Hi. My PC specs (PC used only for FS9/FSX) are in my forum signature. The i7-950 has a moderate overclock to 3.8GHz.

 

Now I obvioulsy know that overclocking will increase core temperatures, but I am getting a little confused. I would appreciate some expert help...

 

I have Vcore showing on my desktop and also have 'Core Temp' monitor installed. I am not 100% clear about the difference between CPU temp and the core temps (but I guess at least I know there is one!). When I am running FS9 (I rarely fly FSX these days), say flying into Aerosoft Heathrow, with heavy cloud (to put load on the system), Vcore shows around 65-70*C for CPU. Core Temp is set at TJMax=100*C (shoudn't it be a bit lower?). The temperatures shown on this are, on average:

 

Core #0 85*  (Max = 90*)

Core #1 78*  (Max = 92*)

Core #2 74*  (Max = 81*)

Core #3 75*  (Max = 89*)

 

Ambient temperature is also high I think: c.45-50* in Vcore, c.60-65* for the core temps. The voltage is set to 1.34V BTW, reasonably low I would say. The room itself is quite cool..

 

To my mind, these temperatures are going to kill the CPU before long. Don't Intel say 69.7* (or thereabouts?) is the max tempertaure for the i7 CPUs? (But is that referring to the reading I get in Vcore or in Core Temp??

 

I don't remember having a problem like this when I received the PC, although I didn't check the temperatures all that often. It has been shipped back from Thailand where I was living - very professionally crated up, but maybe something happened en route: perhaps the thermal paste needs renewing, or there is a problem with the heatsink (Fenrir Evo Extreme). The fans all seem good, there is no dust, and the Fenrir seems to be attached properly.

 

I have had the PC since 2010 but it is still under a 3-year warranty and the supplier has accepted an RMA to return it and see what the problem is. Could someone who knows about this kind of thing confirm that it is the temperatures shown by the Core Temp module that I should be worrying about and that I should send the PC back ASAP?

 

Thanks for any help,

 

Martin

Martin,

First of all, open up your pc and go through it with a vacuum cleaner. Pay special attention to the CPU cooler.

Secondly, what CPU cooler do you have? If it's only Intel stock, it will not be sufficient for overclocking. Take a look at some 3rd party coolers, such as the Scythe Mugen such as I have.

Thanks, but I did say that there was no dust, I have checked (after vacuuming, which I did a few weeks back - it still lots clean). I also did mention the CPU cooler (Fenrir) - see original post,

 

M.

Your temperatures are too high and you do need to do something about them.

 

My first concern would be whether or not the warranty you have covers your CPU if it is overclcocked. If you send the computer back and they reset the CPU clock speeds likely the temperatures will be within tolerance and they will say there is no problem. Also does your 'tampering' with the hardware invalidate the warranty i.e. if you were to try to replace the thermal paste would they still be happy to honor the warranty if this didn't achieve the desired results?

 

Do you have any case fans and are these operating properly? What are the sensors saying for motherboard temperature? The lower you can get your case temps the better and you can only achieve this with good airflow through your case. Is the fan on your cooler working properly? Do you have a fan controller either hardware or software that might be preventing it from working at full speed?

 

My understanding is that the core temps are measured by sensors within the CPU itself and the CPU temperature is monitored by a sensor on the motherboard. TJMAX is hardcoded into the chip and is the point where your computer will shut itself down.

 

It might be worthwhile installing realtemp to double check the figures you are getting from coretemp.

 

Outside of the warranty situation my first port of call would be your cooler, I would try swapping out the fan(s) and replacing the thermal paste with a quality branded paste using the pea/rice method,

I will check one or two things and post back. I should have said that I bought the PC ready overclocked, and it worked at a good temperature until some months ago (I think - I didn't check it all that often to be honest!), so that is not a worry, the PC is 'as delivered' so the guarantee covers it..

OK, the case fans all register as fine and are all spinning. The case is an Antec nine hundred two, so has plenty of inbuilt cooling. Fans look OK in the BIOS and spin speeds register as good..

 

The M/B temp is consistently low, even when FS9 has been running a while - around 30-35*C (I guess that is within limits?). RealTemp concurs exactly with Core Temp, re. temperatures. Cores #0 #1 are usually around 80* when running FS - max is over 90*, as I said.

 

I am not going to start taking the PC apart myself of course, given that it is under warranty. I'd best go with the RMA and see what they can do.

 

Any other comments welcome meanwhile.

 

Thanks,

 

Martin

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

 

I have mine OC to 4.2GHZ with stock cooler and never passed 60C (I5-2500K). I now have Artic Cooler and my stress temp is 50C at 4.3GHZ!!! I don't think that yours at 3.8Ghz could go that high!! Send your  PC to warranty, it could have bad sensors!!

I was able to get that same i7-950 to 4.48 and 75 - 80C tops under IBT loads, and using a Muggen II air cooler, but I think you may have found the issue when you said it was shipped back from Thailand. The problem I found with air coolers - particularly with two 120mm fans atached, is that they are heavy and cumbersome, and if the box was bounced around, it may well have moved slightly, and broken the "seal" that the (now dried) themal paste had made. 

If they have issued an RMA, then go for it. If you want to avoid the downtime, then get some paste and re-install the cooler. 

Couple of things. First get a can or two or three of compressed air; the only way to get accumulated dust out is to blow it out. vacuuming does not move the dust that you want to get out of there. You need high velocity air to dislodge the dust/dirt. Blast the CPU cooler, video card and any heat sinks on the MOBO and anything else that might collect dust where you can't get to it. That little tube that should come with the can of compressed air can get to the out of the way places. Heck. Remove the video card and blow it out and while it's out you have better access to every thing else. DON'T forget the power supply. Usually overlooked. Just a thought.

 

If a computer is shipped around the world or anywhere for that matter..I just moved overseas and learned this prior to the move..remove the video card and the air cooler. The mobo is NOT designed to deal with heavy weights hanging off of it only to be tossed about. Assuming that you have a new video card that is heavy and/or a large CPU air cooler. Great way to crack the mobo. After moving the computer it may work but start doing unexpected resets or just not work at all. Nice thing about water is that you don't hang heavy weight on the MOBO itself. The weight is on the radiator along with the fans. Big difference. Shipping regs may not allow shipping with water. I didn't have a problem.

 

For my money the Thermaltake Frio OCK is a serious contender. It is BIG but the mounting doesn't take an engineering degree and hands trying to work bent 90 degrees. Am very happy with my Corsair H80 now. Still have to blow it out. Sold the Frio when I built my new rig. They've gotten enough bugs out of water now that it is worth the cost. Interestingly the Frio matches the cooling of the H80 pretty much at all power levels, idling or flat out. Air is FAR from dead. If you are freaked by water and electricity being so close together as I was, then air is just fine. Trick is to allow yourself a good delta between ambient room temp and the max temp you are shooting for. Where I'm at now, that delta is not so great and water helps that. I'm not getting ahead of the curve blowing already hot air over the CPU cooler fins.

 

Do need to get those temps under control. Doesn't matter much what software measures the temp. Do what you can to keep any temps at or below 70C. Don't put too much weight on Tj max. Intel doesn't . Tj max s the temp where the chip will throttle itself down. Like a car, do you want your radiator to boil over by running it such that it does boil over? Heat and excess voltage over time will shorten the chip's lifespan. That is a fact. Too much $$$ to replace a unit such as yours.. Am running an i5-2500k at 4.6GHz on 1.325V. Most of the time it is running at around 1V as I allow the power states to do their thing. No problems running FSX with all the bells and whistles while never exceeding 65C. If it did, if there was no other choice, I'd step it down a notch to 4.5GHz or maybe less. But not a problem at 4.6GHz and 65C

 

Runs nice. Good luck.

 

 

the only way to get accumulated dust out is to blow it out. vacuuming does not move the dust that you want to get out of there

 

Not only that, air flowing through a plastic tube can and often does creates a static electricity charge. It has to discharge somewhere!

Thanks for the replies. My best thought too was that shipping has cracked the thermal paste. They used Arctic Cooling MX3 compound in 2010.

 

They (www.PCSpecialist.co.uk - who built the PC, I couldn't be bothered with the hassle to be frank, have been great up to now) are collecting the PC tomorrow. Hope they find an obvious problem and can fix it!

 

I had quite a discussion here some months back about whether I needed water cooling or not, and the general consensus was they I didn't. I think the Fenrir or similar should be able to deal with this, given that the case itself is quite 'airy'.

 

Will report back when the PC is returned..

 

Martin

Air is more than fine. That said best to bring cool air into the case in the front bottom and exhaust air through  the top back. I have two fans pushing outside air over my HDD and SSDs in the bottom front of the case, A side fan pushing outside air over the video card, two fans exhausting air on the top back and two more pushing air through the radiator out of the back of the case. There I'm a contrarian. I do not bring air in through the radiator and blow the hot air resulting from a pass through the radiator into the case. Screws up the air flow I'm trying to create/maintain. With the fans, air inside the case doesn't hang around long enough to get hot. If the H80 is dumping air into the case from the top back, the air flow is brought to a hault. Fans pushing against each other. I don't buy the contention that you need super cool (outside the case) air to cool of the rather hot radiator. The air inside the case and with two fans on the radiator in a push pull arrangement is cool enough for the radiator. The airflow is constant so no hot stagnant air. My goal is to put one more fan on the bottom front of the case blowing air in to equalize the inflow and outflow.

 

On the static from the compressed air? That is very unlikely to be a problem. FAR more problem to have heat sinks blocked.  Here is what static can kill. Memory. Don't mess with the pins that plug into the memory socket. Way easy to do. Also not touching pins on a CPU. Never ever touch traces on the MOBO when plugged in. Mess all you want when the board is out of the machine. After applying power, which happens at the time the system is plugged into the outlet, hands off inside the case. Good idea to, unless you are dealing with bad acting equipment or you, say, want to adjust the speed of the water pump, to always unplug the power supply before going into the case. If you want more bang for being careful, don't touch any pins on any cards ever. People do. Not good. 15 yrs ago I lost a memory stick to a static discharge. That was a good lesson. Not only don't touch the pins (or traces) on a memory stick but be damn careful handling that stick. Don't make a path for a discharge. High humidity, of course, cuts down on the static electricity but not as much to make a difference here. A nylon carpet can make for bad times any time of the year. I don't use an anti-static mat or wrist band. I should. When I've walked across the carpet and going into the case I touch some metal with out paint and look for a tiny spark. That helps.  When everything is plugged in most everything I can think of in the case is grounded in one way or another. If you go into the case to clean unplug the PS, NOT just turn off.

 

Waiting for the follow-up!

Had PC repaired (still under warranty) and now it runs just fine - no more thasn 60*C core temp at 100% load.. The core voltage was lowered slightly and new thermal paste added..

 

Thanks again for the input.

 

M.