Cooling advice urgently requested for an overheating i7-4790K

[martinlest]

Hi. I'd really appreciate some advice as my PC is away being fixed, under warranty, and I need to make some fast decisions about its repair!

The CPU is an i7-4790K. I don't overclock it - it's at the standard 4.0 GHz. I have noticed that the core temperatures, as indicated by the CoreTemp utility, although fine at 'idle' - often not exceeding 30-35 degs C at an ambient of c.20 degs, with all CPUs at 100% (7-zip tends to do this, and one or two games, especially X-Plane 11, as it loads up), I was getting core temperatures of up to 98 degs.

The folks that put the PC together (well thought-of, mostly, on the internet) tell me that under severe tests they got to 100 degs, so they re-pasted and re-seated the cooler (a Noctua NH-L9i) and that under stress the temps are now about 90 degs max, which they think the system will be 'happy with'.

Can't say I am all that happy though! That still sounds way too hot - and not much of a change from when I sent it back. They say that they could put in a Corsair H60 water cooler instead, which "would probably bring temperatures down only by about 10 degs on average" (not sure I want a water cooler, ideally, but...).

BTW, there are only SSDs in the PC, no heat-generating HDDs. (And a GTX970 4GB GPU).

The problem is compounded by the fact that this is a small form PC, in a Coolermaster Elite 130 case. (Asus H97I Plus M/B). Not much I can do about that without a complete rebuild.

I can't make my mind up what to do now. Anyone have comments or other suggestions as to cooling in this system?

Thanks!

Martin

 

[lumineZ]

With that small case I would go for an AIO liquid cooler like the H60 and use a high static pressure fan that is good to be 100% sure you will have enough airfow through the radiator.

When it comes to air coolers you can not really fit a high end one (that I know of) in it since there is no room for it.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Well - your cpu cooler is not suited for your 88W i7 cpu.
http://noctua.at/en/nh_l9i_tdp_guidelines

Get a bigger case and appropriate cpu cooler.

Alternatively you can underclock your cpu. Currently it's 4Ghz base/ 4.4Ghz turbo.
If you disabled turbo boost and set max frequency to 3.8Ghz, that would improve temperatures significantly.

 

[USAFRet]

A 4790k should never approach 90C in normal use. Ever.
If it does, something is not quite right. Especially with that Noctua cooler you have.

I have that same CPU. With a CM 212 Plus, it never went above ~80C.
With the new liquid cooler...Cryorig A80, I can't make it go over 72C, in a warm room (30C), running 100% Prime95.


Your small case may be the issue. What fans and airflow through the case do you have?
It's not enough to have a good CPU cooler...you also have to remove that hot air from inside the case.

 

[martinlest]

Thanks for the fast replies - will check again tomorrow..

Meanwhile, from what has been posted so far, would folks agree that the H60 would be better than the Noctua here? The latter was recommended on various websites for this CPU, but according to the Noctua link, it's not even suitable!! How does the Cryorig A80 (never heard of it - the CR-H5B A80, I assume?) compare with the H60 (I'll Google that, in the meantime)? Would it fit the Asus M/B - and the Coolmaster smaller case?

"A 4790k should never approach 90C in normal use" - yes, but what is 'normal use'. That kind of high temp is the exception.. mostly (though not always) when X-Plane 11 is loading scenery files (or, as I mentioned, 7-zip is compressing large files). The PC is used 95% for flight simulation - FS9, FSX.. but it's only X-Plane 11 that produces these temperatures. I wonder why so, when the idle temps are very good.. often no more than 10 degs above ambient room temperature.

What is a "high static pressure fan"? What models might fit the bill, if the manufacturer stocks them of course. I don't recall what fans are in the case currently.. I did request an extra one when I specified the build, but they said there was no space.

Rather not underclock - the flightsim software is very CPU dependent (much, much more than GPU), so small underclocks mean significant fps losses).

Maybe a new case, yes: but would my small M/B fit into a larger case? I don't really want to do major rebuilds (like change the M/B!) - the PC is not all that old.

Thanks again.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Maybe a new case, yes: but would my small M/B fit into a larger case?

Of course, it would fit. Larger cases have no problems accommodating smaller motherboards.

 

[martinlest]

Of course, it would fit. Larger cases have no problems accommodating smaller motherboards

Not always so - I once had difficulty fixing a smaller M/B into a large case designed for standard sized ones. It went inside, (of course), but how to secure it in place was not obvious. That was several years ago though: maybe it was my fault.

 

[martinlest]

So, may I ask this: if I stick to the Coolmaster 130 case (I like it a lot - it's so easy to open and clean for one thing!), which cooler would people suggest for this CPU? The Noctua NH-L12 looks a better option than the NH-L9i I currently have (and is at least suitable for LGA1150, according to Noctua!). But I am not sure if both NH-L12 fans are going to fit (which seems to be required if the cooler is going to work at proper efficiency)..

Would anyone have a better option? (I think as I don't overclock, water cooling is not necessary here... that's what I am reading in most threads anyway. Agreed?).

 

[SkyNetRising]

The Noctua NH-L12 looks a better option

Your case supports coolers up to 65mm. Noctua NH-L12 is 93mm with top fan and 66mm without top fan.
It will not fit into your current case.

Consider changing case to Thermaltake Core V1.
Design is quite similar, but it supports cpu coolers up to 140mm high.
http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00002373

 

[martinlest]

Thank you for the reply - that's very helpful and I am going to try to go with that option. Need to speak to the PC builder of course to see that they can do this. (Glad I took out 3-year warranty now. Since they suggested the (incompatible) NH-L9i, I hope they are going to meet me half way, financially).

 

[martinlest]

Thank you for the reply - that's very helpful and I am going to try to go with that option. Need to speak to the PC builder of course to see that they can do this. (Glad I took out 3-year warranty now. Since they suggested the (incompatible) NH-L9i, I hope they are going to meet me half way, financially).

OK, finally got the PC back, now in a Thermaltake Core V1 case and with the Noctua NH-L12 cooler. Core temperatures are on average 30 degs C lower than before, under load! So thanks for the suggestions...