Question Too Little Thermal Paste?

[doki2003]

Hi,

My 3-month-old computer's CPU has been running hot and I didn't realize until the past week or so. My games were laggy at first and then I started getting overheating alerts when booting up. According to hwHardware It's getting up to 100 degrees Celsius when I play my games and seems to be at 80 degrees Celsius even when idling. I thought for sure it wasn't true, because bios sometimes it even says it's at 100 degrees Celsius right when I turn it on which obviously isn't the case... and sometimes I touch the area on the motherboard around the CPU when it claims it's overheating and it doesn't always seem that hot... but sometimes it does seem pretty hot and I've downloaded multiple tests now and they all claim it's overheating so clearly something's wrong here.

It's an Intel® Core™ i7-12700KF Processor (8X 3.60GHz + 4X 2.70GHz /25MB L3 Cache) with a 240mm liquid cooling system and I know that's probably small for that powerful of a CPU, but there's no way it should be going nuclear and reaching 100 degrees Celsius right? Certainly not idling in the 80s... Idk maybe it's the thermal paste that was poorly applied? I've added a link to a picture of what it looked like when I removed the cooler to check the paste. Going to head to the store to buy more paste now maybe someone has some advice for me though?

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

 

[lvt]

Where did you get the thermal pad?

If you are sure that the thermal paste is from a good brand, try use a little more.

BTW does you water pump run at proper speed all the time?

 

[MeanMachine41]

The thermal paste looks to have been applied correctly (thinly applied) remember it's there to fill the tiniest of voids. You need to assess the pump is functional on your AIO liquid cooler and that there is no blockage in the Radiator. Describe how it was mounted?

Choose a good TIM like MX4, AS5 or Thermal Grizzly Kryanaut.

 

[Phaaze88]

240mm liquid cooling system

What exactly is this?

 

[Dirtmechanic]

You probably are looking at previously recorded temps in some way so refresh the temps to check.

 

[Karadjgne]

240mm AIO is fine for a 12700k, it generally only gets to @ 200w unless you removed the power limits (bios level performance mode).

What 240mm do you have? Nzxt, Corsair and a couple others use their own software to regulate the pump/fan speeds, some motherboard vendors have software like Asus fanXpert, everybody else goes cheap and let you set all that through bios settings. Either way is fine, but if not setup correctly, it won't respond correctly and your temps will not be good.

 

[doki2003]

Reaapplied the thermal paste and re-mounted the water-cooling system.
When I first turned it on the computer acted very laggy and this is what the temperatures read:
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Then it shut itself off. When I booted it back up the lag was gone and it showed these slightly more normally readings:
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
But it's fluctuating one moment it says CPU 1 temp is 70 then it says 95 then its back down to 75 and it just hops around crazy. I have no idea whats going on with this machine!

Also the cooler is a 240mm iBUYPOWER cooler. I regrettably made the decision to get a pre-built this time because of the price of GPUs. If you're curious about the specs its the SLMBG209 model.

 

[Phaaze88]

FYI: Those last 2 screenshots say the cpu is an 11700KF, not 12700KF.


Examine the radiator. Is there a black cube built in it that looks like the following?

Spoiler

 

[CountMike]

Reaapplied the thermal paste and re-mounted the water-cooling system.
When I first turned it on the computer acted very laggy and this is what the temperatures read:
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Then it shut itself off. When I booted it back up the lag was gone and it showed these slightly more normally readings:
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
But it's fluctuating one moment it says CPU 1 temp is 70 then it says 95 then its back down to 75 and it just hops around crazy. I have no idea whats going on with this machine!

Also the cooler is a 240mm iBUYPOWER cooler. I regrettably made the decision to get a pre-built this time because of the price of GPUs. If you're curious about the specs its the SLMBG209 model.

Can you find if pump is running and if it's at full speed. Are pump and radiator fans connected to MB separately and where ?
IBYPOWER is just a seller, according to sources it's probably just rebranded this cooler
https://www.newegg.com/nzxt-liquid-cooling-system/p/N82E16835146060
See instructions for it.
That CPU should idle at about 30-40c.

 

[MeanMachine41]

With a bit more digging, I see the cooling system is maybe a custom loop Elixir Series. not 100% sure.
Reported temps here are incorrect and interestingly crazy.
If the system is still under Warranty then OP should RMA to avoid voiding said Warranty.

 

[doki2003]

With a bit more digging, I see the cooling system is maybe a custom loop Elixir Series. not 100% sure.
Reported temps here are incorrect and interestingly crazy.
If the system is still under Warranty then OP should RMA to avoid voiding said Warranty.

What is meant by RMA?

 

[Karadjgne]

Return Merchandise Authorization. You call/email the company and they give you a ticket and send you paperwork to attach your name/address etc. Without it (make sure the RMA number is very visible on the packaging) they won't fix/return/accept responsibility for the item