Help with overheating i7 920

BlinkNFG · 12 Jul 2010 at 13:57

Hi,

I have an I7 920 C0 CPU which I wish to overclock. However it gets very hot even at stock speeds. After 20 minutes of Prime95 it reaches around 78-80C in the 4 cores.

I currently have

MSI X58 Platinum
Corsair Dominator 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 12800C7 (1600MHz)
Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System For Intel LGA1366
CoolerMaster Centurion 590 Case with 2 case fans

I think I need to improve my cooling before I can overclock (ideally to 3.5GHZ). What would recommend I get?

I have been advised to go for the Noctua D14 CPU Cooler, 4 140mm fans and "aftermarket heatsinks for the chipset" which I dont' really understand. The Corsair H50 water cooler has also been suggested as an option (is it better or worse than the Noctua?)

Any guidance or suggestions much appreciated

thanks

Jon

-=Vect0r=- · 12 Jul 2010 at 22:08

Welcome to the forums!

THe Noctua is indeed the 'best' air cooler out there for pure performance. This however comes at the cost of additional space requirements, weight and therefore additional stress on the mobo and of course increased noise when compared to the H50.

Both of those coolers should easily get to 3.5GHz (and beyond!) No need to spend this much on a cooler if your goal is 3.5GHz the Fenrir for example is cheaper and is more than capable of achieving your goal.

The load temps seem excessive for that cooler, you sure it is seated correctly with correctly applied TIM? However, as you state, you do not want to be clocking the chip with that cooler before you figure out why the temps are so high.

The aftermarket coolers the manufacturer is referring to (which you will want to remove btw; mention of competitors is against forum rules) is only required if you are thinking of extreme clocks. There should be no need to provide additional cooling to the mobo chipset at the clocks you are proposing.

Skeng · 13 Jul 2010 at 00:57

What case do you have?

Maybe you could add some fans to improve the airflow and I'd definitely go with the Noctua heatsink unless your trying to save money then the Titan Fenrir.

BlinkNFG · 13 Jul 2010 at 09:21

thanks both for your helpful replies. I will go for the Noctua. I sent the computer back to the supplier but they didn't notice anything wrong with my current cooler despite my extreme temps.

I have a Coolermaster Centurion 590 case.

Jon