AMD Threadripper 2950x & Noctua Cooler - High Temps

[AN-DR]

I’m looking for advice on how to best cool a stock AMD Threadripper 2950x when married with the Noctua NH-U14s-TR4-SP3 CPU cooler – I’ve seen a few posts online covering the issue, but I’ve yet to find a suitable solution to the CPU running hot.

• AMD Threadripper 2950x
• Noctua NH-U14s-TR4-SP3 CPU Cooler + additional Noctua NF-A15 140mm CPU Fan
• Asrock Taichi x399 Motherboard
• 32GB Corsair Vengence LPX 3200 MHz RAM (4×8GB)
• Fractal Design R6 with 3 stock chassis fans
• EVGA G3 1000w PSU – 80 Plus Gold
• Nvidia GTX 750 Ti
• Samsung 970 EVO M.2 /Samsung SSD 840 PRO / SanDisk Ultra II SSD + HDD's + DVD Drive

All the readings below are taken from AMD Ryzen Master using the standard ‘Auto’ settings.

• Temperature
  • Idle temperature on boot is approximately 24, spiking to 30 degrees (ambient room temperature is between 19 and 22 degrees).
  • After 10 minutes sat idle, the temperature may slowly rise to around 45, spiking upwards of 55 degrees at times.
  • Under full load the temperature reaches around 60 degrees fairly quickly and continues to slowly creep up by one degree every few minutes. Once the temp hit’s 63 – 65 degrees I’ll stop it as it shows little evidence that it will stop rising.
    
• Peak Speed
  • Peak Speed consistently bounces around between 2.200 GHz and 4.150 GHz.
    
• CPU Voltage
  • The CPU Voltage consistently bounces around between 0.7625 and 1.3600.
    

The thermal paste was originally applied using the video on Noctua’s website as a guide, but the temperature issues were noticeable. As such I removed the cooler, cleaned all components and reapplied thermal paste fully covering the CPU in a thin even paste and a small blob for each CPU die and the issue persists.

I’ve also moved my HDD’s so they sit at the bottom of the case ensuring a good flow from the chassis fans on the front of the case through to the CPU cooler.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[4K8KW10]

Divorce with the Noctua NH-U14s-TR4-SP3 CPU cooler and marry a water cooler.
Ambient room temperature better not to go towards 22°C but stay around 19-20°C.

 

[Space Monkey]

I think I've found a bug in the Ryzen Master software, if I load it up at idle my temps sit around 20°c but it'll then creep up especially if it has a temporary spike in usage but even when the usage is back at zero & the cores clock down along with the voltage, the temps still ping around and never go back down.

If I then close the Ryzen Master even if the temps are at say for example 40°c, and then I reopen it, then temps are now suddenly back down to around the low 20's again.

It seems the software either keeps the temps artificially high or it's reporting it wrong?

I'm running the 1920x under custom water

 

[Unseul]

Is 65C really anything to worry about anyway?

That it creeps up at idle may suggest your case is filling with warm air that get's recycled, rather than flushing, so either better intake fans, or higher rpm on the intake fans at idle.

 

[AN-DR]

Thanks for the replies.

4K8KW10, I'd imagine I'll move to a water-cooler at some point in the future, but wasn't expecting to reach these temperatures under little to no load using the Noctua with additional CPU fan.

Space Monkey, I too noticed the temperature would reduce after closing and reopening the Ryzen Master software, this perhaps indicates incorrect temepratures been displayed by the software. I've just watched Ryzen Master report a temperature reading of 45 degrees, after closing and immediately reopening it's sat at 25 degrees. Are you or anyone else aware of alternatives that accurately reports temperature readings for the 2950x?

Unseul, I believe the maximum operating temperature of the 2950x is 68 degrees after which it will start shutting down or reducing the clock speed on it's cores. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take another look at the case fans on the front and back. If the CPU cooler has two fans, is it best practice to set both up as intakes pushing air into the cooler or the front as an intake and the back as an exhaust?

 

[4K8KW10]

Thanks for the replies.

4K8KW10, I'd imagine I'll move to a water-cooler at some point in the future, but wasn't expecting to reach these temperatures under little to no load using the Noctua with additional CPU fan.

Little to no load and rising temperatures means the cooler is faulty. Just looking at its pictures around the webs, this cooler doesn't bring too much trust in me... don't know why.
I would get rid of it ASAP.

 

[Vince]

I’m looking for advice on how to best cool a stock AMD Threadripper 2950x when married with the Noctua NH-U14s-TR4-SP3 CPU cooler – I’ve seen a few posts online covering the issue, but I’ve yet to find a suitable solution to the CPU running hot.

• AMD Threadripper 2950x
• Noctua NH-U14s-TR4-SP3 CPU Cooler + additional Noctua NF-A15 140mm CPU Fan
• Asrock Taichi x399 Motherboard
• 32GB Corsair Vengence LPX 3200 MHz RAM (4×8GB)
• Fractal Design R6 with 3 stock chassis fans
• EVGA G3 1000w PSU – 80 Plus Gold
• Nvidia GTX 750 Ti
• Samsung 970 EVO M.2 /Samsung SSD 840 PRO / SanDisk Ultra II SSD + HDD's + DVD Drive

All the readings below are taken from AMD Ryzen Master using the standard ‘Auto’ settings.

• Temperature
  • Idle temperature on boot is approximately 24, spiking to 30 degrees (ambient room temperature is between 19 and 22 degrees).
  • After 10 minutes sat idle, the temperature may slowly rise to around 45, spiking upwards of 55 degrees at times.
  • Under full load the temperature reaches around 60 degrees fairly quickly and continues to slowly creep up by one degree every few minutes. Once the temp hit’s 63 – 65 degrees I’ll stop it as it shows little evidence that it will stop rising.
• Peak Speed
  • Peak Speed consistently bounces around between 2.200 GHz and 4.150 GHz.
• CPU Voltage
  • The CPU Voltage consistently bounces around between 0.7625 and 1.3600.

The thermal paste was originally applied using the video on Noctua’s website as a guide, but the temperature issues were noticeable. As such I removed the cooler, cleaned all components and reapplied thermal paste fully covering the CPU in a thin even paste and a small blob for each CPU die and the issue persists.

I’ve also moved my HDD’s so they sit at the bottom of the case ensuring a good flow from the chassis fans on the front of the case through to the CPU cooler.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Slap an AIO or something on it, I have a h100i V2 so not a proper TR4 aio on the 1950x and it never really goes above 65 and idles similar to your 2950x, Something looks up with the boosts though, I have 1950x with LLC set to 1 and motherboard in OC mode (yea I have no idea either) but I did set a 3.7 base and I see it boost up to 4.2 fairly regularly, Shouldn't the 2950x be boosting up into 4.35+?

 

[Unseul]

Both fans should blow the same way to ensure flow of fresh air across the fins. Preferably all flow should go in the same direction, normally front to back.

If the cooler wasn't sat right I'd have thought temps would go far higher far quicker.

Do you have any temp sensors from the motherboard? Some come with small sensor probe type things. Could help you check internal air temperature. If that's going up over time at idle it suggests the case isn't flushing warm air enough.

 

[AN-DR]

Vince, those boost figures are what it achieves when idle, under load it will reach 4.4 GHz.

Unseul, yes, that's how the fans are set-up; two intakes on the front of the case, intake on the front side of the cooler, exhaust on the back side of the cooler and case. Motherboard temperature is reported as 23 degrees, give or take and doesn't increase as is the issue with the CPU. I think I'll have another go at applying thermal paste and opting for a more aggressive fan speed set-up, I've not looked into fan speeds in too much detail at the moment as the motherboard reports an incorrect temperature for the CPU (it doesn't take into account the offset that needs to be accounted for).

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Unseul]

What case and what intake fans?

When I say temp sensor, I mean an actual probe that can be placed anywhere in the case. Mine's currently shoved between the back of my gpu and the heatshield, to act as a way to link the fan speed of my lower intake fan with my gpu.

 

[Kei]

Max tdie temp for threadripper is 95 degrees Celsius. When I first built my watercooled 1920x, it would regularly be running in the mid 70’s and peak into the high 80’s. After a remount of the block and moving the case to allow better airflow, that dropped to running in the low 60’s, peaking in the mid 70’s. i’ve run it for over a year like this with no problems. Since they are full load temps, the system doesn’t spend massive amounts of time running that hot. To be fair, my ambient temps are much higher, usually starting at 24, getting as high as 28, even in the winter which doesn’t help keep the pc cool.

 

[DarrenM343]

Are you using PBO?
Used the same cooler on a 1950X with single fan and it was fine. Idle around 29C doing some spot checks under load it was always within accepted temp range.
Noctua coolers are pretty good and only beaten by top end AIO's I think. Some say don't go AIO unless space is an issue for top end air cooling. Used a H50 years ago and given my systems can be running 24/7 at times, the noise and risk of failure & relating damage was not something I liked.

 

[doyll]

I’m looking for advice on how to best cool a stock AMD Threadripper 2950x when married with the Noctua NH-U14s-TR4-SP3 CPU cooler – I’ve seen a few posts online covering the issue, but I’ve yet to find a suitable solution to the CPU running hot.

• AMD Threadripper 2950x
• Noctua NH-U14s-TR4-SP3 CPU Cooler + additional Noctua NF-A15 140mm CPU Fan
• Asrock Taichi x399 Motherboard
• 32GB Corsair Vengence LPX 3200 MHz RAM (4×8GB)
• Fractal Design R6 with 3 stock chassis fans
• EVGA G3 1000w PSU – 80 Plus Gold
• Nvidia GTX 750 Ti
• Samsung 970 EVO M.2 /Samsung SSD 840 PRO / SanDisk Ultra II SSD + HDD's + DVD Drive

All the readings below are taken from AMD Ryzen Master using the standard ‘Auto’ settings.

• Temperature
  • Idle temperature on boot is approximately 24, spiking to 30 degrees (ambient room temperature is between 19 and 22 degrees).
  • After 10 minutes sat idle, the temperature may slowly rise to around 45, spiking upwards of 55 degrees at times.
  • Under full load the temperature reaches around 60 degrees fairly quickly and continues to slowly creep up by one degree every few minutes. Once the temp hit’s 63 – 65 degrees I’ll stop it as it shows little evidence that it will stop rising.
• Peak Speed
  • Peak Speed consistently bounces around between 2.200 GHz and 4.150 GHz.
• CPU Voltage
  • The CPU Voltage consistently bounces around between 0.7625 and 1.3600.

The thermal paste was originally applied using the video on Noctua’s website as a guide, but the temperature issues were noticeable. As such I removed the cooler, cleaned all components and reapplied thermal paste fully covering the CPU in a thin even paste and a small blob for each CPU die and the issue persists.

I’ve also moved my HDD’s so they sit at the bottom of the case ensuring a good flow from the chassis fans on the front of the case through to the CPU cooler.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Lots of garbage replies.

65c is not too hot, but with poor case airflow I agree, it will keep getting hotter.

CLCs are no better than good air cooling and NH-U14S is a good air cooler. In fact CLCs are noisier, don't last as long, don't cool any better, and when they die you have no cooling until new cooler is installed .. not a low cost fix like with a good air cooler htat costs less to start with and only has a fan that can go bad, a low cost fix and cooler will work with any fan held on with rubberband until suitable replacement is in hand.

You problem is almost certainly poor case airflow. Define R6 Dynamic X2 GP-14 case fans are almost worthless with only 0.71mm H2O static pressure rating meaning they only move a little air at full speed .. about half what a decent fan will move at half speed. The CPU slowly creeping up in temp is because the cool case airflow to cooler is much less than cooler fans need so the cooler fan has to re-use some of it's own heated exhaust air to make up the difference .. and this results in case airflow into cooler getting warmer and warmer and CPU gets hotter and hotter. Basic rule of thumb is every degree warmer the air into cooler is translates to almost exactly the same number of degrees hotter CPU will be. So case airflow after 20-30 minutes of gaming is up to 35-40c in a 22c room making CPU 63-65c. With good case airflow the air into cooler will be 24-26c instead of 35-40c meaning CPU will be 50-55c. You need a couple of good fans with approximately 1.3-1.6mm H2O at 1300-1600rpm .. like 2x front intakes will do it. Maybe a 3rd 140mm as bottom intake .. and usually removing PCIe back slot covers improves case front to back airflow around GPU by giving more back vent area around GPU and thus lowering airflow temperature. Setup them up so their speed cycles with CPU and GPU fans so their airflow is synced to flow enough air to keep up with cooler fans' needs. I would suggest Phanteks PH-F140MP fans but OcUK is out of stock. PH-F140SP are also pretty good variable voltage control and PH-F140XP are good PWM control and are about £10.99 each. Probably the best fans are be quiet! Silent Wings 3 but they are quite expensive at £20.99 each. I have not used them but Blacknoise NB-Eloop B14-3 are supposed to be good and a 3-pack is £46.99

With 2x or 3x good intake fans the airflow will always be within 2-5c of room temp. Your CPU will probably idle about 27-29c with full load being 55-60c. When CPU goes for idle to full load temp will peak in 2-3 minutes maximum and when you go back to idle it will return to idle temp is same 2-3 minutes. Below is graph of one of my systems (in old Define R2 w/ 3x 140mm intakes). You can see how quickly the temp stabilizes when full load is applied or removed.

You might find the below link to basic guide of how airflow works and how to setup case to optimize airflow of interest.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

 

[AN-DR]

Unseul, Fractal Design Define R6 with the 3 default Fractal Design Dynamic X2 GP-14 140 mm fans (2 x intake, 1 exhaust) - this has now changed though. I've built a fair few workstations with it's predecessor, the Define R5, and never noticed any issues with the standard fans, though they have all had Corsair H100i V2 water coolers. With that been said, taking a look at them in more detail does make me wonder if I should consider alternative case fans moving forwards.

Kei, thanks for sharing your experience. In my case, the computer will be used as a workstation from time to time and may run under consistent full load.

DarrenM343, I'm not using the precision boost override, the CPU is set to it's standard auto settings (3.5 GHz + boost). There were a few reasons I initially opted for the Noctua cooler over water cooling; noise (this will just be a standard PC when not used as a workstation), reliability, having a cooler specifically that covered the full CPU and finally cost, at this time at least.

doyll, thanks for the detailed suggestion. Taking everything into account you and others mentioned in the thread, I've gone down the following route at the moment; replaced one of the front intake fans with a Noctua NF-A14 (max. rpm of 2000), the replaced fan will now act as an intake at the bottom of the case. The CPU Fan 1, CPU Optional Fan and 3 x stock chassis fans have been connected to the Fractal Design fan hub, with the remaining Noctua NF-A14 connected directly to the motherboard via Chassis Fan 1 (with quite an aggressive fan curve).

Idle temperatures now appear to be more consistent at around 24 degrees with fans running at approximately 700rpm, and whilst the temperature will spike occasionally it does fall back to the level it started at. It's likely I'll replace the other stock front intake after the break as the airflow difference within the case is significant.

I've not had chance to look at any full load runs in detail, when I've got chance I'll report back with the figures.

Thanks again for all the suggestions, it's appreciated.