Intel Xeon 1231 V3 Bizarre Temperatures While Idling and Under Load

[Mythremian]

I recently purchased and installed an Intel Xeon 1231 V3 CPU in a workstation computer with the stock cooler/heatsink, and the CPU is reaching extreme temperature in some cases over 100C (for short periods of time) while under minor load with only slightly lower temperatures while idling. My first thought was an incorrectly installed heatsink or fan, so I removed the stock cooler and the thermal paste and reinstalled the cooler, but am still seeing unusual temperatures. The computer is now routinely idling around 60C even while the CPU is underclocking itself. It is possible that I again failed to correctly install the CPU cooler or the CPU itself, or that the cooler or CPU is defective in some way. The ambient temperature is very low, probably around 10C in a climate controlled lab space.

The full build:

Intel Xeon 1231V3
MSI H97M-G43
NVIDIA GEFORCE 750TI
16GB HyperX 1600MHz 1.5V RAM
430W Modular Corsair PSU
WD 1TB Blue HD
Thermaltake Core V21 Case


While Idling (Low Temp):

http://imgur.com/xgn1cVr

After 5 Minutes of Prime95:

http://imgur.com/kWVypop

The Computer Itself:

http://imgur.com/mkTNNjm

Any thoughts? The computer is performing well otherwise and is passing Prime95 successfully for as long as I dare run it.

Thanks

 

[junkeymonkey]

well it still maybe the stock fan lets face it - its meant for light use like for office not for pounding out benchmarks or stress testing ?? I could see a better aftermarket cooler dropping and maintaining temps better by far [opinion]

with my 4670 I can still get it up to 73c stressing it

 

[IntelTurtleFan]

Do you have the case cover on? If you dont put it back on it could be harming the airflow. A stock cooler should be fine enough for the Xeon as it runs cooler than the i7/i5s in its category. There must be something ether wrong with the thermal paste or the installation of the cooler itself. Those numbers make no sense at 80+.

 

[junkeymonkey]

in your screenshot for under idle below the temps its ''powers'' why are they so high at idle ??? mine shows package- value 2.35 - with a max when I stress tested 83.60 ???

they seem like something not letting them ''idle down'' ???? is there something running in the background ???

also I see the clocks not dropping as well

I would also get another monitor to compare between the 2 incase one maybe giving bad readings ??

http://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

 

[Mythremian]

in your screenshot for under idle below the temps its ''powers'' why are they so high at idle ??? mine shows package- value 2.35 - with a max when I stress tested 83.60 ???

they seem like something not letting them ''idle down'' ???? is there something running in the background ???

also I see the clocks not dropping as well

I would also get another monitor to compare between the 2 incase one maybe giving bad readings ??

http://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

Even with no background applications, the power usage never drops below 6.2W, but that's probably reasonable for a CPU like this. The screenshot may have been taken while a background application like chrome or some low level indexing was utilizing the CPU for something. My idle temperature with the case closed and no applications open (and the clocks down to 800 MHz) is actually around 25-30C now, which is pretty good even in a cold room. I'll try stressing it again and see what happens.

I am still concerned though, because even when I open chrome and one or two other applications like steam, the core clock jumps back to 3800 (the intel turbo speed) and temps return to the 35-40 range. Nothing to worry about, but a higher temperature than i'd expect from a 1-2% CPU utilization.

 

[junkeymonkey]

what about starting up in safe mode and see how the idle results are in that ??

if you look up [google] ''chrome is a resource hog'' and see the whats said on that and how it can be resolved - seems common at times when using chrome

or just uninstall it to see if any change for the better

example

http://www.techverse.net/how-to-troubleshoot-google-chromes-high-cpu-memory-usage/

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2471726/desktop-apps/peeking-under-the-hood-of-chrome-browser-reveals-cpu-hog.html

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/fix-high-cpu-usage-google-chrome-77171.html

same for memory

reasons why I don't use it

 

[synphul]

From the looks of the screenshots, most appears normal. The columns show current use, min and max. When maxed at 3800mhz the temps are in the 60's which is normal for full load. At min it shows 800mhz indicating that speedstep is working properly and has dropped the multiplier to x8 which is normal. The temps at x8 multiplier are 24, 26, 28c which are all very good temps. The only concerning temps are prime95 where it's reaching 87-88c. Was the older 26.6 version of prime95 used or the most recent version? If the most recent version coupled with the stock cooler, this would explain the higher temps as the newer versions overstress haswell cpu's beyond what they were designed for. The stock cooler for the xeon uses a slightly different stock hsf combination incorporating copper in the heatsink and a slightly different fan than typical desktop cpu's so it should be able to handle the xeon under full load (since it can't be overclocked).

It's normal when under any load such as opening a browser for a cpu to jump to 100% usage for a moment and use all available speed. Actually cpu usage isn't about what speed the cpu runs at but rather its usage of cycle time since a cpu is either on/off. It may be worth trying to clean off the heatsink and cpu, reapply thermal paste and remount the cooler making sure that all the pushpins are fully engaged through the holes in the motherboard. They can be a pain. Most of those results look typical though aside from the stress test.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

 

[junkeymonkey]

normal ?? the screen shot for his idle shows the cores still running at around 3700mhz ?? how is that normal ?? mine always drops back to 800 not stuck at max boost ??

 

[synphul]

What I gathered was since it appears to be capable of reaching 800mhz (x8 multiplier) at the min reading and 'current' values were 3700mhz, it wasn't idling. The pc could have been doing any number of things, antivirus, background processes etc without the user actively doing something (say opening a web browser, typing a document) but that doesn't always indicate that the machine is in fact idling. If the pc was refusing to idle it would have posted the same values across current, min and max without ever dipping to 800mhz.