Sanity check - I7 temps

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musky

[H]ard|DCer of the Year 2012
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With an I7@3.8, 1.30v, what are marginally sane temps under full load? In other words, how hot is too hot? I am measuring using coretemp in Ubuntu, and clearing 70C at the moment on an A3 with no HT. Would rather not burn this thing up tonight... :p
 
70C is decent. Remember, it is basically impossible to kill an i7 for thermal issues. All newer Intel processors (and actually, starting with the Pentium 4) have a thermal diode that automatically throttles down the clock speed as needed. If it can't get temperatures back in order it will shut down with no damage.
 
70C is about right unless you are water cooling with a full blown W/C setup. Under full load, my i7 920 @ 3.8 GHz is typically 68C to 70C.
 
Your temps are fine.

I might say to look into some better cooling for the long term, but I wouldn't get worked up till it's past 80c running for months on end.
 
I'm limited on what I can use in a 4U case unfortunately. I seem to be holding steady at 72-74. The sucker sure chews through A3's in a hurry (my first Intel chip in probably a decade or so...)
 
Too hot would be 100C. I would say leave at least 10C to Tjmax for headroom purposes, so as long as you're under 90C, you're good to go.
 
You won't "burn it up" as you put it, the THERMTRIP signal will kill the power and shut down the computer before anything would happen.

Zero's points are sound...TjMax is technically the highest you can go, but then put some wiggle room in there as to what you do or don't want the temps to be. It really depends on your cooler also.

I get around 65c @ 3.67 w/HT @ 1.25v on my cooler. I would tolerate 70c, maybe 75c, if HT was on. 4 cores alone though (no HT), I wouldn't like going above 70. I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable at 80 or higher, but technically you're still in the safe zone - just hotter than I'd want to be.
 
my C0 i7 wouldnt go over 62c no matter how much voltage I put to it. (granted I didnt get much of a OC at all really)
I just replaced it with a W3520 and currently running it at 3.8GHz with 1.22v and stays at 59-60c (70f ambient)
 
Hit 95C before a blew a PSU (at least I hope it was a PSU) trying to run a -bigadv unit on -smp 8. A bit too hot for me. I guess these I7's are going to have to run closer to stock speed in my rack...bummer.
 
WOW dude, if you hit 95C than thats BAD!

70C is tolerable, 80C is even so, but 90C...... sheesh.

You need to look at a better cooling solution my friend, H50's are nice, or better cooling solution (W/C full blown)
 
FrEaKy said:
WOW dude, if you hit 95C than thats BAD!

70C is tolerable, 80C is even so, but 90C...... sheesh.

You need to look at a better cooling solution my friend, H50's are nice, or better cooling solution (W/C full blown)
Click to expand...

Highly o/c'ed I7's are just not going to work with this setup. There is way too much heat and not enough room to get rid of it. When I pulled the case on this PC, it felt like opening an oven. The heatsink itself was too hot to touch, so it is trying to get rid of the heat. It just can't get out of the case, judging from how hot the PSU and the air inside the case was.

Looking at the H50 or any of the other high-end cooling solutions, I do not see any way to shoehorn it in this case. Even if I could get it to fit, it would still need to do something with the heat it removes.

FYI, it wasn't the PSU that blew during this fiasco (or at least not only the PSU.) I'll try swapping out the motherboard tonight.

Live and learn I suppose. Maybe this can serve as a warning to anyone else who thinks they can just get an I7 920, overclock it to 3.8GHz, and stick it in a 4U case, and start cranking out 25K+ ppd. An I7@3.8 puts out a ridiculous amount of heat running with HT on.
 
What case are you using? If its in a rack and noise isnt a issue, some 7k rpm fans are in order!!!
 
More importantly what kind of cooler? Stock?? Has to be stock with temps like that. :eek:
 
zero2dash said:
More importantly what kind of cooler? Stock?? Has to be stock with temps like that. :eek:
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Cooler Master Hyper N520, which looked like about the best push/pull 92mm heatpipe HSF I could fit in the case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057&cm_re=n520-_-35-103-057-_-Product

The case is this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390141006613&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Noise isn't that much of an issue, so if a bigger set of fans will help, I could certainly give it a try.
 
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musky said:
Noise isn't that much of an issue
Click to expand...

If you think a 38mm thick fan will fit in the front check this out.
252 CFM FAN It should force feed enough air through that case. Granted its going to sound like a gas weedeater!!

Edit. or go for 2 - 80mm Vantec Tornado's exhausting. If they wont interfear with your CPU cooler.
 
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I thought I saw someone (maybe Tigerbiten, could be someone else - sorry I don't remember who for sure)...said something about using Thermalright XP90's or XP120's in a low height/rackmount case. Only problem I see with that is unless there's a DIY bracket solution, neither of those will work. XP90's didn't have s775 mounting kits AFAIK (let alone anything newer), the XP120 doesn't have 1156 or 1366 compatible kits AFAIK and it's not like you can use a traditional TRUE 1366 kit for $10 with that cooler and have it work (due to the low profile).

Simple question/solution to ask that may help a little...did you use the stock Cooler Master paste it comes with? Or did you use something else? I wouldn't put much trust into CM paste, maybe try reseating your cooler, clean off the old paste with some rubbing alcohol (80% or better will do, no need to drive around town trying to find 90+%) and then use some good TIM like Noctua's NT-H1, Zalman ZM-STG1, or even the Thermalright Chill stuff is supposedly pretty decent (I can vouch for the Noctua and Zalman stuff).
 
For those keeping score, the MB is the part the gave out first. Everything else seems fine.

I used Artic Silver paste, and judging from the temp of the HSF, it was working fine. I can't see how the difference in any quality thermal paste would be more than a couple of degrees.

Is it ultimately better to force more air in, or suck more air out? I am limited to 2 60mm fans for exhaust since the 2 80mm in the lid don't fit with a decent sized HSF and video card. With some fancy drill work, I could get the 80's mounted outside of the lid, but that sort of defeats the 4U case idea.
 
musky said:
I used Artic Silver paste, and judging from the temp of the HSF, it was working fine. I can't see how the difference in any quality thermal paste would be more than a couple of degrees.
Click to expand...

AS5 vs. others, yeah temps are a degree or two different at most.
If it was the stock smudged TIM they preapply, the difference of that type of TIM would be worse. Having used AS5 though it's not the paste....

musky said:
Is it ultimately better to force more air in, or suck more air out?
Click to expand...

More air in...positive pressure.
 
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My 860 sits at about 60c at 3.57ghz while doing -bigadv. Any faster I need to up the voltage a bit and temps climb to 68c-70c and it starts throttling. I have a crap motherboard (Biostar T5 XE), so I can't stop it.

Its a ZeroTherm92 cooler.
 
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