[SOLVED] Cooling an i7 4790 (non-k) in a SFF

rjco

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Hi all. Hoping yo can help me with whether I need to upgrade my cooling or not.... I am thinking of upgrading my Silverstone SG05 case anyway as this whole palavar has been a right chew with the (lack of) access in this case and the CPU cooler max height is limited to something like the Noctua LH-12S.

So... my problem began when, earlier this year, I upgraded my PC with the highest non-k processor my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-H97N-WIFI mini-ITX) supports, the 4790 (non-k). Since this upgrade I have suffered a number of random crashes with the display going purple or green, buzzing from the audio output which has required a hard reboot to resolve.

I originally thought (a few months ago) that this was a PSU problem so upgraded my 300W 80+ Silverstone PSU which came bundled with my case to a 750W 80+ Platinum Corsair unit which I managed to get from Amazon on offer a few months ago. However the problem persisted. I now believe this is due to a thermal problem when experiencing load increases and when monitoring I was regularly seeing temperatures in the high 80's low 90's.

The cooler is my case is the Noctua NH-L9i fan which I bought to replace the intel stock cooler on my previous i5-4590 due to wanting reduced noise. This cooler is not recommended by Noctua for this CPU on their website.

I have subsequently changed the thermal paste to the widely recommended Thermal Grizzly Aeronaut from the Noctua thermal paste which I had used before (which has made no noticeable difference) and undervolted the CPU to -0.095 using the Intel XTU software which has vastly improved the thermal performance and hasn't crashed since.

My thermal results are as follows:
  • Idle. 45oC
  • Browsing 48-50oC
  • Light Gaming (Indie titles etc.) 60-62oC
  • Worst game (TW:WH20) 78-79oC
  • Intel XPU Stress Test 83-88oC @ 3.79GHz
  • Prime 95 Blend. Thermally throttle, 100oC @ 3.48GHz


These temps all measured using the Intel XTU software.

I see in the stickied thread (https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/intel-temperature-guide.1488337/ ) that a CPU max temp of 85oC is recommended. Given that my real world workloads seem to be below 85oC and that only synthetic stress cases cause cooling issues should I look to upgrade my cooling. I only use the computer for gaming (mostly indie titles plus a few strategy games), word processing/email/web browsing and some photo editing in Darktable.

During lockdown I have ended up using my personal PC for work as my work laptop (surface pro 4) is c*** so reliable running important to me right now. But I also would rather not spend unnecessary cash whilst the company I am working for is going through a redundancy programme...

Thanks for your help and advice and apologies for the length of the post!
 
Solution
Don't need to remove the front fan. Just take the side panel off and blow air at that side of the case.

I feel like this is a RAM issue. Your temps aren't alarming. It does seem odd that undervolting the CPU seemingly fixed the problem though.
Take note of which stress tests use AVX. Prime95 versions >26.6 use AVX, but you can disable that. AVX is going to stress your CPU MUCH more than normal working conditions.

Yes, <85C is preferable for CPUs and GPUs.

Have you tested your RAM for a potentially faulty stick?

What GPU do you have?

Silverstone's website says the SG05 supports CPU coolers up to 82mm and yet you're using a 37mm one. Have you checked out the Noctua NH L12S or Scythe Big Shuriken 3?
(check RAM clearance, not sure what RAM sticks you have)
 
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I do not think you have a problem.
The processor monitors it's temperature and will slow down or turn off if it detects a dangerous temperature. That is around 100c.

Stress tests do just that... Stress. Many generate heat, particularly using AVX instructions that are not common in normal usage.

What is you ambient temperature?
Normally, you should see 10-15c. over ambient at idle.
Possibly that might go higher in a small case with limited airflow.
Any cooler needs a good supply of fresh air to let it do it's job.

You can always change out the front 120mm intake for one with higher rpm at the cost of added noise.
To see if such a change would be useful, take the covers off the case and direct a house fan at the innards.
If that helps much, look to a stronger front intake fan.
 
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rjco

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Take note of which stress tests use AVX. Prime95 versions >26.6 use AVX, but you can disable that. AVX is going to stress your CPU MUCH more than normal working conditions.

Yes, <85C is preferable for CPUs and GPUs.

Have you tested your RAM for a potentially faulty stick?

What GPU do you have?

Silverstone's website says the SG05 supports CPU coolers up to 82mm and yet you're using a 37mm one. Have you checked out the Noctua NH L12S or Scythe Big Shuriken 3?
(check RAM clearance, not sure what RAM sticks you have)

Thanks for your reply.

I'll look to run the Prime stress test disabling AVX. I had run the "Blend" test rather than the small FFT test before as it took alot longer to get to the thermal throttle temperature. I'll see if that makes a significant difference.

The RAM is seated and detected by Windows, are there any other checks/tests I should do to identify faulty RAM?

GPU is a Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 GAMING 8GB. Temperatures are fine even with a modest overclock (but also mildly undervolted)

I may be able to fit those coolers in the case but the clearances from the RAM, GPU and MB are tight so I'd need to measure up.
 

rjco

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Aug 22, 2014
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I do not think you have a problem.
The processor monitors it's temperature and will slow down or turn off if it detects a dangerous temperature. That is around 100c.

Stress tests do just that... Stress. Many generate heat, particularly using AVX instructions that are not common in normal usage.

What is you ambient temperature?
Normally, you should see 10-15c. over ambient at idle.
Possibly that might go higher in a small case with limited airflow.
Any cooler needs a good supply of fresh air to let it do it's job.

You can always change out the front 120mm intake for one with higher rpm at the cost of added noise.
To see if such a change would be useful, take the covers off the case and direct a house fan at the innards.
If that helps much, look to a stronger front intake fan.

Thanks for your reply.

I live in North East Scotland, so ambient temperature is usually 10oC!!! However the last few days have been warm so likely ~25oC. Sorry I didn't record ambient temperature when running the tests.

The system fan is set quite low RPM for temperatures under 50oC and then ramps up in line with the CPU fan curve (this used to be my HTPC and I had set up a custom fan curve to keep it inaudible) so I can look to change this. The system fan is probably the loudest (or at least most noticeable to me) in the system @100%, especially as the Gigabyte GPU fans are fairly quiet, and I usually game with headphones. I did run the Intel XTU stress test with both CPU and system fan @ 100% which made no difference to the temperatures recorded.

I'll try removing the fan and rerun, but unfortunately the case requires complete disassembly as the fan (and dust filter!!!) have to be removed from inside the case which requires me to remove the 24 pin ATX motherboard power supply, GPU and SSDs (it really isn't the easiest case to work in!).
 
Don't need to remove the front fan. Just take the side panel off and blow air at that side of the case.

I feel like this is a RAM issue. Your temps aren't alarming. It does seem odd that undervolting the CPU seemingly fixed the problem though.
 
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