i7 950 high temps

[ss82480]

Let me start by saying I am a looong time lurker but first time poster. I have been building PC's and doing only mild overclocking since the 90s. I have seen multiple threads about how the i7s run hot. I thought mine wasn't terrible due to running it on the stock cooler. I recently purchased and installed the antec 620 kuhler to see if I could get temps down and here is what I found. My current temps are ~44c on all cores even at idle at 3.3oc, which seems to me quite high for having a water cooling unit. The PC is stable, except for BC2 and Witcher 2, which both seem to be driver/punkbuster related.

Now I am taking the easy road as my mobo has preset OC options which is all I am using.

Current specs:
i7 950
Asus x58 Sabertooth Motherboard
Corsair Dominator 2gbx3
MSI 6970 Lightning(960/1395)
OCZ Vertex 2 / OCZ Agility 2
Coolermaster Silentpro 850w PSU
Coolermaster Storm Sniper tower

 

[Dan_D]

Let me start by saying I am a looong time lurker but first time poster. I have been building PC's and doing only mild overclocking since the 90s. I have seen multiple threads about how the i7s run hot. I thought mine wasn't terrible due to running it on the stock cooler. I recently purchased and installed the antec 620 kuhler to see if I could get temps down and here is what I found. My current temps are ~44c on all cores even at idle at 3.3oc, which seems to me quite high for having a water cooling unit. The PC is stable, except for BC2 and Witcher 2, which both seem to be driver/punkbuster related.

Now I am taking the easy road as my mobo has preset OC options which is all I am using.

Current specs:
i7 950
Asus x58 Sabertooth Motherboard
Corsair Dominator 2gbx3
MSI 6970 Lightning(960/1395)
OCZ Vertex 2 / OCZ Agility 2
Coolermaster Silentpro 850w PSU
Coolermaster Storm Sniper tower

What are your load temps like? As for the Antec Kuhler, it's pretty much just like the Corsair H50 style units and after having one of those I can tell you that such coolers are at the low end of the water cooling spectrum. They do not compete with a good custom built water cooling setup. The Corsair / Antec / Asetek units are really only in the same league as really top end air coolers at best. (Maybe slightly better in some circumstances.) Their real advantages are in the fact that they are a bit quieter than some other solutions. They are also a bit cleaner looking depending on the installation.

 

[ss82480]

What are your load temps like? As for the Antec Kuhler, it's pretty much just like the Corsair H50 / H60 style units and after having one of those I can tell you that such coolers are at the low end of the water cooling spectrum. They do not compete with a good custom built water cooling setup. The Corsair / Antec / Asetek units are really only in the same league as really top end air coolers at best. (Maybe slightly better in some circumstances.) Their real advantages are in the fact that they are a bit quieter than some other solutions. They are also a bit cleaner looking depending on the installation.

Yeah I realize this unit is not suppose to compete with a full blown water cooling unit, but I guess after seeing people getting 30-35c idle temps I was starting to wonder what is wrong with mine. The highest I have seen load temps are near 70c, which is fine with me.

 

[Dan_D]

Yeah I realize this unit is not suppose to compete with a full blown water cooling unit, but I guess after seeing people getting 30-35c idle temps I was starting to wonder what is wrong with mine. The highest I have seen load temps are near 70c, which is fine with me.

Well a ton of variables come into play with idle temperatures. Ambient air temperature being the most important. What type of climate you live, in altitude and other factors must be considered. What clocks are you getting on your i7 950? What are your voltage settings?

 

[ss82480]

Well a ton of variables come into play with idle temperatures. Ambient air temperature being the most important. What type of climate you live, in altitude and other factors must be considered. What clocks are you getting on your i7 950? What are your voltage settings?

Yeah so I do live in Texas so it is a little warm here, but I keep the house at 75 degrees and ambient temps in the case show to be right at 37c. Just ran Prime 95 for a short load test and got up to 79c temps. At the 3.3ghz I am running stock 1.2v to the CPU.

 

[Dan_D]

Yeah so I do live in Texas so it is a little warm here, but I keep the house at 75 degrees and ambient temps in the case show to be right at 37c. Just ran Prime 95 for a short load test and got up to 79c temps. At the 3.3ghz I am running stock 1.2v to the CPU.

I'd pull the thing off the processor and reapply thermal paste / use different thermal paste or something because your temperatures definitely seem high for such a modest overclock. 3.3GHz is nothing for any Core i7 9xx to do.

 

[ss82480]

Roger that ordering thermal paste, thanks for the quick replies...I will update with the results.

 

[ss82480]

Well for now I got the temps down to 68c max by simply adding a second fan onto the radiatior. Still waiting on the artic silver to arrive.

 

[ss82480]

Well I found out the motherboard was auto adjusting my cpu voltage, big no-no. So I set it to stock voltage manually, was able to crank the bclk to 150 so 3.6ghz with same temps. Also ordered some Gentle Typhoons to do work on the radiator.