Am I pushing the H50 to far?

[Biffa]

I've got a i7 920 D0 @ 4.2Ghz 1.4v 200x21 on an Asus P6T

With the H50 and the system under 100% load on all core with HT on I am hitting 100°C and the system is throttling back After boot up it idles at 55°C

This is outside a case with fans in push/pull on the H50 radiator.

What I am not sure of is if the kit is faulty or if I am just asking too much of it.

Why am I concerned its faulty? Well the block/pump doesn't even get hot and the radiator is cool.

Fans all at 100% bios settings all switched off for fan profiles, even have the pump running on a 12v molex adapter from the PSU rather than the mobo headers, although I have tried it on every mobo header as well.

When I turn it on I can hear the pump start first.

I've stripped it off and fitted it again a couple of times, the notches are all in the right place in the rings and its tightened down as far as it will go. Could there be a problem with the mounting ring coming loose?

I'll try and get some pics when I get home but I heard such good things about this and I bought it to replace my swiftech H20-120 kit ready for my q6600 to i7 upgrade but at this rate I think I'll have to dig through my spare parts box and throw a custom rig together.

 

[Biffa]

MY h20-220 kit sharing a reservoir with a 4870x2, single rad and D5 pump hits 80 degrees on a core at 1.31v 200x21 w/ HT before it BSOD's using prime 95 so I think your h50 is fine.

both rads are also push pull and the double rad is hot to the touch. I ordered a 2nd hand tfc 360 so I might add this into the loop and see how it goes.

Thanks for the input but I'm not sure how that is relevant.

 

[Biffa]

How are you measuring the temps? I have seen several ASUS users having trouble with ASUS Probe reading very high temps. Compare your BIOS idle temps to whatever program you are using in the OS.

Coretemp and realtemp. Bios confirms idle temps.

Surely it should be hot though? There should be SOME heat coming from the block!

My experience with watercooling would confirm that.

Biffa the rad on the H50 just won't handle that vcore sad to say but the H50 is only as good as some air coolers, even with push/pull.

So the kit is'nt faulty ur just asking to much of it really with that vcore, its a good cooler, but won't be able to handle what your asking of it.

Thats what I am concerned about, hence the title, but I'm sure I've seen reviews where others have been able to maintain somewhat more sane temps without their CPU's throttling at similar speeds/vcores.

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm not new to watercooling and on this rig wanted something simple to just chuck on and not bother with it. Guess I am not going to be able to do that this time

 

[Biffa]

Dropped it down to 4Ghz at 1.3V and temps are just sub 90°C

 

[Biffa]

Assuming you've done the standard remounting / checking you've installed it correctly, conclude that the cooler is faulty. A processor running hot enough to throttle / switch off should leave the radiator very obviously hot to the touch.

I suppose it's possible that the H50 is not capable of coping with this heat load, but I can't imagine it reacts to excessive heat by remaining cool. Perhaps too much heat killed the pump, but it feels like a long shot compared to a manufacturing fault.

^Is that hyperbole PhillyDee? If not I'm genuinely curious as to which part is glowing.

Its like its not pulling down hard enough on the cpu, or the pumps not running or there is some heavy restriction between the block/pump and the radiator.

I know how hot full WC rig components can get just at 70/80°C, this little rad is ambient, the pipes are ambient and the top and sides of the pump/block are ambient, but the CPU is at 80/90/100

To the JohnnyG: Its sitting on a bench outside of the case. Room is 15-25 degrees depending on the time of day.

 

[Biffa]

Well to prove I'm not going crazy I did some tests.

I built a single rad, setup from old bits and bobs I had lying around.

Radiator is an original Waterchill radiator circa 2003 which I am pretty sure is a Black ice pro 120 radiator. Anway its pretty dinged up but should do the job of comparing.

Pump is from the same kit, think its a Hydor, its rattly as hell.

Its all 8/10mm tubing so again nothing radically different from the H50

Block is a XSPC Delta V3 with 1366 adaptor, again not ideal because its designed for 775 chips and has a raised center section that is smaller than the heat spreader on the i7 920.

Fluid is just demineralised with some ptnuke.

I've taken some photos as I went along, might not be interesting to all but might be to some.

 

[Biffa]

Here is the H50 in situ. I'm hoping these pics show I didn't install it upside down or anything.

Overclock settings:
Mobo: Asus P6T
CPU i7 920 D0
RAM DDR3 OCZ 12800
191 bus
21 multi
CPU 1.3V
QPI at 1.30625V (next notch up)
DRAM at 1.66V
HT on
Everything else pretty much on auto.

The test bench, I know its on its side, I tried it in every direction with the same results:

Some closeups before removal (should be self explanatory) to show fit:

The backplate up nice and snug:

After removing the pump/block:

TBH it doesn't look like contact was that great. I'll go into it a bit later but I had everything tightened down, the notches lined up with the ring etc.

These are the temps I was getting, just did a quick screen grab late last night before pulling it apart and taking the pics. For interests sake, load was created by running a Folding@home bigadv work unit. I felt a snapshot was good enough as I'd been seeing temps all week > 95°C and this Coretemp screenie is as good as it got. Ambient was about 25°C

H50 idle and under load:

Next, frankensteins loop is born!

 

[Biffa]

Come on biffa I want to see frakenloop. Saying that all I have to do is peer through the window of my case. Its like a vipers nest at the moment.

Contact doesnt look great on the H50, I'm assuming you clamped down opposite corners etc

Sorry been a bit offline for a while

Yeah I fitted it three or four times, trying different orientations, every time tightening up as I do with all blocks opposite corners turn at a time.

 

[Biffa]

Heh, frankenloop, not because its ugly but because I built it out of bits I had lying around.

Details: Res & old rattly hydor pump, XSPC Delta V3, Dinged up old rad with Corsair fan from H50

Temps of frankenloop: Idle/Load