Advice on overclocking and cooling a QX6700

jamesd · 4 Jul 2012 at 08:37

The system ran at normal temps and hit 60C on load with Intel burn when I had my duo E8300 installed but I recently got the QX6700 for a reasonable price and ever since fitting that the temps have been quite high. The PC has always had a fair bit of warm air out the exhaust fan but I thought it’s because of that heat pipe on the board. The heat pipe gets really hot that hot if you touch it it almost burns you. While playing starcraft 2 the temps don’t usually go as high as they do when doing an Intel burn test. I shall log the temps the next time I am gaming on it and report back the readings. It’s a pity the temps are so high as I was looking forward to overclocking this chip, but with the current temps I think it’s a bit risky. I am tempted by one of these Corsair coolers or similar, but don't really want to spend the money on one if it’s not going to make a difference. The other thing that stops me is that the water coolers require a mounting bracket which would mean removing the mainboard heat pipe, unless the mounting bracket would fit over the heat pipe? Here’s a pic so you can see what I am speaking about.

mp260767 · 4 Jul 2012 at 13:38

seems to point to a problem with the q6700, being as the 8300 ran ok.

on coretemp do all the cores run at roughly the same temp ?

checked the mobo manual and can't really see what the heatsink by the processor is doing.

might be worth having a look at some passive coolers to put onto your north and southbridge chips (the 2 smaller heatsinks on that passive cooler).

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-035-AL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=399

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-023-ZA&tool=3

jamesd · 4 Jul 2012 at 14:23

Could there be a fault with the processor that makes it overheat? All cores are roughly the same temp, 2 cores are usually 3-4C hotter though. I think the heat sink by the processor can be removed separately leaving the main heat pipe over the north and south bridge chips. Removing this would take out the heat sink under the CPU socket which would allow a rear bracket to be mounted for a corsair hydro cooler. One of the heat sinks gets extremely hot, I think it may be the one that’s connected to the north and south bridge chips. I shall check which one it is and then consider a hydro cooler. Would a corsair H60 cooler provide better cooling than the scythe? It’s the H60 I would be looking to get, but I don’t want to spend the money on it if the difference in temps will be marginal. Thanks again for all the help I appreciate it.

EDIT:

I have been reading a couple of reviews on the board and apparently the heat sink on the back of the CPU cooler is connected to a PWM sink. What is a PWM? I thought PWM was a type of fan connection? Also in one of the reviews the heat sink on the back of the CPU socket made a QX6700 run too hot when overclocked and the heat pipe wasn't warm. The reviewer took of the heat sink and re attached it and the temps dropped. So it might not have been fitted correctly from the factory. I shall check this on mine when I get in.

mp260767 · 5 Jul 2012 at 11:35

definately worth a look, also check what's underneath it when you remove it to try and figure out what its cooling.

not an idea in hell, never heard of a PWM sink :confused:

i'd hold off on the h60, as the sycthe should cool it reasonably and i think until we can reduce the load temps to 60-70 then it would be wasting money.

jamesd · 5 Jul 2012 at 12:34

I didn’t get a chance to remove the heat pipe last night. However I did touch it when the CPU was under load too see if it was getting warm. It was actually extremely hot, that hot that it burned when I touched it. So that would suggest that it’s making good contact and transferring heat as it should. I shall remove it though and check what its cooling I will also take a few pic’s when it’s removed.
I havent heard of a PWM sink either, god only knows what it is.
Ok Thats good I was hoping the scythe would be adiquite. I shall put the H60 on hold for just now, I dont want to go spending money unless I have too.

Thanks again for your help.

mp260767 · 6 Jul 2012 at 10:11

jamesd said:
However I did touch it when the CPU was under load too see if it was getting warm. It was actually extremely hot, that hot that it burned when I touched it. So that would suggest that it’s making good contact and transferring heat as it should. I shall remove it though and check what its cooling I will also take a few pic’s when it’s removed.

seems a bit strange that its getting that hot, still not quite sure what its likely to be cooling that far up the motherboard, hopefully find out when you get chance to remove it

.

could also be, that if its getting that hot its affecting the cpu temp sensor.

jamesd · 7 Jul 2012 at 10:16

Ok a little bit of an update. I removed the heat pipe that was under the CPU socket. It appears that it only takes heat from the bottom of the CPU socket back up to the cooling fins which sit on top of the ports (USB, Sound, etc, etc) on the rear of the board and connects with the main heat pipe that runs across the board over the north and south bridge. The main heat pipe that it joins to seems to sit over some capacitors. I tried running the PC without the heat pipe on the back of the CPU socket and it was 67C on idle and 100C on load as soon as it hit 100C I shut it down. I replaced the heat pipe and rebuilt the PC again and unfortunately broke one of the blades off the scythe cooler fan while doing it. So I have now swapped the scythe fan for two smaller fans in a push pull configuration and pointing towards the case exhaust fan. I monitored temps for a while last night and its still hitting the same temps after the Intel burn, but it takes longer for the temps to go that high. I also did a quick 10 min test with skyrim and editing HD video during which the temperatures hit 80C max in HWmonitor and 67C in core temp. I also put a stock Intel cooler on just to see what the temps would reach and they were a good 20C higher with the stock cooler than with the scythe. I have some pictures of the board with the heatpipe off that I shall attach later on.

mp260767 · 7 Jul 2012 at 17:56

if you get chance would be interested to see a pic of the mobo without the cooler on it, as most mobo's don't have them so wondering what its doing :confused:

least you saw a decent temp difference between the stock cooler and the scythe

.

jamesd · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:30

Yeah there was a reasonable difference between a stock Intel cooler and the scythe. The Intel cooler I used was one that came with an extreme Pentium D chip I had so it might not be as good as the standard QX6700 one. Sorry for the delay with the reply but I have been busy with work and haven't had time for the PC. I will get those pic's uploaded soon though. ITs a bit worrying the temps increased with the CPU socket rear heatpipe off as well because that means I can't remove it to fit and aftermarket cooler.

jamesd · 20 Jul 2012 at 13:39

Appologies for the delay I have been really busy at work. Here's the pictures that I promised.

I am not actually sure what the heat pipe cools but it does make a considerable difference to the CPU temps with it removed. All the above pictures were taken with the heat pipe removed.

I have been monitoring the temps on the PC while gaming and the max cpu temp core temp reports is 71C while gaming (Skyrim). Is this a resonable temperature or is it still too high?

Mei · 20 Jul 2012 at 14:45

um sorry but which case is that?
by the X shape im guess its a xigmatek but i duno which
i like it

damit my bad you said at the top, im blind, ignore me

jamesd · 20 Jul 2012 at 15:59

Yeah its a thermal take case the link is at the top. Its a fairly old case but its quite nice although it could do with a few more fan slots. I don't know if you can still buy it new anywhere.

Hodge_al · 20 Jul 2012 at 21:32

Move the fan that is attatched to the cpu cooler to the other side, so that it and the exhaust fan are in line. It could be drawing hot air from the graphics card.

Also what voltage does the chip draw at stock and what you are running now?

What fan is attatched to the cpu block?

jamesd · 20 Jul 2012 at 23:23

Hodge_al said:
Move the fan that is attatched to the cpu cooler to the other side, so that it and the exhaust fan are in line. It could be drawing hot air from the graphics card.

Also what voltage does the chip draw at stock and what you are running now?

What fan is attatched to the cpu block?

That was the only way I could fit the fan because of components around the CPU socket. I have since then broken the fan that was on the CPU cooler and mounted two smaller fans in a push pull config pointing towards the exhaust for the case. Im not sure what make of fans are in the case or on the CPU cooler just now. I wouldn't mind some suggestions for better fans though. I am not too fussed about noise as long as they cool better.

The CPU is running on stock voltage I havent over volted it at all and shows 1.33 according to HWmonitor

JonSmith · 20 Jul 2012 at 23:37

That's quite a lot of paste there. Also, the cpu cooler seems to be mis-orientated. Generally you'd expect it to push air out of the back of the case, not pointing at your GPU.

Apply a thinner layer of paste in future, I'd also probably use some better paste. The white stuff can be hotter by as much as 10C when compared to the better quality compound.

The heat pipe is to cool the CPU vrms, which keeps the power supplied to the CPU more stable when kept cool.

Hodge_al · 21 Jul 2012 at 00:05

jamesd said:
That was the only way I could fit the fan because of components around the CPU socket. I have since then broken the fan that was on the CPU cooler and mounted two smaller fans in a push pull config pointing towards the exhaust for the case. Im not sure what make of fans are in the case or on the CPU cooler just now. I wouldn't mind some suggestions for better fans though. I am not too fussed about noise as long as they cool better.

The CPU is running on stock voltage I havent over volted it at all and shows 1.33 according to HWmonitor

Ah i getcha, i have a QX9650 so i understand the heat issues on a 775. Those voltages seem good, so they wont be the source of the heat.

I am a big fan of the sycthe fans

Do you have to TJ MAX set up on CORETEMP right? I believe its 90c for qx9700

BrianB · 21 Jul 2012 at 00:17

Sorry, massive wall of text to get through and cba.

I want to suggest:

Have the CPU cooler fan blow towards the exhaust rather than straight up.
I think it's unsuitable for it to draw air from near the GPU if your case has limited fan slots.
Get a better flow of air going, I don't think you have a lot to gain from sending hot air from your gpu into your heatsink then towards your PSU.

My Q6600 is at 1.38v in bios 3.24GHz if that helps at all. I also don't push my ram, don't see any benefit of my ram working faster than my CPU.

LOl took so long to write, hodge posted way before. xD edit: fair enough, you can't fit fan there, good solution though!

Our quads are power hungry, and they create a lot of heat. Only way to cool it imo is to push a load of air through, or lay off the overclock till you do.

I think I used the small line method to apply thermal paste on my Quad, you draw a line horizontally with thermal paste, then let the heat sink sit on it, tighten, then rotate the heatsink slightly in each direction to spread.

jamesd · 21 Jul 2012 at 22:29

Thanks for all the replies. I shall get a picture of my new CPU fan arrangement. I now have smaller fans in a push and pull config pointing towards the case exhaust because I broke my larger scythe CPU fan while working on the PC. It has not made much of a difference to the temps though. The thermal compound I used was a cool masters one. Perhaps I should get a better quality one if it can drop temps by 10C. What’s the best thermal paste to use? I have reduced the amount of thermal compound since the picture was taken, although I still might have used too much. I tried putting a thin line on and using the heat sink to spread it but when I did that the CPU wasn't all covered. So I put alittle more on.

BrianB · 22 Jul 2012 at 00:01

When you get a new thermal compound it should show you how to apply, on most cpu i have used you don't need to have the whole face covered. All mine needs is a large circle for optimum efficiency (only needs paste on top of the cores). I've been using
Arctic Cooling MX-2 ever since I first tried it.

jamesd · 24 Jul 2012 at 18:51

I shall order new thermal compound and re apply. In the meantime I have been taking more temperatures. I placed a temp probe inside the case to see what the in case temps are. When the CPU hits 82c the temp in the case is around 33c and the room temperature was 26.5c. Is 30c in case a reasonable temp if the room temp is 26.5?

Would I benefit from uprating the case fans? If so what fans are decent? I am not worried too much about noise as long as it improves cooling. Although having said that I saw a video of the Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 5400 RPM and it seemed extremely loud. I was considering those fans until I heard the noise they made! I have two 120mm slots one on the front for intake and one on the rear for exhaust and a smaller one on the side window. So if anybody could spec some decent fans to replace my current ones that would be great.

I am also seriously considering a corsair hydro cooler I think I could squeeze the back plate over the rear CPU heat pipe on my board, but I don’t want to spend say £80 on a corsair H80 and find it doesn’t make a difference to my temps. Does anyone have any opinions or ideas on how to get my temps down 