bringing an I7 online

mdawson
mdawson
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Dan, I agree with your

Dan, I agree with your statement that something is not right. After watching this all afternoon, I see that core 1 has hit 81 C. The Coolermaster is a bolt-on type and I made sure there was ample compound (but not too much) and that I tightened the fan "legs" as far as I could by touch. No wrench.

HT is turned on so there are 8 processes running. I'm beginning to think something is wrong with this board. Twice now it has failed to find the onboard ethernet port and I went thru hell getting it working again. W7 doesn't also seem to see the USB 3.0 controller either.

I got a bunch of bluescreens after I posted earlier today. I'm investigating now.

dunx
dunx
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Mine idles at 40 degrees, but

Mine idles at 40 degrees, but I'm NOW running at 3.8 GHz. I always run my new machines in at a reduced speed for a week of continuous use, at around 30% load.

Then if all appears well I up the speed... After only two weeks I'm running mine at 90% load and still only see 68 -> 70 degrees maximum.

I'm lucky as mine is in the garage, so noise isn't an issue. Busy 24/7/365 : - )

dunx

P.S. Spec i7 960 @ 3.8 GHz + Asus P6T6 WS + 6 Gb DDR3 @ 1600 MHz + Corsair H70 cpu cooler + 2 x GTX 460 OC + SSD for W7 + 1TB HDD for BOINC & another for my Itunes/DVD collection ! 2 x 200mm case fans and a pair of 140mm fans cooling the NF200 and the voltage regulators...

mdawson
mdawson
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Dunx, I'm letting BOINC

Dunx,

I'm letting BOINC slam the processors. CPU 1 topped out at 82 for awhile midday (it was 85+ outside, maybe 79 inside), but averages 78-80 over the course of the whole day. The other 3 cpu's are a few degrees cooler. I took the cpu fans off of AUTO mode and forced them to run 100% all of the time.

I know one thing I need, is to replace the little 3-4" fan on the case side cover with something larger and faster. The CPU fan blows into that vicinity and I think would help vent more internal case heat. Another thing I need to fix is the 2nd video card. It's an older EVGA nVidia chip card, but it crunches. The problem is that the only slot I could mount it into is the very bottom slot of the mobo. So it exhausts real close to the actual bottom of the case. Heat doesn't escape from there very well, but gpu temp on that card runs consistent at about 70 C. Considering what the cpu's are doing, I'm not worried about it too much.

I have even bigger problems which I'll outline in a separate email.

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
ExtraTerrestria...
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You might want to go for a

You might want to go for a test run with the case side panel off. If that greatly reduces temperature you've got insufficient case cooling. If not - you heat sink is very probably not mounted correctly, as others have suggested. BTW: to check / redo this you shoulnd't need to take everything apart (depending on your skill and the system, of course).

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

mdawson
mdawson
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MrS, Actually it run a tad

MrS,

Actually it run a tad hotter with the side case on. Not much though. This fan is now bolted on, so to remove and reseat, I have to physically remove the mobo to get access to the nuts. It's not a difficult procedure, just time consuming. I can do it without disconnecting most of the cabling, but I have t be careful.

I did make sure that all 4 corners of the heatsink were flush with the proc when I was bolting it in. It's always possible that something went wrong or I made a mistake, but I'm discounting that theory the most. I'm not ruling it out, just discounting it. The footprint of the heatsink is larger than the footprint of the proc, so it seems to me that there's no specific direction to orient the heatsink. If there is, maybe that's the problem.

paul milton
paul milton
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you cant access the bolts by

you cant access the bolts by removing the back side panel?

edit: ok i just re-read my post and im thinking to my self "huh?" what i mean is on cases ive had both the "front" side panel (the usual one you take off to gain access to the insides). and the "back" side panel (the side that would be the bottom of the mother board) could be removed.

seeing without seeing is something the blind learn to do, and seeing beyond vision can be a gift.

mdawson
mdawson
Joined: 23 Feb 05
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Removing the "rear" side

Removing the "rear" side panel won't do me any good because the mobo is screwed down to it. I'd still have to separate the mobo from the side panel. The nuts are between the mobo and the rear side panel.

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
ExtraTerrestria...
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RE: Actually it run a tad

Quote:
Actually it run a tad hotter with the side case on. Not much though.

Yeah, that's expected. The question was just how much.

As others have said: this i7 does consume a lot of power when under full load, but does switch most of its parts off completely when idle. That's why it should idle at not much more than 30°C. At 50°C either your fan is sinning very slowly (almost off) or.. well, something's wrong.

And usually heat sinks take some time to warm up, if the thermal contact to the heat source (i.e. CPU) is good. Upon loading the CPU the temperature should immediately jump by 10 - 30°C and afterwards continue to raise slowly while the heatsink is warmed up. That could be 10°C in about one minute, or more or less depending on heat sink and air flow. If you don't see this something's wrong, again (i.e. the heat sink does not warm up, because the thermal contact is so bad that all the heat which eventually reaches it can be disposed of immediately).

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

mdawson
mdawson
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OK, here's my temp

OK, here's my temp numbers.

At idle the cores slow down to 1.6ghz and the temps range from 40-44 degrees C. The very minute I turn BOINC back on, temps start climbing. At the one minute mark, cpu speeds are back up to 3.2 ghz, and the temps range from 65-72 degrees C. Fan is spinning at full rpm, as I have taken it off of any kind of system control via the BIOS. As I do this, it is evening and cool. During the day, the temps will go from 75-80 degrees C. So it looks like heat transfer at the point of interface is NOT the problem. I did after all, get a 20 degree reduction when I switched the fans out. The cpu fan is blowing hot air, and voracious quantities of it.

It's now been about 5 mins and temps have stabilized at 72 for core 1, 69 for core 2, 65 for core 3 and 64 for core 4.

It's now been about 10 mins and I'm at 72 for 1, 69 for 2, 66 for 3, and 69 for 4. These tests were done on a system that's been up for days. This rig is always on.

I have taken the side panel back off. The only appreciable result I see from that is my 2nd video card located at the very bottom of the mobo is running noticeably cooler. There's only about 1/4" clearance between where the card exhausts and the actual bottom of the case. (It's the only slot I can use except one located right next to my GTX 260 which would put the two dangerously close to each other physically.

My PC sits on the floor where ambient air temp is coolest, but I do get a lot of dust that way. So I take special care to mitigate any dust build-up about every 3 months with a fan removal from the fins and a vacuum out of the fins and everything internal. I have a little wand with a small hole that fits on my Kirby. So after a high pass at 1-2" getting the bulky dust (sometimes there is some), I can then get in deep between everything with the wand for true deep cleaning.

The only other thing I can try is to use the double fan option for this CoolerMaster. That's if I can find the mounting brackets for the 2nd fan. I think I threw them out thinking I would never need them.

Thanks for the responses guys.

dunx
dunx
Joined: 13 Aug 10
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Even here in the chilly UK I

Even here in the chilly UK I tend to slow the CPU clock during the summer.

As the ambient climbs so does the CPU, simple physics...

Noisy fans may help, I have a side panel with four mains voltage fans from a server rack cooling mine.

Good luck !

dunx

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