High temps on 6700k

Brok

Brok

Brok

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Hi folks,

i've recently upgraded to a 6700k from an i7 920. I've kept the same cooler (Corsair H100) and case (Fractal Define R4).

At stock speeds I am seeing idle temps low-mid 30s which are OK I guess, but any load on the CPU pushes them to 70ish and any kind of benchmark takes me well into the 90s and beyond.

I have 2 140mm fans pulling air in at the front and one exhausting it at the back. I also have 2 120mm fans pulling air through the radiator and exhausting out of the top of the case. As far as I can tell the pump on the H100 is working OK, and Corsair link shows it running at about 2200rpm as well. I have double checked all fans are oriented correctly.

I have re-seated and re-pasted the heatsink a couple of times but this has not materially impacted the end result.

I'm at a loss as to what to try next, other than replacing the cooler but it was working fine on the 920 and dealt with an overclock to 3.6ghz flawlessly for a number of years.

I was going to try set the voltages manually to see if that would help but I can't find a good, idiotproof guide for the settings needed for the mobo I have (Asus Z170 Pro Gaming)

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Are your rad fans pulling air in from the room or out from the case. You should be pulling room air over the rad. I don't think 70 is extreme but probably should be a little lower.
Andi.
 
Ah ok, they are pulling air from inside the case, over the rad and exhausting through the top vents. I can reverse them but won't that be pulling a load of dust in at the same time? There is no dust filter on the top so I had assumed the air was meant to vent out that way.
 
Right, I've turned them over so they are now pulling air from outside the case and its a bit better, but still if I run the H.264 video encoding benchmark from RealBench fore example I'm seeing peak core temps of 92c. That still seems way too high to me. Any other suggestions please folks before I start looking at new coolers? :)
 
I would move your 140mm back exhaust to bottom intake, and turn your radiator fans back to exhaust.

Case will only flow as much air as the smaller area of intake or exhaust venting. With 2x 120mm top and 2x 140mm front intakes, you are not going to flow their potential out of 1x 140mm back exhaust, the other venting in PCIe slots, vent beside PCIe slots and 1x bottom vent .. they are not as much area as front and top intakes, so they limit overall flow. Hope that makes sense.
 
I'm not convinced its a pure airflow problem though. I get similar temps even with all the sides of the case off, surely hitting 90c+ in normal use when the CPUs are loaded (happens when gaming too) suggests there is a component problem somewhere? Its a shame I binned my Tuniq Tower a few years back as now I have nothing to compare it with.

Is it worth buying another cooler to compare?
 
leerogers00 said:
What voltage is it running stock? Worth making sure your motherboard hasn't been silly
Click to expand...

Everything is set to Auto in the BIOS at the mo as I didn't want to start fiddling until I was happy with it at stock. How do I check what voltage is being applied other than looking at the max in something like HW Monitor?

**EDIT** Had a look in the BIOS and its showing as 1.264v next to the AUTO setting for CPU Core/Cache Voltage, so I guess that's it. I've seen it go higher than that (1.3v+) in HW Monitor though.
 
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andicole0 said:
I would probably try removing the cpu block, cleaning and reseating with new thermal paste.
Andi.
Click to expand...

I did that earlier today, although it was the same paste I had used originally (Artic Cooling MX-4). Are you suggesting using a different compound, does it go off over time?
 
Well, if that is what you think then it's very possible your H100 pump is the problem.

Personally I wouldn't use a CLC if at all possible to avoid, and it is almost always possible to avoid. ;)

I'm running air on everything I have .. that's 3 systems besides what's in my sig. My 6700 is under a TRUE Spirit 140 rev.A idling 30c@300rpm with 100% load being 52c@900rpm. Granted, it's not overclocked, but that because it has been shown several times that there is no significant gain in performance in most uses. I was running my [email protected] [email protected] and 6700 smokes them out of the box, so for now I'll run cool and quiet at stock settings.

One thing I hesitate to mention is my 6700 ran hot for the first 4-7 weeks slowing giving low and low temps. Stated in low 30s and is now in low 20s. I asked 8 Pack if he had any ideas as to why, but all he did was blow me off like I was some kind of pest, so flagged him off. The only thing I could think of was the factory IHS to chip seat needed time to seat in properly. I couldn't use it to test coolers, (which I do a fair few) becuase of this. I tried different coolers, re-seated, etc. , but every several days I would notice a degree lower temps. The reason I hesitated to say all this is I have not been able to find anyone else who has notice this happening. In 8 Pack's defense his time on any one given CPU is a few days spent building and Oc'ing, so even if some of his builds had this happen, he would not have noticed it.
 
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I think I'm going to have to buy another cooler for my own sanity, at least if that also runs hot I'll have ruled it out.
 
If I was going to buy another cooler, I would get a good air cooler instead of CLC.
A couple good front intake fans in R4 make a huge difference .. and a matching bottom intake.
I could make some suggestions,but should know what your RAM height is first. What GPU are you running?
 
Brok said:
I did that earlier today, although it was the same paste I had used originally (Artic Cooling MX-4). Are you suggesting using a different compound, does it go off over time?
Click to expand...

No need to use different paste, just a new blob, as long as it's still soft/easy to spread from the tube/pot.
Andi.
 
doyll said:
If I was going to buy another cooler, I would get a good air cooler instead of CLC.
A couple good front intake fans in R4 make a huge difference .. and a matching bottom intake.
I could make some suggestions,but should know what your RAM height is first. What GPU are you running?
Click to expand...

Yeah I'll go air this time, I only got the H100 as it was on a good deal a couple of years back and i was rebuilding so thought I'd give it a go. RAM is Team Group Elite which is relatively low profile (looks to be about 31mm from looking on the web), GPU is currently a 770GTX which is due to be replaced by an EVGA 1080GTX FTW when they finally come in stock.

Fans at the moment are all Noctuas:-

NF-P14 FLX x 3 (2 front, 1 rear)

NF-S12A PWM x 2 (on H100 rad)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 
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The field is from £40 - £80 with little difference in performance. Honestly a good £40 cooler, new front and bottom intake for about £30 will more than likely outperform a higher priced cooler.

Alpenfohn has their new Olymp that reviews are all showing as being at the top or a few degrees better then the best, and OcUK has it for £50.99 at the moment. Phanteks all black PH-F140SP are £9.95 each. Good fans if you don't need PWM control.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alpe...h-performance-cpu-cooler-140mm-hs-054-al.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-ph-f140sp-static-pressure-140mm-fan-black-fg-024-pt.html

There are other sources of fans, but the Olymp is one super cooler, and I'm running got PH-F140SP case fans in 2 of my 4 cases.

The key to a cool and quiet system is good case airflow with case fans cycling with CPU & GPU coolers. This way case flow air to components as components need it. Very quiet when not working and not much louder when working at extremes.

Here's a guide to how I approach case and component cooling
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=26159770&postcount=7

Here's a list of coolers and sizes, sorry but it's not up to date.
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=26264940&postcount=3
 
OK I'll give the Olymp a go. If that doesn't shift it far enough I'll start on the fans. Thanks for your help :)
 
You might be lucky and it will work okay, but I guaranty it will run cooler with better front fans. Raising case up so there is a 40mm space between case bottom and what it sets on also greatly improves airflow and lowers noise. Removing the punched metal grills from bottom and back vents is another big improvement. I have documented this changes and so have others.

I know you are skeptical, but the stock R4 front fans are simply not up to the task. They just don't have the ability to pull air through the restrictive grills and filter, an if you have HDD cages in use it's even worse. I've been through this several times with my own and other Define case owners having cooling and/or noise issues. If you want to see the proof, drop me a trust message.
 
Well they aren't the stock fans, they are 140mm Noctuas that are pretty well regarded but I'll see how I get on. I'm sure you are right in that in can be improved, the question is more whether it is necessary :)
 
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