperatures increase and decrease with Ambient temperature.

Highest Core temperatures occur during stress tests, rendering or transcoding, but are lower during less processor intensive workloads such as applications and gaming. CPU workloads and Core temperatures can vary greatly between games. Idle temperatures below 25°C are generally due to Ambient temperatures below 22°C.

Please read this Sticky: Intel Temperature Guide - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

Sections 10 through 13 explain how to perform...

CompuTronix

Intel Master
Moderator
bsullivan1983,

Here's the operating range for Core temperature:

Core temperatures above 85°C aren't recommended.

Core temperatures increase and decrease with Ambient temperature.

Highest Core temperatures occur during stress tests, rendering or transcoding, but are lower during less processor intensive workloads such as applications and gaming. CPU workloads and Core temperatures can vary greatly between games. Idle temperatures below 25°C are generally due to Ambient temperatures below 22°C.

Please read this Sticky: Intel Temperature Guide - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

Sections 10 through 13 explain how to perform thermal tests at load and idle and include links to download the proper utilities.

CT :sol:
 
Solution

CompuTronix

Intel Master
Moderator
Package temperature can be deceiving. Core temperatures should be your primary concern. This is straight out of the Guide I linked above. You should give it a read.

From Section 4 - Core Temperature:

Core temperatures increase and decrease instantly with changes in load.

Intel’s specification for Digital Thermal Sensor (DTS) response time is 256 milliseconds, or about 1/4th of a second. Since Windows has dozens of Processes and Services running in the background, it’s normal to see rapid and random Core temperature “spikes” or fluctuations, especially during the first few minutes after startup, which should eventually settle. Any software activity will show some percentage of CPU Utilization in Task Manager, where unnecessary Tray items, Startups, Processes and Services that contribute to excessive or continued spiking can be disabled.

From Section 13 - Thermal Test at Idle:

6th Generation processors introduced "Speed Shift" technology in Windows 10, which responds much faster to changes in workload than "SpeedStep" due to having many more Core speed and Core voltage transition levels.

Since 7th and 8th Generation Speed Shift is twice as fast as 6th Generation, some users complain of Core temperature spikes which cause fluctuations in fan RPM at idle. Motherboard manufacturers are currently developing BIOS fixes that include separate SpeedStep and Speed Shift settings with more flexible fan curves and time delay options.

CT :sol:
 

bsullivan1983

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Ok, I've just run Prime95 26.6 Small FFTs for 10 minutes. Ambient room temperature is approximately 26C. According to Core Temp, Core #0 hit 85C, Core #1 hit 83C, Core #2 hit 80C and Core #3 hit 81C. I'm guessing since nothing was above 85C I shouldn't worry much? Just wondering if I need to go with a different cooler or not. I designed this build to be SILENT as my other desktop screams. In order for it to be silent, I had to turn all fan profiles to Silent in the BIOS.
 

CompuTronix

Intel Master
Moderator
You're OK for app and gaming loads under these conditions. Unless you're rendering or transcoding, your Core temperatures will never reach those of Prime95 v26.6 Small FFT's. However, if your ambient increases to 30'ish, you might need to bump your fan profiles slightly.

Running Core voltage (Vcore) at Auto / Default settings in BIOS typically feeds the CPU more voltage than necessary for stability, which causes your Core temperatures to run higher than necessary. Whether you plan to overclock or not, you should minimize your Core voltage, which has a significant effect on decreasing Core temperatures. If you don't already know how to tweak your Vcore settings, Mister Google knows where you can find several good overclocking guides that describe the process of minimizing Vcore.

Concerning your GTX 1080, fortunately it's an FE, so it exhausts it's heat out the rear of your case, rather than exhausting heat into your case and recirculating it.

Nice rig!

CT :sol:
 

bsullivan1983

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Feb 29, 2012
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That's a relief :) So the Deepcool cooler instructs you to plug the pump into CPU_FAN1 header and the fan hub into the CPU_FAN2 header. I had previously went into the Gigabyte BIOS (not familiar with Gigabyte... first motherboard I've used that is NOT an Asus in 20 years) and changed all fan profiles to silent as I wanted this to be a quiet build but it was loud due to the ramping of the core temps. This helped. I went back in and changed the CPU_FAN profile (which I hope is for the pump) to max and it didn't seem to affect the temps. I guess I'll just pray all is well and hope nothing fails on me. I need to mess with the fan curve in MSI Afterburner for the GFX card. The fans are barely on when it is hitting 80C+ so I think I can make a profile that will speed it up a little without affecting noise too much.