Core i7 Cooling/HSF Question

[Zetro]

Hey Guys, I am currently tuning my new Core i7 rig and I seem to have ran into a wall in terms of cooling performance. Right now I am clocked at a solid 20x180 with 1.2V and it is solid for 24 hours of Prime95, the problem I am running into is temps. Here is a picture of my setup.

Under the hood is:

ASUS P6T SE
Core i7 920 cooled by a Scythe Katana 3...
Corsair TX750
Gigabyte 3850 (4870 is on RMA...)
6 x 2GB PC16000 GSkill
Rear Panaflo M1A

When reading with Speedfan at load the CPU die reads at 68C while the Cores themselves read closer to 78C on average. I was given the Katana 3 and I thought that it would be OK but I am seeing that this is not the case.

My question is that if I upgrade to a TRUE or a Noctua how much of a drop in temps should I expect? This chip seems to have the legs as I am barely volting it to be at 3.6GHz. Also on the Core temp reading what do you guys suggest as a high temp?

 

[blackrose]

Software temp monitoring is iffy at best. Put your hand on the heatsink while the cpu is running prime. Does it get really hot? Also, check to make sure you're getting good contact. No matter how good a heatsink is a bad mount makes it suck. (I'm not saying you suck at mounting, but we all make mistakes ). Looking at the pic perhaps you want to put a fan in the front of your case for some more intake airflow and take a dremel/snips to the grill to get the most from the front fan.

As for the TRUE/Noctua, I'd bet you'd easily get a few degrees cooler as their heatsinks are some of the best.

 

[Zetro]

I am 100% with you on the software temp monitoring but when you see numbers that seem to make sense that are high it doesn't make cranking it higher an easy choice. What would you use to check the temps while under load software wise - I would prefer not to be blind especially considering the price of this stuff!

Front airflow wise I have a mid-flow 120mm fan blowing straight in and the system stays pretty cool - the drives especially.

Just feeling the Katana's heatpipes they are extremely hot when under load, I think it is just a case of it not being able to hold the heat output under full load. No offence taken on the poor mounting note everyone does it but in this case it is extremely solid as far as I can tell.

Gut feeling on the Noctua or TRUE? Which one would you guys go for?

 

[InvisiBill]

The S1283V also ranks up there with the Noctua and TRUE, for half the price. http://pctech.invisibill.net/images/i7Temps.png is with the CPU and both GPUs running at 100% with dnetc.

 

[Zero82z]

First off, use Real Temp to monitor your temperatures. Of course there is inaccuracy, but if you're loaded up it should be pretty close. In any case, it's as accurate as you can get through any method without modifying the CPU casing.

As for your temps in general, if your readings are accurate, they are indeed high. Perfectly safe temperatures, but if you want to go higher you'll need some better cooling. Something like the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme or Noctua NH-U12P would be ideal, but the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 is a good budget alternative.

Software temp monitoring is iffy at best. Put your hand on the heatsink while the cpu is running prime. Does it get really hot?

The rest of your advice is pretty good, but as bad as software temperature monitoring is, it is still far more accurate than putting your hand on the heatsink and guessing as to what the temperature might be (for a number of reasons which I won't get into). But to make a long story short, don't take the temperature of the heatsink as an indicator of the temperature of the CPU itself, because it isn't.

 

[blackrose]

The rest of your advice is pretty good, but as bad as software temperature monitoring is, it is still far more accurate than putting your hand on the heatsink and guessing as to what the temperature might be (for a number of reasons which I won't get into). But to make a long story short, don't take the temperature of the heatsink as an indicator of the temperature of the CPU itself, because it isn't.

My only point with touching the heatsink was that if you couldn't hold your hand there without pulling back from too much heat then there's a problem. I should have been more specific.

As for Noctua vs. TRUE, tough choice but I'd personally go for the TRUE because I've used Thermalright products before and haven't been disappointed (and they look a little better imo).

 

[Zetro]

As for Noctua vs. TRUE, tough choice but I'd personally go for the TRUE because I've used Thermalright products before and haven't been disappointed (and they look a little better imo).[/QUOTE]

I have it mounted right, the heatpipes are super super hot on this guy. Having been an enthusiast a long long time I know it is perfect but just to humour myself I re-pasted and re-mounted the HSF and again the same temps arose. It is quite obvious it just can't hold the load of this new CPU.

I agree on TR stuff being the right way to go - having an XP-120 on my office pc and a REALLY old SP-97 (wanna talk about heavy) on my Athlon XP box I am pretty bias towards them.

Thanks again - I will report back with the results.

Just as a note though, is 1.2V to 3.6GHz a pretty good overclock? Reading through most posts most seem to need at least 1.3+ to get the same.

 

[Zero82z]

My only point with touching the heatsink was that if you couldn't hold your hand there without pulling back from too much heat then there's a problem. I should have been more specific.

But even that isn't necessarily a problem. CPUs are designed to run at much hotter temperatures than your skin can safely withstand. Plus, a hot heatsink really just means that it's transferring heat from the CPU very effectively, and gives no indication as to whether or not the actual CPU temperature is excessively high. So it really is a useless indicator of anything.