i7 temp concerns

kkbigal · 6 Jul 2009 at 13:15

I installed a Prolimatech Megahalems cooler over the weekend and although I've been impressed with the drop in temps over my old cooler, I'm concerned that my idle/load temps (60c idle/100c load) are much higher than the figures several people are quoting on their similarly overclocked i7's (40c idle/70c load).

I think the fan I have on the cooler could definitely be replaced with something a bit beefier than the 44cfm fan I have but was wondering what any of you would suggest to get the temps down a bit?

ViRuS2k · 6 Jul 2009 at 13:34

Even with a better fan CFM, those results are way off.
your getting worse results than what a stock refrence jobbie would get.

re seat the heatsink asap.

You want to be looking for 40s idle, 80s load.

kkbigal · 10 Jul 2009 at 02:44

Well I reseated the heatsink with a new application of paste but the temps were pretty much the same as before.

However, I noticed that to maintain 3.8ghz the board was juicing itself with a 1.36v VCore in order to get it Prime95 stable. I dropped the overclock back to 3.6ghz and it's been running Prime95 for about 3 hours straight on 1.28v Vcore - quite a marked difference - and the core temps are all between 76c - 79c.

I think that given the Vcore difference required to get 3.6 and 3.8ghz, I'm happier to run it at 3.6 for the time being

kkbigal · 10 Jul 2009 at 09:22

Dropped the Vcore some more and it still seems stable at 1.25v - temps down to 72c

Bradley8988 · 10 Jul 2009 at 11:54

So you have your vcore on auto?

kkbigal · 10 Jul 2009 at 12:52

No - after dropping the BLCK to 180 (3.6ghz) I manually set the vcore, doing a Prime95 and then lowering it a bit more if it seemed stable.

When I get home I'm going to tweak it down some more and see if I can get it under 70c full load

Bradley8988 · 10 Jul 2009 at 13:14

You have a D0?

Geekazoid · 10 Jul 2009 at 16:55

thats what i did mate but im now running my i7 920 at 3.5ghz under 70oc load rock solid stability at vcore of 1.2... nothing out currently even games need that much processing power so aint tempted yet to push it further...

Benjyshwa · 10 Jul 2009 at 18:25

I'm sure I read somewhere that Intel's recommended highest voltage is 1.25?
I definitely wouldn't leave it on auto if your over-clocking.

Bradley8988 · 10 Jul 2009 at 18:34

I thought it was around 1.375v.

kkbigal · 10 Jul 2009 at 19:28

Bradley8988 said:
You have a D0?

No - C0/C1 according to CPUZ, I bought it back in March before the D0 was released

Geekazoid said:
thats what i did mate but im now running my i7 920 at 3.5ghz under 70oc load rock solid stability at vcore of 1.2... nothing out currently even games need that much processing power so aint tempted yet to push it further...

Yeah, I was just trying to keep up with a friend who'd bought a new rig from Overclockers and it came with a D0 i7 920 @ 3.8. It could do it but the temps and juice required were worrying me.

Like you say, no games push the chip anywhere near that much so I'm certainly not going to feel bad about dropping it back

Just set BIOS vcore to 1.23 and it appears to be stable thus far and none of the core temps have gone over 67c under Prime95

Dead chuffed with this Prolimatech Megahalems cooler too!