Games run fine.. then lag

[Robert0211]

Intel S500PSL
2x Intel Xeon X5450 3.0 GHZ 8-core total
24 GB FB-DIMM DDR2
2x 1 TB HDD
EVGA GTX 1050ti SC
Win 10 pro

SO, every game requiring 4+ core to run, work fine for like... 15-20 min, but then start lagging, sound glitch, visual lag, every 5 sec or so, why? Rocket League and Elite Dangerous do that, while World of Tanks HD client doesnt? (wot is a 2 core only}
I havnt ruled out overheating, which shoulsnt happen, but oh well, cpu temp max at 65-68 and gpu temp never above 50, all temps in Celsius

 

[panathas]

As a side note windows 10 supports systems with only 2 physical CPU but not 4. The thing is I don't know if your system is considered to be a 2 CPU or a 4 CPU one. You have 2 physical CPUs but each one is 2 2-core CPU dies glued together. If windows sees only one of your CPUs then that's where the problem really is and you should get a server OS.

 

[Robert0211]

As a side note windows 10 supports systems with only 2 physical CPU but not 4. The thing is I don't know if your system is considered to be a 2 CPU or a 4 CPU one. You have 2 physical CPUs but each one is 2 2-core CPU dies glued together. If windows sees only one of your CPUs then that's where the problem really is and you should get a server OS.

I have win 10 pro and it sees 8 cores.. Also I don't think a server is supports gaming...

 

[panathas]

Your CPUs don't support hyperthreading so the number of cores and the number of threads, is the same. So in your case you have 2 quad core CPU which means you should see 8 cores and 8 threads. If you only see 4 cores then something is going on with one of your 2 CPUs

I do see 8 cores. Anyways looking at temps now, its hitting lower by 1-5 C but still laggs.... It doesn't downclock though... I honestly have no idea at this point

Run prime 95 for 1 hour and check how your system behaves in a stress situation.

 

[Robert0211]

Your CPUs don't support hyperthreading so the number of cores and the number of threads, is the same. So in your case you have 2 quad core CPU which means you should see 8 cores and 8 threads. If you only see 4 cores then something is going on with one of your 2 CPUs

I do see 8 cores. Anyways looking at temps now, its hitting lower by 1-5 C but still laggs.... It doesn't downclock though... I honestly have no idea at this point

Run prime 95 for 1 hour and check how your system behaves in a stress situation.

I will tomorrow

 

[Robert0211]

Your CPUs don't support hyperthreading so the number of cores and the number of threads, is the same. So in your case you have 2 quad core CPU which means you should see 8 cores and 8 threads. If you only see 4 cores then something is going on with one of your 2 CPUs

I do see 8 cores. Anyways looking at temps now, its hitting lower by 1-5 C but still laggs.... It doesn't downclock though... I honestly have no idea at this point

Run prime 95 for 1 hour and check how your system behaves in a stress situation.

Ran Prime95 for 30min here are the max temps (cpu1) 74 69 73 73 (cpu2) 76 75 76 74

Max clock was 3017MHZ min clock was 30MHZ ram temps, high 90's (FB-DIMM)

I will run it again on a close system loop and see what the diffrence there is.

 

[panathas]

With those temps I wouldn't recommend running it again. It may damage your hardware. It's clear that you current cooling system isn't capable of dealing with the heat that your 2 CPUs produce. Also the RAM temps are pretty high.

How many fans does your case have? Try installing more fans. Especially if you are able to install a fan above the motherboard.

 

[Robert0211]

With those temps I wouldn't recommend running it again. It may damage your hardware. It's clear that you current cooling system isn't capable of dealing with the heat that your 2 CPUs produce. Also the RAM temps are pretty high.

How many fans does your case have? Try installing more fans. Especially if you are able to install a fan above the motherboard.

I have the maximum number of fans I have the cooler master masterbox 5, and have 3 intake in the front and 1 exaust in the back, FB-DIMM run at high temps normally from what ive heard, 90-105 C is normal running temps for FB-DIMM... I dont see how cooling isnt good, I have the stock recommended coolers for the CPU and watercooling is too expensive and complex for a dual CPU system

 

[panathas]

You seem to have enough fans, your CPU coolers are working, you re-applied thermal paste but it still overheats. On top of that you have no control over the CPU clock and voltage. I don't think I have any other suggestions at this point. I'm pretty sure we covered almost everything. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you solve your overheating issues. Good luck.

EDIT: After reading again your last post. I realised that you are using a normal consumer PC case for a server board. If you can, please post a picture of your board inside the case. The pic must show your board, the location of your CPUs and RAM, the intake and exhaust fans. Usually server boards have specific cooling requirements and want a good amount of airflow at certain components. That's why some server boards overheat quite easily if you operate them outside of a PC case. On top of that your system is quite old and not efficient so it's easy to loose thermal control. Your PC case is the only part that we haven't already covered and I think it's worth a look.

 

[Robert0211]

You seem to have enough fans, your CPU coolers are working, you re-applied thermal paste but it still overheats. On top of that you have no control over the CPU clock and voltage. I don't think I have any other suggestions at this point. I'm pretty sure we covered almost everything. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you solve your overheating issues. Good luck.

EDIT: After reading again your last post. I realised that you are using a normal consumer PC case for a server board. If you can, please post a picture of your board inside the case. The pic must show your board, the location of your CPUs and RAM, the intake and exhaust fans. Usually server boards have specific cooling requirements and want a good amount of airflow at certain components. That's why some server boards overheat quite easily if you operate them outside of a PC case. On top of that your system is quite old and not efficient so it's easy to loose thermal control. Your PC case is the only part that we haven't already covered and I think it's worth a look.

http://imgur.com/a/po2uc
*edit* the 2 sets of 2 random dots in the middle of the motherboard are heatsinks

 

[panathas]

Your case seems fine and you have done a good job. It would help if you were able to mount a fan on top of the case that would suck some air above the RAM or on the side panel, that would blow some air to the CPUs and RAM. But since your case doesn't allow you to do one of the above, you could do one last thing as a test. Disable the top intake fan that is next to the CPUs. That fan is creating a big amount of airflow above the CPUs but you aren't using tower CPU coolers. Since they are down-draft coolers, that fan may disrupt the amount of air that they can use, thus limiting their cooling ability. Disable that fan and close the case. Now monitor the temps. Maybe that little trick helps. I can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck.

EDIT: Also the high RAM temp is caused by your 2 CPUs which sit side by side and it's too difficult to get rid of the heat they produce. In fact each CPU cooler blows heat to the other cooler thus increasing the overall temp inside your case and creating a hot-spot above the CPUs. That top fan may help get rid of that host-spot so it may be a dead-end. I don't know what would happen, after disabling it. It may help but on the other hand it may make things worse.

 

[Robert0211]

Your case seems fine and you have done a good job. It would help if you were able to mount a fan on top of the case that would suck some air above the RAM or on the side panel, that would blow some air to the CPUs and RAM. But since your case doesn't allow you to do one of the above, you could do one last thing as a test. Disable the top intake fan that is next to the CPUs. That fan is creating a big amount of airflow above the CPUs but you aren't using tower CPU coolers. Since they are down-draft coolers, that fan may disrupt the amount of air that they can use, thus limiting their cooling ability. Disable that fan and close the case. Now monitor the temps. Maybe that little trick helps. I can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck.

EDIT: Also the high RAM temp is caused by your 2 CPUs which sit side by side and it's too difficult to get rid of the heat they produce. In fact each CPU cooler blows heat to the other cooler thus increasing the overall temp inside your case and creating a hot-spot above the CPUs. That top fan may help get rid of that host-spot so it may be a dead-end. I don't know what would happen, after disabling it. It may help but on the other hand it may make things worse.

I ran the stess test again on the close loop, the temps were a lot lower but it throttled at about 65 C, I could reverse the top intake fan and make it an outtake? would that help at all?

 

[panathas]

You could try reversing the total airflow inside your case it and see what happens but you have to make all your front fans exhaust air. Not just one of the 3 because it will create an airflow loop with the two bottom fans and the cold air will immediately get sucked out by the top fan thus increasing the total temp inside your closed case. If you proceed with this experiment don't forget to also reverse the back fan as well and make it an intake fan, because if all the fans exhaust air, it will make the situation even worse. You need at least one intake fan.

You could also do something else instead of reversing all your fans. Disable the bottom 2 front fans and reverse the top front one and the back one. So that the back fan sucks cold air in and the top front fan exhausts it. Monitor your temps maybe it helps. If it works maybe you could reverse one other front fan and make it exhaust air as well but i think it's too much too make all 3 of them push air outside of case.

 

[Robert0211]

You could try reversing the total airflow inside your case it and see what happens but you have to make all your front fans exhaust air. Not just one of the 3 because it will create an airflow loop with the two bottom fans and the cold air will immediately get sucked out by the top fan thus increasing the total temp inside your closed case. If you proceed with this experiment don't forget to also reverse the back fan as well and make it an intake fan, because if all the fans exhaust air, it will make the situation even worse. You need at least one intake fan.

You could also do something else instead of reversing all your fans. Disable the bottom 2 front fans and reverse the top front one and the back one. So that the back fan sucks cold air in and the top front fan exhausts it. Monitor your temps maybe it helps. If it works maybe you could reverse one other front fan and make it exhaust air as well but i think it's too much too make all 3 of them push air outside of case.

I will try to reverse the top front and back as well as disable the bottom 2 front, ill post resluts

 

[Robert0211]

You could try reversing the total airflow inside your case it and see what happens but you have to make all your front fans exhaust air. Not just one of the 3 because it will create an airflow loop with the two bottom fans and the cold air will immediately get sucked out by the top fan thus increasing the total temp inside your closed case. If you proceed with this experiment don't forget to also reverse the back fan as well and make it an intake fan, because if all the fans exhaust air, it will make the situation even worse. You need at least one intake fan.

You could also do something else instead of reversing all your fans. Disable the bottom 2 front fans and reverse the top front one and the back one. So that the back fan sucks cold air in and the top front fan exhausts it. Monitor your temps maybe it helps. If it works maybe you could reverse one other front fan and make it exhaust air as well but i think it's too much too make all 3 of them push air outside of case.

I disabled front bottom 2 and reversed top front and back and it made it worse, it didnt throttle but temps were mid 70's

I I reversed all fans from original wouldnt it create a negative airflow?

 

[panathas]

In your default config you had positive airflow which mean't less dust inside your case. If you reverse all the front fans you'll have negative airflow and since you don't have an air-filter in the back fan, your case will collect a lot of dust. I think you should stop stress testing your system and start testing it in more realistic scenarios like gaming because your current cooling solution isn't able to deal with the stress testing heat. Also you have to decide what you want. Do you want lower overall temps or prevent the CPUs from throttling? It's clear that you can't have both.

Based on your results I'd say that the first test with the top front fan disabled produced better results and you should return in that config and then start gaming again and monitoring the temps. But before doing that and as a last and final test you could return the back fan in it's default orientation (exhaust), keep the top fan as an exhaust and enable only the front bottom fan as an intake. You should stress your system for the last time in order to have measurable results with the previous configurations. This is a strange config and you should stop the stress test immediately if you watch the temps getting out of control.

One last observation. If you somehow were able to change your 2 down-draft CPU coolers into 2 tower CPU coolers (which will blow air to the back of the case), leaving the case fans in their default configuration, I think that you'll see the optimal temperatures that your entire cooling system (case fans and CPU coolers) can give you and it certainly won't throttle the CPUs. That said I don't know if it's worth the investment or if you'll able to find 2 such compatible tower coolers. Good luck.

 

[Robert0211]

In your default config you had positive airflow which mean't less dust inside your case. If you reverse all the front fans you'll have negative airflow and since you don't have an air-filter in the back fan, your case will collect a lot of dust. I think you should stop stress testing your system and start testing it in more realistic scenarios like gaming because your current cooling solution isn't able to deal with the stress testing heat. Also you have to decide what you want. Do you want lower overall temps or prevent the CPUs from throttling? It's clear that you can't have both.

Based on your results I'd say that the first test with the top front fan disabled produced better results and you should return in that config and then start gaming again and monitoring the temps. But before doing that and as a last and final test you could return the back fan in it's default orientation (exhaust), keep the top fan as an exhaust and enable only the front bottom fan as an intake. You should stress your system for the last time in order to have measurable results with the previous configurations. This is a strange config and you should stop the stress test immediately if you watch the temps getting out of control.

One last observation. If you somehow were able to change your 2 down-draft CPU coolers into 2 tower CPU coolers (which will blow air to the back of the case), leaving the case fans in their default configuration, I think that you'll see the optimal temperatures that your entire cooling system (case fans and CPU coolers) can give you and it certainly won't throttle the CPUs. That said I don't know if it's worth the investment or if you'll able to find 2 such compatible tower coolers. Good luck.

Would water cooling help at all? And since ram heats up a lot leave fans in current config and put radiator outside the case?

 

[panathas]

It would certainly help. You don't have to put the radiator outside of the case. You should put it in the frond of the case in the place of the bottom 2 fans and leave the top front fan in its place as an intake. The main problem with your system, is the two CPUs sitting side by side creating two adjacent heat spots and their down-draft coolers. The result is that if one CPU overheats it causes the other to also overheat. If you only had one CPU you wouldn't have such overheating issues. That's why playing with the affinity stopped the throttling. It's like running the stress test on only one CPU.

On the other hand why spend so much money for such an old system. Does it worth it? I think that two small tower CPU coolers should be cheaper. Getting a water cooler for 2 HOT and power hungry CPUs should be very expensive.

 

[Robert0211]

It would certainly help. You don't have to put the radiator outside of the case. You should put it in the frond of the case in the place of the bottom 2 fans and leave the top front fan in its place as an intake. The main problem with your system, is the two CPUs sitting side by side creating two adjacent heat spots and their down-draft coolers. The result is that if one CPU overheats it causes the other to also overheat. If you only had one CPU you wouldn't have such overheating issues. That's why playing with the affinity stopped the throttling. It's like running the stress test on only one CPU.

On the other hand why spend so much money for such an old system. Does it worth it? I think that two small tower CPU coolers should be cheaper. Getting a water cooler for 2 HOT and power hungry CPUs should be very expensive.

The only problem with any cooling is finding an darn LGA 771 socket coolers... My original choice was 2 212 Hyper evo.... But nope.... Socket compatibility is a butt... And I can make a custom water cooling for about $150 tops... I dropped about.... 450 500 on the build... The only problem with water cooling once again... Water blocks (see a pattern here?) Darn you old and not widely used socket

 

[panathas]

Unfortunately 2 212 Hyper Evos obviously won't fit there. The 2 CPUs are too close. Socket 771 has some compatibility with socket 775. So a lot of 775 coolers should work but the placement of the 2 CPUs is certainly an issue. Since you have already spent so much money and want it to work, a custom water cooling solution seems the only remaining option.

Why did you invest so much money on old technology? You could have spent the same amount of money on a new, more modern, system. Did you have specific software needs and you decided you wanted a 2 socket server board with lots of RAM? It's an old but impressive system, but at what cost? A new or used i7 would cost you about the same amount and it would be much faster and way more efficient.

You always have the option of selling this and getting a new system. If you can't sell it as a whole system (board,CPUs and RAM) you could sell each part separately. I'm sure you would find buyers.

 

[Robert0211]

Unfortunately 2 212 Hyper Evos obviously won't fit there. The 2 CPUs are too close. Socket 771 has some compatibility with socket 775. So a lot of 775 coolers should work but the placement of the 2 CPUs is certainly an issue. Since you have already spent so much money and want it to work, a custom water cooling solution seems the only remaining option.

Why did you invest so much money on old technology? You could have spent the same amount of money on a new, more modern, system. Did you have specific software needs and you decided you wanted a 2 socket server board with lots of RAM? It's an old but impressive system, but at what cost? A new or used i7 would cost you about the same amount and it would be much faster and way more efficient.

You always have the option of selling this and getting a new system. If you can't sell it as a whole system (board,CPUs and RAM) you could sell each part separately. I'm sure you would find buyers.

Well honestly I got the idea from linustechtips his dirt cheap 8core build. I play some pretty intensive 4+ core required games as well as I do video editing and my dad does music production editing/music making tools, and so it fit both of us, honesly I hoped the build would be under 400 but.... PSU case and heatsink restock fees are costly, the hyper evos are actually an LGA 775 compatible but when I got the heatsinks it spread the backplate too far (adjustable for diff types) Out of all the problems I thought I would have, overheating was not on the list... The only other problem I have is a dead ram stick so only 24GB of usable ram oh well...