TheKid870

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Apr 30, 2017
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Hey guys I have a quick question about a screw up I had the other day. I'm not a very experienced builder ( 3 including this, last in 2013). On a whim I decided to put together a new PC because microcenter has good prices on CPU's right now. I wasn't planning to do any serious overclocking so I went with a more budget cooler to keep the overall price down. It's a 10850k with a Noctua NH-L9i sitting on it. The first weird thing is out of the box this thing is sitting at 4.8-5.2 Ghz, according to coretemp. This is without touching a setting even though on the box it says stock is 3.6. I didn't notice the first night because it said it was at 3.6 on the initial bios screen, I was just relieved everything worked and focused on the temps being okay. The next day after playing some War Thunder I see that the CPU is getting hotter than it should. Getting up to around 85-86c. Now seeing the core clock is essentially already overclocked for me I decide that I just need a better cooler and better thermal paste application and decide not to worry about it too much. I installed chipset drivers for the board but it was pulling that higher clock before hand as well.

Later that day I booted up Battlefield 1 and this where my worries are stemming from. After playing the intro mission for a minute I check the temps and they are the same 85-86 max, so I decide to play a little bit of online. I get caught up in the game and probably ended up playing for 40-45 minutes, def not more than an hour. When I tab out I see that 2 of my cores had hit 100c and and the rest had hit the high 90's, freaked out I close the game. So my question to you fine folks is, do you think toasting my CPU like that for that amount of time will have long term effects on the health and performance of my new processor? The game was running smooth on ultra the entire time. For the time being I've solved the problem by lowering max CPU state to 98% in the advanced power options. For whatever reason this drops the clock to 3.5Ghz stable at under a volt. Everything still runs fine so I'm okay with this until a real solution is reached.

I upgraded from an i7-3770k and re-used my GPU because of the current market. Here is the system specs if needed.

Mobo: MSI Mag Z490 Tomahawk

CPU: i9-10850k

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2x8Gb 3600Mhz

Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i

GPU: XFX GTR RX 480 8Gb Black Edtion

PSU: EVGA supernova 750 gold

Case: Fractal Design Define R4

Storage: Kingston m.2 SSD 500Gb
 
Solution
Your CPU is just boosting normally when you see it at 5.2GHz. This is part of Intel's Turbo Boost and happens by default. 3.6GHz is it's default speed - you'll almost never see it at that speed.
Your motherboard may be giving too much voltage to your CPU. This is common. You could try offsetting the voltage lower (in .05v increments) or getting a better cooler.

Cores hitting 100C is not good. Whether you damaged the CPU can't really be known by you or us. For a good, long CPU life, try keeping the max temp at or below 85C. Even 85C over extended periond could potentially shorten the life of a CPU but it should be fine here and there.
Your CPU is just boosting normally when you see it at 5.2GHz. This is part of Intel's Turbo Boost and happens by default. 3.6GHz is it's default speed - you'll almost never see it at that speed.
Your motherboard may be giving too much voltage to your CPU. This is common. You could try offsetting the voltage lower (in .05v increments) or getting a better cooler.

Cores hitting 100C is not good. Whether you damaged the CPU can't really be known by you or us. For a good, long CPU life, try keeping the max temp at or below 85C. Even 85C over extended periond could potentially shorten the life of a CPU but it should be fine here and there.
 
Solution

Zerk2012

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Hey guys I have a quick question about a screw up I had the other day. I'm not a very experienced builder ( 3 including this, last in 2013). On a whim I decided to put together a new PC because microcenter has good prices on CPU's right now. I wasn't planning to do any serious overclocking so I went with a more budget cooler to keep the overall price down. It's a 10850k with a Noctua NH-L9i sitting on it. The first weird thing is out of the box this thing is sitting at 4.8-5.2 Ghz, according to coretemp. This is without touching a setting even though on the box it says stock is 3.6. I didn't notice the first night because it said it was at 3.6 on the initial bios screen, I was just relieved everything worked and focused on the temps being okay. The next day after playing some War Thunder I see that the CPU is getting hotter than it should. Getting up to around 85-86c. Now seeing the core clock is essentially already overclocked for me I decide that I just need a better cooler and better thermal paste application and decide not to worry about it too much. I installed chipset drivers for the board but it was pulling that higher clock before hand as well.

Later that day I booted up Battlefield 1 and this where my worries are stemming from. After playing the intro mission for a minute I check the temps and they are the same 85-86 max, so I decide to play a little bit of online. I get caught up in the game and probably ended up playing for 40-45 minutes, def not more than an hour. When I tab out I see that 2 of my cores had hit 100c and and the rest had hit the high 90's, freaked out I close the game. So my question to you fine folks is, do you think toasting my CPU like that for that amount of time will have long term effects on the health and performance of my new processor? The game was running smooth on ultra the entire time. For the time being I've solved the problem by lowering max CPU state to 98% in the advanced power options. For whatever reason this drops the clock to 3.5Ghz stable at under a volt. Everything still runs fine so I'm okay with this until a real solution is reached.

I upgraded from an i7-3770k and re-used my GPU because of the current market. Here is the system specs if needed.

Mobo: MSI Mag Z490 Tomahawk

CPU: i9-10850k

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2x8Gb 3600Mhz

Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i

GPU: XFX GTR RX 480 8Gb Black Edtion

PSU: EVGA supernova 750 gold

Case: Fractal Design Define R4

Storage: Kingston m.2 SSD 500Gb
This is simple your cooler is not designed to cool that processor it's just not good enough.
 

TheKid870

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Apr 30, 2017
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This is simple your cooler is not designed to cool that processor it's just not good enough.

I was recommended that cooler by an employee at microcenter after telling him the board and CPU I had on hand and that I didn't plan to OC. Should I exchange the CPU since I was being given bad advice? I'm still within the return period.
 

Zerk2012

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I was recommended that cooler by an employee at microcenter after telling him the board and CPU I had on hand and that I didn't plan to OC. Should I exchange the CPU since I was being given bad advice? I'm still within the return period.
That cooler is just not designed for the processor their no way it can keep it cool, you need a better cooler.

Don't trust somebody at Micro Center, Best Buy or anything like them.
 

Karadjgne

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The 10850k can pull in excess of 250w. That cooler is designed for cpus averaging a draw of 125w.

Basically, it'll be ok for web surfing, but trying to use more threads than that at any sort of boost (most newer games) and it's going to hit tjmax and thermal throttle/shutdown.

It's not going to end well with constant use.
 

TheKid870

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Apr 30, 2017
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Disappointing that the staff didn't know better, I made the decision to get advice for the cooler in store and that was clearly a mistake. I mean that's not even close to being adequate, and really I should have known that just by looking at the thing.
 

TheKid870

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Apr 30, 2017
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Why that tiny thing in an Alhambra like the Define R4? That's a cooler for a 65w cpu like i3-10100. Even a i5-11600 is to much. What you have to do is to put a massive towercooler like be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 or Noctua NH-D15 on the cpu.

Honestly, because it was the cheapest aftermarket option besides an EVO and the guy told me it would be alright. very dumb I know, no point putting all this money into components to cheap out on a critical part like cooling but I'm so budget limited that I believed the guy for the sake of saving 50 bucks. Big dumb
 

Karadjgne

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The 10850k honestly takes a Noctua, but the D15/S, Cryorig R1 or deepcool assassin 3 etc for aircooling. Most opt for liquid 280mm/360mm as it has higher capacity (300w+) and will still fit in most cases. The Arctic 240mm is also acceptable. Most other 240mm generally are equitable to the NH-D15/S.

Much depends on your ram setup and case, many cases simply won't accept big-air.

Oh, and sad to say, but the CM Hyper212 Evo actually has better performance than the L9, by a decent margin, but that's mainly because the Evo is a 140w cooler and the L9 is somewhat less. Better cooler, better mounting (don't get the good mounts with the CM until you get the Black) better quality cooler all around, but it's simply a matter of capacity, the L9 designed for mITX and uber space saving lower power htpcs etc, and the 160mm tall hyper212 is designed for atx cases and mid-range power cpus.
 
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The problem all 10850K have is the default voltage is set too high. These CPUs were not good enough to be a more expensive 10900K so Intel deliberately increased the voltage to guarantee long term stability.

The result of this is excessive power consumption and heat. Most 10850K can be safely undervolted by 100 mV. This can drop temps by 15°C or more. It is well worth learning more about this subject. Less heat and less fan noise is always a bonus.

https://linustechtips.com/topic/128...eat-purposes/?do=findComment&comment=14340847
 
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Thanks for giving me some peace of mind John. I'll do what SID said and get a massive tower cooler to reign in those temps. Thanks for the help everybody!

Yeah, SID's advice was spot on, I've just upvoted that one because it's exactly what I'd do. You'll notice I'm running one of the coolers SID suggested and it or something like a fat Noctua or Scythe Mugen 5 Rev B would do a good job on your chip.

That's your issue, the guy in store probably had no idea that your chip is a warm one and requires a more substantial cooler, he probably just went off socket compatibility.

But you have your solution now, hopefully it works well. In terms of burning up your chip, maybe in the Socket 7 days you had to worry about that. But that's over 20 years ago, modern chips throttle first if they get excessively hot and then their inbuilt thermal protection shuts them down if they're approaching getting dangerously hot. It's pretty difficult to burn out a modern processor.

So yours will be fine after briefly getting toasty for a limited amount of time.
 

Karadjgne

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Welcome to Overclocking 101. Reduction of cpu voltages to a minimum while maintaining stability is a basic tenent of OC. Doesn't matter if it's at speeds above stock, or at stock, it's the fact you are taking control of cpu voltages, away from the motherboard/cpu.

Temps and voltages have a lot to do with the motherboard itself. Gigabyte, followed closely by MSI, have pushed the envelope of cpu ability by jacking up PL2 to max and Tau to infinite. Great for performance, lousy for heat moderation and control. You get that by simply enable performance mode in bios, which most do automatically without thinking. 10thgen on Z490 boards suffered from this heavily on the wrong board.

View: https://youtu.be/qQ_AETO7Fn4