i7 3820 overheating issues :(

watkins · 8 Jul 2012 at 20:26

Hi there, on stock my i7 3820 is running at 40c at 3.6ghz. However, when it's under full load it goes to 70c easily, please bear in mind that I have a Akasa AK-CC4008HP01 Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler and this isn't particularly good at all.

When I overclock (which most i7's are designed to do pretty much) to around 4.4 ghz it runs at 56c idle and at max goes to 85c which is too much. This was measured using Core Temp and I'm too scared to even do Prime95 for fear of frying the poor thing.

Do you think I have put the thermal paste that came with the CPU cooler on wrong? I did one line in the middle and put the heatsink over it to spread it (some guy did that in a H80 review video).

These temperatures really frustrate me, I have a big case and I feel like the money I spent on my setup doesn't really justify it's performance, I need to overclock the CPU to get better frames when I'm rendering videos or streaming with xsplit.

Overclockers, help me!

On Holiday · 8 Jul 2012 at 22:17

I'd recommend a new cooler..

As for thermal paste, most people recommend a pea sized blob in the middle and putting the heatsink on and letting that do the work, seems to spread very well.

lflowers · 9 Jul 2012 at 01:35

I would suggest a new cooler as well, maybe look at the H20 coolers or something like a Noctua D-14 or one of the Phanteks.

On Holiday · 9 Jul 2012 at 07:11

I currently have the Phanteks, and my idles temps are 29'c - 34'c ish, with load not going over 50'c. That's at 3.9GHz. So I'd definitely recommend it.. But it's absolutely massive and you'll need a big case to fit it.

olivier renault · 9 Jul 2012 at 08:29

Reseat the cooler, re-apply paste first before dropping £60. Your idle temp looks too high. Also, try with the side door removed, to see if you have a airflow problem.

Else, the Silver Arrow SB-E, Phanteks, NH-D14, H100.

bemaniac · 9 Jul 2012 at 08:56

mine runs pretty hot at 4.75 but it a high voltage overclock I guess. I never worry about 85 degrees though as that's only during prime95 running solidly for 20 minutes and if I wanted to I could turn the H80 up from low.

mp260767 · 9 Jul 2012 at 09:13

have you checked the processor to make sure that the thermal paste isn't spread to thick ?, you only need a very thing layer.

what sort of ambient room temp have you got the system running in.

is the cooler secured properly ?

what temps does it run at on its default speed ?

andybird123 · 9 Jul 2012 at 10:39

according to the reviews, that venom voodoo should be pretty ok, at stock on a 3960X it should hit 50C - not 70C on a chip that produces less heat

I would say that either your ambient temps are really high, you have really poor case airflow or there is something wrong with the installation

when you take off the cooler to look at re-applying TIM, check the spread pattern... in the middle of the CPU it should be so thin that it almost looks like there's none there... if there is a thin layer of TIM all over the CPU then you had too much on there

also, with direct heat pipe heatsinks you might find that you need to put a tiny tiny line of TIM on each heat pipe to get it to spread properly, or even fill in the gaps around each pipe

benchmark reviews (.com) have an article on the methods they found that worked for direct contact heat pipe coolers

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...ask=view&id=170&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=5