Xeon E3-1230 Temperatures

[DarkNovaNick]

I recently bought a Xeon E3-1230, running on a Supermicro X9SCM-F motherboard, as seems to be a pretty common setup around here.

As my usual practice with a new system, I proceeded to run some stress tests under 100% load to make sure the system does not have a fault that will appear later.

I loaded a recent version of Linux (Linux Mint Debian Edition) and did "modprobe w83627ehf" and "modprobe coretemp", and then ran "sensors" to get the CPU temperature information.

I then ran prime95, 8 threads, to fully load the CPU. With this running, the Core 0-4 temperatures range from 75-80C, and the "PECI Agent 0" temperature goes up to a max of about 86.0C. I'm not exactly sure why the PECI Agent 0 temperature is a few degrees higher than the Core 0-4 temperatures, but they do seem to change together.

I'm using the stock Intel CPU heatsink/fan, and I have it set to Full Speed in the BIOS, which seems to be working as "sensors" also shows it running around 2000 rpm.

I double-checked that the heatsink/fan was locked in place, and idle temperatures range from 24-35C so that definitely seems reasonable.

When fully loaded and the PECI Agent 0 temperature shows in the low 80s, the Supermicro IPMI interface shows "Medium" for temperature (not sure why they don't show the actual temperature here). But when it gets up to the max of about 86.0C then it goes to high, so even if the Linux sensors are reading slightly off, Supermicro's BIOS does confirm that it is running too hot.

My case has plenty of airflow, 3 other fans turned up all the way.

Has anyone else done a similar test and seen the same/different results? I thought that the stock Intel heatsink would be good enough to handle a full load as long as I wasn't overclocking, but it doesn't seem to be able to. Or is something not working right on my setup?

The Intel datasheet for the E3-1230 shows a TCASE of 69.1C, so that's why I'm concerned about these temperatures?

Should I buy an aftermarket cooler?

 

[Tiporaro]

Well, a few thoughts I have reading this:

1) As far as I know, the SB-based cpu's (whether i5/7 or xeon) have a max temp ~100C, where throttling occurs.
2) Intel stock cooler sucks. No real way around it.
3) Xeon should run cooler though than consumer chip (I believe this is true as the 1230 is a 69W part vs 2600 @ 95W), and at stock getting up to 80's under 100% load is a little higher than I'd have guessed, even with the crappy intel HSF. Offhand I wouldn't have been surprised though if you were in the 70's at 100% load, stock, with the stock cooler.

My inclination is to say that you should double check your mount on the HSF and the TIM used (guessing you used the TIM that's pre-applied on the hsf). Try reseating with possibly another TIM and see if that brings temps down.

 

[-Dragon-]

It may not be as secure as you think, had a similar problem with a similar setup, it just wouldn't latch down right, had to go with a 3rd party cooler. Just give the cooler a little wiggle on all 4 corners, if any part moves at all, it's not secure and you probably need a new one. Remember temperature delta across a thermal interface is measured in degrees per watt, so if a loose fan had a 0.5 C/W delta, at a 5W idle it would only raise CPU temp 2.5C, hardly noticable, but at full load of say 80W you'd be looking at a 40C delta. Most properly applied TIM has a delta in the 0.0x C/W range.

 

[dashpuppy]

are you able to post pictures of your unit hows it's installed and etc etc things ?

 

[danswartz]

Yeah I hate the stock coolers. I always end up getting one of the ones with the bracket under the mobo so you KNOW it ain't coming off

 

[DarkNovaNick]

Thanks for the responses. Since so many people think the stock heatsink is not very good, I decided that instead of taking the time to remove & reinstall the stock, for $20 I ordered the Hyper 212+ which looks to have really good reviews, and has a lot better mounting system. It will be a pain to install since I will have to remove the motherboard, but it will be worth it if the temperatures are a lot better. It will come in a few days and I will post back with the results.

 

[DarkNovaNick]

I installed the Hyper 212 Plus and things are running much better now. As a note to anyone else looking to install it on this motherboard, it fits OK (assuming you have enough clearance in your case), but if you try to install it in the standard "east-west" configuration with it blowing out the rear of your case, the heatsink will block a couple memory slots making it so you need to remove the heatsink to remove/add memory, and it will also block the first PCI Express slot. I didn't want to do this, so I installed it in a "north-south" configuration where it blows out the top of my tower case. You really need a case with a vent on the top for this to work. This doesn't block any PCI Express slots, and the memory is blocked somewhat by the fan, but it takes 10 seconds to remove the fan from the heatsink and so its not a big deal to have to do that if you want to change memory.

With this cooler, running Prime95 in Linux the "PECI Agent 0" sensor shows a max temperature of 61C and the cores show max temps of 55C. The corresponding temperature shown by the Supermicro IPMI utility is "Medium", but I think it is close to the edge of "Low" as I see it go down to "Low" sometimes when things drop about 1-2C. This is with the BIOS fan control set to either Optimal or Standard. At these temperatures, the BIOS is making the CPU fan run at 1100-1200 RPM. This motherboard does not provide very much control over the fan. It must think these temperatures aren't very high as it is only turning the fan up to around 50% PWM.

If I change the BIOS fan setting to "Full Speed", it will always run the fan at almost 2000 RPM and then the PECI Agent 0 temp gets up to a max of 59C and the cores to 51C.

With the BIOS fan set to "Optimal", at idle the CPU fan runs at about 600 RPM and the PECI Agent 0 temp shows 32C and the cores 20-28C (pretty much ambient).

Thanks for the advice.

 

[dashpuppy]

I installed the Hyper 212 Plus and things are running much better now. As a note to anyone else looking to install it on this motherboard, it fits OK (assuming you have enough clearance in your case), but if you try to install it in the standard "east-west" configuration with it blowing out the rear of your case, the heatsink will block a couple memory slots making it so you need to remove the heatsink to remove/add memory, and it will also block the first PCI Express slot. I didn't want to do this, so I installed it in a "north-south" configuration where it blows out the top of my tower case. You really need a case with a vent on the top for this to work. This doesn't block any PCI Express slots, and the memory is blocked somewhat by the fan, but it takes 10 seconds to remove the fan from the heatsink and so its not a big deal to have to do that if you want to change memory.

With this cooler, running Prime95 in Linux the "PECI Agent 0" sensor shows a max temperature of 61C and the cores show max temps of 55C. The corresponding temperature shown by the Supermicro IPMI utility is "Medium", but I think it is close to the edge of "Low" as I see it go down to "Low" sometimes when things drop about 1-2C. This is with the BIOS fan control set to either Optimal or Standard. At these temperatures, the BIOS is making the CPU fan run at 1100-1200 RPM. This motherboard does not provide very much control over the fan. It must think these temperatures aren't very high as it is only turning the fan up to around 50% PWM.

If I change the BIOS fan setting to "Full Speed", it will always run the fan at almost 2000 RPM and then the PECI Agent 0 temp gets up to a max of 59C and the cores to 51C.

With the BIOS fan set to "Optimal", at idle the CPU fan runs at about 600 RPM and the PECI Agent 0 temp shows 32C and the cores 20-28C (pretty much ambient).

Thanks for the advice.

Pictures