I7 not overclocked + water cooling = high temps?

[kmook1]

Hello,
I've been trying to find out the cause of a very random lock up (pc freezes while gaming and PC has to be powered off). Lock up might not occur for weeks, and then can occur up to a few times in a day.

Anywho I replaced my powersupply and also the stock i7 fan with a Corsair H80 water cooling unit, the case also has 4 fans. I'm monitoring the temps and comparing it to what other people say and mine seem way high. Just sitting in the bios or in windows i'm at about 65-68*C, when gaming it is mid-high 80s.

I have pretty much all my cpu/mem bios settings set to auto... not trying to overclock at all.

Cpu: i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core
Mobo: EVGA 131-GT-E767-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 SLI 3 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Ram: G.SKILL 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)


Thanks for any help and suggestions!
Ken

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

With our Intel® Core™ processors I have found that HWMonitor generally gives me the best temperatures. So I would try it.

Based on what you are saying is happening I would guess that the thermal paste isnt spread well. So pull the cooler and check the thermal paste. Most likely you are going to want to clean off the old stuff and put some new paste on it. I use rubbing alcohol, Q-tips and a couple of coffee filters to clean the old stuff off and make sure I have a good contact surface. Make sure you clean if off both the processor and the contact plate on the cooler.

 

[randomdudehelping]

You might also want to try manually setting the CPU voltage. If the motherboard is mistakenly providing too much juice your temps would be high. If it isn't your cooling being improperly applied (thermal paste) and it isn't voltages then you have a bad CPU.

 

[MasterMace]

First thing you want to do is try out different temperature monitors. Many times, a program will read off the temperature to you and not correctly change the unit it is measuring in, to which it will tell you (FOR EXAMPLE) that a temperature is at 115C when it is really 115F, and a monumental difference. The reason I mention this is because 65C comes out to 149F, whereas 65F is 18.3C.

That's the first thing to check. The second thing to check is that your cooler is properly seated to the CPU. If it isn't fit to it, it's not going to cool it.

The 3rd thing you check, if the first 2 are fine, is whether the water cooler is functioning properly. Make sure the fans are blowing and the water is moving in the correct direction.

The 4th thing is to manually set the voltages on the motherboard.

 

[kmook1]

Thanks for all the replies!

I will try a different monitoring app as well as make sure the cooler is seated properly.

I wouldnt mind setting the voltages manually, however after searchin quite a bit on google I still havent found what the 'stock' settings are for my processor. Can anyone help on that please?

 

[kmook1]

I tried a dif monitor as well as verified the cooler is seated properly.

I did find that I had Intel Speedstep disabled which I assume causes the processor to run at 100% constantly. With it enabled I am getting about 50* at idle and 70* while gaming. So I assume with those results that most everyone is running with steedstep enabled?

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-900-ee-and-desktop-processor-series-datasheet-vol-1.html Page 22

You are looking at Core voltage of 1.25v to max of 1.55v based on the information On the while paper.

 

[payturr]

Did you apply good thermal compound correctly prior to installing the H80? I'm shocked to see your temperatures!

 

[kmook1]

@IntelEnthusiast My core voltage stays around 1.257

@payturr The H80 came with the compound already on the surface and had a protective plastic shell over it so it didnt get smeared in shipping.

 

[payturr]

I would probably remove the H80, clean off the paste, get some Arctic Silver 5 (some of the best and most affordable thermal paste in the industry if you didn't know), apply that, and then hook it back up. Then just do a quick fan check on the H80, clean the system of any dust build up, then give it a try. If no change you may wanna contact Corsair.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

AS 5 is good and you can pick up at Radio Shack but I wouldnt say that it is the best; maybe the most covenant.

 

[kmook1]

Got the AS5 and applied it, noticed when I pulled the unit off the cpu there was no compound on the cpu (all still on the unit as applied from the factory). So it looks like it wasnt in proper contact with the cpu. It's really odd as I had the unit screwed down all the way onto the cpu.

I removed the old compound, put the AS5 on, and this time rotated the unit 90* and tightened it down.

The temps are now about 40* at idle and 50* while gaming

 

[kmook1]

Best answer selected by kmook1.

 

[payturr]

There we go! Thank God that worked out :3