Question Core i9 14900k Bluescreens and horrible temperatures.

[Alberto921]

CPU: i9 14900k
MB: Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE X WIFI7 DDR5 Rev. 1.0
COOLER: be quiet! Dark Rock Elite

As the title suggest, horrific temperatures and 1 instance of blue screen specifically CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT.

The blue screen occurred before i got any info about how bad the default config in most motherboards is for these cpu's, at least before the BIOS updates, so i downloaded the latest bios updates which have intel specified settings as defaults, and hopefully any of this nonsense doesn't occur again, HOWEVER...

After doing some tests for temps, i discovered that they are unacceptable for me(everything is throttling, not even 10 seconds and 100c is reached...), the cooler is quite loud for me at this stage, it has 1 switch button with "P" and "E", i set it to "E" which i suppose means "ECO", so it should be quite but the performance would be lower.(The problem is it's already loud, and what happens if i set it to performance..)

Another thing is when i was placing the thermal paste, a bit too much spew in and spread around a bit, so i left it like that, not sure if it can cause some kinds of problems, i am also not sure if i screw in the cooler strong enough, so there's no "spacing" in between the CPU and cooler.

But the thing that bothers me the most is i got this CPU, with a cut off paper, the white paper that attached both sides of the box, which means that clearly someone opened the box, and the reason could be simply someone had this CPU before, and they returned it, because in my country you can return the item in 14 days without any reason...

I told them clearly that i want no damn open boxes as it never ends up well, tho i ordered multiple things, so maybe someone "forgot" about it, but in the last 15 years dealing with an open box, they had practically always either missing items, or were defective.

In any way, i already lost too much time building this PC, and i clearly have no time to deal with any of this BS since i need it mainly for my work.
Should i straight up return it or try some fixes?

I did the tests using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, the test was for 1 minute... Not even 20 seconds and already 100c is reached, and all 3 bars for throttling are red (Thermal, Power, Current/EDP), what i tried is go to the bios, and limit the max package TDP, whatever it is, normally it was reaching around 270W, so i set it to 180max, it reduced the temps to max 87c and average around 80c, but the max P core frequency was like 4.4GHZ or so...

Screenshot for the test, after i limited the package TDP to 180 max

 

[uWebb429]

@Alberto921

Your air cooler is not sufficient to cool a 14900K when it is running at full power. Even an AIO liquid cooler with a 360mm rad will struggle to cool a 14900K when you are running a full load stress test at max power.

You can either lower the power limits like you are doing or you can get a much better cooler. Even then, you might still have to lower the turbo power limits a little.

This excessive heat and power consumption is the reason why Intel just released a new line of CPUs. The new Arrow Lake line is not nearly as power hungry. Look for an Intel 285K and a different motherboard or consider switching to AMD if you can.

 

[Alberto921]

@Alberto921

Your air cooler is not sufficient to cool a 14900K when it is running at full power. Even an AIO liquid cooler with a 360mm rad will struggle to cool a 14900K when you are running a full load stress test at max power.

You can either lower the power limits like you are doing or you can get a much better cooler. Even then, you might still have to lower the turbo power limits a little.

This excessive heat and power consumption is the reason why Intel just released a new line of CPUs. The new Arrow Lake line is not nearly as power hungry. Look for an Intel 285K and a different motherboard or consider switching to AMD if you can.

Yeah that's exactly what i wanted the i9 285k ultra, but people said i9 14900k was better, ofc they didn't mention these issues..... What to do then, i can't stand loud noises when i am working, and even the top liquid coolers for this to achieve top performance generate noise...

The thing that worries me with this i9 285k is it's lower performance in games, but what's worse it's the memory latency, in this test in memory latency
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-Ultra-9-285K-vs-Intel-Core-i9-14900K/4173vs4151

Any clue how exactly does it affect gaming, cause while i mainly use it for work, i also play FPS shooters, and the lower the lag is, the better, tho i don't think that it affects it that much...

And another thing is the sockets for i9 285k are new, and most likely there will be new generations cpu's coming for it so someone can then just upgrade the cpu, probably more than for the 1700 socket, so considering that i bought the mb which isn't that cheap i am wondering what to do, i still have 11 days to swap it if i want to, and the MB and the socket in these new cpus are a big + for me....

It's winter where i live, my house is rather very cold, it's like 14-18c in there when it's not heated, i can't see how it would work during the hot season when there are 25-35c..

I need some suggestion what to do, the fact that the socket for 285k is more recent, makes me wonder what to do, cause if i downgrade the i9 14900k cause of the temperatures and the noise, to have lower power consumption and clocks it could end up being no better in games then the i9 285k... The overall price of the cpu doesn't matter for me that much, + or - 200-400$ here or there doesn't change much.

 

[jnjnilson6]

Yeah that's exactly what i wanted the i9 285k ultra, but people said i9 14900k was better, ofc they didn't mention these issues..... What to do then, i can't stand loud noises when i am working, and even the top liquid coolers for this to achieve top performance generate noise...

The thing that worries me with this i9 285k is it's lower performance in games, but what's worse it's the memory latency, in this test in memory latency
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-Ultra-9-285K-vs-Intel-Core-i9-14900K/4173vs4151

Any clue how exactly does it affect gaming, cause while i mainly use it for work, i also play FPS shooters, and the lower the lag is, the better, tho i don't think that it affects it that much...

And another thing is the sockets for i9 285k are new, and most likely there will be new generations cpu's coming for it so someone can then just upgrade the cpu, probably more than for the 1700 socket, so considering that i bought the mb which isn't that cheap i am wondering what to do, i still have 11 days to swap it if i want to, and the MB and the socket in these new cpus are a big + for me....

It's winter where i live, my house is rather very cold, it's like 14-18c in there when it's not heated, i can't see how it would work during the hot season when there are 25-35c..

I need some suggestion what to do, the fact that the socket for 285k is more recent, makes me wonder what to do, cause if i downgrade the i9 14900k cause of the temperatures and the noise, to have lower power consumption and clocks it could end up being no better in games then the i9 285k... The overall price of the cpu doesn't matter for me that much, + or - 200-400$ here or there doesn't change much.

I, personally, do not know what to tell you.

Option 1: Downclock the i9-14900K and keep the system that way.
Option 2: Get a Core Ultra 9 285K and a new motherboard and experience better temperatures natively.

You have to decide between those two. Basically, there may be issues with the Ultra 9 285K system; some unforeseen incompatibility. That's why I would not directly throw you into the direction of a new Motherboard and CPU right away. You would have to take a leap of faith, in a way. But in the end if you're lucky the new CPU and Motherboard ought to be the better option. If you feel that keeping the i9-14900K and the current Mobo would suit your needs and are wary of upgrading, then that be it. You have got to decide which step would be the best for you.

 

[Alberto921]

I, personally, do not know what to tell you.

Option 1: Downclock the i9-14900K and keep the system that way.
Option 2: Get a Core Ultra 9 285K and a new motherboard and experience better temperatures natively.

You have to decide between those two. Basically, there may be issues with the Ultra 9 285K system; some unforeseen incompatibility. That's why I would not directly throw you into the direction of a new Motherboard and CPU right away. You would have to take a leap of faith, in a way. But in the end if you're lucky the new CPU and Motherboard ought to be the better option. If you feel that keeping the i9-14900K and the current Mobo would suit your needs and are wary of upgrading, then that be it. You have got to decide which step would be the best for you.

So i decided that i will order a better cooling system, i choose the coolermaster masterliquid 360 atmos cause from the test i found it's the best relative to being quite(hopefully the tests didn't lie, and it's quite hard to find many to compare....), if this still fails then i will get the 9 285k and return the i9 with the MB, cause at that point i can't do anything with it, i put work over gaming and being quite over performance, especially that still the core 9 285k should get good results.

"unforeseen incompatibility" What do you mean specifically?

 

[jnjnilson6]

So i decided that i will order a better cooling system, i choose the coolermaster masterliquid 360 atmos cause from the test i found it's the best relative to being quite(hopefully the tests didn't lie, and it's quite hard to find many to compare....), if this still fails then i will get the 9 285k and return the i9 with the MB, cause at that point i can't do anything with it, i put work over gaming and being quite over performance, especially that still the core 9 285k should get good results.

"unforeseen incompatibility" What do you mean specifically?

Well, back in the day I had a Pentium 4 520J. On the highest-end ASUS motherboard that could be bought it froze every 15-20 mins. and the machine had to be manually restarted. The motherboard provided full compatibility with that CPU. In 2013 I bought twelve cheap Pentium 4 520s from Ebay and installed one of them on a brand new Gigabyte motherboard. Same thing - system freezes after 15-20 minutes. Then I bought a brand new MSI motherboard ... again - the system froze after 15-20 minutes. Finally, I got a brand new ASRock motherboard and the issue was resolved and it ran smooth as butter.

All those motherboards supported the P4 520 and 520J perfectly judging by specification, yet in reality they did not work properly with them. And I have considered BIOS versions and Micro-code too.

There is a slight chance you might run into something synonymous with the Core Ultra 9 285K, however, I am putting my experience up here because it truly happened and it may echo out a little frightfully in any future scenarios.

 

[Alberto921]

Well, back in the day I had a Pentium 4 520J. On the highest-end ASUS motherboard that could be bought it froze every 15-20 mins. and the machine had to be manually restarted. The motherboard provided full compatibility with that CPU. In 2013 I bought twelve cheap Pentium 4 520s from Ebay and installed one of them on a brand new Gigabyte motherboard. Same thing - system freezes after 15-20 minutes. Then I bought a brand new MSI motherboard ... again - the system froze after 15-20 minutes. Finally, I got a brand new ASRock motherboard and the issue was resolved and it ran smooth as butter.

All those motherboards supported the P4 520 and 520J perfectly judging by specification, yet in reality they did not work properly with them. And I have considered BIOS versions and Micro-code too.

There is a slight chance you might run into something synonymous with the Core Ultra 9 285K, however, I am putting my experience up here because it truly happened and it may echo out a little frightfully in any future scenarios.

What about these ryzens 9950x? I hear they handle temperature a bit better, and have similar single core performance to the i9, as well, they can be used for productivity stuff... I rolled with Intel because i had amd for a long period of time, so i wanted some change, but it looks like intel is too problematic these days...... It's too much thinking, too much testing and BS, the 9 285k has negative gains in games, some boost over the ryzen 9950x in some multicore tasks, but some other programs perform better with amd...

Idk for real, i am thinking that i should probably get the ryzen 9950x, it's a bit more universal, has lower temperatures, has better gaming performance, good memory latency, and it's single core performance is very good...

I didn't look it up before, but yea, will see how it goes with the new cooler, if the i9 will still be either hot or loud i will roll once again with amd what u do, there's a lot of thinking and testing someone needs to do... Times when intel was for performance and amd for budget are long gone, it looks like... The price of that ryzen is practically the same as the core 9 285k, so i think i will get that.

 

[geofelt]

First of all, the Intel XTU is designed to stress your processor.
It is not remotely what you will see while gaming. Games will use only a handful of threads.
I suspect first that you may not have mounted the cooler well.
Thermal paste is an insulator, using too much is not good.
There should be only enough to fill in microscopic pits in the mating surfaces to get as close as possible to metal to metal contact. Then, there needs to be good and even pressure to connect the chip to the cooler.
I am not expert on the drp cooler.
But if the cooler is not tightened level, the cooler will not be very efficient.
What is the make/model of your case?
And what is the cooling fan arrangement?
Any cooler(including aio) needs a good source of cooling air.
I use a Noctua NH-D15s cooler which seems to be similar to yours.
A simple, more realistic test is the cpu-Z stress test.
I am conducting one now, as I write this.
Monitor the temperatures with hwmonitor.
I see the P cores sometimes flash 100c. in red, indicating throttling momentarily.
One or two at a time, never more than 3 at a time show 100c.
That is exactly what is supposed to happen.
The single cpu fan is running at 1536 rpm which is the max, and is inaudible in my pc, about 3 feet away.
I could get 2c. better with an added front fan, but why bother.
My point is that you can get very good results on air.
If you are looking for the best air cooler, look for the Noctua NH-D15g
https://noctua.at/en/noctua-release...gship-model-cpu-cooler-and-nf-a14x25r-g2-fans

What to do??
1. re-evaluate your cooler mounting and case airflow.
2. Consider a Noctua NH-D15 cooler of some sort. The mounting method is fool proof.
3. Consider the i9-14900KS if you want to change processors. The KS is a top bin with higher clock capabilities and is easier to manage at less than top performance levels.

I would defer on the latest 285K or the ryzen 9xxx processors, There are always new product issues, primarily because of motherboard and bios issues.