i7 4790k cpu temps too high

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My mobo is reporting that my cpu is 70 C at 22% load. I have an aftermarket water cooler (the corsair h60) and I'm worried that these temps are FAR too high. Did I do something wrong when I installed the water cooler? Can I reset it without adding on new thermal paste (as I don't have any)?
 
Which software do you use to read the temps? Remove the cooler. Clean the residue of thermal paste off the CPU and cooler base. Apply new thermal paste like Arctic Silver on the CPU and install the cooler again. Make sure that backplate and the cooler are firmly but not tightly fixed. Clean the rad and fan as well. Do it when they are taken off the system. Also hold the fan such that its blades don't rotate with high pressure compressed air or whatever mechanism you use.

Read the temps in the mobo BIOS as well. What is your room temp?
 

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I followed the first suggestion, and tightened down the cooler a bit more (I was worried I would break the cpu, so I didn't tightening it as much.) At 22% load, speedfan says 22c and asus' program says 34c. So I'm MUCH happier with that, especially since those were the two programs that were telling me it was super high before. Thanks to everyone for their replies.
 

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Now it's back up to 80c under 30% load :( I have *NO* thermal grease, and I won't have access to any till tomorrow. I plugged the the pump into cpu_opt, and I have a push/pull fan on the radiator.
 

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Okay, I couldn't get any of the ones listed (I didn't want to wait for them to be shipped) so I got antec nanodiamond 7, and had to apply it twice (too much the first time). The second time seemed to work okay, so I'm booted it up. Under nearly the same load, actually 47% load, it's at 43C, which is a MUCH better temperature. I will continue to monitor it, but I think I got it this time. When I pulled up the heat sink the first time, only like 25% of the cpu was covered in thermal paste. This was probably my problem. We'll see how it goes. The cpu appears to be okay. I also reoriented the pump a little (made it so that the corsair name is readable when the computer's upright, which is the only other position I could get it into. Anyways. 43C is 21 above ambient, which is maybe too high, but we'll see what happens.
 

n_9404

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it's not what you would expect from this CPU :(, actually, it's supossed to run a little bit cooler that the 4770k (If we're talking that you have your CPU at stock speed), and what you have is an H60, it should run to max 65° (as I think, I'm based on this review of the 4790 [non k], with an H100 Review_here) however as I recall intel chips can handle temps under 90° but I don't feel that it's good for the CPU to push it that far and I actually don't know how to determine if your watercooling solution is damaged or so... :/
 

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So, what do you think I should do? Buy a new cooler?
 

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Okay, I went out and got a new cooler (coolermaster evo) and idle is like 30c, and running prime95 for 5 minutes is 61c. Those are far better numbers. We'll see how it goes.
 

n_9404

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Nice to hear that!, those are nice temps for your CPU, I was about to ask you if you have tested it with the stock cooler but you came with a better one :)
 

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I'm still extremely nervous about this build. I rand prime95 for 10 minutes, and it was in the mid 60's. I still worry I screwed something up. I don't feel like I can overclock this tho, so I have a expensive cpu, and mobo, and I can't overclock 'em. Oh well. Thanks to everyone for helping me out, I appreciate it. This was a tough build, and is my last. It's too nerve wracking.
 

Arksun

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mid-60s for Prime95 after 10 minutes is a perfectly safe temperature for the 4790K. Try overclocking it a little bit and see what temps you get. Really anything under 70C should be fine long term, 80C is starting to push it, 90C and up I wouldn't recommend.

I bought a 4790K as well,running at stock speed no overclock after 30 minutes of Prime95 I'm hitting 70C, thats with a Noctua slim NH-U14S cooler with 1 fan with the speed set very low to reduce noise. If I removed the low noise adaptor from the fan I'd prob get much cooler temps but I've no plans to overclock so am happy with that. In real world use it'll never reach the cpu pull of prime95 anyways.
 

KosherGrimace

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Don't forget that ambient temperature plays a roll in this too. If it's warm in your house your temps are going to be higher. It will affect the headroom you have for an OC.

Keep in mind that the 4790K isn't the godsend that Intel and some press were trying to make it out to be. People who hit the silicon lotto and got chips with likely the best clock speed potentials are stuck around 5.1GHz even when using pretty awesome custom water cooling setups. It seems that users with high-end air coolers and closed loop water coolers are at 4.6 and 4.7Ghz stable overclocks.
 

Arksun

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Yeah for some reason the 4790K doesn't like being clocked too high, but there's no doubt that in the range it is comfortable working in, the temp is a few degrees lower than the 4770K.
 

Goliith

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My 4790k seems to be a faulty one that got through the bin process, as shortly after setting up my new rig, I ran Prime95 to see what temperatures this 'Designed for OC' CPU hit (On the stock cooler) needless to say it hit 100°C+ In seconds and I powered off as fast as possible. I was uncertain if something had gone wrong, so I remounted the stock cooler, still hit 100+ in seconds in Prime95. So I ordered another H80i, since I've had a great time with it in my old rig. with the H80i in Push-pull config, 85-90°C in Prime95 within about 30 seconds of the test starting.

Fortunately I have 15days to return or exchange it where I bought it from, fingers crossed for getting a better sample tomorrow.

PS: This was all at stock speeds of 4.00ghz with the CPU self turbo going 4.1-4.3ghz never even hit its marketed 4.4ghz turbo speed ;(