High temps - Looking for new air cooler

[kevin miller]

I have a 3 year old sabertooth P67 board with an overclocked I7 2600K running at 4.4. Currently using a CM 212 EVO heatsink air cooler but my temps have been hitting 87 deg and more under load when I am doing 3D renderings and on a recent P95 test I was hitting 97 after about 30 minutes.

 

I was considering water cooling but I found out that a CM 140 XL or a Corsair 80i will not fit my Lian Li case which has all 120 mm fans. So, I am following the advice of a few others and reconsidering air cooling with a higher end heat sink cooler. I am thinking of the Noctua NH-U14S because another person I know that switched to this cooler saw a 17 degree drop which would be phenomenal for me. I would even take 10 degrees. I have also seen this cooler recommended on Toms Hardware shootout and in another shootout I can't remember.

 

Any thoughts??

 

The other question is, and I am getting into an area that I am not knowledgeable, could I try lowering my voltage on the overclock? I do not know what I am really doing there but I read somewhere where another guy helped drop the heat by adjusting voltage. I just really want to get my temps down.

Edited February 14, 2014 by arcitek

[RyderSK]

You don't mention board form factor or Case size but since you say your Lian-Li is only 120mm capable it's safe to assume it's Mini Tower ?

 

I kind of doubt a U14S will yield that considerable improvement over your 212 EVO but it's good improvement nonetheless for the steep price.

Without mentioning your case I think it's impossible to suggest new air-cooler. Cooling does also depend on the overal air-flow in your case, not

just the tower on CPU.

 

Kind of odd you managed to keep stable 4.4Ghz without any tinkering on voltage size :- ) Did you use the auto-clock feature of sort ?

Edited February 14, 2014 by RyderSK

[Dimitris Tolios]

Which was the process for you doing 4.4?

Temps do seem a bit on the high side for this CPU and clock...it's either an "automatic" overclock that did add too much Vcore, or the cooler is not seated properly to do its job (or both).

 

That said, a 80i should be able to fit in a case that gets 120mm fans, because it is a 120mm RAD/cooler CLC...It is thicker than the H60, not bigger as far as mounting holes go.

[kevin miller]

Funny you say that about the auto clock. I am using the ASUS AI Suite to overclock and I must say, it was pretty freaking easy. However, in the beginning, I had some unstable moments trying to overclock but I think I did some research and had to tweak some things myself such as RAM timings and maybe even voltage. However, that was 3 years ago and I do not remember how or why I did what. I am not a real computer guy, just enough to say stupid things and try stupid things. I built my workstation with a friend who was smarter than me. I just know this machine has been rock solid through a bunch of abuse.

 

I was really hoping to add water cooling but if you look at the pic of my case (yes, it is dirty at the moment) the radiator dimension of the Corsair H80i is a we bit wider than the dimension I show. This was a Lian Li Mid Tower

 

http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-9f/

 

I just don't get how I can't get the Corsair to work but whatever..

 

The box is set up with two stock 120 mm front fans blowing air toward the rear and a stock 120 mm fan exhausting from the rear. There are two fans on the heatsink and one on the bottom of the case. I do have a 140 mm opening on the top of the case where maybe I could install another push fan but not sure of the dynamics of that. I also thought of replacing the stock case fans with cougar high performance fans. My stock fans are set to turbo mode and they are running around 1800 rpms. There is some noise but not unbearable although there is some sort of high pitched subtle squeal (definitely annoying) that seems like it may be a bearing or something so maybe it is time to replace fans.

 

The other possibility on the heat is to redo the seating and use new thermal paste. If I remember correctly, my initial temps were at 35-37 deg stock when idling. I thought that was high considering my office machine idles stock at 26 deg. I also notice the temps jump around a bit but maybe that means nothing.

[kevin miller]

Hello Dimitris, I had a feeling I would see some wisdom from you along with Juraj. You guys are great.

 

Anyway, on the corsair, I totally agree with you but the radiator on the H80i measures 4.72 in. if I remember correctly and my measurement was 4 5/8". I'm tempted to order to see if it can fit and then return to Amazon if it doesn't. I just thought it should work.

 

As for my current CM EVO cooler, I have read that this cooler is a solid cooler for the money which is why I bought it 3 years ago. However, I have read since that it really comes down to how the cooler is made, the materials, the way is contacts the processor, the fins, etc. Overclocker.net has a great stickie post on air coolers and what separates the budget coolers from the more pricey coolers.

Edited February 14, 2014 by arcitek

[kevin miller]

Well, I guess I jumped in the deep end. I went off of the auto overclock thing and started doing the manual overclock on my I7. Found two great articles that were very clear on how to set up bios, overclock cpu, and adjust voltage. Actually had screen captures of my ASUS bios showing what settings to tweak and why.

 

Anyway, the bad news is I can't keep my temps down when running stress test in P95. I had alarms going off at 98 degrees after 7 minutes on an overclock from 4.6-4.8. The maximum voltage I was running under load was 1.34 if I remember correctly. Under idle i was at 1.21. No matter how I would adjust the voltage offset, I could not get the temps down. I am really starting to wonder if my heatsink is seated properly since the temps raise so fast and drop almost as fast when dropping the load.

 

 

Technically, I should be able to ge tthis processor to run very stable at 4.8 using a voltage of 1.43 which this processor can handle. In the bios, you can either adjust the voltage with a manual offset or do it another way which I forget exactly how. The point is, apparantly, the one way is kind of like the turbo thing on the processor which only jumps the voltage as the processor has increased load. The other way is you dial in the exact voltage and that is what it is 24/7. You can do the same thing with your overclock but I am not sure why I would want to do this. It would seem like more stress on the processor.

 

 

So, at this point, I am kind of stuck on what to do. I guess I could simply try reseating the heat sink first but it seems if I am going to go to that trouble, should I upgrade the heatsink cooler and case fans?

[joelmcwilliam]

dude,

 

stop being difficult.

 

If your aim is a high overclock then you need a beefy cooler. It's as simple as that.

 

So first thing, start figuring out what is the biggest watercooler you can fit in the case. Do a google search. Or look for a very big air cooler.

 

That should do the trick. If you need even lower temps then buy more casefans.

[kevin miller]

Seems so easy, right? It is not when you do not have the room to locate the desired water cooler and I hate to throw 80 dollars at an upper end air cooler if there are other issues at play that I do not understand. As for your beefy cooler comment, believe it or not, many have said the cooler master 212 plus evo is a decent cooler and I should not be hitting 96 degrees within 10 minutes of running prime. I ordered the Corsair H80i to see if I can get it to work anyway. As for your comment to stop making this difficult, I am an architect, not a computer guy. I am trying to learn what you may know in great detail and it gets pretty technical, at least in my newbie eyes. There are others that have the same MB and overclocked I7 and they are running temps in the upper 70's and I am trying to figure out why mind is 20 degrees warmer and how to get the temps down. That's it. I thought I would come here for some advice because there are some good people on here.

[numerobis]

Currently using a CM 212 EVO heatsink air cooler but my temps have been hitting 87 deg and more under load when I am doing 3D renderings...

I think something is wrong here if this picture is showing your case and cooler...

This is definitely no Cooler Master Hyper 212 on this picture but a weak, 5 years old Cooler Master Hyper N520 with 92mm fans.

 

http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu-air-cooler/hyper-212-evo/

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/17512-cooler-master-hyper-n520-cpu-cooler-review.html

 

So switching to a top line 120mm or 140mm air cooler should give you at least a 10°C drop

 

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/17512-cooler-master-hyper-n520-cpu-cooler-review-9.html

 

And using the auto overclocking will normally result in too high voltages. So you should normally be able to lower your temps doing a proper manual overclock (like you started to do now)

Edited February 15, 2014 by numerobis

[kevin miller]

numerobis,

 

You are correct and I was wrong. I dug up my old invoice and that is exactly the cooler I have. It is also a 3 pin fan connector which is why I think I cannot control fan speeds, on the cpu anyway. Shouldn't matter since that means the cpu fan would just run at top speed. I am going to order a noctura NH-D14 cpu cooler since it works for my board with the high ram and has great reviews. I will use this if I cannot get the Corsair H80i to fit.

[joelmcwilliam]

"I ordered the Corsair H80i to see if I can get it to work anyway."

 

Corsair also has some newer watercoolers you might find interesting:

 

http://www.corsair.com/us/cpu-cooling-kits/hydro-series-water-cooling-cpu-cooler/hydro-series-h75-liquid-cpu-cooler.html

 

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_h75_review,12.html

 

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-H75-CPU-Cooler-Review/1834/6

 

(Use the cpu paste included)

 

If fans get to loud:

 

Some cheaper coolers:

 

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/75460-student-budget-match-needs-new-desktop.html#post386482

 

A big ass cooler should help getting temps down.

 

Then there are a few other tricks to get temperatures down if you are up for the hassle:

 

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/74701-help-me-build-rig-1200-budget-4.html#post382414

[kevin miller]

Good information and thanks for all of it. I love the ideal of the Noctura cooler I mentioned but just found out from someone else my corsair vengence memory will hit the bottom cooling fins. Saw a youtube video where a guy cut these fins off to make it work but not really digging that idea. That cooler is freaking huge. I had no idea how big until I saw it in the guy's hands. Makes my cooler master look....pathetic.

 

The Corsair H80i has been ordered so I will see if that works and from your chart, it looks to do pretty well. I did not even know about the H75 so I will check that out if this does not work.

[numerobis]

as another alternative you could try to mount a 140mm water cooler (Corsair H90 or NZXT Kraken X40) into the 140mm top hole and disable the rear fan.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7738/closed-loop-aio-liquid-coolers/10

Edited February 15, 2014 by numerobis

[kevin miller]

Thought of that with the CM 140 XL (my preferred water cooler) but I have less than the minimum 38 mm required for the radiator thickness until I hit the VM heatsinks of the MB. I think that is what they are called but whatever they are, not enough room for the radiator. I'll let you know how the H80i works out tomorrow when I try to get this installed.

[frog_a_lot]

Im running a Noctua NH-D14..Excellent cooler, can't get my machine to over heat even if I tried. Although im only running it at 4.1ghz, but under full load on a warm day it wont go past 60

[kevin miller]

Well, I just installed the Corsair H80i. I am not a computer guy but I worked my way through using utube and internet. Corsairs directions are not very good.

 

Anyway, I thought I had things hooked up properly but I get a "cpu fan error - press F1 message" upon boot-up. I did a search on the internet and it seems that people were suggesting maybe an issue with the connection of a 3 pin fan thing with psu, or maybe how radiator fans were connected or just disabling the cpu fan error message in bios.

 

Since I felt things were connected properly, I just disabled the cpu fan error to see if I could boot and check temps. I was able to boot but I would like to know why I am getting the message and had to disable?

 

I originally has a CM 520 N air cooler on cpu. That fan was connected the MB fan port and to a PSU connector. With the H80i, I could not use that psu connector since the power end from H80i was totally different. However, I had to leave the old psu connector in place so I could plug in this little plug from the H80i that fit this. It seems half ass or not quite right to me for some reason.

 

Could someone explain what maybe I did to cause this?

 

Lastly, the utube videos I was referencing had me install the two fans in a configuration where the rear radiator fan on the case is blowing air inward onto the radiator and the second radiator fan is blowing air away from radiator into the case. I can't see where this makes sens when I have case fan on the front blowing air into the case. Basically, I have no exhaust at the moment!!

 

I am running a P95 totrure test for high heat and I have been hovering around 65 deg. C. I can't complain since my temps previous to this were hitting 94 deg. C under same torture test within 10 minutes or so.

 

Which is the correct way to orient these fans in my case?

[Dimitris Tolios]

The pump units Corsair are using, contain a fan controller.

 

There are 4 connectors (usually). You should be using 3 of them with a H80

• a split cable with a SATA power connector that is used to power pump and fans and a simple 3pin with a single line that is used to give rpm readings to the mobo (to prevent the mobo thinking there is no CPU fan and trigger the fail-safe mechanism (usually denial to boot). You need both those plugged in, the 3-pin should go in the "CPU/CPU1" header on the mobo.
  
  
• On the same side, there is also a USB cable that allows you to connect it to a header/USB port and allow corsair "link" software to control the pump/fans through windows (not required)
   
  
• On the other side, there are 2 connectors that along with the supplied Y-splitter cables control the fans in pairs. You should be using 1x those splitters with the H80.
  
  

[kevin miller]

Dimitris,

 

I attached two images. One of my current connection and one of my motherboard. Where exactly should this connection occur when you say cpu/cpu 1 ? Is it the fan header up by the cpu? I'm thinking it is.

[Dimitris Tolios]

The Fan hearers closer to the CPU, are usually labeled as "CPU FAN". Motherboards that have more than one CPU header (not uncommon, as CPU coolers had more than one fans for some time now) might have a header #1 (which is usually the one monitored) and #2 (sometimes all headers can be monitored, but #1 is the one usually triggering the alert in BIOS).

 

For your board, those should be the ones by the 8pin aux power connector.

 

 

So, to recap:

 

• The fans stay connected to the Y splitter directly into the H80 pump/waterblock - GOOD
• The SATA power connector stays in power - this is where everything gets powered from - GOOD
  
• Finally, the 3pin connector that does nothing but giving the pump's rpm reading to the board so that the alarms dont got crazy, move into the top "CPU FAN" headers. You should also re-enable the alarm in the BIOS (depending on the typical rpm of the pump/fan used, you might need to lower the default "alarming" point, but don't leave it off).
  

[kevin miller]

That took care of it. Good to go. Should have done all of this months ago. The 30 degree temp difference though cannot all be attributed to this cooler. I am almost certain that the cpu was never seated properly with thermal paste. Plus, when I tore the system apart, there was a crap load of dust clogged in the fins of the former cpu air cooler. I figured the high temps cleaned up were probably in the low- to mid-80's which means I am probably realistically seeing a 15 degree drop which is still fantastic for me. Regardless, I can stop worrying about alarms going off in the night because of high temps as the computer tries to finish a rendering. Hopefully I can help someone else out who goes to install the H80i.

 

Thanks to you and this forum, I learned a lot beside saving a couple hundred dollars having someone else do all of this work I did.

[Dimitris Tolios]

You are welcome. The joy is ours "demystifying" those "monstrous builds" into something actually manageable.

Even if it does get you hands dirty, DIY work in your PC is not that difficult, and for sure it is much more affordable!