I7 temps way to high

[scook9]

First I'll list my parts:
Core i7 920
Asus Rampage II Gene
LAPPED TRUE 120 with 2x Scythe S-Flex G in push/pull and AS5 (bead in middle and spread by HSF pressure)
Corsair 6GB DDR3-1600 Dominator (with airflow fan)
ThermalTake Extreme Spirit II NB cooler (also with AS5)
Antec Mini P180 (with all 3 120mm fans filled by Scyhe S-Flex G fans - 2 intake, 1 exhaust)
2x HIS Radeon HD 4850 (reference cooler - but these are sitting down at 50 C during prime95)
Asus PhysX PCI Card
Corsair TX750 PSU
WD 640 GB Caviar Blue

So as you can guess, I have a MASSIVE amount of airflow in my case, that is NOT the issue here..... YET, when i prime95 my cpu with small overclock to 3.2 GHz (1.3625 vcore) my CPU core temps go UP. I am hitting 83 C on individual core which is way out of whack to what I would expect here. The TRUE is lapped to a mirror finish and the AS5 was applied about a green pea in middle of heatspreader then spread by heatsink pressure. I have not (and do not want to) LAPPED the heatspreader on the cpu as this makes is nearly unsellable for me if I upgrade - and voids the warranty I believe. I also have a considerable gap in what my monitoring programs are telling me for the CPU temps:

RealTemp 3.00 (not calibrated) - 83 82 81 78 on the 4 cores (all C)
AI Suite - 69 C
PC Probe 69 C
LCD Poster off MB - 69 C
HWMonitor - 81 80 81 77 (all C)

My room temp is about 75 F - about 24 C and i keep my window open all the time to help vent (its a dorm).

Now I would expect the Asus poster and programs to all be the same, but why this huge delta from the other programs? AND why so dam hot? Is there any specific program that can be called reliable for use with i7 processors and Asus MB?

 

[foolycooly]

RealTemp is hands down the most accurate temperature monitoring program available (especially for the i7 series). Verify that your fans are pointing the way you want them to (intake/exhaust). Although since your GPUs are idleing at a good temperature, it seems safe to rule out an airflow issue. My guess would be an improperly mounted heatsink. While i'm sure the lap job is good, you should verify that the mounting mechanisms are tight/secure. I would try putting a small amount of pressure directly onto the TRUE while you're under load and see if the temps drop. Obviously if they do, then you're not tightly mounted.

It's possible you have a defective cpu? Keep in mind these temps ARE acceptable, but I agree you should be seeing much lower with a lapped TRUE. I cap around 83 w/ my coolermaster v8 OC'd to 3.8 but I can see some high ambient temps.

 

[scook9]

ill try the pushing down thing, but im not optimistic. I know all fans are oriented properly, was very tedious about that. And on the intel processor finder page, they spec the i7 920 at 69.5 C, thus my concerns....this has me wondering...how hot does the 965 get, EXACT same chip just with unlocked multi, since I have only overclocked to its speed. Do you think that I need to "calibrate" realtemp? Or does it handle the i7 series right off the bat?

 

[scook9]

sorry, 67.9 C on intel page, but you get the idea

 

[foolycooly]

67.9 is for a different temperature that can not be displayed through temperature monitoring programs. I don't remember what it is called but there is a good temperature guide floating around here. The i7 chips can run up to 100c before they self-throttle.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/221745-29-core-core-temperature-guide

 

[RJR]

Well I'm one of the unlucky ones who doesn't have an i7 YET, but here is an OC guide from Gigabyte for the 920 with a TRUE that may help a little. I know with my Core2 after setting the Gtlref voltages I was able to lower my vcore quite a bit. There may be something in the guide that might help.

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/10827/gigabyte_shows_how_to_overclock_i7_920_cpu_to_4ghz/index.html

 

[krazynutz]

Do you really need 1.3625v to get to 3.2Ghz? That seems a bit high. The link below is a review which is what I used to OC my 920 on my Asus p6T. Lots of tweak info and explaination. I used their settings and got very similar results.

They got 4Ghz on 1.336v.
I'm @ 3.8Ghz on 1.275v.

Review: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2008/11/06/overclocking-intel-core-i7-920/1

 

[irkjab]

+1 for the high voltage

My motherboard auto setting was overvolting my q6600 when OC'd and I was getting temps of 70c.
When I manually set the voltage for the cpu I had a 15c reduction in temps.

 

[krazynutz]

Scook, check out that review I posted. They really go into detail about what voltages they use and why. They even change a few that other reviews don't even mention. Worth looking into. Also, if you manually set your RAM speed, make sure you change the timing to 2T. By default, the Asus boards like to keep it at 1T, even at 1600Mhz. Changing it to 2T makes a world of difference, stability-wise. BTW, Asus uses "N" instead of "T", so your options are 1N, 2N, and 3N. Good luck!

 

[foolycooly]

I'm running stable on 1.21250 @ 3.8ghz. 12 hours or prime tested. I still run pretty hot though...38-40 idle and prime95 capped at like 84 after 13 hours...My proc is weird.

 

[krazynutz]

Foolycooly, are you 24-hr stable at that voltage and ram timings? What's your cooler? I wasn't hitting 80's until I went up to 1.325v

 

[foolycooly]

yeah, cm v8 is what I have. It's a bit odd and I think i may have put a bit too much mx-2 on. This was my first build so I was most worried about the cooler mounting. I have not run prime95 for 24 hours, no, but I figure I'll take my chances during normal cpu usage. I have not BSOD'ed yet (nor do I expect to after 13 hours of clean prime95). I also have not seen my temps break 57ish under heavy gaming so I'm not too concerned about the prime95 caps. When I woke up the morning after running the test it had to have been close to 90 in my room (i7 combined w/ my gtx295 makes for a pretty good space heater.) Normally I have good ventilation in my room so I wouldn't suspect temps to go over 80 during the day.

 

[daship]

Yup your voltage is to high, and a green pea size of thermal paste is WAAAAAAAYYY to much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It takes more like the size of a BB or 2 grains of rice.

 

[Wgfalcon]

unless your running a program that can use more than 4 cores disable hyperthreading it knocked 10 degrees off my o.c.