Is my CPU running hotter than it should?

[elohelz]

Hey all,

I feel like my CPU is running a bit hotter than it should be, but I'm not sure. I have a 3570k processor sitting on an asus p8z77-i mobo. My build is in a very crammed/small case, so airflow is pretty bad (although much better now that I was able to squeeze in a liquid cooler without affecting the already existing 2 case fans).

At first I was just running the stock intel cooler as the case I got was too small to fit the liquid cooler I bought in it. With the case fully on and enclosed, the stock cooler was running at about 45-50* C near-idle (maybe chrome and MSN messenger running).

I then did some retrofitting to my case yesterday, cut out some stuff and managed to fit my Corsair H60 water cooler in the case. Now I'm running heat tests, and with the top of my case removed and the PSI sitting out of the case (working on tucking tires), with a huge amount of open space now for fresh air to circulate in my case, my temps have only dropped to about 37-40* C. This is with just chrome up and running right now, nothing else. Doesn't seem like that big of a drop considering I went from a fully enclosed, cramped, stock cooler setup to a completely open, liquid cooled setup. I'm afraid taht my temps are still going to be low 40's once I fit back in the PSU and case top.

I did some research on this cooler before I bought it and a lot of people were claiming 20-25* C idle temps with whatever setups they had. Is it possible ramp up the fan/pump on this thing to provide extra cooling? I had planned on pushing this CPU to the limits with what I had on hand in terms of overclocking, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get much out of it with the temps already this high.

Thanks

 

[jnkweaver]

Hey all,

I feel like my CPU is running a bit hotter than it should be, but I'm not sure. I have a 3570k processor sitting on an asus p8z77-i mobo. My build is in a very crammed/small case, so airflow is pretty bad (although much better now that I was able to squeeze in a liquid cooler without affecting the already existing 2 case fans).

At first I was just running the stock intel cooler as the case I got was too small to fit the liquid cooler I bought in it. With the case fully on and enclosed, the stock cooler was running at about 45-50* C near-idle (maybe chrome and MSN messenger running).

I then did some retrofitting to my case yesterday, cut out some stuff and managed to fit my Corsair H60 water cooler in the case. Now I'm running heat tests, and with the top of my case removed and the PSI sitting out of the case (working on tucking tires), with a huge amount of open space now for fresh air to circulate in my case, my temps have only dropped to about 37-40* C. This is with just chrome up and running right now, nothing else. Doesn't seem like that big of a drop considering I went from a fully enclosed, cramped, stock cooler setup to a completely open, liquid cooled setup. I'm afraid taht my temps are still going to be low 40's once I fit back in the PSU and case top.

I did some research on this cooler before I bought it and a lot of people were claiming 20-25* C idle temps with whatever setups they had. Is it possible ramp up the fan/pump on this thing to provide extra cooling? I had planned on pushing this CPU to the limits with what I had on hand in terms of overclocking, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get much out of it with the temps already this high.

Thanks

You should let us know the ambient room temperature.

I would agree that for idle that is hot. It can be from a few causes.
1. To much or to little thermal paste.
2. Water block not properly seated (too loose)
3. Cooling fans throught radiator too low airflow
4. Kink in the line.

Try switching your fans on the radiator to moving cool air into the system (pull) if it isn't all ready.

 

[elohelz]

You should let us know the ambient room temperature.

I would agree that for idle that is hot. It can be from a few causes.
1. To much or to little thermal paste.
2. Water block not properly seated (too loose)
3. Cooling fans throught radiator too low airflow
4. Kink in the line.

Try switching your fans on the radiator to moving cool air into the system (pull) if it isn't all ready.

Hey, thanks for the response. Using a food thermometer (only one I have :S), it's 79* F in my room / 26* C. I'm sure that's pretty close as my room is upstairs and a bit warm generally.

I just used the stock thermal paste that came on the heatsink. I already ordered some artic silver to replace it, but the stuff they had on there looked like it was applied decently enough. Perhaps that will be the difference? I donno.

I removed the radiator/fan from the case and reversed the direction on the fan. It had no discernible change on the temp. I did note, however, that it dropped down a few degrees being outside of the case, so I know now that I need to just remove the metal casing alltogether instead of just drilling out vent holes where the fan is.

Even still, removed entirely from the case, it's idling at 34-36* C. Checked the heat sink and it's on the CPU quite firmly. Hopefully that thermal paste makes a big difference.

Also, I have the radiator pump mounted to the chassis fan, and the radiator fan mounted to the CPU fan. Is that correct?

Thanks again

 

[jnkweaver]

Hey, thanks for the response. Using a food thermometer (only one I have :S), it's 79* F in my room / 26* C. I'm sure that's pretty close as my room is upstairs and a bit warm generally.

Decent temp

I just used the stock thermal paste that came on the heatsink. I already ordered some artic silver to replace it, but the stuff they had on there looked like it was applied decently enough. Perhaps that will be the difference? I donno.

Might be a few degrees

I removed the radiator/fan from the case and reversed the direction on the fan. It had no discernible change on the temp. I did note, however, that it dropped down a few degrees being outside of the case, so I know now that I need to just remove the metal casing alltogether instead of just drilling out vent holes where the fan is.

Even still, removed entirely from the case, it's idling at 34-36* C. Checked the heat sink and it's on the CPU quite firmly. Hopefully that thermal paste makes a big difference.

Well it definitely sounds like a restricted airflow in the case. Which case is it?

Also, I have the radiator pump mounted to the chassis fan, and the radiator fan mounted to the CPU fan. Is that correct?

According to the manual for the H60, they recommend plugging the pump into the cpu fan and the radiator intake fan into the cha fan plug so it sounds like you did it backwards.

34-36 idle may be the best that you can get. This review with the i7 was around that temp. http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/corsair_h60/4.htm

 

[nukemaster]

all cpus are different. I would be more concerned over LOAD temps then anything else.

Also ensure all your power saving options are ON(C1E, speed step). This includes windows. set to "Balanced" and NOT "high performance" as that will cause higher idle temps and very little in the way of performance improvements.

If you attempt any overclocking, use the offset voltage. You can also use a voltage offset to LOWER the cpu voltage, some chips undervolt quite well at stock speeds.

As an example, My i5 750(It is in a >SFF case< and crammed) will allow a negative offset of 0.08750 and that actually gives it a full load voltage of ~1.04 not turbo still pushes it higher, but turbo only happens when less cores are loaded.

 

[elohelz]

^ I'm just getting into overclocking and resisting the urge to use programs to do it vs. going into the BIOS and doing it, but so far, whatever you just said is jargon to me, haha.

The case I have is the Cooler Master Elite 120. Definitely very cramped. It initially didn't fit the water cooler, so I wound up cutting out most of the hard drive rack and putting it under that, and then drilling a ton of holes in the bottom for airflow to go through. I guess I didn't do enough as removing it from the case and setting it outside lowered the temps a few degrees. I'm just going to cut off all of the metal under the fan to fix that.

I looked in my install manual and it says the fan goes into the CPU fan and the pump into any 3 pin connector. Do I have an old/misprinted manual or something?

I'm also running prime95 right now. Temps range from 57*C to 71*C. The average looks to be about 68 or so. This is with the radiator/fan removed from the case, and the case open. Stock CPU speeds

 

[jnkweaver]

^ I'm just getting into overclocking and resisting the urge to use programs to do it vs. going into the BIOS and doing it, but so far, whatever you just said is jargon to me, haha.

The case I have is the Cooler Master Elite 120. Definitely very cramped. It initially didn't fit the water cooler, so I wound up cutting out most of the hard drive rack and putting it under that, and then drilling a ton of holes in the bottom for airflow to go through. I guess I didn't do enough as removing it from the case and setting it outside lowered the temps a few degrees. I'm just going to cut off all of the metal under the fan to fix that.

I looked in my install manual and it says the fan goes into the CPU fan and the pump into any 3 pin connector. Do I have an old/misprinted manual or something?

I'm also running prime95 right now. Temps range from 57*C to 71*C. The average looks to be about 68 or so. This is with the radiator/fan removed from the case, and the case open. Stock CPU speeds

LOL no it was me with the old information. They now say to make sure the pump is on an uninterrupted 12V connection.

Just curious, why did you pick something like this with a radiator when your case didn't support it? There are some excellent air coolers out there you could have used.

 

[elohelz]

Well, I didn't want to use an air cooler because I knew the case was going to be very cramped, and the way ASUS designed this mobo one of the fans on the case is almost useless as it just blows right into the side of the mobo, blocking all airflow to the CPU cooler.

Also, since the case is so compact, the PSU sits right above the CPU. My zalman cooler that I was going to use didn't fit because it was too tall. Intel's crappy cooler just barely fit. So, I bought a liquid cooler figuring that the tiny footprint it has on the CPU would be perefct, as well as help wick away some heat from inside of the case. I didn't take into account that the radiator/fan part was enormous, nor did I know that the case didn't support it (bought it on a whim). I made it fit pretty damn well, though, just need to cut out some more metal to improve the airflow and then that aspect of it will be perfect.

 

[jnkweaver]

Well, I didn't want to use an air cooler because I knew the case was going to be very cramped, and the way ASUS designed this mobo one of the fans on the case is almost useless as it just blows right into the side of the mobo, blocking all airflow to the CPU cooler.

Also, since the case is so compact, the PSU sits right above the CPU. My zalman cooler that I was going to use didn't fit because it was too tall. Intel's crappy cooler just barely fit. So, I bought a liquid cooler figuring that the tiny footprint it has on the CPU would be perefct, as well as help wick away some heat from inside of the case. I didn't take into account that the radiator/fan part was enormous, nor did I know that the case didn't support it (bought it on a whim). I made it fit pretty damn well, though, just need to cut out some more metal to improve the airflow and then that aspect of it will be perfect.

It is difficult to find an HTPC case that does any heavy gaming. I think when I am ready I will just use a mid tower regular computer for mine.

 

[nukemaster]

I WANT PICS.

For real.

I do not think your temps are THAT bad to be honest.

I personally am making my power supply become my main heat removal in my case. It is even smaller.

If you are not using the ODD bay, you may be able to place a hard drive up in its place and an SSD(if you have one, on the floor.)

You need to get creative to make things fit I was told by a forum member here that this should be the image of how NOT to build, but honestly, for the space I have, it worked very well. and runs cooler then ALL my other systems

This is my day to day media system(not primary gaming system, but want to be able[and do game on it because it is already on] to and the video card idles very low and is quiet even under load).
I replaced the 3.5 inch HDD and SSD with a 2.5 inch HDD + SSD. saves space for more air flow.

This card JUST gets into the case(you can see the old hard drive location, not that it is how the case came).

The 5v fan plug is actually for the DVD drive and the blue fan header lets me keep an eye on the power supply fan speed(because I had swapped it for a more quiet one).

To avoid to many images, here is my main SFF-ish system
http://imageshack.us/g/1/9931163/

 

[elohelz]

What do you want pics of? The way I have the liquid cooler setup in that case?

I did some more case mods, maximum airflow to the radiator now, idling at around 31* C. Ambient temps are about 26* C, so I guess that's good enough. Just curious how other people seem to have pretty much ambient temps on their CPU with this cooler, but oh well. Thanks for the help gents

 

[nukemaster]

I want to see the rad mounting for sure.

Some users report the MB(it is what the bios uses to show a cpu temp) sensor temp and NOT the core temp sensor. Those are known to show lower.

While this does vary from board to board, this is an example of that. Ignore the 89, its a bug that happens sometimes.

 

[elohelz]

I want to see the rad mounting for sure.

Some users report the MB(it is what the bios uses to show a cpu temp) sensor temp and NOT the core temp sensor. Those are known to show lower.

While this does vary from board to board, this is an example of that. Ignore the 89, its a bug that happens sometimes.
http://imageshack.us/a/img836/3302/idletempso.png

Nukemaster, I'll put up a few pictures of how I have the rad mounted in a few hours, just waiting on my roommate to bring back my digital cam.

I remounted the heatsink with some arctic silver 5. I just did a thin line of it down the center of the CPU as recommended by arctic silver. Interestingly enough, I noticed two of the four mounts installed on the mobo to mount the cooler were loose.. not sure how that happened as they were tight when I put them on.

Fired it up with arctic silver in it, was holding at a steady ~31* C at idle, but after about 10 minutes of idling it's up to ~37* C or so. 5 minutes into prime95 it's around 71* C at full load. I'm using a program called 'Core Temp' to monitor the temps.

So, little to no change, even after correcting a loose mounting bracket and swapping to arctic silver. I might just have to accept that either the H60 sucks, or my CPU runs hot. Disappointing because I was looking forward to OC'ing this chip 🙁

 

[nukemaster]

If you wonder if it is the H60 or less then ideal air flow, Try to place the rad outside of the case to test. If it is more then maybe 10c cooler, chances are you want to try to get more air flow.

I mean one way or another it will be cooler without a case slowing air flow, it is just a matter of how much.