79-80C Degrees Under Load While Water Cooled?

[conjuror]

I'm reposting this because I realized that I posted it in the wrong section, here's my problem:

I'm a bit concerned with these numbers and I need to know if these temps are normal for a water cooled PC.

I have an i7-960 3.20Ghz overclocked to 4.0Ghz and under 100% CPU load in OCCT, real temp is showing 79-80 Celsius After 10 minutes of running.

Idle temperatures are sitting at 45-50 Celsius.

Vcore is set to 1.26
QPI/VTT is set to 1.35

I bought this PC from CyberPower and it came with a 360mm radiator with triple 120mm fans mounted on top exhausting hot air out of my Cooler Master HAF-X case.

I believe the pump is a XSPC Dual Bay Pump.

You can see from the picture below.

I already reseated my water block along with removing the thermal paste and applying my own thin film of Arctic Silver 5 but I cannot get the temps to lower.


Picture of cooling setup, the 360mm radiator is at the top:

Left part of the CPU block is "IN" Right side is "OUT"


What am I doing wrong?

 

[yang]

so you're sure that the pump is pumping? what's the voltage set for the cpu for that 4.0ghz overclock? also, what cpu waterblock is that? I don't recognize it from the picture.

 

[conjuror]

so you're sure that the pump is pumping? what's the voltage set for the cpu for that 4.0ghz overclock? also, what cpu waterblock is that? I don't recognize it from the picture.

Yes, I have to put my ear to it but I hear the pump going and I see a little bit of water movement inside the reservoir.

Right now the voltage is set at 1.22 Vcore and the water block is an XSPC

 

[yang]

wow everything sounded like it was done properly. now that all the likely scenario seems to be covered, do you think there might be the very rare possibility of your waterblock or cpu being concaved thus affecting their contact when put ontop of each other. when you first removed your waterblock, did you notice a pattern of where most of the thermal paste is concentrated or are they evenly spread out? If my guess is true that either the waterblock or the cpu is concaved, you could either try lapping them or be a bit more generous when applying your thermal paste (make sure to use the pea method and not to spread it unevenly across the surface of the whole cpu). If all that fails, i think you should just contact your PC maker and get it covered under warranty as any more work than this is unnecessary on your part.

 

[conjuror]

wow everything sounded like it was done properly. now that all the likely scenario seems to be covered, do you think there might be the very rare possibility of your waterblock or cpu being concaved thus affecting their contact when put ontop of each other. when you first removed your waterblock, did you notice a pattern of where most of the thermal paste is concentrated or are they evenly spread out? If my guess is true that either the waterblock or the cpu is concaved, you could either try lapping them or be a bit more generous when applying your thermal paste (make sure to use the pea method and not to spread it unevenly across the surface of the whole cpu). If all that fails, i think you should just contact your PC maker and get it covered under warranty as any more work than this is unnecessary on your part.

Unfortunately, the water black wasn't concaved. When I removed the block and paste, I cleaned it off and checked for any forms of warping on the underside of the block. Nothing looked wrong.

I'm confused myself as well, everything seems fine but the CPU isn't cooling efficiently, I run OCCT and Linpack with Hyperthreading on if that makes a difference. I just thought that my temps would be a lot lower since I have water cooling.

Hell, I think even some high-end air coolers like the Noctua D14, Silver Arrow or Venomous X might get better temps than this.

 

[conjuror]

Push/Pull or just Pull? IMO this is a rad problem. Not getting enough cool air

This is just a pull system, three 120mm fans are on top of the radiator exhausting air but no fans are on the underside of the radiator pushing.

When the temps are high though, the radiator feels just a tiny bit warm, it's not even hot or anything.

 

[conjuror]

You have to remember the fans are pulling warm air from inside the case through the rad so its affecting temps. Move the rad to outside the case or reverse the fans so its blowing cool air from outside the case through the rad

I have a Cooler Master HAF-X case so the back only has one exhaust fan and the top has a huge 240mm exhaust fan that's sitting on top of the three 120mm fans for the radiator.

If I switch the fans around so it blows cool air from the outside into the case, the only means for exhaust for the case would be the rear exhaust fan.

There is already a side intake fan and a front intake fan so you don't think it would be too much?

I drew a picture of what it looks like...

 

[conjuror]

I understand what you're saying but i meant just reverse them and see if it affects temps at all. IMO i think you'll see a decent drop

Alright, I'll give it a shot tomorrow and post here with results.

 

[Spoko]

I'm not sure if this will help but I had a similar problem with a corsair h50 CPU water cooler. It got 70-80 C no load but when I was playing crisis it rarley got over 20 C this is because my computer thinks the water cooling pump is a AUX fan.

 

[Pigeon555]

Alright, I'll give it a shot tomorrow and post here with results.

Hi, i have a xspc setup in my Haf-X too and had serious problems cooling my 960, at the volts and vtt you were running i was hitting in the 80's, i tried reseating over and over again with no huge changes, i even tried reversing the rear exhaust fan to blow more air in so it all goes through the rad at the top, with no changes, i was hoping you may have come to an answer, my friend thinks maybe the pump isnt powerful enough but i cant see that being the problem, I have a 980x now and still have the same load problems just with better idling temps.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Ok, knowing what I do about the Xspc kit,
the pump is the X20 750l dualbay res/pump and barring any manufacturing defects, its a fine pump, I have two in my own loop,
I would suggest adding another three fans on your radiator, **Warning, modding may be required dependant on your case**
and ensuring your case airflow is set up fine as well, make sure cables etc are as tidy as possible,
I don't like the 240mm fan on top of the rad personally, I'd lose that if possible in favour of three fans on the rad,
and what is your room/ambient temperature there?
@Spoko, no offence man but the Hxx series shouldn't be compared to a real loop, I understand a Hxx owner having issues but in conjurors case he should be getting much better results from a 360 rad
Moto