Hm, what's with my temps? (i5-2500k)

T

timtheenchantor

Gawd
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Jun 17, 2005
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So I noticed my temperatures were getting high under stress. I am running the following system:

i5-2500k
ASUS P8P67
Kingston 8GB
Corsair H60

Ambient Temperature (~79 degrees F)
This is the Prime 95 Small FFTs test.

d4iHEV8.png


Thoughts? All I am using is the Ai-Charger from BIOS (Performance mode instead of normal or low). So the system auto-overclocked me to x42 multiplier. I have not manually adjusted my settings yet.

I recently re-did my thermal paste using the pea method. I was getting worse temps before when I tried spreading the paste myself.

Is my ambient temperature really causing me the biggest issues here?
 
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ok first i think you mean ~79 Farenheit XD not Celsius.. second for 4.2GHZ your voltage seems fine, so i do not think any overvoltage issue... i can only think in 2 problems..

first, check the Waterblock mount and the backplate. H60 backplate have only one form of mount check the backplate look like This. with the 2 upper screw matches the backplate form. and not like This this last is wrong and will cause bad mount, increasing considerably the temps..

second thing, could be a problem with the pump. in very rare cases, the pump mini blades are released from the rotor in the pump.. this does not have way to check, only RMA..

other thing that draws directly my atention is the 6850 Temp. minimum 54C?... how good its your Case airflow?. the case its in any close space? or Open air?...

my main issue to check would be the Waterblock mount..
 
If voltage isnt that high, its down to cooling.
Ambient temp is only about 5C higher than review temps, so knock off 5C to get a comparable temp.
You may have bad contact between CPU and heatsink.

Is your radiator and fan clean?
Does your heatsink radiator feel warm when running with highest temps?
Is your case airflow any good, does it improve much with the case side off?

Something that may help, find the minimum voltage needed for your overclock and use that.
 
I made my edit when I first made the post, yea. Fahrenheit not Celcius. :)

Araxie:
I did not check the backplate. I am not sure what you mean by the backplate being incorrect. I apologize if this sounds rude, but your sentence structure is a little broken...so I am not sure I follow. Edit: I think I see your backplate thing. It looks rotated in that picture..Are you sure that is incorrect? That second picture is from Corsair's install guide.

I recently redid the fans. Front fan is pull, bottom case fan is pull. Top two fans are pull and H60 is in push/pull config (two fans)...so the air flows in and out of the tops/rear. Case is a Corsair 690 II. My PSU has a ton of cables so I tried to do as best cable management as I could but honestly, I am not sure how I can do any better with the amount of extra cables I have in this small case. Side is on. It's not in an enclosed space.

Nenu:
Radiator has a little bit of dust, not bad though. And it is a little warm under load but not hot. Fans are super clean, just cleaned them all today. I just cleaned the radiator as well. :)
 
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timtheenchantor said:
Araxie:
I did not check the backplate. I am not sure what you mean by the backplate being incorrect. I apologize if this sounds rude, but your sentence structure is a little broken...so I am not sure I follow. Edit: I think I see your backplate thing. It looks rotated in that picture..Are you sure that is incorrect? That second picture is from Corsair's install guide.
Click to expand...

yeah im sorry im a little drunk xD and my english its not so good at all, mix that and you will find LOT of grammarians problems xD... yes im 100% sure about the backplate mount, it should look like This thats its the only position, Rotated positions will cause poor contact, check it.. thats why the backplate have that guide in the upside, aligned with the CPU socket back screws...
 
So I took the computer apart, rotated my backplate to match those "grooves" and re-applied thermal paste. Computer is back up and temps are only ~1 degree lower.

Putting load on the processor: I notice the processor doesn't heat up as quick. It ends up taking a little longer to hit those mid-70 marks. But honestly, I am not sure my methods are incorrect here. Something else is funky. I might just say screw it and back off this overclock :(

Then again, my ambient temp might be hot. My AC is set to 78 degrees F, but it definitely feels hotter in this room - so I am not 100% what the temperature is in here. That might be the issue.

Associated screenshot:

C1GnWQz.png
 
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So I turned off OC. Same temperature. Odd. Load temps are obviously lower.
I think it's the ambient temperature in this room. This room sucks balls for airflow. I am sweating, if that makes a difference - lol...
 
your temps are 9 degrees cooler in hottest Core...

first screen shot: 80-83-85-79.
second screenshot: 72-76-75-71. so yes i think you had a bad mount.

now what draw my attention its now your Vcore its higher with 1.32V and BCLK its now 103mhz. in the first screen shot was 1.27V and 103mhz..

what are you temp now you return to stock?... with that ambient room temp, you should be in the line of 48-51C stock under stress.
 
Remember that the only thing I did was enable "Asus High" in my settings. I made no adjustments to my vCore...if there was, it was done by the motherboard..

0SpNGhZ.jpg


This is "stock", below. Or if looking at the picture above, the middle option.
For some reason, it still clocks me at 34x instead of 33x. Here's a test in Prime95, running another 10 minutes or so. I never hit over 60C at these speeds. Thank you again for the help!!

s1Rmc0R.png
 
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Your temps IMO appear to be good, considering how mess its your case with cables(according to yor description) and little high ambient room temp....

About the 3.3GHZ and 3.4GHZ thats its due to intel turbo boost feature, with intel turbo boost according to the core load it will range from 3.4 to 3.7ghz. 3.7ghz 1core load, 3.6ghz 2 core load, 3.5ghz 3 core load, 3.4ghz all cores load. Thats why it show 3.4ghz under prime, if you dissable turbo boost it will keep at max 3.3ghz. What fans are you using with your H60?. And its pointed as exhaust or intake?, what Thermal paste are you using?.
 
Araxie said:
Your temps IMO appear to be good, considering how mess its your case with cables(according to yor description) and little high ambient room temp....

About the 3.3GHZ and 3.4GHZ thats its due to intel turbo boost feature, with intel turbo boost according to the core load it will range from 3.4 to 3.7ghz. 3.7ghz 1core load, 3.6ghz 2 core load, 3.5ghz 3 core load, 3.4ghz all cores load. Thats why it show 3.4ghz under prime, if you dissable turbo boost it will keep at max 3.3ghz. What fans are you using with your H60?. And its pointed as exhaust or intake?, what Thermal paste are you using?.
Click to expand...

H60: Exhaust, push/pull config. Fans that came with the H60.
Thermal Paste - Arctic Silver
 
But the H60 comes with only one fan... What other fan are you using? Or you bought the same stock fan?.... What arctic silver its?.. If its the 5 you should wait until cure time and expect some degrees less..
 
Araxie said:
But the H60 comes with only one fan... What other fan are you using? Or you bought the same stock fan?.... What arctic silver its?.. If its the 5 you should wait until cure time and expect some degrees less..
Click to expand...

I bought another fan. :) Arctic Silver 5 I believe, so 200 hr cure time?
 
So I fiddled about, set a static vcore at 1.25 @ 4.2GHZ and ended up with these temps:
DfYUywM.png



Almost 10 degrees lower than when I first started yesterday.
I didn't use offset. Should I? And also set LLC to Auto. Would either of these settings reduce my temperatures further?
 
Nenu said:
Read some overclocking guides as you need to understand what the settings do.
This is pretty good and is co-incidentally for your motherboard.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578110
Click to expand...

Yeah I looked at that guide. It's formatted horribly.

.7GHz or Below
All bios values to Auto except for those noted-
CPU Turbo Multiplier
Dram Voltage to specification
Internal testing has shown Auto Values will allow for stability in all forms of testing including high synthetic high load applications (Linx, Prime95, Occt ). In the event general stability is not achieved in these synthetic high load applications, you can adjust the noted values for improved stability.
Digi + VRM options
VRM frequency to 350 – Requires setting to manual adjustment and entering the specified value.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing this is what I should follow, as the rest of the guide under that is for x47+. See I am trying to get lower temps. Not go for broke. So when the guide mentions this (this is only for x47+ I guess?):

CPU PLL
This setting did not improve overclocking, yet the user can maintain the same level of stability while lowering its default value in order to keep the CPU cooler.
Click to expand...

It doesn't give me a good idea of what is acceptable. Oh well. I'll keep fiddling. Also noticed, my ram is 1.65v. Should I not touch the voltage on that? Doing some research tells me "No." Edit, maybe I might be okay, here's some info I found:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18190523&postcount=103"Right guys myself and our technical guys have spent the entire weekend and this morning in discussions with Intel regarding the alarming amount of reports of Sandybridge CPU's dying and have been conducting our own testing as have Intel to find out what is a definite no no.


Sandybridge maximum safe voltages
Core Voltage - Not recommended too exceed 1.38v, doing so could kill the CPU, we therefor recommend a range of 1.325-1.350v if overclocking.

Memory Voltage - Intel recommend 1.50v plus/minus 5% which means upto 1.58v is the safe recommended limit. In our testing we have found 1.65v has caused no issues.

BCLK Base Clock - This is strictly a NO, anyone using base clock overclocking could/will cause damange to CPU/Mainboard. (Set manually to 100)

PLL Voltage - Do not exceed 1.9v!!



Processor - Basically we recommend customers not to exceed 1.35v to play it safe, all our bundles are set at 1.3250v or lower, any competitors offering bundles above 4.6GHz you should be enquiring as to what voltage they are using as we believe anything over 1.38v will limit CPU lifespan and anything over 1.42v will likely kill the CPU or severely limit its lifespan.

Memory - Intel recommend 1.50v plus/minus 5% which means 1.60v is the ideal safe maximum, but we have found in our testing all 1.65v memory is fine. We have also found most new 1.65v like Corsair XMS3 will run at its rated timings with just 1.50-1.55v which is well within Intel specifications. So people upgrading to Sandybridge you can still use your old DDR3, but we do recommend you run it at 1.60v or less. We are shipping most of our bundles which feature Corsair XMS at 1.50v-1.55v at rated timings. We've also discussed with Asus and MSI regarding voltages for memory and they also confirm in their testing 1.65v caused no issues with reliability.

Base Clock - To put it simple if you value the life of your components, do not overclock using base clock!

PLL Voltage - Again do not exceed 1.9v!
Click to expand...
 
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I'm guessing this is what I should follow, as the rest of the guide under that is for x47+. See I am trying to get lower temps. Not go for broke. So when the guide mentions this (this is only for x47+ I guess?):
Click to expand...
Yes, is a good start and yes, it is more critical for higher overclocks, but it cant harm to apply best practices.
Dont go too far above 72C when testing, it accelerates wear, especially with higher voltage.
Aim for a max of 72C under normal load when using the PC.

You can have issues appear when overclocking that dont seem to be the norm, you will have to work out what works best for your equipment.
For example, I found it necessary to disable auto clock frequency adjustment so my clock speed is either default (3.3GHz) or max (4.6GHz), nothing inbetween.
This is to help make it 24/7 stable, it was fine for hours of gaming but would occasionally crash at idle when left on for a long time.
The VRM freq of 350 will help you remain stable at idle with high overclocks, my motherboard doesnt have this option.
This option allows the CPU voltage regulators to switch voltage faster when the clock speed ramps up, as your PC performs normal tasks running the OS etc.

Your biggest issue is temp, so your major task is to use as low a vcore as possible while remaining stable at your overclock.

Reduce ram voltage as low as you can get away with.
My Kingston 2400MHz ram is 1.65V rated but I run it nearer 1.5V
 
Nenu said:
Yes, is a good start and yes, it is more critical for higher overclocks, but it cant harm to apply best practices.
Dont go too far above 72C when testing, it accelerates wear, especially with higher voltage.
Aim for a max of 72C under normal load when using the PC.

You can have issues appear when overclocking that dont seem to be the norm, you will have to work out what works best for your equipment.
For example, I found it necessary to disable auto clock frequency adjustment so my clock speed is either default (3.3GHz) or max (4.6GHz), nothing inbetween.
This is to help make it 24/7 stable, it was fine for hours of gaming but would occasionally crash at idle when left on for a long time.
The VRM freq of 350 will help you remain stable at idle with high overclocks, my motherboard doesnt have this option.
This option allows the CPU voltage regulators to switch voltage faster when the clock speed ramps up, as your PC performs normal tasks running the OS etc.

Your biggest issue is temp, so your major task is to use as low a vcore as possible while remaining stable at your overclock.

Reduce ram voltage as low as you can get away with.
My Kingston 2400MHz ram is 1.65V rated but I run it nearer 1.5V
Click to expand...

Right on! I'll fiddle tonight. I'm a little concerned with my temperatures hitting 59 degrees on stock running games though... :(
 
timtheenchantor said:
So I fiddled about, set a static vcore at 1.25 @ 4.2GHZ and ended up with these temps:
DfYUywM.png



Almost 10 degrees lower than when I first started yesterday.
I didn't use offset. Should I? And also set LLC to Auto. Would either of these settings reduce my temperatures further?
Click to expand...

Set LLC yo high or very high. this will maintain the load voltage the most even possible, helping with stability issues, your temps seems to be much better now, but you still can down more the voltage, specially if you are under fixed voltage, keep lowering that numbers until crash.. just guessing i can imagine it will be like 1.19v - 1.20v with a 2500k. even lower if are a pretty good overclocker.. if you wanna see a 2 - 4C degrees drop in your temps swap the fans of the H60 to Intake.. i am pretty sure that your GPU its making a painfull enviroment to your H60. idling at 50+ degrees as exhaust you can imagine that all the heat will be sucked for the H60 lowering the cooling performance. i can not imagine how worse can be under full load of the GPU + CPU.
 
Araxie said:
Set LLC yo high or very high. this will maintain the load voltage the most even possible, helping with stability issues, your temps seems to be much better now, but you still can down more the voltage, specially if you are under fixed voltage, keep lowering that numbers until crash.. just guessing i can imagine it will be like 1.19v - 1.20v with a 2500k. even lower if are a pretty good overclocker.. if you wanna see a 2 - 4C degrees drop in your temps swap the fans of the H60 to Intake.. i am pretty sure that your GPU its making a painfull enviroment to your H60. idling at 50+ degrees as exhaust you can imagine that all the heat will be sucked for the H60 lowering the cooling performance. i can not imagine how worse can be under full load of the GPU + CPU.
Click to expand...

This is great information. Araxie, I'll do some of those changes tonight and report back my results!
 
I have found that running less LLC can help with temps even when I adjust offset to obtain the same fully loaded voltage.

Example: I run a couple degrees cooler using no LLC and + .105 offset, then I do at high LLC with .000 offset, even though they both give me about the same 1.32-1.33 under full load. I don't have any stability problems at all running a 46 multi with no LLC or PLL OV.

Dropping PLL down to my sweet spot of 1.6625 allowed me to lower the offset a bit and saved a degree or two as well.
 
i do not like the idea of drop the LLC voltage less than 1.73... if you have in 1.66 you lucky if not have any problem at all...

load line calibration help by example while gaming.. specially at fixed voltages, it control the voltage drop during long term periods, for example a 64 4500 tickets battlefield 3 map.. some moments of the game where much stress happens can drop by a largue amount the Vcore causing an instant crash in the game or in the PC. the higher level of load line calibration the most stable load voltage will be.

of course this its not a worry for Auto voltages with a offset line... PLL OV can be off all the way thats for extreme overclocking capability.. 4.6GHZ its till a common OC in a 2500k.

some boards even with LLC enabled allow to the use of less voltage for full load.... well at last, all depends really its in the motherboard and chip, all chips does not answer in the same way to voltages and not all motherboards manage the same way the voltages and power phases.. silicon lotery ;)
 
Araxis, I'm going to swap the fans tonight for intake on the rad (or early tomorrow morning) and then mess with my multi and vcore again. Since I tried 1.25 and got 4.2 just fine, I'll try to drop voltage a little more.

I'm thinking on using offset voltage this time, so if I find a multi I am happy with - at a temperature I'm happy with - then can I use offset to help reduce power usage at the wall?

Another question! :p My ASUS motherboard has some temps on it. It states my CPU temperature is 29C. Hardware Monitor says 39C. Is it normal that Hardware Temp inflates by 10C?
 
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yes its normal the temperature readings, the Asus temperature its in fact the Socket temperature that of course will be diferent from the CPU temperature. HWmonitor take several readings, it take the Temperature from the CPU package and the temperature from the interal diodes of the cores individually.. many people could tell that the socket temperature its useless but the thing its that temp is very usefull. it tell us how god its our cooler disipation a socket very hot mean our cooler its making a bad job absorbing the heat of our chip and disipate it and some of the heat its transmited to the socket wich its bad for long termp uses.

about the use of offset i thin this its the best way to reach a good overclock nothing extreme and also keep the dynamic voltage on Vcore. by rule the first thing to do its use the manual voltage and find the sweet spot of our chip to reach stability with the desired overclock. then back the chip to AUTO voltage, and let it anoter test to know how much the autovoltage set automatically the Vcore. then simply go to the offset and set a negative offset. why negative?. generally AUTOvoltage will draw more voltage than the chip need to operate at a desired frecuency, with a negative offset voltage we oppose to that voltage increased.. for example i have my chip at 4.2 with a offset of 0.065v. under full load. that keep my chip in the 1.208v line.. and i can keep all the C1 States and power features also with the windows in balanced power management. this prolongs the life of the chip..

I certainly can do a better offset. i tested my chip running at the same 4.2ghz with 1.17V. but that in fixed voltage, the thing with the offset its, that offset its applied in idle voltage too.. so the system in idle will undervolt proportionally to the offset, and well, a very undervolted processor mean that maybe will not be stable. in idle my chip should be in the 0.97v. and actually it idle at 0.90.. i've really not tested lower than this.. but i think at this moment its good overclocked with fans in balanced i reach 59C. not bad at all.. tell us about your progression.
 
I swapped my fans around so it is now intake push/pull on my Corsair. So here's bone stock temps from a IntelBurnTest on High. I have not done any overclocks yet tonight. Still. This bugs me. I really would like to be in the lower 50s on stock. This is really pissing me off.

YRVwASn.png
 
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in order to make a good comparisson between cooling setup, you have to take the same test always and try to do in the same room temp. you can not compare Burn Test with linpack vs prime95 blend. linpack its by far much insane torture than prime95. so you should compare again with p95 also the ambient room temp should be the same. i have an h70 too. and i used it before the H100i. and my temps was in the 54-57STOCK. under P95 Small FFT. but unter intel burn test it pass from 60C. and that was even with the stock fans at full 2000RPM..
 
I also noticed that for some reason, the backplate on the H60 is still "wiggly". As in, two corners on the same side aren't fully snapped down. I am not sure why that is the case. Two of the screws are nice and tight and don't move up or down, but two do. And that's tighting those screws as tight as I possibly can.

I think something is wrong with this cooler. Edit: I'll test with P95. Edit #2: Temps with Prime95 @ stock 59/62/63/61..

Seems others have the same issue with the backplate and it is tightened by the thumbscrews with pressure from the sink...so I am not sure here.
 
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don't u have an H70? XD in so confused now.. can you post a picture of your system? and your backplate to check if all are good?. most problem i saw with H60-H80-H100 backplates are solved with some plastic washers between the thumbscrew and the motherboard.. do not overthight the thumbscrews you can fk the motherboard... definitely something its wrong with the cooler and i guess its due t o poor contact on waterblock..
 
It's a H60. I made an edit and accidentally typed 70. I am about done fiddling with it, tbh. I have double checked and triple checked everything this weekend (and I am about tired of doing it) to no luck. I'm not that dense that I am messing up the install either. I'm following Corsair's guide and am making sure contact with CPU is good. I have no earthly idea why the backplate seems to wiggle.

I'll just live with the fact that I am going to be running hot and just either won't OC and stick to turbo or go out and buy a Hyper 212 or something and be done with it when I feel up to the task again. The H60 is about 2 years old. The previous i5 I had got fried in an electrical storm, and it took over 2 months to get myself a new motherboard and processor from RMA, so I am just happy I have a computer at this point. I appreciate the help. I'll update the thread if I continue. I'm just fed up with it ;\ Felt like my entire weekend was wasted.
 
well thats a sadly info.. please keep us posted for any news..
 
timtheenchantor said:
It's a H60. I made an edit and accidentally typed 70. I am about done fiddling with it, tbh. I have double checked and triple checked everything this weekend (and I am about tired of doing it) to no luck. I'm not that dense that I am messing up the install either. I'm following Corsair's guide and am making sure contact with CPU is good. I have no earthly idea why the backplate seems to wiggle.

I'll just live with the fact that I am going to be running hot and just either won't OC and stick to turbo or go out and buy a Hyper 212 or something and be done with it when I feel up to the task again. The H60 is about 2 years old. The previous i5 I had got fried in an electrical storm, and it took over 2 months to get myself a new motherboard and processor from RMA, so I am just happy I have a computer at this point. I appreciate the help. I'll update the thread if I continue. I'm just fed up with it ;\ Felt like my entire weekend was wasted.
Click to expand...

Man that stinks, my 2600k is running on a push / pull air setup at 4.8 ghz 1.30 volts 35 degrees idle / 65 degrees full load at the very Max but mostly stats high 50s
 
I would get in touch with Corsair.
They may want to stand behind their product.
 
Marcdaddy said:
Man that stinks, my 2600k is running on a push / pull air setup at 4.8 ghz 1.30 volts 35 degrees idle / 65 degrees full load at the very Max but mostly stats high 50s
Click to expand...

With that you mean you live in the arctic(joking btw) with a high end air cooler with Hyperthreading off?? theres no way a i7 2600K at 4.8GHZ reaching 65C under full load... (Btw full according to what program?.. Heavy games? Synthetic?). I do not think even a phanteks PH-TC14 can make that kind of delta temp over the OP ambient room temp. (26C -28C maybe?) With a higher room temp like that the delta temp increase dramatically even with a high end air cooler.. Even at 20C room temp with a good air cooler on a stock i7 2600K it should be in the line of 48C - 51C..

Does not take bad, it Just hardly to believe for me.. Or well. You have a golden 2600K blessed by the overclockers gods... XD
 
I went out and picked up a Hyper 212+. Installed it (along with a new SSD) and here's my results on Prime95. Stock.

Several degrees cooler. I think that if I was able to reduce my ambient, I'd be in a good position.

n9mctgg.png
 
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Went back to it with the new Hyper 212+. I set my voltages to 1.20 (no offset), set my multi to x42. Highest temps in the pic below after 30-minute stress test. I am going to follow the guides to use offset and learn more about other settings so I might be able to push my multi up a little more..see how far I can go with the voltages. I might be able eek more performance out. I'll keep fiddling and such and post if I have any questions/concerns

I4IsI7j.png
 
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