High idle temps with original i7 920?

somewhatdamaged

somewhatdamaged

somewhatdamaged

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24 Aug 2007
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Hi,

i currently have one of the original Core i7 920 CPUs, with a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme CPU cooler (push/pull setup), Arctic Silver 5 compound, and a Coolermaster Stacker 832 case, all fans populated with Noctua NF-P12's.

My idle temps at stock speeds (auto settings in BIOS) are
49, 47, 47, 48 using Coretemp. If i run small FFTs using Prime95, i am getting 75 degrees on all cores. This seems pretty high for stock speeds?

I have put the paste on very thin and the contact with the heatsink seems solid. If i overclock to 3.2Ghz, my Prime95 temps jump up to 83 degrees on small FFTs and the PC is guaranteed to BSOD with the 124 error code.

Ram is OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8, manually set to 1600Mhz (or as close as it allows)

Anyone have any ideas what i am doing wrong?
Motherboard is an Asus P6T Deluxe, i'm not going over 1.35 vcore in the bios when overclocking


thanks
 
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1.35V vcore would be why its so hot. What is the vid? If unsure, reset to defaults then load cpuz, that voltage is your vid. Set the bios voltage to this or slightly higher before you start clocking.

Can you post a photo of the case with arrows on the fans showing which way they're facing?
 
Hi,

I'll describe the fans for you, as i'm not sure how to upload a photo!

Top fan blow out
Front fan blows in
rear fan blows out
two side fans blow against both GPUS
Both CPU fans are on a push/pull, both blowing towards the back of the case

i was worried i had a bad chip, as the cooling in the case should be very good, as it's a top end case and a decent heatsink as well
 
I have the same cpu as you with a p6t and my temp are much lower.
I just ran a prime small FFT @3.2 for 15mins using 1.35v to compare and had a max core of 66c.

Your case would seem to have enough air flow but is the cable management decent so its not blocking the airflow?
Have you tried reseating the true?
If so when you took it off was the paste uniform on the cpu or much heavier on places?
I see a lot of people have had to lap there true as the can be quite uneven.
 
morning guys,

Perhaps i need to take off the heatsink and reapply the thermal paste.

The cable management is quite tidy, even though the case has a lot in it.

I'll let you know how i get on. I'm wondering if i put the thermal paste on the wrong way around, as i bought the i7 on release day and arctic silver didn't have instructions for the i7 then.

thanks for the advice.

If anyone has the P6T Deluxe and has managed a good solid overclock, i would be grateful for any bios settings you used?
 
Other peoples bios settings are not, and never are, the way to go. Every board is different, so overclocking must be done by algorithm not by copying someone elses results.

A bad mount currently looks the most likely. What are the fans spinning at? Fan controllers, all at 12V, all from the cpu header?

I'd like you to turn off the side fans and stick a piece of card over them, then take a look at your temperatures. If cpu temp goes down and gpu temp goes up then it indicates airflow issues caused by using fans perpendicular to each other. What are the 280s idling and loading at?
 
Hi,

You may be a victim of circumstance. Your i920 will be a C0, and therefore will almost certainly need 1.4V to go to 4GHz.

Your TRUE may well need lapping as many of them have a peculiarly lumpy underside and if you have turned off speedstep then you will be idling at 2.67GHz which might explain why your idle temperatures are so high.

Finally, you have the Coolermaster 832 Case which is probably the worlds worst cooling case ever made and it really does prove that you can fill a big box with fans and put vented side panels on and you'll create - a fan oven.

Sorry, but it's true.

As for how to get a good stable overclock - try this;

In the Advanced menu, set CPU ratio setting to manual and then 20.
Disable c1E, CPU TM function, speedstep, turbo mode tech and c-state tech.

Then, in AI tweaker;

set AI overclock tuner to manual.
CPU ratio should already be 20, if it's not then set it to 20.
Set BCLK to something like 166 which will give 3.33GHz
Tje next timing box is for the RAM - set it to somthing inside the rated speed of your RAM, the next one should be roughly double that and the last one roughly double that again.

Leave all voltages on AUTO and enable LLC.

Disable all spread spectrum stuff.

That should boot fine.

Keep adjusting the BCLK upwards until it stops booting.

You'll probablt see COU core voltages of 1.4-1.45 in CPUz to get a stable overclock at BCLK 200/4GHz.

All the early C0's were really hot running CPUs and they need much more voltage to hit 4GHz than a D0. Don't worry - 1.45V won't kill your CPU.
 
Thanks for the advice chaps, ill give it a go. I didn't realise the Stacker 832 was supposed to be a bad case, perhaps i need to get a different one then

I was also considering the following for the CPU

"Coolit Systems Domino A.L.C Watercooling System"

I don't know much about it, but i am assuming being a watercooler it should give me lower temps than the TRUE

What do you think?
 
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It performs significantly worse than the TRUE, don't go there. The corsair version H50 just about matches the true in some cases, your computer may be one of them.

I think you should remount the processor, checking the bottom of the heatsink to see how flat it is, and see what happens to temperatures when you block off the side fans.

Now taken a look at your case. Both the side panels are vented. With massive vents. I don't think there's anything you can do about this case, it's going to be hot. Bet it's loud too. Perhaps four intake on the side and everything else as exhaust?
 
Thanks to all your help, i re applied the TIM to the CPU and managed to get my PC 8 hours prime stable @ 3.8Ghz using 1.35 volts

Core temp said the temps were 80,74,75,75 which leads me to believe the TIM wasn't applied very evenly! I might re do it if i buy some more arctic silver.

Might try for 4Ghz but if i can't get it i am still happy

many thanks
 
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