Core i7 920 heat issue

[Cajunspirit]

Hi all,

After many years of frustrating low performance PCs I finally bought my own little monster for gaming.

Asus P6T Motherboard
Intel Core i7 920 Processor
Corsair Triple Chanel Dominator DDR3 Ram 6gb
Corsair 650w Power Supply
Nvidia 9400GT [Backup card till my ATI HD5850 arrives]
Xcalibur Alienware imitation tower

Zalman CNPS9700LED

My problem is heat!
Now granted, I live in the Caribbean close to the equater. Daily temperatures range from 32-34C.

My PC Probe 2.0 as well as RealTemp plots my idle CPU and RAM temperature at 54C!!!

Even with EPU-6 on Max Power Saving and the fan cranked up to 2010rpm!
When I ran Dragon Age Origins at 1080p on my Bravia 52" the CPU ramped up to 79C!!!

From what I have read over 70c is bad for chips.
The graphics card ranges from 60-70C.

What I would like to know is how I can decrease temperatures, please help.

[DoubleK]

You can decrease temperatures by water and phase cooling

Seriously check your thermal paste? What kind did you use and how much? Check to ensure that cooler is seated properly. I hear that spring clip on those are a real bear.

A link to that cpu case please?

[RicheemxX]

How many case fans do you have running? Just slapping a good cooler on there doesn't help much if you aren't moving the hot air out and cold air in.

I'd say if you are running at 52C at idle then you might have a bad mounting of the HS/Fan, or it may be possible the sensors aren't sending the right temps. Seen that a few times.

79C and no shutdown?? As soon as I see 100% usage temps even close to your idle temps I'm checking to see what's going on! I don't like CPU's to run anything near or over 60C let alone anything close to 70!!

[ShyguyXPC]

and 60-70C for a 9400GT GPU is pretty high as well, originally I was going to post to say that range wasn't too bad, but then reread the post and saw the Video card.

60-70, if thats Idle temps, thats too high for that card, if those are load temps, then its not too bad really.

[RicheemxX]

didn't even spot that part, was still shaking my head thinking about near 80C temps on a cpu

Factoring all that in, the it sounds even more like you either aren't running any case fans or not nearly enough or you just aren't getting any air flow in or around your case.

[Cajunspirit]

My thermal paste is Arctic Silver 5, I put a single dot in the centre.

Mounting the fan was difficult though, so it shifted and slid a bit.

Can't seem to find the PC case online, it's cheap.

I ran Prime95 for an hour and a half, PC probe showed a consistent temperature of 102C. I was worried but no blue screen or shutdown.

I only have one case fan in addition to the Zalman.

I'm hoping to fit another fan to pull air directly in on the Zalman. Space seems to be tight.

[RicheemxX]

Two thoughts here

1) Why on earth you continue to run a cpu that is that insanely hot is beyond me, especially since you already admit to knowing over 70c is way to hot!!

2) Those temps don't actually sound accurate to me, at least not without seeing some issues. That and even with next to no case flow you shouldn't be seeing that high of temps unless your hs isn't making good contact to the chip or the program you are using or sensors are sending bad info.

If it was me, I'd flash to the latest bios (might help), pull the hs off and re-seat it, leave the side of the case off...and then run a few tests.

I've never ran into this myself but here's a quote from another site

Maximum allowed temperature for Core i7 is 100°C. If it heats up more, the CPU will enable thermal throttling, i.e. the Vcore and clock frequency multiplier will be forced down to 12x. This feature protects the processor die against dangerous overheating. (source - X-Bit labs)

Now intel puts the thermal specs at 67.9°C - doesn't that mean anything over and the chip should auto throttle back? Don't mean to jump into the OP's discussion with this just curious

[ShyguyXPC]

102C?

I hope you either meant 102F or 102C on the GPU, not the CPU...

if its 102C that CPU should of fried by now...

its got to be one of 3 things, either the CPU heatsink and thermal paste isn't seated right, could be the heatsink is a tad too loose, not mating the heatsink, thermal paste and CPU together properly...

sounds like thermal paste was applied properly, wouldn't worry too much about it sliding around a bit while mounting the heatsink, thats to be expected.

but the other thing is, could be lack of airflow or proper airflow direction in case.


or possible that the Temp readings are faulty.

at 102C for the CPU

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor I7-920 - SLBCH

Thermal Specification: The thermal specification shown is the maximum case temperature at the maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) value for that processor. It is measured at the geometric center on the topside of the processor integrated heat spreader. For processors without integrated heat spreaders such as mobile processors, the thermal specification is referred to as the junction temperature (Tj). The maximum junction temperature is defined by an activation of the processor Intel® Thermal Monitor. The Intel Thermal Monitor’s automatic mode is used to indicate that the maximum TJ has been reached.

as you can see, the range for temps for the 920 should be around 67C max.

if its doing 102C, that thing should of shut down the PC, Blue screened, errored or even fried the CPU already.




What size fans are you running in that case.

and when you say space seems tight, is this case a Micro ATX case, Mid size or full ATX size.

can you take a picture of the case, and what it looks like on the inside (see where fans are, where fan mounts are, see the room you have to work with, etc), and then upload it to be posted here?

[Cajunspirit]

When I was installing the Zalman brace on the mother board, I found whenever I tightened the screws beyond a certain point, it would detach from the other side.

The screw would pull out the fastening brace within the pastic on the back of the motherboard. So I know that is loose, but only because I can not seem to get it fully tightened.

There is a small corner on the chip with no thermal paste, but that should not matter, so long as the centre has the majority of paste.

The fan itself seems mounted well enough, but I will reseat it to see how that turns out.

[Cajunspirit]

I believe it is a micro ATX

[Imperion1]

Did you just use one of the heatsink mounts that came supplied with the heatsink? Or did you order the heatsink mobo 1366 mount separately? Apparently with that Zalman, you have to order the mobo mounts for 1156 and 1366 motherboards separately.

[Cajunspirit]

Naw, the Zalman I bought came with its own mounts.

I just ran Unreal Tournament 3 open case.

CPU did not go a scratch above 56C
GPU shot up to 76C though

[KarmaKiller]

Ok a couple things I want to point out here.
1. High 40's to lower 50's is common idle temps on most I7's. The chips generally load out at 85c-90c on the stock cooler. They are designed to run up to 100c before they throttle. So yes, at stock setting your running warm, but it's not that big of a deal honestly. My I7 commonly loads out 85c when overclocked.
2. Those Zalman coolers use to be great back in the day, but now even a $30 budget cooler can beat them. The I7's are beast, and take a good modern cooler to keep properly cool.
3. One of the reasons it's getting that warm is it looks like you have horrible air flow in your case. Try to tuck that big ball of wires up towards the top of the case. That would probably help out some.

Honestly, your temps are OK. If you want them lower, your pretty much looking at buying a new HSF.

[ShyguyXPC]

looks like the gpu is a passive heatsink, which could be why its so warm as well, that heat is radiating off into case, warming up the CPU as well.

also install a good quiet high flow 120mm fan in the front fan frame, you can see it right in front of the hard drive bays.


also what direction is that Zalman blowing its air?

is it possible its on backwards?

[Aaron_8015]

looks like the gpu is a passive heatsink, which could be why its so warm as well, that heat is radiating off into case, warming up the CPU as well.

also install a good quiet high flow 120mm fan in the front fan frame, you can see it right in front of the hard drive bays.


also what direction is that Zalman blowing its air?

is it possible its on backwards?

I think your right.... The heatsink looks like it is on backwards.

[DoubleK]

One of the reasons it's getting that warm is it looks like you have horrible air flow in your case. Try to tuck that big ball of wires up towards the top of the case. That would probably help out some.

Honestly, your temps are OK. If you want them lower, your pretty much looking at buying a new HSF.

Exactly what I was thinking! Come on Cajun! Zipties are like 5 bucks for more then you will use in 10 years. Get that big ball of yarn out of your air current unless you want to shove a kitten in there to play and insulate better.

I think your right.... The heatsink looks like it is on backwards.

It is on backwards. I didn't think push pull meant against case fans. Sorry.

[Cajunspirit]

Thanks guys.

I flipped the Zalman and added another fan right on top of it, blowing air in.

Now I am on 47C, with all fans maxed.

A grand improvement I would say

[Cajunspirit]

Fascinating, with Unreal Tournament III on Turbo mode with 1080p resolution.

CPU caps aroudd 69C
GPU 66C now

[ShyguyXPC]

Hmmm, good call on my part then, checking to make sure the cooler is in right direction, as well as posting pics that lead to that question LOL

[DoubleK]

One trick I like is to drop your top optical drive down from the top rail or slot in the case so you can bundle and place all the wires on top of that drive since it should be a straight shot across from the power supply.

Yes good catch Shy. That picture is a poster child for modular power supplies