My PC is melting

[iviv]

I've currently got a 4790k that's running idle at around 50-55C (gaming/streaming when not in a heatwave sits around 85C) in an antec DF-85 case and an antec H2O 950 AIO cooler. It's always run on the hot side which prevented me from overclocking it much, but I put this down to a bad chip/mother board. However, after looking into the option of upgrading to a Ryzen instead (Part of me is still considering this, even though it would barely be an increase in performance) it was pointed out to me that most of my problems are that I have a pretty junk cooler for this chip.

So, I've been looking into getting a better cooler, specifically the NH-D15 which should deal with the heat and allow me to actually overclock this chip, which would be nice to do.

However, before I order this cooler, I just wanted to check to see if this is indeed a good heatsink, that it's not going to be a waste and I should stick with this chip rather than jumping to a Ryzen 1700, and to see if I need to grab more thermal paste. I've been using a tube of AS5 that I've had for quite a while now. Does this stuff go off or anything? I assume not, and it's just been sitting in a box somewhere for years, but I figure it's still the king?
Thanks!

 

[EXxx]

4790k are hot.
1) are you OC'd ? if so what volts are you at?
2) what mb do you have, and do you run the latest bios?
3) try and repaste/reseat your current cooler.
4) make sure your case airflow makes sense. Also crank up the AIO's fan to the max and see if that helps.

 

[Danny75]

I've been using a tube of AS5 that I've had for quite a while now. Does this stuff go off or anything? I assume not, and it's just been sitting in a box somewhere for years, but I figure it's still the king?
Thanks!

Squeeze a tiny amount out, and see if it's more liquidy (than originally) or dried up. Either would mean it's bad.

 

[iviv]

Hey, thanks for the reply. To answer your questions:

1) No, it's completely stock. Motherboard also failed to POST and reset to defaults on Monday as well, so it's definitely not an OC problem
2) It's a gigabyte GA-Z97X Gaming 7, and I'm pretty certain it's on the latest BIOS, and there hasn't been a new one for a couple of years
3) I tried that a few weeks ago to see if I could do anything about the temps to no avail, that's what made me consider switching to Ryzen in the first place until it was pointed out to me that it was probably the cooler being rubbish rather than a bad chip
4) Pretty sure it does. The case as 3 120mm fans at the front, 2 120mm at the back and 2 140mm on the top. The front pull in and the others all push out. I had to hook the AIO up to one of the rear fans so there's now the two fans there with the rad sandwiched between them. I'm 99% sure they are both blowing in the right direction since I can feel the hot air blowing out of the back of it, but I'll also check this once I'm home.

Regarding the AS5, I'll try that as well once I'm home, will need to hunt down a youtube video to see his viscous it's supposed to be in the first place. Thanks for the replies guys!

 

[Danny75]

Also, the cooler's radiator fins may need cleaning if they are dusty. Idle at 50C and at stock is simply too high no matter which cooler. Have you checked what Vcore it's using in BIOS or with CPU-Z or something?

 

[iviv]

I gave it a blast with a little air duster on Monday which cleared some dust out of it. Looking between the fan blades it looks fairly clean now, not bad enough to cause such high temps I would have thought.
And I agree with you on the temps being high, that's why I considered calling it a bad chip and jumping up to Ryzen. I'm still tempted by that option too, don't want to chuck money at a bad chip if it's not going to do much for me.

 

[freddie64]

As Danny said, you need to check the Vcore.

If your bios reset to defaults, it will probably be on auto settings which are some times to high.

Also, is the second fan on the AIO the one that came supplied with the cooler?

Reason i ask is that i think the fans have to be running the same speed (give or take a few RPM)

If you do decide to get a air cooler the NH-D15 is supposed to be very good (although the fans do look a bit poo).

 

[iviv]

Thanks, I'll check the vcore this evening, see where it's at. I've just done a quick google and seen a few numbers between 1.15 and 1.25v so I'll give those a go. Regarding the fan, that's a very good point. One of the AIO fans came with it and is hooked up to the PWM header so adjusts speed as needed, the other is a case fan that runs at 900 or 1500rpm, so I can see how that would cause problems.

Side note on the NH-D15, would I mount it horizontally or vertically? I assume there's going to be some sort of performance difference depending on if I have it blowing the hot air backwards or upwards. My first thought is that heat will be rising anyway so the top fans will be blowing hot air out of the case anyway, while the back ones might not be so much, so I should have them blowing to the back of the case?

 

[EXxx]

as the guys have said, have a look at the voltages, I remember my z87 OC would overvolt massively when it was stock.
I need 1.235 for 4.6, 1.29 for 4.7 and my cpu is below average.
Just to make sure, if the rad is sandwiched between 2 fans I recommend using the same fan for both push and pull, with this you also make sure the fans that sandwich the rad go the same way.
unless there is something wrong with the AIO, which is harder to test, just getting a NH-D15 won't solve the issue.

also keep the back fans blowing the air out.

 

[iviv]

Pc innards:

http://i.imgur.com/DNsS6kR.jpg


I ran coretemp as soon as I was able to, as you can see it was hitting 80C during startup, dropping to around 50-55 at idle, Vcore set to 1.140v

Edit: Ok, this is probably a really stupid question, but do I have the AIO fan mounted upside down? As in, should the piping be running into the bottom of the radiator rather than the top? It never occurred to me before now, but since heat rises, this would probably give me better temperatures?

 

[freddie64]

Have you actually set vcore to 1.14v or are you just quoting the VID in core temp? ( think VID is what the CPU require to be stable at stock speed)

You need CPU-Z as that will show what the bios is actually running CPU vcore at.

All pictures i have found show the tubing is at bottom. (not convinced this is necessary though)

 

[Silent_Scone]

VID represents what the CPU believe's it's receiving

 

[iviv]

I set it to 1.140v in the bios, left all the other voltages to auto.

 

[lude1962]

you've got too many fans expelling air this could starve the aio fans, disconnect one of the top 140's see if it makes a difference
and 2 fans on the aio may make cooling worse if not balanced/syncronized

 

[Rroff]

Airflow temperature today in my case is hitting 43C I could turn the fans up a bit but with room temperature peaking at 34C it probably wouldn't make much odds.

 

[EXxx]

is that voltage @ idle or are you loading up the processor. When win boots up, it launches/starts services and apps, and the cpu is loaded up.
get HWinfo and post a screen when you can. It might not be JUST the vCore(which seems quite good 1.14 for 4.4), your Ring/input might be stupidly high.
Also you might want to check the voltage under some stress, don't use prime/ibt get asus rog bench test(??) or aida64, run them for more than 2-3 minutes, and post the voltages/temps.
If everything checks out it must be the cooler.

 

[freddie64]

Not sure how this cooler cables connects to the motherboard, but could it be the pump connected to a PWM header and not running fast enough (if that makes sense).

So you would have the fans connected to PWM and the pump to a constant 12v source.

 

[iviv]

is that voltage @ idle or are you loading up the processor. When win boots up, it launches/starts services and apps, and the cpu is loaded up.
get HWinfo and post a screen when you can. It might not be JUST the vCore(which seems quite good 1.14 for 4.4), your Ring/input might be stupidly high.
Also you might want to check the voltage under some stress, don't use prime/ibt get asus rog bench test(??) or aida64, run them for more than 2-3 minutes, and post the voltages/temps.
If everything checks out it must be the cooler.

That's idle voltage. I'm not going to touch stress tests since just opening up chrome with 10 tabs open will push the cpu up to 90C without the cpu even being at 100%, so I'd rather not toast it by trying to do that!

Not sure how this cooler cables connects to the motherboard, but could it be the pump connected to a PWM header and not running fast enough (if that makes sense).

So you would have the fans connected to PWM and the pump to a constant 12v source.

I believe it connects up to the PWM header for speed control of both the fan and the pump, and connects up to one of the motherboard USB headers for power to the pump and also for the speed control app.


With all that said, I'll be collecting the Noctua today, that should hopefully fix the problems, and if it doesn't I can get the AM4 mounting bracket and go Ryzen eventually. That said, if this new cooler does the job properly I'll probably make a new thread for advice on overclocking since it's been a very long time since I tried that, and it was on an AMD rather than intel CPU.

 

[freddie64]

I believe it connects up to the PWM header for speed control of both the fan and the pump, and connects up to one of the motherboard USB headers for power to the pump and also for the speed control app.

The only reason i asked was that i have had 2 different AIOs and they both had to have constant voltage and not PWM, but obviously not the case with your cooler.

Hope the Noctua cures the problem.

 

[EXxx]

it genuinely sounds like a dead(or with one foot in the grave) pump to me.