i7-920 D0 insane temps

[Steven85]

Hi, lately I've bought from a guy his i7-920 D0. Apparently I've been immune in this Sandy-Bridge craze of late and I would prefer to have a robust Nehalem especially since I could find it for as little as that guy sold it to me...

Anyway, the CPU seems to be fine it does 4GHz at 1.27v and 4.3GHz @ 1.33v. It seems to be a rare chip as far as clocks go. Fine till now, but my delightment turned into horror when I checked the temps. Apparently when @ stock volts (1.15v) it touches 70C in prime while @ 4Ghz, it's almost a 90C toaster. My volts seem to be fine yet my system consistently reports 10-20C more than it should.

What's more I use an Ultra Extreme with Dual Deltas installed, my setup should had "eaten" the thing alive. At 4Ghz I must have had closer to 70 certainly not 90. What may be the culprit is that the CPU (supposededly) was lapped (that's how I received it), but it's surface was very uneven almost grainy (bad lap job I'd guess). But even so I should have had 4-6C more than normal -at most- not 20C more like I currently get.

I do not know the first thing of/about lapping and I don't feel that I would like to learn about it now, so can you recommend to me any other way to lower the insane temperatures. It's a great chip I would hate to have to sell it...

Thanks for your time and attention...

 

[Tsumi]

With a full blown watercooling setup, my i7 920 hits 70-74 C at 4.2 ghz (200x21). With 1.3v, and low vdroop (effective voltage in windows is in the neighborhood of 1.31). Frankly, I'm not all that surprised it gets close to 90 on air, the Nehelams run hot. And that is with a 3x140 radiator with nothing else in the loop (too lazy to add my graphics cards).

The chips are fine running at 90 C. Not recommended, but fine. I would recommend redoing the thermal paste at least, and reseating it. Touch your heatsink, is it warm to the touch? If it is, that means it is conducting the heat well, and there's really nothing much you can do to lower temps besides getting a new cooler.

 

[hdnut]

It sounds like it may have been lapped unevenly by the previous owner. Take nice flat edge like a razor blade and check how flat the lapped surface is. If it is indeed uneven, you will have to lap it yourself to get it flat. Here's a good tutorial how to lap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXuZTuoEuE

Are you saying that it's reaching 90c at load running at 4ghz? If so, that is tad high with your cooling setup. I had my 920 running at 4.2ghz with a TRUE and the thing never went above 75c at full load with HT on.

You should attempt to re-seat the cooler again to see if that fixes anything. I also hope that you're providing adequate airflow to the CPU cooling fans.

 

[Steven85]

It sounds like it may have been lapped unevenly by the previous owner. Take nice flat edge like a razor blade and check how flat the lapped surface is. If it is indeed uneven, you will have to lap it yourself to get it flat. Here's a good tutorial how to lap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXuZTuoEuE

Are you saying that it's reaching 90c at load running at 4ghz? If so, that is tad high with your cooling setup. I had my 920 running at 4.2ghz with a TRUE and the thing never went above 75c at full load with HT on.

You should attempt to re-seat the cooler again to see if that fixes anything. I also hope that you're providing adequate airflow to the CPU cooling fans.

That's the 3rd time that I have reseated my cooler. It's not exactly hard either, I have done it millions of times.
And indeed my cooler is the TRUE actually so I must get the same temps as you did. Also -supposededly- D0 cpus have low temps.

Lastly what annoys me the most is that when the CPU is at full load then my TRUE *barely* gets hot no matter the 90C which are frying my CPU at the same time. Which means that there's little contact between CPU and the True, but like I said no matter how many temp I may reseat my True I get the *exact* same results.

So you say that I should lap. Correct? Would lapping give me back 20C ?

 

[Tsumi]

That's the 3rd time that I have reseated my cooler. It's not exactly hard either, I have done it millions of times.
And indeed my cooler is the TRUE actually so I must get the same temps as you did. Also -supposededly- D0 cpus have low temps.

Lastly what annoys me the most is that when the CPU is at full load then my TRUE *barely* gets hot no matter the 90C which are frying my CPU at the same time. Which means that there's little contact between CPU and the True, but like I said no matter how many temp I may reseat my True I get the *exact* same results.

So you say that I should lap. Correct? Would lapping give me back 20C ?

If the high temperature was really a result of a poor lapping job, then yes, it can really give you back 20 C due to better contact.

 

[Steven85]

If the high temperature was really a result of a poor lapping job, then yes, it can really give you back 20 C due to better contact.

Ah oh, OK. Then I guess that's what I should be doing...

 

[Steven85]

If the high temperature was really a result of a poor lapping job, then yes, it can really give you back 20 C due to better contact.

Ah oh, OK. Then I guess that's what I should be doing...

edit: Oh, btw since I don't know the first thing about lapping if I am to simply follow the guide on youtube would I be OK? I mean let's say that my CPU is unevenly lapped (which most possibly is) would I need to do sth extra to right it's uneveness or the standard steps are enough?

Lastly would I need to lap my True as well while I'm at it?

 

[hdnut]

So you say that I should lap. Correct? Would lapping give me back 20C ?

If the previous lapping job was done piss-poorly, it is very possible that you'll see an improvement in temps. However, whether or not you get 20c improvement is not a sure thing.

I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but it's common for TRUE's to have uneven contact surface. It wouldn't hurt to lap the TRUE while you're at it.

If doing either of these doesn't help much, then I suggest looking into a different cooler. It's possible that your TRUE lost it's ability to do its job as it should due to damage to its heat pipes.

And yes, just follow the steps of the guide on youtube and you should be golden.

 

[Tsumi]

If it is fairly rough, then you want to start out with somewhat coarse sandpaper, then work your way up to fine sandpaper. If the coarse sandpaper isn't enough to smooth it out to the approximate roughness of the sandpaper, then you need to go with a coarser one.

I wouldn't lap your True, since high-end heatsinks usually come already well-lapped. And frankly, lapping is usually a waste a time, it won't net you more than 5 C improvement in most cases, and can actually make things worse, as you are seeing.

 

[Steven85]

I wouldn't lap your True, since high-end heatsinks usually come already well-lapped. And frankly, lapping is usually a waste a time, it won't net you more than 5 C improvement in most cases, and can actually make things worse, as you are seeing.

But still I would *need* to lap my cpu (it's all grainy as the way that I received it), correct?

Also now that I unseated (once again) my True I can see that there is clear contact only in the middle of the CPU, the right and left sides touched only barely to the CPU's surface.

Truth to be said I had not noticed -in the past- whether my True sits well on other CPUs or not (I was getting good temps anyway), but does that -maybe- imply that my True's mounting mechanism has some problems, or is it normal (to make a tigher contact with the center of the CPU's surface and less so with its sides...)?

 

[Steven85]

(minor) Success!
After I lapped both the CPU and my Heatsink (for a good measure), I shaved around 7-10C from my CPU, not exactly everything I wanted but at least I am half way there. That means that I can now run at 1.35v before reaching that dreaded 90c on Prime - Small FTT.

Now of course I have to wonder: I was only able to follow the guide up until the 1000 Grit sandpaper phase, I couldn't find (anywhere around) 1500 or 2000 grit; so I'm wandering (whether) if I'm to continue my CPU's lapping I am to get even better results. Any lapping veterans' advice would be welcome...

BTW thanks for the recommendation my D0 is finally usable...

 

[hdnut]

(minor) Success!
After I lapped both the CPU and my Heatsink (for a good measure), I shaved around 7-10C from my CPU, not exactly everything I wanted but at least I am half way there. That means that I can now run at 1.35v before reaching that dreaded 90c on Prime - Small FTT.

Now of course I have to wonder: I was only able to follow the guide up until the 1000 Grit sandpaper phase, I couldn't find (anywhere around) 1500 or 2000 grit; so I'm wandering (whether) if I'm to continue my CPU's lapping I am to get even better results. Any lapping veterans' advice would be welcome...

BTW thanks for the recommendation my D0 is finally usable...

Nice, congratz on getting it your temps lowered. You may have to go online to get 1500 and higher. I really can't tell you from my own experience if going that high will net you any more gains since I've only gone up to 1000 grit myself.

I'm sure you know this, but airflow can affect temps greatly. Better cable management and stronger case fans (and more fans) might help as well if you haven't done this already.

 

[Steven85]

I'm sure you know this, but airflow can affect temps greatly. Better cable management and stronger case fans (and more fans) might help as well if you haven't done this already.

Indeed my nine hundred case is almost entirely free of cables, since I have modded it (in the past) to have them be routed from the back. Also like I said I use two deltas on top of my True and another 3 Slipstreams 2000 RPM, apart from the big 200mm fan running on top... So yeah, I'm sure I have of the most excelent airflows.

I'd guess to get the rest 7-10C back I would have either to lap again (maybe be a little more thorough if possible) or use a new Heatsink as my True may well got too old for this kind of stuff...