bringing an I7 online

mikey
mikey
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RE: OK, here's my temp

Quote:

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.

Sounds to me like you are close to having a super cruncher that will scream thru the units with no problems! As for the temps I would not consider them excessively high by any stretch of the imagination, in fact they are lower than what some other people have reported, and their pc's are doing just fine. I like your dust removal plan, I just wish I had as much ambition!

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
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mdawson, thanks for reporting

mdawson, thanks for reporting back. Considering everything I think your setup looks quite healthy / normal. Your case cooling is sufficient, you have no built-up of heat and the thermal contact between heatsink and CPU can't be too bad.

Your current temperatures are not great, but fine. What you could do to further reduce them:

- Lower your CPU voltage. The i7 does have quite some headroom, which you could either use to overclock at stock voltage or to downclock at stock clocks. The latter will save electricity and reduce temperature. If you're using Turbo it's best to look for an option like "cpu offset voltage" and to set a negative value here. Test, slowly increae the magnitude, retest.

- Fasten a 2nd fan onto the heatsink. If you can't find the bracket zip ties may do the trick. This will usually not improve temperatures very much, but you can achieve a higher air flow at lower fan rpms, i.e. you can get strong cooling more quiet.

- Not sure what you're using now, but a current high-performance TIM (thermal interface material) between CPU and heatsink might save you a few more degrees.

- You could invest in a current high-end cooler, although this is not going to be cheap (50 - 70€). And I'm not sure how your current model compares, so I'm assuming you could shave off another 5 - 10°C here.

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

mikey
mikey
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RE: mdawson, thanks for

Quote:

mdawson, thanks for reporting back. Considering everything I think your setup looks quite healthy / normal. Your case cooling is sufficient, you have no built-up of heat and the thermal contact between heatsink and CPU can't be too bad.

Your current temperatures are not great, but fine. What you could do to further reduce them:

- Lower your CPU voltage. The i7 does have quite some headroom, which you could either use to overclock at stock voltage or to downclock at stock clocks. The latter will save electricity and reduce temperature. If you're using Turbo it's best to look for an option like "cpu offset voltage" and to set a negative value here. Test, slowly increae the magnitude, retest.

- Fasten a 2nd fan onto the heatsink. If you can't find the bracket zip ties may do the trick. This will usually not improve temperatures very much, but you can achieve a higher air flow at lower fan rpms, i.e. you can get strong cooling more quiet.

- Not sure what you're using now, but a current high-performance TIM (thermal interface material) between CPU and heatsink might save you a few more degrees.

- You could invest in a current high-end cooler, although this is not going to be cheap (50 - 70€). And I'm not sure how your current model compares, so I'm assuming you could shave off another 5 - 10°C here.

MrS

Oooh..you mean water cooling?!

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
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No, high end air like the

No, high end air like the amazing Thermalright Silver Arrow. I'm not going to suggest water to anyone (if it was the right thing for him he'd probably already be using it ;).

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

DanNeely
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RE: No, high end air like

Quote:

No, high end air like the amazing Thermalright Silver Arrow. I'm not going to suggest water to anyone (if it was the right thing for him he'd probably already be using it ;).

MrS

Unless you're going to be doing heavy OC, that monster is serious overkill. If you want a major step up from stock cooling without breaking the bank go for the coolermaster hyper 212; it's still overkill for anything running at stockish speeds, but being more reasonable in size is less likely to have problems fitting without blocking anything else.

mikey
mikey
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RE: RE: No, high end air

Quote:
Quote:

No, high end air like the amazing Thermalright Silver Arrow. I'm not going to suggest water to anyone (if it was the right thing for him he'd probably already be using it ;).

MrS

Unless you're going to be doing heavy OC, that monster is serious overkill. If you want a major step up from stock cooling without breaking the bank go for the coolermaster hyper 212; it's still overkill for anything running at stockish speeds, but being more reasonable in size is less likely to have problems fitting without blocking anything else.

You know that is the same one that Maximum PC Magazine likes but when I looked it up I didn't see where it fit an i7 so I didn't post anything. I re-looked and it DOES fit an i7, here is a link:
http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2923

It is also fairly cheap compared to the 'butterfly', the 'orb' or the circular ones.

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
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RE: Unless you're going to

Quote:
Unless you're going to be doing heavy OC, that monster is serious overkill.

Agreed.

However, the OP's already using an aftermarket CoolerMaster, which improved the situation a lot over the stock cooler. But he's still hitting 80°C without case cooling problems. That's why I figured if he wanted to put money onto the table for a better cooler he might not want to go for another "value" solution.
Mind you, I don't know what his current model is, so this Hyper 212 might very well be a large improvement over his current one.

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

mdawson
mdawson
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Thanks for chiming in guys. I

Thanks for chiming in guys. I don't know what model of CoolerMaster I have, but it was fairly expensive if I remember correctly. Like $60-90 at Fry's. It did have the option of using a different set of rails so that an additional fan could be mounted. I used Arctic Silver 5 for the heat compound. I picked it up at Radio Shack for about $10. It's a really small tube though and it was easily twice as expensive as the "other" heat compound products that they had. I also used Arctic Clean 1 and 2 (liquids) to remove old compound and prep for new compound.

Today is a hot day here in Los Angeles, so when I checked the temps after reading the additional posts to the thread, I see where they are in the 70's. It's over 90 outside, and about 84 in here. Core 0 always runs the hottest and it's at 77 bouncing up to 79 every so often. The other 3 physical cores are in the 70-73 range. I am running with the side panel of the case off. That seems to help as well and the noise isn't too bad.

For awhile there I was playing with processor affinity. By using only 6 cores, I was keeping core 0 down to the same level as the other 3 physical cores. I wish somebody would write into these apps the ability to do this because my output went up considerably. Windows seems to be a horrible manager when it comes to delegating tasks across a lot of processors. I was sending the 6 Einstein's to CPUs 2-7 and leaving CPU's 0 and 1 open for me. That kept core 0 temp down and also kept my system fairly zippy. Right now, letting Windows run management on the cores, the system coughs and chokes on everyday tasks. I'd really like to be able to separate the wu's from general stuff.

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
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RE: Thanks for chiming in

Quote:

Thanks for chiming in guys. I don't know what model of CoolerMaster I have, but it was fairly expensive if I remember correctly. Like $60-90 at Fry's. It did have the option of using a different set of rails so that an additional fan could be mounted. I used Arctic Silver 5 for the heat compound. I picked it up at Radio Shack for about $10. It's a really small tube though and it was easily twice as expensive as the "other" heat compound products that they had. I also used Arctic Clean 1 and 2 (liquids) to remove old compound and prep for new compound.

Today is a hot day here in Los Angeles, so when I checked the temps after reading the additional posts to the thread, I see where they are in the 70's. It's over 90 outside, and about 84 in here. Core 0 always runs the hottest and it's at 77 bouncing up to 79 every so often. The other 3 physical cores are in the 70-73 range. I am running with the side panel of the case off. That seems to help as well and the noise isn't too bad.

For awhile there I was playing with processor affinity. By using only 6 cores, I was keeping core 0 down to the same level as the other 3 physical cores. I wish somebody would write into these apps the ability to do this because my output went up considerably. Windows seems to be a horrible manager when it comes to delegating tasks across a lot of processors. I was sending the 6 Einstein's to CPUs 2-7 and leaving CPU's 0 and 1 open for me. That kept core 0 temp down and also kept my system fairly zippy. Right now, letting Windows run management on the cores, the system coughs and chokes on everyday tasks. I'd really like to be able to separate the wu's from general stuff.

Dr. Anderson, of Seti, and the writer and maintainer of the Boinc software does not care for that idea, so despite many of us repeatedly asking for that he has always declined. There is a Boinc mailing list but I do not have the link, he and his crew can be reached thru the list.

Richard Haselgrove
Richard Haselgrove
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RE: RE: Thanks for

Quote:
Quote:

Thanks for chiming in guys. I don't know what model of CoolerMaster I have, but it was fairly expensive if I remember correctly. Like $60-90 at Fry's. It did have the option of using a different set of rails so that an additional fan could be mounted. I used Arctic Silver 5 for the heat compound. I picked it up at Radio Shack for about $10. It's a really small tube though and it was easily twice as expensive as the "other" heat compound products that they had. I also used Arctic Clean 1 and 2 (liquids) to remove old compound and prep for new compound.

Today is a hot day here in Los Angeles, so when I checked the temps after reading the additional posts to the thread, I see where they are in the 70's. It's over 90 outside, and about 84 in here. Core 0 always runs the hottest and it's at 77 bouncing up to 79 every so often. The other 3 physical cores are in the 70-73 range. I am running with the side panel of the case off. That seems to help as well and the noise isn't too bad.

For awhile there I was playing with processor affinity. By using only 6 cores, I was keeping core 0 down to the same level as the other 3 physical cores. I wish somebody would write into these apps the ability to do this because my output went up considerably. Windows seems to be a horrible manager when it comes to delegating tasks across a lot of processors. I was sending the 6 Einstein's to CPUs 2-7 and leaving CPU's 0 and 1 open for me. That kept core 0 temp down and also kept my system fairly zippy. Right now, letting Windows run management on the cores, the system coughs and chokes on everyday tasks. I'd really like to be able to separate the wu's from general stuff.

Dr. Anderson, of Seti, and the writer and maintainer of the Boinc software does not care for that idea, so despite many of us repeatedly asking for that he has always declined. There is a Boinc mailing list but I do not have the link, he and his crew can be reached thru the list.


The development mailing list is boinc_dev (at) ssl.berkeley.edu

I have always found David Anderson receptive to new ideas, provided they are well-researched and evidence-based. Affinity, on the other hand, is an old idea, and most reports I've seen from testers who know what and how to test (such as archae86 in Hyperthreading and Task number Impact Observations) suggest that affinity is at best neutral and more usually negative in the BOINC situation.

Tying Windows processes to core 0|1, and thus generating a thermal gradient across the die, is not, I believe, the normal behaviour of the Windows scheduler. You would need to supply evidence that this behaviour was normal, or at least repeatable across a significant number or class of hosts, before it would be likely to be taken on board.

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