Recently built a computer using an NH-U12P SE2 on an i7 920 overclocked to 3.5 GHz. At first my CPU temperatures were great, hovering around 30C and often getting as low as 24-25C. After about a month, I noticed the temperatures start climbing up to around 40C and reaching as high as 45C while simply idling. Usually they rest around 36-38C. I've been checking these temps through speedfan, real temp, and HWmonitor. There is a 1-2C maximum difference between the highest and lowest readings in each of these programs. Max temps on the CPU haven't increased (staying around 71-72C under 100% load for an hour or so), but the increase in idle temperatures is concerning me. The temperature of the room the PC is in hasn't changed more than 2 or 3 degrees Celcius, which doesn't seem like enough of a change to increase the idle temp by over 10 degrees C. I'm just curious about the increase in these idle readings. Are those conditions typical of an NH-U12P? I haven't been using the PC too much since it's been built (maybe a total of 200 hours), but it has been moved around a lot. Is it possible the heatsink base may have been loosened or something through moving the PC? It seemed very secure when I attached it.
I'm using an Antec 1200 with stock fan settings. I had an extra intake fan aimed right at the heatsink mounted on the 1200's included internal fan mount, but removed it because it seemed to be impeding airflow (no difference in temps at load, but my PC ran about 2-3C warmer at idle with the extra fan installed; it was pulled from an old MGE viper case and went up to 3,000rpm). I know i7s run hot, but 40+ degrees Celsius at idle seems unreasonable to me as a constant temperature. I have a slim Scythe slipstream fan on its way to hopefully mount on the side of my case to test its effect on things. Was thinking about picking up an Ultra Kaze to see if swapping out one of the noctua's included fans would improve conditions.
Might be worth noting that I used as5 as my thermal compound and not the included paste from noctua. I used a clean credit card edge to spread a tiny amount across the top of my CPU, enough to coat the entire contact surface but still remain slightly transparent. Since the temps were so good at first I figured I had done a pretty good job.
One more piece of info: I just got an NZXT Sentry 2 today to try and mess with my fan settings, and using the included thermal sensors I checked the temperature of the top of the heatsink itself. With my typical set up it usually reads at 26-28C. The temp of the air in my case is about 23-25C. I tried removing a fan to see if the connectivity of my sink was somehow compromised, and saw that the top of of the heatsink went up to 38C (CPU hit 48C in HWmonitor). So it seems like the heatsink itself is still drawing a decent amount of heat off the CPU, but that doesn't help me with this problem at all. Does anyone have an idea as to why my idle temperatures have increased?
I'm using an Antec 1200 with stock fan settings. I had an extra intake fan aimed right at the heatsink mounted on the 1200's included internal fan mount, but removed it because it seemed to be impeding airflow (no difference in temps at load, but my PC ran about 2-3C warmer at idle with the extra fan installed; it was pulled from an old MGE viper case and went up to 3,000rpm). I know i7s run hot, but 40+ degrees Celsius at idle seems unreasonable to me as a constant temperature. I have a slim Scythe slipstream fan on its way to hopefully mount on the side of my case to test its effect on things. Was thinking about picking up an Ultra Kaze to see if swapping out one of the noctua's included fans would improve conditions.
Might be worth noting that I used as5 as my thermal compound and not the included paste from noctua. I used a clean credit card edge to spread a tiny amount across the top of my CPU, enough to coat the entire contact surface but still remain slightly transparent. Since the temps were so good at first I figured I had done a pretty good job.
One more piece of info: I just got an NZXT Sentry 2 today to try and mess with my fan settings, and using the included thermal sensors I checked the temperature of the top of the heatsink itself. With my typical set up it usually reads at 26-28C. The temp of the air in my case is about 23-25C. I tried removing a fan to see if the connectivity of my sink was somehow compromised, and saw that the top of of the heatsink went up to 38C (CPU hit 48C in HWmonitor). So it seems like the heatsink itself is still drawing a decent amount of heat off the CPU, but that doesn't help me with this problem at all. Does anyone have an idea as to why my idle temperatures have increased?
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