Overclocked cooling

[Guest mikeyt]

Hi thereApologies if this is not appropriate for this forum, I will let moderators decide if it can stay but I am hoping to get some advice/opinion from you...I am concerned about my CPU cooling on my new i7... I bought a bundle from www.overclockers.co.uk which consisted of a Biostar T-Power X58 motherboard, a Core i7 920 CPU, 6Gb triple channel RAM, and an Akasa Nero AK-967 CPU cooler. The motherboard settings had been preconfigured to overclock the 920 from its default 2.66Ghz to 3.6Ghz from the get-go. I have not touched any of the CPU settings or updated BIOS or anything like that!!I built the system and applied Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound in a horizontal line across the CPU cores as per the instructions on the arctic silver website.Using RealTemp 3.00, my core temps at Idle are around 39-45c which seems to be about average (can anyone confirm this?).From what I've read, the i7 has a maximum temperature of 100c, but lots of people are saying you should not push it past 70-75c. Using Prime95, my temperatures quickly reach 75-80c, and after a little while can get up to about 90c. The highest I saw it peak at was 96c :( WAY too high!! Often one of the core's worker threads errors and stops. So it is not Prime95 stable.. Importantly, Windows itself seems stable, and Flight Sim 2004 does too (apart from when I try to load the PMDG 737 but I think thats another issue that needs a reinstall). According to RealTemp whilst running Flight Sim the hottest it gets is about 61-65c...I have removed the entire heatsink and CPU once already, and saw that it had indeed flattened out like an oval pancake from the centre of the CPU outwards, as the instructions said it would. I have cleaned both using Arcticlean 1 & 2, and reapplied the TIM again as the thin line. and there is no change to my temps. The cooler actually came with a small packet of white TIM, which the instructions say to spread evenly over the entire CPU surface. I opted not to use this as I'd heard so many good things about Arctic Silver 5. Should I go through the process again do you think of removing and cleaning HSF and CPU and using the stuff that came with it? It's such a pain to get into there now! Also it has been suggested instead of the recommended thin line, that I use just a small dollop of TIM in the centre of the CPU and let the pressure of the heatsink spread it out when pressed down on it. What do you think? :( I'm not a complete novice at this and think I have a fairly good understanding of how TIM works and so on, and I have built PC's before with no problems... It's just this setup that I'm having issues with.Just as a bit of background, my case is an Antec 1200. There is LOADS of free space in there and all my cables are arranged as to try to allow maximum airflow. I have the two exhaust ports at rear and one huge one on the top. Putting my hand over the rear fans doesnt ever feel that hot even when it's loaded. Also one of the 3 front fans is directly in front of the CPU an there is nothing in the way so the CPU should be receiving a nice supply of cool fresh air direct from a fan in the front!! Also the CPU temps reported in the BIOS and also there is an LED display of it on the mobo itself seem to be lower than what RealTemp, or CoreTemp are reporting in Windows. Ambient room temperature is not excessively high or anything just comfortable low-mid 20's...I have turned off the auto fan speed control, so the 4-pin CPU fan should always be operating at maximum.I've attached a couple of photos below that should assist you in understanding the setup?Ideas on a postcard please! Thank you in advance.Side view of components in PC. Only one cable (the CPU 12v one) has to strech between HSF and exhaust ports as it's too short to be threaded through the back panels :(BIOS settings:CPU-Z info:

[TechguyMaxC 516]

At first glance I'd say your core voltage is too high. You could turn off HT to also lose some temp.

[jwenham 1]

Voltage looks good for the 920, may be a tad high but that is CPU dependent. The above poster is right about turning off Hyperthreading. You will prob drop 5 - 10 c just by that alone and FSX does not utilize HT in anyway shape or form all it is doing is adding heat to your CPU. I am not familiar with that cooloer but I use this one: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2244 and it works great. Use OCCT to test the OC. You dont want to exceed 80c when testing. If it goes over that your HSF is not doing its job or the voltage is too high. If you find that you need to stay at your current voltage it is your cooling.

[Guest mikeyt]

Hi there, just to update you...I made a note tonight of all the settings in the BIOS and updated it to the newest version. Good thing I did cos it lost all my saved profiles of settings!!!Anyway, got latest BIOS now and set all settings back to how they were, and downloaded OCCT. The first thing I noticed was that RealTemp was not showing as-high temps during the OCCT test as for Prime95. Is there a reason for this do you know? As it says it is still testing at 100% CPU load...Anyhoo, the test did eventually fail (with OCCT being set to fail at 80c). So I set about gently lowering the CPU voltage... I have stopped now at the setting of +0.040v (having started at +0.120v). I've not tried lower than this yet as this makes the Vcore to 1.28v which Nick (in another thread a couple above this one) said should be the lower vcore boundary.Temps now in OCCT test (and I've run the 1hr test twice now) do not exceed 77c...and the tests work.Idle temps are still around the same -- 40-46ish.I have not yet disabled HT but may do that next to see what effect it has. If it's at all noticable I may try for 3.8Ghz...not sure yet.Thank you for your suggestions though, it seems to be stable now and temps under control not going mental anyway :( Still would love to know why OCCT temps are so different from Prime95 though.. And I also today read that Prime95 should not be used for i7 testing anyway... Since when? There are a lot of people that do!Thanks again. Much appreciated.

[jwenham 1]

Turn off HT, it will make a big difference in the temps.

[Guest mikeyt]

Turn off HT, it will make a big difference in the temps.

Have done that, and it's saved about 7-8 deg c !!So I have been playing a little more and got it OCCT stable at 3.8Ghz with 1.328v core - did not go above 78c in the test under load!! :) Not prime stable yet (though it does take a few hours before one of the cores fails) but for now I am happy with this. Details in screenshot below.My Flight Sim 2004 fps - in an addon like the PMDG747, or Level-D767, at Aerosoft's Mega Airport Heathrow, with 50% AI (Adobe AI Traffic Pack) and a Major Thunderstorm is around abouts 60-62fps - dropping to perhaps 42 depending what I'm looking at but mostly it is up around the 60fps mark!!! A HUGE increase from my last PC - a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz, which struggled under those circumstances most of the time in single-digits!!!I also found the nHancer guide I was after (that I mentioned in another thread), and got to say it is just looking SWEEEEET! :(

[Mike_CFII_MEL 789]

Hi,I'm in the process of building my own I7, still waiting for the I7 975 CPU. Personally, I wouldn't of went with the Akasa Nero AK-967 CPU cooler heatsink. From everything I could gather, there really are only two choices in regards to a top quality (air) heatsinks for the 1366.1. Prolima Megahalems (with two 120mm fans) - (the second fan will give an additional 1-5 degree drop in temp)2. THERMALRIGHT, Ultra-120 eXtreme (with two 120mm fans) - (the second fan will give an additional 1-5 degree drop in temp)I chose the Prolima Megahalems because of two reasons, I have seen the overclock temp results of this heatsink when tested side-by-side other manufacturers.Prolima is a company started by former Thermalright engineers who tried to make upgrades to the Thermalright 120 heatsink, the company wouldn't go for it, so they started their own company and made these improvements to the Prolima Megahalems.Here is their webpage-------------------------http://www.prolimatech.com/products/megahalems.htmlJust want to let everyone know, I do not own nor work for this company.Heatsink Test Results------------------------http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?opti...5&Itemid=62