SFF Help.

[JustAPerson]

Hi everyone, first post here but the many interesting and awesome posts within these subforums pushed me to building an SFF system. My components are as follows:

• Motherboard: ASRock z68m-itx/ht
• CPU: Core i5 2500k
• GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti
• Case: Sugo SG06BB-450
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x4gb LP DDR3 1600Mhz

I replaced the stock front 120mm fan with a Cooler Master Excalibur at 2000rpm, replaced the stock Intel HS with a Scythe Kozuti and an added Scythe Kaze Jyu Slim at 2000rpm on the top.

My problem is that for the first week or so, the Scythe Kozuti worked great, I'd hit a max of 69c running Prime 95 for about an hour though it eventually stabilised at aboout 63-65c. When playing my most played games at max and custom settings, I'd hit about 50-55c, which was reasonable for me.

However, after about a week or so, temperatures started skyrocketing to the point where I would hit about 80c running Prime95 and the CPU would automatically start throttling and I would be hitting similar temperatures while playing my games. The case would also get hot enough to the touch that it felt like burning. I've arrayed my two drives (320gb WD Caviar Blue and a Corsair Force 3 SSD) at the top using rubbing pads and washers so I've been able to remove the entire slim optical and 2.5" bay, arranged cables well enough that there's mostly not obstruction of the Scythe Kaze Jyu fan at the top of the cooler.

Currently, at semi-idle (under 10% cpu usage), temperatures are hovering around 35-40c and ambient temperature itself is rather warm, I think.

When opening up the case after a long period of use, the heatsink fins are extremely hot to the touch so the heat seem to be pulled off the CPU. At this point, I'm not sure what else there is to be done.

Any help with this issue is greatly appreciated.

 

[WiSK]

That doesn't sound right. Did you try reseating the CPU fan? Are you overclocking at all? Can you make a photo to better illustrate your layout?

 

[davidcesar]

Hi everyone, first post here but the many interesting and awesome posts within these subforums pushed me to building an SFF system. My components are as follows:

• Motherboard: ASRock z68m-itx/ht
• CPU: Core i5 2500k
• GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti
• Case: Sugo SG06BB-450
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x4gb LP DDR3 1600Mhz

I replaced the stock front 120mm fan with a Cooler Master Excalibur at 2000rpm, replaced the stock Intel HS with a Scythe Kozuti and an added Scythe Kaze Jyu Slim at 2000rpm on the top.

My problem is that for the first week or so, the Scythe Kozuti worked great, I'd hit a max of 69c running Prime 95 for about an hour though it eventually stabilised at aboout 63-65c. When playing my most played games at max and custom settings, I'd hit about 50-55c, which was reasonable for me.

However, after about a week or so, temperatures started skyrocketing to the point where I would hit about 80c running Prime95 and the CPU would automatically start throttling and I would be hitting similar temperatures while playing my games. The case would also get hot enough to the touch that it felt like burning. I've arrayed my two drives (320gb WD Caviar Blue and a Corsair Force 3 SSD) at the top using rubbing pads and washers so I've been able to remove the entire slim optical and 2.5" bay, arranged cables well enough that there's mostly not obstruction of the Scythe Kaze Jyu fan at the top of the cooler.

Currently, at semi-idle (under 10% cpu usage), temperatures are hovering around 35-40c and ambient temperature itself is rather warm, I think.

When opening up the case after a long period of use, the heatsink fins are extremely hot to the touch so the heat seem to be pulled off the CPU. At this point, I'm not sure what else there is to be done.

Any help with this issue is greatly appreciated.

if you have no limits in the space put the prolimatec Samuel instead of kozuti and
yours temps will be a lot betters

 

[JustAPerson]

No overlocking, everything is currently at stock.

I actually just tried a bunch of stuff, including removing all the fans (that didn't work well, as expected) then using single fans one at a time. I noticed the Kozuti worked better with a single 100mm fan at 2000rpm than with one 80mm and one 100mm fan (which makes sense if I stop to think about it). What I did then was replace the original 120mm fan at the front of the case and kinda flopped the Excalibur onto the heatsink and the 100mm Kaze Jyu on the side of the case not usually obstructed by the GPU (the side where the PSU rests). So far, temperatures are far better though the fan isn't properly attached.

I'm currently 20 minutes into Prime 95 and running at max heat on a couple of cores at 64c, usually around 58-62c. I'm hoping this will last.

I may look into the Samuel 17 but I'm reluctant to do anything since I went through A LOT of troubles getting the Scythe in (Original RAM had high heatspreaders, missing screws, etc.)

Thanks for the help so far, I'll see if anything changes.

Edit: 42 minutes in, highest temperature hit was 65c, twenty minutes ago. Temperatures are now sitting at roughly 58-60c/60-63c/60-63c/58-60c on their respective cores. Seems a lot better to me.

Edit 2: 70 minutes, temperatures peaked at 65c before I stopped, but that was with my case open and not having all my components in. I'm currently trying again after putting everything back in and putting a 3000rpm 80x10mm fan at the bottom of the Kozuti blowing upwards with variable speed via SpeedFan. I can turn it off and see if it helps any. So far, with a 1000rpm case fan, 2000rpm 120x25mm fan on top of my Kozuti, 80x10mm fan at the bottom of the Kozuti and a 100x10mm fan on the side to help ventilate hot air, I've peaked at 67c at 20 minutes into Prime 95. The two hottest core seem to fluctuate between 63-67c.

Edit 3: 31 minutes on test with everything stuffed back in, temperatures peaked at 69c, which sounds about right because the idle temps were about 2-3c higher than when the case was open. I've gone ahead and bought a Samuel 17 and an Antec Kuhler 620, any suggestions on which I should keep? I'm personally leaning towards the Samuel 17 since, for my purpose, air cooling would most likely be suited.

 

[WiSK]

Well since you've done the work of repositioning your drives, you're all set for watercooling. I guess with a push-pull on the 620 rad you'll get better temps than the Samuel, but I'd like to hear how you get on with that.

 

[JustAPerson]

Two things I'm a bit leery of for the Kuhler is how wide the radiator and fan will stretch. I've got a 560Ti with the power sockets at the back so if it obstructs it, that's a no go. Another thing is I'll be going overseas for a couple of years because of work and I plan to carry my rig along, hence choosing this tiny case and whether or not the watercooling unit will cause any troubles. Kuhler has already arrived but not sure if I want to unpack it or send it straight back.

 

[JustAPerson]

Well, bit the bullet and installed the Kuhler 620. Using the Corsair fan to push air through the rad and the Excalibur to pull air off it. So far, temperatures are decent-ish. 59c peak at thirteen minutes into Prime 95 though the processor seems to throttle for a couple of seconds every couple of minutes. I guess I shouldn't complain since it is about 10c cooler than my haphazard temporary Kozuti fix at peak (though there's lots of time to go before I hit the same length I had run Prime 95 for.

One problem I'm now having is finding a space for my 3.5" drive. As I expected, because the 6pin plugs for my 560Ti stick out the back, I had to be quite inventive with the radiator and it's currently in a sort of awkward position with the tubes at the very bottom of the case going up then back down over the CPU. This also means the 3.5" drive doesn't fit where I had it before, which was flush against the right side of the case using the SSD and 3.5" converter to force it to stay in place.

Edit: Well, spoke too soon. Clock speed is randomly falling to 1.5Ghz every couple of seconds in RealTemp, even though temperatures have not gone beyond 59c. Not sure what to do now.

Edit 2: I'm an idiot. Installed the Excalibur the wrong way so it's now pushing air onto the rad instead of pulling it off.

Edit 3: Okay, now that fans are finally in the right direction, I'm impressed. Ten minutes into Prime 95, temperatures have peaked at 51c on one core, the rest haven't broken 50 yet. From what I can see, everything seems to mostly fluctuate between 48-50c which is a HUGE improvement over the Kozuti which, apparently under the stress of the heat, has started buckling.