I7-930 Temps

[shan2752]

Hello,

I was wondering if I could get some advice for something I will most likely have to do and that is to reset my cooler.

I'm running an i7-930 on an Asus P6X58 Deluxe MB with a Noctua NH-D14 cooler.

This thing was a real pain to install since it is huge. I had to orient the cooler so that the fans blow towards my videocards rather than directly towards the rear of the case. Even with this orientation, the heatsink fins are pressing against my Corsair Dominator heatsink. I'm only running 6GB, so this cooler actually makes it impossible to install more ram since it completely covers the first Dram slot.

Anyway, I used the Noctua TIM as directed, approximately a pea sized amount (3-5mm) on the center of the CPU, But I had to wiggle the cooler to get everything to line up to attach it.

Currently, Realtemp is showing 38C-44C at idle stock speeds and 60C-64C at full load with Prime95.

Is this normal? Or do you think I need to try and reapply the TIM?

To top it all off, I have 2-5870's in Xfire and I'm getting severe flickering in several games I have tried (Red Faction: Guerilla, Saints Row 2) but Dirt 2 works fine. I've read about this issue with these cards, but I thought it was a driver issue and has been resolved. Evidently not, since I am running Catalyst 10.2 on my single monitor setup.

Should I RMA the cards and wait for Nvidia's Fermi? Some people are claiming that this is not a driver issue, but a hardware issue. I'm really disappointed as I spent almost $3000 on this new system.

Any advice on both issues would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[shan2752]

The 5870 issue is related to Xfire. When I disable Xfire everything seems to work fine, but that sort of negates the purchase of the second card. I hope this is a driver issue and catalyst 10.3 fixes it.

 

[kokin]

You can try the new 10.3 Preview drivers. They fixed a lot of problems I had from the 10.1 and 10.2 drivers. In Borderlands, a lot of the textures are now error-free, before I used to get pink outlines on the weapons, some weird environmental textures, and missing wall textures. Performance in Left4Dead2 and Dragon Age: Origins has gotten better as well.

I'm only using a single 4890 Toxic and I've encountered texture/performance errors since the 9.12 drivers. I would get the problems at stock clocks (960/1050) and even OCed (1025/1111).

It's worth a try and you can find the drivers here: http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/tips/Pages/catalyst-10-3-preview.aspx

Also, what clocks and voltages are you running your 930?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Yes, when i saw the Noctua had unseated the Megahalems as "top dog" in one test I was tempted to try it out but the size, weight and installation difficulties scared me off.

The Dominator heat sinks are very tall.

My son's box gets mid 50's temps on the 24/7 OC profile at 3.7 Ghz and 1.125 volts using the Megahalems.....At 4.2 Ghz, he's spanning both sides of 70C w/ the 4 cores.

 

[shan2752]

@kokin: I am currently running the CPU at stock speed (2.8 Ghz) and the voltage is set to auto in the BIOS. The actual CPU voltage fluctuates from 0.95 to 1.0 volts as depicted by CPU-Z. My idle temp has pretty much stabilized at 38C. I've seen reviews of this cooler with the 920 idling at 30C at stock speed. I imagined a bit higher temp due to the small increase in clock speed of the 930, but not 8 degrees.

I am really disappointed that I couldnt orient the cooler so that the fans exhaust directly to the rear case fan. I had to orient it to exhaust towards the video cards because of the interference with performance RAM heatsinks. I bought this cooler based on some comments I read stating that the cooler only interfered with one DRAM slot, I didnt realize that these people were'nt orienting the HS like you really should. I considered flipping the cooler and directing the fan exhaust to the top case fan, but I didnt want to circulate heat from the 5870 Xfire setup directly into the CPU. Thanks for the infro about your ATI issues, I will wait for the official 10.3 release to see if things get fixed.

@JackNaylorPE: I wouldn't recommend the NH-D14 to anyone because I feel Noctua really dropped the ball with this cooler. I mean really, since this is an enthusiast cooler, it doesnt make sense that there would be conflicts with high performance ram due to the Ram HS's. Who would buy this cooler and not utilize high performance RAM for overclocking. Makes no sense, but I am going to live with it for awhile...

 

[X58DK]

Hi Shan

I've just gotten pretty much this exact setup myself a few days ago and have so far been testing it out to see how it performs at stock speed. i7-930 on Asus P6X58D Premium board with the NH-D14 cooler.
The cooler is indeed a beast and looks like something that was ripped out of a semi-large scooter. I knew about this when I researched it, but I had seen pictures online of this cooler fitting in my tower, and I was aiming for 6 GB ram so I didn't care too much if it was overhanging a ram slot.
However it turns out that it's actually overhanging 2 ram slots, so even with 6 GB the space is an issue. I had fortunately gone for ram with a heatspreader that is detachable (Corsair Dominator).

So basically this means I now have the setup so that it's blowing back in the cabinet and straight on to my back fan. I tried first setting the fans to low speed (have one on the back and one on the top) but I weren't quite happy with the temperature.
I've now ended up with the back fan on high (120mm at 1200 RPM) and the top one on medium (120mm at 900 RPM).

I've just finished a 4 hour run of prime95 and the temp were completely stable at 60C and when it's idling it's around 36-38C.
I'm not too happy with this result, but as this is my first self-built computer, I may have butched the fan seating and I may try to redo that at some point.

 

[vvhocare5]

Shan, this setup is bad...

38-40 at idle and no OC'ing is not good. Its not going to hurt anything but you will never OC that CPU and be happy.

I know it hurts but you need to fix something. Either swap the heatsink, or RAM but get that heatsink to point out back. Do it right...and unless you are trying for a massive overclock, dont buy the most massive cooler you can find... The good news is heatsinks are relatively cheap - compared to RAM

My 975 at 4.2 idles at 33C and generally runs in the high 60's when gaming - with crossfired and OC 5850's.

 

[CaptainBib]

My 930 runs at those temps at 4ghz with a Cogage True Spirit, but CPUs are just the luck of the draw.

What is your RAM voltage? sometimes that drives up the Temps.

You might also want to lower the CPU voltage, as many chips can run fine and even overclock below the stock settings.