4790K - need air cooling advise

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Andrey Rybakov

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Apr 12, 2014
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Hey guys!

So a few days ago I finally got my 4790K in the mail, and I'm hot exactly happy with the temperatures I'm now getting. Background:
I used to have 2600K not OC'd on 3.8 Ghz cooled by Hyper 212+ with one fan, temperatures on idle were 27-30c and 60-70c under load in corsair 650D, mobo is Asus Z97 Deluxe. I also had GTX 780 Ti in SLI which I had trouble cooling, but resolved it by turning 212+ to face the front of the case instead of down on the GPUs, so all was good.

Now I upgraded that to 4790K with a new Hyper 212 EVO to which I added a second fan (Noctua NF-F12), expecting the thing to run even cooler than my 2600K for OC'ing, but I immediately noticed that it wasn't the case - idle temps were 49-53c and it quickly reached 85-90c under heavy load, all under 4.4 Ghz. I figured something is wrong with the heatsink so I re-attached it and re-applied thermal paste, but temps remained. Worth noting, in BIOS it's 40c. I also noticed that the CPU wouldn't downclock when idle and remained at 4.4GHz, and thinking that's the problem I edited windows (8.1) power settings. It started to scale down the power, but it barely helped, making temps stay below 90c. Even at lowered voltage it never went below 48c. At first I measured with Ai Suite 3 which actually shows around 40c, but then I tried HWMonitor and Real Temp, both of which showed the temps I wrote about above.

I also noticed that while playing BF4 (heavy load on the components, resolution is 4K) one GPU (I'm guessing the upper one) quickly reaches 91c and stays there, while the second one is around 65c. I'm not happy with that first temp either. I'm guessing it's because of the CPU which is so much hotter now since the upper GPU is close to it's heatsink.

Any ideas on what could this be? I'm frankly puzzled. Is it the new CPU architecture and all is normal, or should I be worried? I'm not familiar with anything after Sandy Bridge, but I heard that it runs hotter, just didn't expect it to be THIS hot. I thought about water cooling, but frankly I'm scared to try that since I don't know anything about it and heard about the leaks problems and stuff.
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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Apr 12, 2014
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Sorry I forgot to mention that, but yes, it's push/pull now. CPU fans push air out to the exhaust case fan in the back. I got 2 Noctua 140mm fans sucking air on top of the case, and that's pretty much it. My front case fan (200mm) never worked, and I just didn't care since the temps were more than enough for me. Now I'm thinking about replacing it with something that'll work, but frankly I doubt that it'll help with cooling anything besides maybe the HDDs in front of it, and will just add noise.
 
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snowctrl

snowctrl

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You need MORE air being sucked into the case then blown out of it - this builds pressure in the case which helps the exhaust fans do their job of expelling hot air.

So get some really good front-of-case and possibly side-of-case intake fans!!
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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Apr 12, 2014
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Yes, that is correct. Air is only getting sucked in from the top of the case.



I understand that this is not the best way to do it, that is, without the front case fan. However I've been doing it for a couple of years now, and all was good. I just have a hard time believing that getting 2x higher temperatures with the new CPU will be fixed by installing one extra intake fan. Does it mean that 2600K would have been at, like, 10c if i had it installed? :pt1cable: Speaking of side case fans, I don't know anything about them and not sure if they'll fit in my case.

I just don't want to spend more money only to be disappointed by the result.
 
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rolli59

rolli59

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Top fans exhausting? Which would be correct!
If that is the case then you need Intake in the front.
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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No, top fans are both intake. Blowing cold air right at the CPU heatsink.
 
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rolli59

rolli59

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Top fans are creating your issue if they are used for intake have to be exhaust! Hot air rises and you are forcing it back down to the components!
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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Hmm. Makes sense, actually. I just don't understand why it was all good before. I even improved the temperatures when I installed those top fans by a few degrees, before that there was one 200mm corsair fan which also didn't work :(:??:

I tried going for this type of cooling setup, but obviously without front intake.
600x450px-LL-ab765b99_phantom_inside.jpeg


So I should order a new front case fan, set it to intake and then set both top ones to exhaust?
 
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FoxVoxDK

FoxVoxDK

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Ok, just so that we're on the same page.

The rear fan sucks air OUT of the case and the to top fans suck air IN?

If this is the case, have the rear fan suck air IN and the two top fans sucking air OUT.
This, for starters to give better circulation around your CPU cooler.

Still you NEED a greater airflow in a case with two GFX cards of that caliber.

You can buy a Cooler Master Megaflow 200 as a front intake fan, they're fairly cheap and move a decent amount of air.
 
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rolli59

rolli59

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What happens with your airflow is that you have a dead spot at the bottom making the GPU's hot. Most of your intake air at the top exhaust through the back.
Putting in an 200mm intake in the front would do good but you should see better temps just by reversing the top fans.
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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I'm thinking about Bitfenix 200mm since it's also 20mm thick while Megaflow is 30mm, it won't fit in my case :(
And speaking of circulation, I really don't want to mess with the rear fan. It's been setup like this since, well, forever, and I'd rather leave it there. Adding front intake and making top fans exhaust will do the job, right?



Alright, thank you very much for your input. That makes sense, I'll try it ASAP.

Another question to everyone is, are the CPU temps normal by themselves? I mean, even if I take off the case wall and make GPUs go cold (down to 40c both), CPU still stays at 50c, on idle.
 
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FoxVoxDK

FoxVoxDK

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Yes, it should work nicely, the reason that I would have you turn the rear fan sucking air in, is to create more movement of air in your case, but it would yield negligible results I believe, but it's always worth trying, you can always shift them back.

Your CPU temps are much too high imo, and something else might be wrong there, broken retention bar or bad contact between Cooler and CPU.
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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So, update time: I finally had fans delivered today. Easily replaced rear fan with a Noctua one and turned both top ones to do exhaust instead of intake, but I couldn't fit the front Bitfenix. Turns out this model (Spectre 200x200x20) is indeed thin enough for Corsair 650D, however no one mentioned that it only has holes for screws on one side, and if you put it on like that it'll be doing exhaust. If you turn it around to do intake, there are no holes. I tried to find screws long enough to fit anyway, but couldn't, so I can either place it as exhaust making every fan in my case exhaust which I think is a bad idea, or order a thicker fan and try to fit that in. Chose the latter.

Speaking of temps, I tried booting once again without any front fan, and now that both rear and top fans are exhaust, temps seem to have improved. CPU still idles at 49c, but it never went above 85c under load, and GPUs seem to not reach 70c as well, making it way better at least by initial impression. I'll update with more info once I get a new front fan that hopefully fits, because right now I don't have any intake at all.
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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It is high for CPU, but I'm happy with GPU temps. Could be lower, but not critical at least. Yes, I did try leaving the case open, but even then CPU won't drop below 45c.
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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Apr 12, 2014
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It's actually Hyper 212 Evo, not that it matters much :)

But that's the question I've been asking myself for a while now...maybe faulty CPU unit...but that would suck a lot since I don't exactly want to ship it back to Amazon for a new one.
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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Apr 12, 2014
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Yes, that's correct. Although I really don't want to reseat it since I already did it and I'm 100% sure that it's seated properly. I change paste and all. I'm on my way to get a fitting front cooler, will see how that works.
 
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Andrey Rybakov

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Well, I finally got and installed a 200mm fan on the front for intake. Left the system run CPU+GPU stress test in Aida64 for a few minutes, and came back to see...

No real improvement. Upper GPU was at 80c which is acceptable for me but not great, and CPU reached 87-88c which is about 20c hotter than what I'd like it to be. I'm pretty much ready to give up. Are Haswells really THAT much hotter than Sandy Bridge? Or is my unit defective? Because the cooling is heaps and bounds ahead of what I've had a while ago, yet temps are way worse.
 
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