Help! Temp v high pre-OCing

Doc Rob

Doc Rob

Doc Rob

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11 Oct 2005
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139
Right, I'm a total OCing noob, have never tried it before.

My current setup is as follows:

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366)
Akasa AK-967 Nero Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler (AM2/AM2+/939/LGA775/LGA1366)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
GeIL 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Triple Channel
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply

I have looked at various guides online. Today I downloaded some of the recommended monitoring & testing software, including Prime95.

Decided I should run Prime95 for a bit without OCing the CPU, just to see how the system coped.

Much to my alarm, my core temps shot up to mid-high 80s within a minute or two. Then I started getting a warning beep from the MB, and shut down the application ASAP.

This is, please note, without any OCing whatsoever.

I'm getting from this that (i) I shouldn't be attempting to OC this PC at all, and (ii) there are probably already issues with the CPU cooling.

Any recommendations as to what I should do? Incidentally, my case is an old Alienware one (from before I started self building) with a front and side case fan installed.
 
CPU Vcore is set to Auto in my BIOS and tells me it is 1.28750.

Though monitoring it on CPU-Z just now, it seems to swap between 1.040 and 1.248?
 
some quick googling, seems ok... I'm not sure, hopefully someone else will weigh in, sorry mate, I'm not much help!
 
I suggest poor airflow in the case as a cause. Try reversing the side fan to extract. Try to put a rear exhaust fan in and disable the side fan.

Very much a trial and error solution. Maybe a better specified case can be had, I tend to buy cases second hand as appearance is of lesser importance than performance and they can be had cheaper. However for about £50 you can get a better case new.
 
I would suggest that your reseat your cooler. Those temps are way off the scale. It might just be that your cooler is off by a tiny amount. Also worth cleaning up the fins on the cooler itself. Dust can block the air flow and with no air flow the temps will climb really quickly.

I am not very familiar with your cooler so can not judge relative performance that you can expect with it.
 
Have tried reversing the side fan - made a slight difference, but after a few minutes of Prime95 my readings had started to reach the mid 80s again.

I removed the side from the case, which made them drop only slightly. Then I started to get the temp warning beep again, so I shut Prime95 down. The readings dropped back into the low 40s after a few seconds.

This is making me think that it may indeed be the cooler that's the problem here. I don't much want to remove and reseat it, but it's probably the best thing to do.
 
Sorry if this comes across as condescending but are you sure that you used the correct amount of thermal paste before you put the system fan on? Just sounds a little like when my friend took his fan off and didn't re-apply fresh thermal paste after cleaning the surfaces up.... His paste just dried up and did nothing for his pc... Was very worried he was doing damage, but it seems to be fine after I lent a hand :P
 
No, I'm not 100% certain. A friend helped me (it was my first build) so I just went with his advice.

I'm planning on removing and reseating the cooler later.
 
Reseated the cooler. Took two attempts for some reason, after the first one (blob of thermal compound on centre of CPU), all temps in mid 60s! Second attempt (compound spread evenly over CPU & cooler) we seem to be back to where we were before. Temps idling a little lower, just below 40, but Prime95 sent them up to high 70s and highs of 81 before I shut it down.

The cooler is also a nightmare to attach, with pins that just won't go into the holes no matter how hard they are pushed. Have noticed this point made in reviews of the cooler too. Basically I think I probably need a new one.

Can anyone recommend an effective cooler, 1366 compatible, that will let me OC a little and is easy to attach?
 
OK... it may be a voltage problem.

I just disabled the Auto Voltage in the BIOS and set my Vcore to 1.10.

The stress temperatures are now between 63 and 70 degrees. Which seems fine.

If this seems fine, I'll OC the CPU a wee bit and see what happens.
 
EDIT: Damn it, that was with the case side off. With it on, I'm still hitting 77 on two cores.

EDIT AGAIN: but with the side back on and the side fan set to extract, all back below 70 again!
 
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hehe, Think Gigabyte vcore settings on auto are terrible.. I've been on auto since I got this motherboard and I don't know how its been, but I checked recently and realised it was like 0.2 volts too high! without OC or anything, infact it was better at determining a good value when it was OC'd!!
 
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