Hello all. I wish my first post here on the forums was not a "I need help" post, but, I do. I recently bought a new system from a "builder". It runs too warm, in my opinion. Core Temp 0.95 reports 51 51 47 47 right now doing nothing but surfing the Internet.

The Cooler Master 832 case came with two fans. The front 120mm fan is blowing directly into the case through my four WD500 hard drives in a Raid 0+1 configuration. The back 120mm fan was replaced with the SwiftTech H2O 120 Premium's radiator fan. The Swiftech water block is cooling the CPU.

I requested the "builder" send me the fan bracket for the side door that holds four 120mm fans and bought the four pack of Cooler Master 120mm fans. I temporarily put one of the 120mm fans as an exhaust fan on the top of the case.

I added two EVGA 8800 GTX KO ACS3 "heaters" to the mix

I currently am running the system with the side door off and a small house fan blowing into the case through that side. Room temperature is about 26.7C.

Any suggestions would be kind. Thanks in advance.

Images found here: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=511706

Did you try reseating the CPU block as suggested on the other forums?
Also, do you have any way to moitor the temp of the liquid (if so, before or after the CPU block)?

At 51c the radiator should be warm to the touch. If not then the heat from the cpu is not properly transfered to the water via cpu water block. Reset the block properly with thermal compound. Also add some fans the the radiator to make it push pull, having better air flow helps cool the cpu. But first having a Quad Core cpu, you should be able to afford a better water cooling in the first place. Try triple 120mm rad just like mine and that would definitely cool that quad core down.

The QX6800 does run hot - 150W TDP, right? That's not going to be trivial to water-cool even at stock. The thermal interface needs to be very smooth, water has to be pumped quickly, and radiator(s) have to be adequate to dissipate the load.

According to:

Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad-Core
Processor QX6800Ä
Datasheet
— on 65 nm Process in the 775-land LGA Package supporting Intel® 64
and Intel® Virtualization Technology±
April 2007

Thermal Profile 130 W Processors*
Power/Max Tc
0W / 37.9C all the way up to 130W/ 54.8C

*Tc = 0.13*P + 37.9

Everybody keeps saying reseat the block, yet nobody has convinced me that it is running hot. I guess I should have gone with a processor that everyone is familiar with, instead of jumping out there on the bleeding edge.

If somebody running a QX6800 knows for sure that Core Temp 51C at idle at base voltage and speed with water cooling is too hot, then I will think about doing something. The "builder" says the temperatures are fine and warranty their "build" for two years. But, are they fine? Why risk taking the thing apart and redoing it if it is fine.

I do know there is a lack of air movement in the case, and that concerns me. Convince me that I should be concerned about the CPU.

OK, so stop worrying about it.

A smaller feature size certainly will not. Remember, a smaller feature size means voltages can be lowered, and thus current and power as well. Of course, having *more* transistors, as in the case of going from dual to quad core, will boost total power consumption.

Fair enough. Why don't you download and run Orthos (maybe you'll need to run two copies for a quad-core) or Intel's TAT or similar software stressor. If the system really IS fine, the CPU won't overheat. If not, it will overheat and you can have your vendor fix it.

At room temperature 80F, with the side of my case off and a 10 inch diameter fan blowing directly into my machine, my QX6800 idles at 50 50 46 46 (Core Temp 0.95). With Orthos running with affinity set to core 1 and 2, and another Orthos running with affinity set to core 3 and 4, both using Small FFTs, 100% cpu utilization for 10 minutes is showing 70 70 66 66.

I am running at normal speed (no over-clocking) 2.93GHz @1.3v and FSB 1066 @1.2v

My QX6800 is liquid cooled. I have been trying to find out from somebody, anybody if these are acceptable and if so, by how much. That way I can start over-clocking and feel good about it.

Edit:

My best 3DMark06 score so far has been 12963. I just ran it again with the Orthos copies running as described above (100% cpu on all 4 cores) and scored a 11522.

My Core Temp is still sitting at 69 69 65 65 after almost 30 minutes of 100% cpu speed on all four cores.

WELL, I REPLIED BECAUSE I DO THINK THAT IS TOO HOT!!! If you are not convinced, fine. Quit worrying about it.

I've read others posting about their OC'd quad-core rigs with nice WCing systems seeing 20-30C rise over ambient.

You need to post you question on XtremeSystems Forums...many of those guys would likly be able to convince you. Here is one guy running a QX6700 at 3.6GHz with 1.5V - idle 43C, under load up to 63C. Of course, he also has a high end cooling loop.

Thank you for pointing me to XtremeSystems Forums. After spending some time over there, it seems that I am running cooler than most of them with QX6?00 processors (except for the one case you show).

I did learn that the QX6800 (my processor) will start throttling down at 100C and will shut down completely at some unknown temperature above that.

I think if my full load temps stay below 85C (currently 70C), then I have some OC room to work with.

Thanks again.

I think it is to hot...
I have my Q6600 OC 3.6 water cooled and I idle at 31,32,25,24.
and it has to be using more power then yours due to my O/C

but things to consider...
is it warm air that is cooling off the water...
some people utilise their exhaust fans to blow on their radiators...
mine is an external rad box, so i get cool air in mine.