Noctua NH-D15 and 4790K

Hakuna Matata 89 · Jul 11, 2014

I recently bought a new rig and i see some high temp. First of all some specs:

Case: Coolermaster Cosmos 2
CPU: I7-4790K (no OC done)
Cooler: Noctua NH-D15
Motherboard: MSI Xpower AC

I am using the thermal paste which came with the cooler (NT-H1) using the pea size technique. The fans are:

1 at the Top - Intake
1 at the Back - Exhaust
1 at the Front - Intake
2 Fans at the Cooler (as seen at the product's images)

The two Cooler's fans are directing air from the case, through the cooler, to the back of the case towards the rear exhaust fan.

Now my temps in Celsius (using Prime 95):

Idle: 35-40
100% Blend Test (5 min): 70-76
100% Large FFTs (5 min): 72-81

Are they normal??? Are they high???
I thought they were high and i applied twice the thermal paste thus with the same results. The cooler is well tightened and there is plenty space around the case.

firo40 · Jul 11, 2014

It could be to tight and honestly I'd use a good brand of thermal compound like icy diamond or those new graphite based thermal compound. But to tight can cause overheating. Its gotta be snug but not to tight

geofelt · Jul 11, 2014

Your temps are normal.
Idle should be about 10-15c. over ambient.
When you are doing those tests, the 4790K is using a turbo speed of 4.4
The chip is so good, that I do not bother with trying to reach a max oc which will probably be in the 4.6 range.
On the fan orientation, intake should be front and bottom, exhaust should be back and top.
That is the natural inclination of cooling air to flow.
I might set the top fan to exhaust.

Too much thermal paste can act as an insulator. A very thin line is sufficient.
It is hard to use too little.
The supplied paste is actually very good.

Adroid · Jul 11, 2014

Well what are your ambient temperatures? Those temps do seem a bit high (depending on your ambient temperatures), but Haswell runs HOT - I'm not terribly surprised.

Try turning the top fan to an exhaust. You may be pushing hot air off the CPU back south towards the GPUs and recycling it. You want more intake than exhaust at all times.. Take a look at the product images here.. Notice the general course of air flow is IN from the front/bottom, and OUT the top and back.

http://www.coolermaster.com/case/ultra-tower/cosmos-2/

Let us know if that helps.

Hakuna Matata 89 · Jul 11, 2014

Adroid :

The top is in fact an Exhaust fan. My bad

Hakuna Matata 89 · Jul 11, 2014

About the ambient temp i can't really measure since i don't have any room temparature meter. I quess it must be 25-28

6R1M01R3 · Jul 11, 2014

As for the air flow:
Front/bottom/Side panel = intake
Top/Rear = exhaust

Hakuna Matata 89 · Jul 11, 2014

6R1M01R3 :

Thats how my fans are located (except there are no side fans).

6R1M01R3 · Jul 11, 2014

Hakuna Matata 89 :

"1 at the Top - Intake"

Hakuna Matata 89 · Jul 11, 2014

But my question remains:

Are those temps high?? Are they high to cause my CPU any damage? Will another good thermal paste drop the temperatures significantly or only 4-5 degrees?

Hakuna Matata 89 · Jul 11, 2014

6R1M01R3 :

As i said before i made a mistake. Its an exhaust fan

Adroid · Jul 11, 2014

80° during stress testing is not uncommon. You should preferably have around 30° temps during idle, and during normal application/gaming use temperatures should be between 60-65°. The TJ Max is 105°, but I would never recommend you get near that high...

Keep in mind your normal temperatures should not get near as high as during Prime95.

Some CPUs run hotter than others of the same type. That doesn't mean you got a bad chip. If it's stable, I wouldn't worry about it. The other factor to consider is that your motherboard is probably sending more voltage than necessary. You should manually set voltages in BIOS and see if that helps your temperatures at all...

Arvutistuudio · Jul 29, 2014

geofelt :

I Approve! Every word is correct for that problem of yours.

billking1 · Aug 5, 2014

case colermaster haf x
cpu i7 4790k
cooler noctua nh-d15
m/b msi z97 gaming 5

at top rear Exhaust 200mm
at rear Exhaust 140mm
at top front Intake 200mm
at front Intake 230mm
at side Intake 200mm
gpu/cpu air duct 140mm

room temp 28-32
m/b temp 39
cpu temp idle 30-36/core
cpu stress test (intel extreme tuning) in 1sec from 34 to 71. Max 74
when stress test ends in half second (1/2 second) from 70 to 34-38/core
stock cpu clock speed

orkweh · Oct 8, 2014

I have a Asus Z97-a, 4790K and NH- D15.
Room temperature is around 20 degrees Celsius and I'm getting around 25-30 idle temps on the cpu.
I haven't ran prime95 but in battlefield 4 on ultra it is around 50 degrees.

Adroid · Oct 8, 2014

billking1 :

That is a little on the warm side for stock clocks, but being as you are running the CPU at stock speeds, I'm guessing you left voltages on "auto" within the BIOS.

The CPU will ALWAYS ask for more voltage than required to operate it, and the motherboard will send it. The trick to overclocking is finding the lowest voltage that your CPU will remain 100% stable at, and leave it there. If you are going to run that CPU at stock clocks, I would manually set the voltages to something stable then stress test it. In some cases, you can actually UNDER volt a CPU and it will be stable (depends chip by chip). I remember taking my Q6600 back in the day, I overclocked it and undervolted it, and it was stable...

I personally would be overclocking that 4790K considering you bought a 100$ heatsink, and the first thing I would do is set the voltage manually to something I was comfortable with, and raise the clocks until the PC blue screens, then fine tune it from there.. That means raising voltages higher if temperature allows, and dropping clocks until it's stable. In whatever case I would not send more than 1.3V to my CPU ever regardless. With enough trial and error you will find the invisible voltage "wall", and know how good your chip is. The "wall" is the point where your CPU requires a unreasonable spike of voltage to become stable. For instance, my i5 3570K is rock solid stable for Prime 95 small FFTs at 1.262V @ 4.3ghz with no WHEA errors. To get it stable at 3.5 it requires way too much voltage (more than 1.3V). I was able to boot at 4.6 ghz, but it requires a huge spike in voltage to be stable for an extra 100-200mhz, so I'm happy at 4.3ghz.

Anyway, whatever you do I would manually set voltages, overclocking or not. It will probably reduce temperatures if done properly. As always, make sure to read some guides before playing in BIOS.

GTD · Oct 8, 2014

Asus Z87 Deluxe, i7 4790k only onboard igpu used and turbo on cooled with Noctua NH C 12P SE14, one exhaust 80mm back one intake 120mm in front but very very restrictive intake,psu not blowing any air seasonic fan is off due to low power used, I get 26-29 celsius in idle with the cpu fan at ~750 rpm and with 26 degrees inside the case and around 23 ambient motherboard its at 29 I use MX 4 for paste, line method. In normal use light games web torrents music etc I get in worst case scenario high 30's, never tried stress test don't care for that

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