i7 Too hot?

Soldato
Joined
27 Sep 2005
Posts
4,673
Location
London innit
tempsg.png


Ambient is around 20C i'd guess. Does this look too high? Note there's 12GB in there, using a H50 as in intake with push pull, Scythe PWM fans.
 
It's surprisingly high given the speed and voltage. My i5 is running at 4GHz and needs around 1.375V to do it, yet my H50 with standard single fan keeps it well under 40 degrees at idle normally (up to 40 on the hottest summer days). What are your temps like running prime or IBT? Either your cooler isn't seated properly, your fans aren't set up correctly or your case exhaust flow is awful. You do have case fan(s) exhausting given that your H50 is intaking, right?
 
Do you mean here that you've got the fans blowing all of the hot air inside the case?

That's the standard arrangement and Corsair's recommendation. CPU cooling is better pulling cold external air over the rad. All you have to do is remove it from the case afterwards.
 
The case is set up as so:

fortress.png


I've seated and reseated the H50 many times and tried both AS3 and MX5. The 4890 is a Vapor-X so it doesn't exhaust, just dumps heat into the case. I've tried H50 intake and exhaust and not much difference. Have set the CPU to 1.2V, everything else is on auto.

Have one of the first generation H50's, it doesn't seem to have the locking thing I hear mentioned, but is pretty firmly on. The pump is on one of the mobo headers set to full whack, the fans are on the CPU connector set to PWM. The idle around 900RPM and hit 1300RPM under load.

Edit: Note the top half of the drive bay is removed, so the main intake isn't completely blocked.
 
Last edited:
As far as I can remember, the following are set:

Memory: XMP
CPU: 1.2V
BCLK: 175

Everything else auto.
 
There's a good chance XMP has set your QPI voltage really high (1.35V+) and you might need to manually lower it to reduce heat, with that overclock 1.2V QPI should be fine.
 
Last edited:
45-50C idle, 75-80C peak.

Hmm your max temps are the same as my i5 at 4GHz even though idle is higher. The auto voltages probably dont help - you should set them manual and see how low you can get (particularly qpi) remaining stable. How is it with the case side removed? If it's better that would indicate a side exhaust fan might help if your case allows one. Also bear in mind CPU temp sensors aren't accurate so far away from tjmax so idle temps almost have to be taken with a pinch of salt anyway. Your peak temps aren't that worrying but could be improved with the above steps. I think mmj_uk is probably onto something with auto qpi volts being really high.
 
don't bother with xmp profiles, just set it manually. i had problems with mine setting my ram as 8-8-8-20 when it should've been 8-8-8-24... caused no end to problems! but as mentioned, the xmp profile can set QPI voltage high.
 
Hmm your max temps are the same as my i5 at 4GHz even though idle is higher. The auto voltages probably dont help - you should set them manual and see how low you can get (particularly qpi) remaining stable. How is it with the case side removed? If it's better that would indicate a side exhaust fan might help if your case allows one. Also bear in mind CPU temp sensors aren't accurate so far away from tjmax so idle temps almost have to be taken with a pinch of salt anyway. Your peak temps aren't that worrying but could be improved with the above steps. I think mmj_uk is probably onto something with auto qpi volts being really high.

My fan controller has some thermistors, the warmest area is around the CPU / Graphics card, but that typically only reads 35-40C so airflow in the case seems okay. I think last year had the chip unto 4.0 with temps ranging between 55C-80C so the H50 seems consistent with 25C idle to load diff. I'll redo the fans and the mount this aft, and have a go fiddling with Volts. Tried a 180BCLK this morning at 1.2V and it bluescreened rapidly.

Think I need a higher QPI on this as it has all six slots of RAM filled, but will try to drop it.
 
Think I need a higher QPI on this as it has all six slots of RAM filled, but will try to drop it.

I've had several i7's all managed to run 6 dimms at 1.2V QPI and at 4ghz stable, relax the timings to CAS 9 if you need to they make very little real world difference anyway.
 
Sorry can't edit as I'm using my phone, the 4890 Vapor-X dumps a lot of heat into the case rather than exhausting. That part of the case tends to be 10C warmer than the front.
 
Okay, so i've redone the airflow - the top fan is an intake now and the H50 is an exhaust. The cooler is seated properly, the first time it was reseated with fresh MX-3 applied temps were hitting mid eighties - so I removed that and reapplied some AS5. It's pretty fresh so hasn't had a chance to cure yet, but temps across the cores are much more even - 79/77/77/75 and ambient is a bit higher now. BIOS is reading 1400 RPM on the pump. Time to start fiddling with voltages.

Ambient temps are 27.2C at the front intake, and 30C near the CPU and 34C near the 4890.
 
Last edited:
It won't stay stable under 1.24V QPI / 1.6V RAM. Am currently hitting 80C load 52C idle with this. Maybe it's just a hot chip?
 
What speed you running the ram at? Mine needs 1.65 (has to be 1.66 in my bios as it drops slightly) to run at its 1600MHz XMP speed. Try upping ram volts to that and you might be able to lower qpi a little further.

But to answer your original question, maybe it's a little warm at idle, but given your reported max temps, then no, your i7 is not too hot.
 
I couldn't get past 3.7GHz with the RAM running at 8.0 - i.e. 1400MHz. Knocking it down to 6.0, so it's running at 1146Mhz allowed me to drop the QPI down to 1.12V, the RAM at 1.5V and tighten the timings to 7/7/7/20. Is this a big performance hit?

I had to knock the CPU volts upto 1.34 to get 4.0GHz and it's running well hot now, but here it is:

ulala.png


Edit: I cleary dont want to run the CPU at 92C longterm, so will down clock.
 
Back
Top Bottom