Did Asus EZ Tuning do anything at all?

[steedsofwar]

SKIP TO 'PROBLEM' BELOW for actual issue.

I am over 30 and finally got the courage to try my hand and build my own PC. So it's my first ever build and I'm plagued with lots of uncertainties, even though everything actually functions just fine, on the face of it. I am still learning, reading forums and watching lots of videos.

I'll be posting my separate issues as different threads or would it be better to list them all here? Please advise, admin.

Build:
Corsair 380T case.
i7 4790k.
MSI GTX 980TI.
Asus Z97i plus MOBO.
16GB 1866(?) Kingston Hyper X DDR3.
250GB Crucial SSD.
Corsair RM650 80PLUS Gold.
H100i with noctua f series pushing air out, low voltage cable connected.
Noctua s series 120mm exhaust, low voltage too.
Corsair 120mm x2 quiet editions for intake.
Oh, and an Acer XB270HU 144hz, 1440p G-sync monitor LOL.

Primarily for gaming, a new hobby of mine. I know I'm too old for this yeah yeah, I don't care. I'm studying animation so I'm planning to do lots of rendering and video editing in near future.

PROBLEM:

I don't understand the over clocking science fully, so I read somewhere that Asus EZ tuning is like a set of presets for noobs like me. So I followed the onscreen questions and it says it is targeting a clock speed of 4.5x GHz and core voltage of 1.3x. Is this safe or correct?

However, using hw monitor, cpuZ, asus suite III and windows task manager 'performance' tab, I'm not seeing these figures. Still shows 4ghz and I don't even know what voltage reading to look for as some it says vccin, vid, core voltage etc. CAN SOMEONE TELL ME IF EZ TUNING DID ANYTHING AT ALL?

I loaded prime95 v26.6 and ran small fft for ten minutes for each 'clocking preset' in EZ tuning and found that base preset (no clock) temperatures at idle are 30°c and prime at 70+C. EZ tuning higher preset (gaming mode, water cooled, Asus optimal setting, turbo enabled, speed stepping disabled, epu power saving disabled) I get idle at v high ~44°C and load at the terrifying upper 80s, kissing 90s! No BSODs or anything but I'm not sure if an over clock is applied as all I'm seeing is higher temps.

Playing BF4 for short periods sees CPU temp flattening out in the mid to lower 60s! The 980ti exact same temps too.

IS EZ TUNING HAVING A PLACEBO EFFECT?
WHERE CAN I SEE aCtUaL CLOCK SPEED AND VOLTAGE?
ARE THESE (44-90) TEMPS SAFE/NORMAL?
PLEASE SEE LINK BELOW FOR SCREENIES
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xikuy96wjb159aq/AADMQlpEF8VMMcqcly75GtZFa?dl=0

I appreciate it you guys, been reading and reading these boards for months and now need hands on help.

Cheers.

 

[Tradesman1]

Look in the free app CPU-Z on the CPU page, in the lower left it will show a multiplier setting - it should be at a range of 8-45 with 45 being the OC that is set, it will jump around in the core speed above that depending on load

 

[steedsofwar]

Asus motherboard/software apps are pretty crap generally tho the boards themselves are solid.Read up on manually overclocking your cpu in bios (1.3 volts is a 'maximum',safe max temps long term mid 70's celsius. you should get to 4.5 gig with a little less).
Go for a 45x multiplier and see what temps you get.

Thanks for the quick response. Are the higher temperatures indicative of higher clock cycles and voltages? Can I lower the voltages from 1.3v in bios? How do I know for sure what my active clock cycle is, when in the OS? Since CPUZ and others are not showing 4.5ghz. Sorry about all the questions.

 

[steedsofwar]

Look in the free app CPU-Z on the CPU page, in the lower left it will show a multiplier setting - it should be at a range of 8-45 with 45 being the OC that is set, it will jump around in the core speed above that depending on load

Thanks for that pointer. I can see the following value: x40.0 (8-45)

Does this mean bios EZ Tuning settings applied an OC? Also, can you advise as to how to manipulate these numbers, what figure, higher or lower is better? I'm assuming these numbers increase the speed of the CPU?

 

[Tradesman1]

Yes the CPU is OCed to 4.5, which is fine, it will only go that high when you need it to save on power and keep heat down. If want higher can go into BIOS and try raising the CPU multiplier to 46 (or 4.6)

 

[steedsofwar]

Yes the CPU is OCed to 4.5, which is fine, it will only go that high when you need it to save on power and keep heat down. If want higher can go into BIOS and try raising the CPU multiplier to 46 (or 4.6)

Okay, that's great to know. I don't wanna go higher as the temps at these current settings aren't good right now. Plus, according to Tea Urchin above, it seems a lower voltage is more desirable? In anycase, how were you able to determine that EZ Tuning has clocked it to 4.5?

Darn, I wish I could share screenshots somehow.

 

[Tradesman1]

You can take screen shots and post them to the free image sharing sites then embed themhere or add the link to them - CPU-Z shows what the CPU is set to for high need - on your it goes from .8 at idle up to 4.5 (that's the 45 in CPU-Z it's your CPU multiplier

 

[Karadjgne]

The Asus easy tune not only bumps voltage, but multiplier and BCLK. Multiplier is more likely 43 and BCLK will be 103.5 or better. While this isn't necessarily bad, per se, I'm not a big fan of BCLK being anuthing other than 100.0 even though cpuid can read some funky numbers during validation.

 

[steedsofwar]

You can take screen shots and post them to the free image sharing sites then embed themhere or add the link to them - CPU-Z shows what the CPU is set to for high need - on your it goes from .8 at idle up to 4.5 (that's the 45 in CPU-Z it's your CPU multiplier

I've uploaded them to dropbox here. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xikuy96wjb159aq/AADMQlpEF8VMMcqcly75GtZFa?dl=0

Do you think you can make sense of these? Especially the shot of idle in CPUZ. Clock speed is higher in idle than during Prime95.

Is it downclocking, in order to keep temps down, under load? Therefore, while not being stressed, it can run the highest clock speeds in idle?

 

[steedsofwar]

Asus motherboard/software apps are pretty crap generally tho the boards themselves are solid.Read up on manually overclocking your cpu in bios (1.3 volts is a 'maximum',safe max temps long term mid 70's celsius. you should get to 4.5 gig with a little less).
Go for a 45x multiplier and see what temps you get.

Is there a way to lower the voltage without losing the clock speeds? I want to lower my temps but want to maintain 4.5ghz speed

 

[Karadjgne]

Yep. Easy to do. But with one rule that absolutely must be followed, its the only Absolute rule, the Prime Directive if you must. Baby Steps . You follow that rule for every move in OC, no matter what.

When you look in bios, you'll see 'vcore' with a voltage setting. Yours was at 1.32v I believe. Run cpu-z and p95. On cpu-z you'll see the vcore voltage listed top middle. Take note of it. In bios, go find vcore voltage and drop that from 1.32 to 1.31 and run cpu-z and p95 again. (hope you are using p95 version 26.6 or your cpu temps are gonna be un-naturally wierd). Baby Steps. Continue this pattern until you see very little change in the voltage you set and cpu-z voltages. Then start pushing p95 for extended periods, like an hour.

If you can get 4.5 at 1.25v you are doin good. Of you can get 1.216 or 1.208 you are doin great. If you bluescreen, go into bios and look for 'load line calibration' and take it off 'auto' and set it @50%, run test again. For 4.5 you'll not need beyond @75-87.5%, so medium or high, very high, but not extreme. Test again.

It's very time consuming, very, but what you are searching for is the lowest possible 'stable' voltage. If you keep bluescreening, bump up the voltage, from 1.208 to 1.216 for example.

For a cpu, voltage = temp. The higher the voltage, the higher the temp. No way around it, other than lowering vcore. Do some research, there is plenty of material out there on YouTube etc. The names may series change with different vendors, but the reality is the same.

 

[Reaper_7799]

Like karad says, most of the time any overclocking software from say asus or msi or whoever will typically set auto voltages quite a bit higher than what is actually needed so it's always best to test and then change the voltage in the bios manually. Sometimes it can be .5V-.7V or higher from what you actually need.

Some rare situations, it actually works good. My auto settings with this asus board are way too high voltage but if I get it on adaptive voltage and auto oc, it actually does pretty good and is at 4.6 at 1.23V. For some reason, I can't get offset mode to work with my manual overclock. Might just be this motherboard though, I bought it as a stopgap but I actually ended up liking the board so I've kept it for now.

 

[steedsofwar]

Yep. Easy to do. But with one rule that absolutely must be followed, its the only Absolute rule, the Prime Directive if you must. Baby Steps . You follow that rule for every move in OC, no matter what.

When you look in bios, you'll see 'vcore' with a voltage setting. Yours was at 1.32v I believe. Run cpu-z and p95. On cpu-z you'll see the vcore voltage listed top middle. Take note of it. In bios, go find vcore voltage and drop that from 1.32 to 1.31 and run cpu-z and p95 again. (hope you are using p95 version 26.6 or your cpu temps are gonna be un-naturally wierd). Baby Steps. Continue this pattern until you see very little change in the voltage you set and cpu-z voltages. Then start pushing p95 for extended periods, like an hour.

If you can get 4.5 at 1.25v you are doin good. Of you can get 1.216 or 1.208 you are doin great. If you bluescreen, go into bios and look for 'load line calibration' and take it off 'auto' and set it @50%, run test again. For 4.5 you'll not need beyond @75-87.5%, so medium or high, very high, but not extreme. Test again.

It's very time consuming, very, but what you are searching for is the lowest possible 'stable' voltage. If you keep bluescreening, bump up the voltage, from 1.208 to 1.216 for example.

For a cpu, voltage = temp. The higher the voltage, the higher the temp. No way around it, other than lowering vcore. Do some research, there is plenty of material out there on YouTube etc. The names may series change with different vendors, but the reality is the same.

Thanks Karad for taking the time writing a detailed reply. I know I must do some more reading and research but I can't find anything asus or EZ tuning specific.

For example, you mentioned that I should adjust in baby steps the voltage manually. I went into bios and found the 1.35v value which if I set to manual instead of auto only presents me with two options, a + and a -. Nothing else. So i'm confused.

I also realised that Real Temp was disabling turbo during all my tests. When I enabled turbo in Realtemp, the temps were immediately hitting 100^C! So I turned all OC off and back to stock because it terrified me. I understand that I need to get the voltage way down if I am to keep those temps down. But is there a good way to understand this + and - option in manual voltage setting?

Lastly, can I use the latest IBT instead of P95 as IBT needs only 20 minutes to determine instability as opposed to couple hours with prime?

 

[steedsofwar]

Like karad says, most of the time any overclocking software from say asus or msi or whoever will typically set auto voltages quite a bit higher than what is actually needed so it's always best to test and then change the voltage in the bios manually. Sometimes it can be .5V-.7V or higher from what you actually need.

Some rare situations, it actually works good. My auto settings with this asus board are way too high voltage but if I get it on adaptive voltage and auto oc, it actually does pretty good and is at 4.6 at 1.23V. For some reason, I can't get offset mode to work with my manual overclock. Might just be this motherboard though, I bought it as a stopgap but I actually ended up liking the board so I've kept it for now.

Thank you for your insight. How do I set adaptive settings in Asus UEFI BIOS? Is this the setting that will intelligently downclock the CPU when in idle or less demanding tasks but crank to 4.6 in your example under load? Is there any harm to the life of the parts if it is not in adaptive and constantly cranked at the OCd 4.6?

Lastly, as you are an ASUS board owner, could you advise me as to how I can reduce the voltage manually? In manual, only options available are a + and a -.

 

[Karadjgne]

I have an older p8z77, so my uefi bios is different, but for me, the + or - is not vcore but offset voltage. For me, if I set vcore to 1.2 and load it up, on - it may show as 1.14v, and + it may show as 1.208v.

Generally, for most OC, you'll be able to do exactly nothing to any settings other than multiplier and still reach 4.2-4.3 and this is a good place to start.

So set factory defaults, usually F5, reboot to bios, manually set turbo on, all cores linked, and multiplier to 43. F10, Windows, cpu-wise and real temp, run p95 26.6 small fft and give it 10 minutes to balance. Look at your system, the ram settings in SPD, the vcore voltage, BCLK etc. If temps under turbo settings are good enough, now go back to bios, find those settings many turn off 'auto' and manually set them. What you are doing is locking in settings that work. Google any setting you change. BCLK is your buss clock. It runs just about everything on the front end of your pc. Ram speed, cpu speeds, communication between hdd and cpu, Sata, pretty much everything that has anything to do with data flow. Leave this at 100.00. Easy tune (or any other mobo vendor version) likes to bump this up, 102, 103.5, 105 etc. This has the net affect of making everything faster as flow is faster. This isn't a good thing anymore. It used to be, and still is on AMD boards, but Ivy Bridge + cpus don't like it, it makes the entire sub systems on a mobo work faster, which means hotter, and other than some important heatsinks on VRM's and pcie bridge, there is no cooling. Not good. Leave BCLK at 100.

Write down anything you feel is important. And Google. It's how I learned to OC, and what OC was doing to my parts.

Only after all that do I think you are even close to being ready to tinker with settings in bios beyond what's said. Oh, and turn off EPU and TPU manually on the board.

 

[Reaper_7799]

Like karad says, most of the time any overclocking software from say asus or msi or whoever will typically set auto voltages quite a bit higher than what is actually needed so it's always best to test and then change the voltage in the bios manually. Sometimes it can be .5V-.7V or higher from what you actually need.

Some rare situations, it actually works good. My auto settings with this asus board are way too high voltage but if I get it on adaptive voltage and auto oc, it actually does pretty good and is at 4.6 at 1.23V. For some reason, I can't get offset mode to work with my manual overclock. Might just be this motherboard though, I bought it as a stopgap but I actually ended up liking the board so I've kept it for now.

Thank you for your insight. How do I set adaptive settings in Asus UEFI BIOS? Is this the setting that will intelligently downclock the CPU when in idle or less demanding tasks but crank to 4.6 in your example under load? Is there any harm to the life of the parts if it is not in adaptive and constantly cranked at the OCd 4.6?

Lastly, as you are an ASUS board owner, could you advise me as to how I can reduce the voltage manually? In manual, only options available are a + and a -.

Yeah it changes the voltage and the frequency to whatever you are doing so at idle and for light loads there will be only minimal voltage running, which to me should help to alleviate any additional stress through overclocking. Even if I wasn't overclocking, it just seems much better to have low voltage running at idle or browsing or light tasks than to have a full 1.25V or whatever your voltage would be at all times, even at idle. Especially if you leave your comp on 24/7.

In my bios under ai tweaker, under the voltage part shows cpu vcore I think...it should be the first voltage setting, I'd have to go look real quick to see the exact naming but it is not with + and -, that should be further down the list and that would be used for offset voltage if you can get in that voltage mode.

But if yours only shows manual or auto in that voltage setting, it may sound like the same thing for me not being able to get it to turn offset voltage mode on with a manual overclock.


EDIT: I just went and looked and it's called CPU core voltage and is the 2nd line in the voltage section, underneath the part about extreme over voltage. There should be a tab that allows you to select auto, manual or offset and then when you pick manual it will let you input the voltage there.

 

[steedsofwar]

I have an older p8z77, so my uefi bios is different, but for me, the + or - is not vcore but offset voltage. For me, if I set vcore to 1.2 and load it up, on - it may show as 1.14v, and + it may show as 1.208v.

Generally, for most OC, you'll be able to do exactly nothing to any settings other than multiplier and still reach 4.2-4.3 and this is a good place to start.

So set factory defaults, usually F5, reboot to bios, manually set turbo on, all cores linked, and multiplier to 43. F10, Windows, cpu-wise and real temp, run p95 26.6 small fft and give it 10 minutes to balance. Look at your system, the ram settings in SPD, the vcore voltage, BCLK etc. If temps under turbo settings are good enough, now go back to bios, find those settings many turn off 'auto' and manually set them. What you are doing is locking in settings that work. Google any setting you change. BCLK is your buss clock. It runs just about everything on the front end of your pc. Ram speed, cpu speeds, communication between hdd and cpu, Sata, pretty much everything that has anything to do with data flow. Leave this at 100.00. Easy tune (or any other mobo vendor version) likes to bump this up, 102, 103.5, 105 etc. This has the net affect of making everything faster as flow is faster. This isn't a good thing anymore. It used to be, and still is on AMD boards, but Ivy Bridge + cpus don't like it, it makes the entire sub systems on a mobo work faster, which means hotter, and other than some important heatsinks on VRM's and pcie bridge, there is no cooling. Not good. Leave BCLK at 100.

Write down anything you feel is important. And Google. It's how I learned to OC, and what OC was doing to my parts.

Only after all that do I think you are even close to being ready to tinker with settings in bios beyond what's said. Oh, and turn off EPU and TPU manually on the board.

Okay, some awesome info there. I am actually watching a number of youtube videos now and reading online tutorials too. I have to say, with there being so many variables and the more I read/watch, the more daunting it becomes. I don't wanna bottle it and chicken out. At the same time I don't wanna compromise the integrity of my parts and system. Patience I guess and more knowledge first.

I'm about to follow your instructions and I'm just about familiar with everything you mentioned except turning off tpu. I can disable epu power management in bios too. Let me do all that and report back shortly after a prime95 small fft test.

 

[steedsofwar]

Like karad says, most of the time any overclocking software from say asus or msi or whoever will typically set auto voltages quite a bit higher than what is actually needed so it's always best to test and then change the voltage in the bios manually. Sometimes it can be .5V-.7V or higher from what you actually need.

Some rare situations, it actually works good. My auto settings with this asus board are way too high voltage but if I get it on adaptive voltage and auto oc, it actually does pretty good and is at 4.6 at 1.23V. For some reason, I can't get offset mode to work with my manual overclock. Might just be this motherboard though, I bought it as a stopgap but I actually ended up liking the board so I've kept it for now.

Thank you for your insight. How do I set adaptive settings in Asus UEFI BIOS? Is this the setting that will intelligently downclock the CPU when in idle or less demanding tasks but crank to 4.6 in your example under load? Is there any harm to the life of the parts if it is not in adaptive and constantly cranked at the OCd 4.6?

Lastly, as you are an ASUS board owner, could you advise me as to how I can reduce the voltage manually? In manual, only options available are a + and a -.

Yeah it changes the voltage and the frequency to whatever you are doing so at idle and for light loads there will be only minimal voltage running, which to me should help to alleviate any additional stress through overclocking. Even if I wasn't overclocking, it just seems much better to have low voltage running at idle or browsing or light tasks than to have a full 1.25V or whatever your voltage would be at all times, even at idle. Especially if you leave your comp on 24/7.

In my bios under ai tweaker, under the voltage part shows cpu vcore I think...it should be the first voltage setting, I'd have to go look real quick to see the exact naming but it is not with + and -, that should be further down the list and that would be used for offset voltage if you can get in that voltage mode.

But if yours only shows manual or auto in that voltage setting, it may sound like the same thing for me not being able to get it to turn offset voltage mode on with a manual overclock.


EDIT: I just went and looked and it's called CPU core voltage and is the 2nd line in the voltage section, underneath the part about extreme over voltage. There should be a tab that allows you to select auto, manual or offset and then when you pick manual it will let you input the voltage there.

Okay! This is really beginning to make sense now. I believe I know what it is you're referring to. Let me get under the hood again and report back. Tx

 

[steedsofwar]

Like karad says, most of the time any overclocking software from say asus or msi or whoever will typically set auto voltages quite a bit higher than what is actually needed so it's always best to test and then change the voltage in the bios manually. Sometimes it can be .5V-.7V or higher from what you actually need.

Some rare situations, it actually works good. My auto settings with this asus board are way too high voltage but if I get it on adaptive voltage and auto oc, it actually does pretty good and is at 4.6 at 1.23V. For some reason, I can't get offset mode to work with my manual overclock. Might just be this motherboard though, I bought it as a stopgap but I actually ended up liking the board so I've kept it for now.

Thank you for your insight. How do I set adaptive settings in Asus UEFI BIOS? Is this the setting that will intelligently downclock the CPU when in idle or less demanding tasks but crank to 4.6 in your example under load? Is there any harm to the life of the parts if it is not in adaptive and constantly cranked at the OCd 4.6?

Lastly, as you are an ASUS board owner, could you advise me as to how I can reduce the voltage manually? In manual, only options available are a + and a -.

Yeah it changes the voltage and the frequency to whatever you are doing so at idle and for light loads there will be only minimal voltage running, which to me should help to alleviate any additional stress through overclocking. Even if I wasn't overclocking, it just seems much better to have low voltage running at idle or browsing or light tasks than to have a full 1.25V or whatever your voltage would be at all times, even at idle. Especially if you leave your comp on 24/7.

In my bios under ai tweaker, under the voltage part shows cpu vcore I think...it should be the first voltage setting, I'd have to go look real quick to see the exact naming but it is not with + and -, that should be further down the list and that would be used for offset voltage if you can get in that voltage mode.

But if yours only shows manual or auto in that voltage setting, it may sound like the same thing for me not being able to get it to turn offset voltage mode on with a manual overclock.


EDIT: I just went and looked and it's called CPU core voltage and is the 2nd line in the voltage section, underneath the part about extreme over voltage. There should be a tab that allows you to select auto, manual or offset and then when you pick manual it will let you input the voltage there.

Quick update. I've located the core voltage menu and set it manually to 1.2v. I saw other settings like cache voltage right below it amongst others. i left them untouched so I imagine they will prolly be on auto. See my reply to Karad below for what else I did. Unfortunately, even with these 'lower' volt levels, I still can't run prime95 v26.6 in small fft torture test since it hits the 100Celcius point in the first 20 seconds at which point I cancel the torture test.

 

[steedsofwar]

I have an older p8z77, so my uefi bios is different, but for me, the + or - is not vcore but offset voltage. For me, if I set vcore to 1.2 and load it up, on - it may show as 1.14v, and + it may show as 1.208v.

Generally, for most OC, you'll be able to do exactly nothing to any settings other than multiplier and still reach 4.2-4.3 and this is a good place to start.

So set factory defaults, usually F5, reboot to bios, manually set turbo on, all cores linked, and multiplier to 43. F10, Windows, cpu-wise and real temp, run p95 26.6 small fft and give it 10 minutes to balance. Look at your system, the ram settings in SPD, the vcore voltage, BCLK etc. If temps under turbo settings are good enough, now go back to bios, find those settings many turn off 'auto' and manually set them. What you are doing is locking in settings that work. Google any setting you change. BCLK is your buss clock. It runs just about everything on the front end of your pc. Ram speed, cpu speeds, communication between hdd and cpu, Sata, pretty much everything that has anything to do with data flow. Leave this at 100.00. Easy tune (or any other mobo vendor version) likes to bump this up, 102, 103.5, 105 etc. This has the net affect of making everything faster as flow is faster. This isn't a good thing anymore. It used to be, and still is on AMD boards, but Ivy Bridge + cpus don't like it, it makes the entire sub systems on a mobo work faster, which means hotter, and other than some important heatsinks on VRM's and pcie bridge, there is no cooling. Not good. Leave BCLK at 100.

Write down anything you feel is important. And Google. It's how I learned to OC, and what OC was doing to my parts.

Only after all that do I think you are even close to being ready to tinker with settings in bios beyond what's said. Oh, and turn off EPU and TPU manually on the board.

Thanks for staying with me you guys. I have set all to default using f5. Then set bclck to 100 and initial bclck to 100 too. Loadline Cal to level 1 (the lowest available). core sync enabled. cores manually set to 46 (too much?) Turbo on, speedstep on, epu enabled and c states enabled... and I still hit 100Celsius in prime 95 v26.6 in their torture test small fft mode. In just 20 seconds!

Idles at 39-42Celsius. If I were to disable EPU, c states and speedstep, then I cannot imagine what would happen to the high temps. So i'm gonna set the cores to 45 instead an see what happens. Wish me luck LOL.

 

[Karadjgne]

Disable C-states is fine, but I like speedstep on, it kills the OC and sets it at 1.6GHz for me at idle. Cuts down on a bunch of noise.

 

[Reaper_7799]

Try running a couple other tests too, don't just rely on prime. Use OCCT, large packet test....intel extreme utility also has a stress test ...Intel burn test...aida 64...I use those also as they are similar to real world applications, such as rendering which is about the most cpu intensive thing I do. The temps I hit in occt and intel extreme utility are the max temps I see on a normal basis rendering, around 60-62 degrees...prime and ibt and some aida push it to the absolute max temps that you will never see in real applications, so take that into consideration too.

I hit close to 90 on prime but it doesn't bother me cause I never hit those temps, even rendering for an hour or so.

http://www.ocbase.com/index.php/download

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/search?keyword=extreme+tuning

 

[Reaper_7799]

I just noticed your idle temps though and you are on water with the h100 i too, you shouldn't be hitting 90 degrees, more like 75 or so on prime I would think. My idle temps are 29-30C and in gaming say gta v or crysis 3, most demanding is around 47-50 and rendering at around 60 C. That's with push pull on a hyper 212 evo just for comparison for yours.

After you run some more tests, you might want to check to make sure it's all running properly, the h100I...maybe it's seated incorrectly...if you are still getting high temps like that, I would reseat and reapply the thermal paste for the heatsink and see if that helps.

 

[steedsofwar]

Disable C-states is fine, but I like speedstep on, it kills the OC and sets it at 1.6GHz for me at idle. Cuts down on a bunch of noise.

I have c states on, speedstep on too. Them temps are killing me. Worse than that is now my h100i is randomly and suddenly kaput! I just called Scan, where I'd got mine from and they asked me to send in for an RMA/replacement. Unbelievable... It hasn't even been a month. With no warning at all.

 

[steedsofwar]

I just noticed your idle temps though and you are on water with the h100 i too, you shouldn't be hitting 90 degrees, more like 75 or so on prime I would think. My idle temps are 29-30C and in gaming say gta v or crysis 3, most demanding is around 47-50 and rendering at around 60 C. That's with push pull on a hyper 212 evo just for comparison for yours.

After you run some more tests, you might want to check to make sure it's all running properly, the h100I...maybe it's seated incorrectly...if you are still getting high temps like that, I would reseat and reapply the thermal paste for the heatsink and see if that helps.

Exactly, your temps are what I get on stock, no OC. On stock, Prime maxes out in the 70s. After applying clock to 4.5gz, prime hits 100. My h100i also just randomly died on me. So strange! It appears to still spin the fans, I think I can feel the tubes forcing the liquid through it but the LEDs won't come on and Link can't seem to even find the cooler. It light's up on boot and then starts blinking before it goes dark. Sometimes, it won't load the OS stating 'CPU fan error'. I've checked the SATA power connector, the mini usb connection from block to usb header, 3 pin connector to the fan header on the board. No dice. Tried uninstalling Link software and still no give. I'm feeling quite miserable now, so I'm getting it RMA'd. Most likely receive the new one next week so I won't be trying anything OC related until then.

Does the thread die/get discarded if there's no activity on it for that period of time?