[SOLVED] CPU cooling issues AMD 8350

[Alexprmc]

Hi all,

i have recently upgraded from an AMD FX 4350 to an 8350, old school gear but I don’t have the money nor use it enough to justify a big upgrade. I immediately noticed the new CPU was hitting pretty hot temperatures, 50 degrees at idle and 80 degrees in use, so I bought an Arctic freezer extreme rev 2. Since installation idle temps have been phenomenally lower, 20 degrees, and in use hits around 70. It wasn’t until I closed the Pc case that the temps skyrocketed, even in idle. It hit 90 degrees + in idle over a few seconds and upon removing the side of the case dropped back down.

I’ve had temp issues for a while with my GTX980ti but I put it down to poor airflow through my case. Does anyone have any experience with Artic coolers or any ideas on the rampaging temperatures once the case is closed? Only thing I can put it down to is that the top of the artic makes contact with the side of the case when it is closed, but doesn’t push against the case as to make it hard to close.

 

[Stefan_10]

What kind of case do you have ? It's almost certainly an airflow issue

 

[Alexprmc]

I have one of these CIT vantage cases.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cit...rior-3-led-fans-1xblack-fan-card-reader-no-ps

I have had it modified so that the top mounted psu has the intake facing out of the case with a dust cover on top to try and help with the flow, I had this done a while ago when I first noticed my GPU temps and it helped out quite a bit. Nothing has been over clocked

 

[Phaaze88]

You're reading the temps wrong. You need to use AMD Overdrive for that cpu. Link: https://www.techspot.com/downloads/4645-amd-overdrive.html
The FX-8350 has a Thermal Margin of 61C. When you use Overdrive, the temperature readings are going down from 61C.
A Thermal Margin in the single digits, 0, and even a negative number, is bad.

 

[Alexprmc]

Downloaded and set up. With the case open all at idle, thermal margins are 34C. Second the side panel is put on, alarm bells ring on MSI afterburner and on AMD overdrive, i hit -4C margin before i quickly removed the side of the case.

https://imgur.com/a/37LKanL

View: https://imgur.com/a/37LKanL

 

[Phaaze88]

Yikes...
How do you have your chassis fans set up? I see the chassis only supports 4 fans: A front, 2x side, and a rear.
I believe the front should be intake, the rear as an exhaust, and the side-bottom as an intake - leave the side-top alone.

 

[Alexprmc]

Currently as you mentioned, front intake, rear exhaust, and the side panels are stock set to both intake. Its the panel with the fans on that, when put on the pc, cause rampant temps

 

[Alexprmc]

Ignore the ugly cables but ive not much choice since the PSU is at the top. Theres a small PCI slot exhaust too that i bought to help with GPU temps, that helped out quite a bit a while ago

https://imgur.com/a/uo6s8Ga

View: https://imgur.com/a/uo6s8Ga

 

[Phaaze88]

I think I see what's going on here.
There don't appear to be any gaps in the HDD cage, plus the length of the gpu and the stray cables have all blocked the cpu cooler from front intake air.

You're going to have to flip the psu back. It was acting as a 2nd exhaust for the cpu cooler.

 

[Karadjgne]

Forget the °C notation, that's an intel thing and will only serve to confuse you.

FX cpus don't have thermal sensors in the cores, so it's physically impossible to get an accurate physical temp the way Intels do. So you get wierd readings like idle at 8°C and loads at 18°C.

Instead Overdrive uses a complex algorithm derived from vcore, loads, package temps, system agent, buss frequency, multipliers etc and calculates a number. That number is a representation of thermal headroom, not an exact temp. So if you have a TM of 40, that doesn't mean the cpu is at 20°C and you have 40°C before maxing out at 62. It simply means you have a headroom of 40 at the current load.

You'll hopefully see idles near 40, small loads at 30 ish, working loads around the 20's, heavy gaming loads around the teens. Start getting close to single digits and you have an issue, hit 0 and you are at throttle and if you hit negative numbers you should shutdown before the pc does.

Ok. First, no excuses, get that wiring tamed, it's not doing you any favors at all.
Second, I'd get rid of that pcie fan on the bottom, the gpu draws air from below and all that fan is doing is stealing air from the gpu and shoving it outside. You need air from the front to travel to the gpu, not air stolen from it.

Third, the psu is fine, the downwards facing fan is the intake, so is just creating more suction in that top corner for the exhaust to work. Having it fan up isn't helping you at all.

Can't tell from the picture but which way is the cpu cooler fan facing? It should look identical to the rear exhaust fan. That way air is all traveling in the same direction.

Clean up the intake area. That's the place you should be pulling air into the case. From the dust, all I see is a single fan down low and most of that air is blocked by wiring and stuff. Move the drive higher and get a second fan, even ziptie 2 more fans to the back of the drive cage if it helps.

Your airflow is a disaster, it's no wonder you start cooking with the case side on. You should be looking at TM only a few numbers lower than with the case side off.

I'd start from scratch, pull everything out and redo the spaghetti on the backside of that psu, it looks modular so unplug any unnecessary cables and remove them. And get some air moving into the case, unrestricted. That's a priority.

 

[Alexprmc]

Cheers for the help guys. I’ll flip the PSU and close opening at the top of the case that was used for a vent for the psu. The cpu fan inside the arctic exhausts to the back of the case, same direction as the rear fan so I know that’ll be fine. The HDD cage is frustrating to work around but I’ll take everything out and try to tidy up, would you suggest just cable tying the wires? No where to slot them down the back of the case since it’s quite a small one. Difficulty with fans is I’m not sure how to connect the 3/4 pin pwm fans as all of mine run off 4 pin molex

 

[Karadjgne]

Connect molex if that's how the case fans connections are wired, all 3 or 4 pin will go to the motherboard.

 

[Alexprmc]

Connect molex if that's how the case fans connections are wired, all 3 or 4 pin will go to the motherboard.

I’ll have a play tomorrow after work and see what I can do. I have a molex to 3 pin extension to keep it simple for me to connect a new 120mm fan I’ll be putting in to replace the disc drive once I take that out, as well as a couple fan upgrades for the side case fans. I’ve spent the past few hours cleaning up all the dust, still the issue of cable management as I have nowhere to hide the cables down the sides of the case but I should be able to do something with them

 

[Karadjgne]

For the side case fan, if it's near/next to the gpu, I'd make it exhaust. That'll pull much of the gpu heat away from the gpu/cpu, and help suction some of that front intake air in that direction.

 

[Alexprmc]

The side fans are exactly over the CPU, millimetre square to it. Do you think I still exhaust? I’m probably going to be adding two more intakes to the front

 

[madmatt30]

You would honestly be better replacing that case than spending extra money on fans etc.
You're never ever going to get decent airflow in there imo.

 

[Alexprmc]

What would you suggest for around £80?

 

[madmatt30]

You don't need to spend anywhere near £80 in all honesty if you have fans you can use from your current case, do you need an optical bay??

Unless you're after something special that will last you through future upgrades / rebuilds?

 

[Alexprmc]

Just cancelled my fan orders and I’ve decided on a better case as madmatt suggested. Any recommendations on a good stock case? Will I have any issues fitting motherboard etc or are they all typical sizes?

 

[Alexprmc]

I don’t think I’ll be upgrading my system for a while. Optical bay sorry? All I have in it besides fans cpu gpu and the board is a HD and an SSD, I don’t need a disc tray so that will be getting binned

 

[Alexprmc]

Picked up a sahara P35, and a couple extra fans. I intent to throw them on the top as exhausts, is that correct? The PSU, will that be facing down, taking in air from the outside of the case?

 

[Deleted member 2720853]

Picked up a sahara P35, and a couple extra fans. I intent to throw them on the top as exhausts, is that correct? The PSU, will that be facing down, taking in air from the outside of the case?

Yes, the PSU will take air from under the case and expelling it through the rear. Have some front intake fans, and at least one rear exhaust. I would go for a top exhaust only above the CPU, so that the cool air that the intakes bring into the case isnt immediately taken outside by the extra top exhaust before it's even able to reach the CPU cooler.

 

[madmatt30]

I agree, ypu only really wanted one extra fan, giving you 3 intakes (prefitted), 1 rear exhaust (prefitted), one top rear exhaust (placed yourself).

Ample airflow, the Sahara is a decent case, make sure to route as many cables as possible behind the backplate rather than across the front of the board.