CPU overheating i7 6700k

[Cesar Omar]

Hello guys , im getting high temperatures on my cpu when watching videos on flash , i get like 60 degree , and when i play games it goes to 80 !!! i have like 2 weeks with this problem , im using water cooler NZTX Kraken .... i don't know what could it be the problem but when i see cpu usage it displays 30% only and then the temp goes up . my motherboard is ASUS maximus hero viii alpha and to be honest i don't know what is the normal voltage and stuff , and the water cooler it's making noises like bubbles but not always , sometimes the bubble noise its gone

if anyone here can help !! thanks for your time

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you are hearing bubbles then there is an airlock in the cooler. You should stop using the system, your temps are far too high for normal use, contact NZXT and arrange an RMA. There should not be air in the system and if you are hearing gurgling then there IS air in the system. Begin the RMA process OR get another cooler. Personally, this is ONE of the reasons I do not use liquid coolers. Pump and air issues are too common PLUS it violates the first rule of electronics that recommends NOT allowing water near electronics.

Of course, plenty of people DO use water coolers without any issues, but I probably see twenty people a week here with similar issues and about once every couple of months somebody has a leak that completely kills off half their hardware. So, RMA the cooler or get an air cooler.

I have the same CPU as you and I use a Noctua NH-U14S which keeps my 4.6Ghz overclock below 68°C during the highest of stress tests under steady state loads running Prime95 version 26.6 with no problem. I could even keep those temps lower than that if I used an aggressive cooling profile. Mostly, my system is silent and even under full load it is barely noticeable at all.

If your radiator is currently top mounted, and your case supports front mounting, this will sometimes alleviate air locks but it's still just a band aid as there should not be any air in there or at least not enough to be a factor and cause noise, in any case.

 

[Cesar Omar]

thank you so much for your answer i will do that

 

[Darkbreeze]

Good luck Cesar.

 

[Karadjgne]

If your radiator is front mount and the hoses up top, tilt the pc backwards so that the pump is lower horizontally than the hoses. Air wants to rise so will travel up the hoses to the top of the radiator.
I had to do this with my kraken when I moved from top mount to front mount.

If the rad is top mount, tilt the pc in the direction opposite the hose connections, making them topmost point, so that all the air ends up in the reservoir, not in the piping inside the radiator. Do this with the pc off.

There is air in the radiator, it's essential to the operation as air is compressible and liquids are not, so variations in pressures due to heat, physical location (sea level or mountain top) do not blow out the connections or affect the pump adversely.

You just want to hold the pc at the tilt until the bubbling has stopped for a while. It can possibly return until all the air in the pump, hoses, piping has had chance to travel to the reservoir.

It's extremely common phenomenon, happens constantly due to angles in shipping and mounting, but unless there's an extreme amount of air, it's easily fixable and won't require rma.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Funny thing, I asked a couple of very specific people who test AIO coolers for us and was told that it was NOT normal, ever, for there to be enough air inside the system to cause gurgling or sputtering inside the system unless there was too much air left inside. Funny thing is, I work with all kinds of industrial and automotive cooling systems all the time, and there is NEVER a provision for wanting to leave air space inside the system.

In fact, they are designed to explicitly shed any air in the system by way of the pressure release/vacuum draw cap OR fill reservoirs that allow filling to the overflow point in order to completely evacuate air from the system and those systems experience WAY more heat and thermal expansion than a CPU cooler ever could or will. You might be right bud, but all the evidence from my experience and also that of the water cooled guys I ask about these things, points the other way.

It might be common, and I do see it fairly frequently here, but I don't believe it common by INTENT. Rather it's common by poor quality control I think.

 

[Karadjgne]

Under normal operation you are entirely correct, there should never be liquid levels low enough that air is allowed to be picked up and circulated through the pump. That was a common failing of older designs and higher dissipation of 0² molecules through the rubber hoses. Newer hoses are made differently to combat just that. But being a liquid, it's impossible to prevent all air from accumulating over time, the very chemical makeup means it's going to happen over time, even in a vehicle you have to check coolant levels periodically as the liquid breaks down under heat/pressure resulting in gas formation.

As to gurgling, that's going to happen no matter how much air is inside the system, even if it's 99% liquid, during shipping, installs, manhandling, or even removal from packaging. Tilt the radiator below the level of the pump and the air seeks the highest point, the pump itself or the hose adjacent. And any shaking of the box like during transportation creates tiny bubbles in the liquid which cling to pipes, hoses, microfilament etc. It's not until the pump has run for a while and acclimated to its position for any length of time that all that resultant gas is evacuated to the reservoir.

When I moved my rad from top mount to front mount, I allowed the rad to sit below pump level, the gas moved from the rad, up the hose, and into the pump. Got plenty of gurgle. Tilted the pc to lower the pump below reservoir level and the gurgle went away. I have to do that basically every time I lay the pc down during a good cleaning. It's something I just accept as a drawback of AIO's, no big deal.

Whether by intent or poor quality control really doesn't matter, there is air inside a aio rad, it's just a fact of life. Some designs will filler caps like the Swiftec and Fractals can alleviate most of that, but you can't ever get all the gas out.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I think you just made that all up. Sounds made up to me.

Nah, just pulling your leg.

I will say I think you have some of that backwards though. To my experience you certainly don't want the air going to the pump, that's how vapor locks/air blocks occur. Since water can typically flow through a radiator below the full level, leaving the air at the top of the radiator would seem to be what you want since that's the only place where it can exist without causing the pump to lose prime. That means you would want the radiator to be ABOVE the CPU, not below it, so that air can gravitate to the top of the radiator chamber and not affect the prime of the pump. So long as there is mostly liquid in and around the pump, it will pump. If you have any significant amount of air inside the pump, that's when it would lose prime.


Of course, I suppose it also depends on the design of the cooler and where the pump is situated too. Clearly they are not all the same and not all of them have the pump located at the cold plate/cpu area.

 

[Karadjgne]

Oh no, I didn't mean to imply I did it purposely, it was just in the act of moving the rad that the air traveled. It's an FD define R5 case and I was mounting to front to try theories on sound and temps with the rad in pull - front with 2x fans top exhaust vrs 2x fans intake and rad as pull exhaust. Just pulling the rad off the top and moving it without bungling up the hoses caused the drop below the pump.

And just for info, the cpu at idle went from 33 to 27, at load there was no difference, case temps went from 29 to 32 idle, loads went up 2 on average so no big deal to either mount. Sound was an issue as the nzxt fans at 600-900rpm (silent mode) are actually quieter than the FD stock fans at 600-900 rpm so with the FD fans on top now, they are more audible than with the rad uptop. After all that, kinda makes me wanna slap ppl who insist that you need an aircooler because aios are so noisy. Corsair are, that's a given with their choice of fans and rpm, but with a 6° cpu difference at load, I'll keep the rpm down no worries.

@op,
If tilting the pc for a few minutes doesn't fix the issue, do as darkbreeze suggested because there is an issue with coolant levels.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ah, I see what you mean now.