dual Xeon E5-2670 63C idle temp!

[crackejack]

Hi

I just built a 16 core rig with of two Xeon CPUs, e5-3670 running at 2.6GHZ.

I followed this guide
http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/

but I'm using a 750 watt PSU and a pair of cheap Article cooler Alpine 20
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Arctic-Cooling-Alpine-20-Plus-Intel-Socket-LGA-2011-CPU-Cooler-Heatsink/47313215?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=250&adid=22222222228039166074&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=85444158530&wl4=pla-193473997250&wl5=9051910&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=111838790&wl11=online&wl12=47313215&wl13=&veh=sem


My question:
the H/W monitor of my board reports the CPU temperature between 59 to 63 degrees Celsius, I think that's waaaaay higher than it should be.

do you think I have a bad mobo? bad CPU's?

 

[01111111]

Yeah, too high at idle for sure. How was the thermal paste on the coolers, which don't even have a copper core?

 

[crackejack]

no copper core, I tried with both stock thermal paste (from the cooler) and some paste I got from amazon, same results. I'm afraid to install windows... I feel the thing is going to catch on fire duron the OS install

 

[bambiboom]

UPDATE:

crackejack,

Since writing, I reinstalled the E5-1620 in the z620 and the temperatures were somewhat better, but still alarming.

I had a bit of luck though due to a mistake I made when installing the E5-1620.

As I was using up the thermal paste quickly on experiments, I put what I thought was the minimum amount installing the E5-1620. It was not enough and there was one corner of the CPU and corresponding corner on the heatsink that did not have any paste on it. That meant one or more of three things: 1. I didn't use enough paste , 2. I didn't tighten the heatsink down evenly, and 3, The system being dropped in shipping means that the heavy heatsink slightly warped the CPU socket -shipping damage. Looking carefully, I could not see any distortion.

I reapplied thermal paste to both the CPU and heatsink, this time carefully creating a thin layer that was even over and covered both surfaces. I made an X-shap of it and spread it using a folded over old business card I reassembled and checked HWmonitor which showed idling at 40-42C.

I changed the Power Option back to Performance as that will be the permanent setting.

Next, I ran the Intel Processor Diagnostic test which runs the CPU under progressive stress. It will shut down if the temperature exceeds the maximum. The test in progress showed first 40 degrees below maximum, then crept up until at the last it read 23 degrees below maximum. I tend to trust Intel's specification for their own products more than my idea of what is acceptable.

As a further confirmation, I ran Passmark Performance Test again and the peak temperature was 64C. Starting HWMonitor several minutes later, it showed the cores had settled back to about 56-60C. Three hours later idling the temperatures are about 58C.

My conclusions:

1. These large die LGA2011 CPU's need a lot more attention to the quantity and quality of thermal paste application than for example the LGA1366 that I last changed.

2. Eight-core processors run hotter than the four and six-core even for the same power rating. One thing to remember is that all LGA2011 E5 had 8-cores and were then binned- tested and selected to run a certain number of cores at certain speeds. This means that the thermal dissipation is different: if only 4-cores are active, the 4-core heat is dissipated over the same area as the 8-core heat of an E5-2670 or 2690 and those will run hotter.

3. These CPU's are designed to run very near the specification maximum : RE: passing the Intel stress test = Expected MAX Temperature more than 1 Degree below maximum" .

4. It's always positive to worry about CPU temperatures anyway!

How are you getting on with your system?


Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[bambiboom]

UPDATE to UPDATE:

crackejack,

Important news as the situation has changed substantially.

Windows 7 Update:

As I have a 2013 HP z420 with a system recovery partition, I installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit from that drive to the 2009 Seagate Barracuda 750GB that arrived with the z620. I knew this version of Windows would have the basic drivers and setup to run the z620 until it was updated.

Last evening, had it's first round of Windows updates- this was a long slog of I think 216 updates- more than 90 minutes to download. This morning, starting the system, the configuration of the updates took at least 20 minutes, restarting four times.

There was something magic in those updates. Looking at the HWMonitor at the moment, it is showing the E5-2690 idling at 35-36C and it indicates the peak was 39C.

The last Passmark Test of the system:

HP z620 (Rev 1) Xeon E5-2690 8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 8GB (4X 2GB DDR3-1333) / AMD Firepro V5900 (2GB) / Seagate barracuda 750GB + Samsung 500Gb + WD 500GB
[ Passmark System Rating= 2249 / CPU= 14096 / 2D= 786 / 3D = 1673 / Mem =2235 / Disk = 520 ] 7.16.16

And the results today:

[ Passmark System Rating= 2185 / CPU= 14729 / 2D= 724 / 3D = 1663 / Mem =2413 / Disk = 495 ] 7.16.16

After the test, I checked HWmonitor again and the peak temperature during the test was 44C.

Besides the temperature readings change, the CPU result in Passmark was about 5% improved, going from below the the average of 14400 to above average. I'm not concerned with the drop in the other ratings as this is common in Passmark, especially with the disk score. The disk score is apparently heavily weighted in the composite system rating and the dog's dinner of drives that arrived in this system- from 2008, 2008, and 2010 really are a drag on the performance and the system rating.

Given that the Intel Processor Diagnostic was reporting temperatures well in the same range, and I didn't make any further changes, I can only think that one of the updates is a feature that changed the algorithm that converts the sensor readings to temperatures. I'm also not sure why the CPU performance improved- but thanks MS.

It's your call but you might consider: first reinstalling the E5-2670 using a good thermal paste- and I've had good luck with Arctic Silver over the years- ensuring an even quite thin coat on both the CPU and heatsink. If you're confident, then install Windows though the first big update.

What a relief.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[crackejack]

Thanks a lot, I installed win 7 pro SP1 with the latest chipset drivers and now my idle temp is around 45C.

UPDATE to UPDATE:

crackejack,

Important news as the situation has changed substantially.

Windows 7 Update:

As I have a 2013 HP z420 with a system recovery partition, I installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit from that drive to the 2009 Seagate Barracuda 750GB that arrived with the z620. I knew this version of Windows would have the basic drivers and setup to run the z620 until it was updated.

Last evening, had it's first round of Windows updates- this was a long slog of I think 216 updates- more than 90 minutes to download. This morning, starting the system, the configuration of the updates took at least 20 minutes, restarting four times.

There was something magic in those updates. Looking at the HWMonitor at the moment, it is showing the E5-2690 idling at 35-36C and it indicates the peak was 39C.

The last Passmark Test of the system:

HP z620 (Rev 1) Xeon E5-2690 8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 8GB (4X 2GB DDR3-1333) / AMD Firepro V5900 (2GB) / Seagate barracuda 750GB + Samsung 500Gb + WD 500GB
[ Passmark System Rating= 2249 / CPU= 14096 / 2D= 786 / 3D = 1673 / Mem =2235 / Disk = 520 ] 7.16.16

And the results today:

[ Passmark System Rating= 2185 / CPU= 14729 / 2D= 724 / 3D = 1663 / Mem =2413 / Disk = 495 ] 7.16.16

After the test, I checked HWmonitor again and the peak temperature during the test was 44C.

Besides the temperature readings change, the CPU result in Passmark was about 5% improved, going from below the the average of 14400 to above average. I'm not concerned with the drop in the other ratings as this is common in Passmark, especially with the disk score. The disk score is apparently heavily weighted in the composite system rating and the dog's dinner of drives that arrived in this system- from 2008, 2008, and 2010 really are a drag on the performance and the system rating.

Given that the Intel Processor Diagnostic was reporting temperatures well in the same range, and I didn't make any further changes, I can only think that one of the updates is a feature that changed the algorithm that converts the sensor readings to temperatures. I'm also not sure why the CPU performance improved- but thanks MS.

It's your call but you might consider: first reinstalling the E5-2670 using a good thermal paste- and I've had good luck with Arctic Silver over the years- ensuring an even quite thin coat on both the CPU and heatsink. If you're confident, then install Windows though the first big update.

What a relief.

Cheers,

BambiBoom