My temps are crazy. Am I going to fry something?

Gluske

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I'm a novice, so bear with me. (first post too)

My build:

Case: Antec One (2 case fans. One exhausting front, one intake in back)
Cooling: Kuhler 620
OS: Windows 7 64bit
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46
CPU: AMD FX-4100 @ 4.5 Ghz
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz 8gb
Hard Drive: WD Caviar Blue Sata 3 500gb
Video Card: Gigabyte GTX 660 OC

Ok so I was on a stock cooler and my mobo has an OC "lite" that I used to go to 4.05 Ghz, but the fan was always on 100% and so it was really noisy. I felt like I'd extend the life of my computer, be able to OC a bit more and reduce the noise with a better cooling system.

Long story short I went with an Antec Kuhler 620 ($50 new) and increased my multiplier a bit to get 4.5ghz. Installed it and my core temps were under 10 C but my "CPU" temps were 40-50 at idle (weird?). Also, the noise was insane. A low pitched hum that was like a plane taking off. I unplugged the stock fan and realize it was the source of the noise + put one of my case fans on the radiator instead (thinking both are antec 120mm, so shouldn't be too bad).

Now my idle core temps are 15-20 C and up to 30 C after some gaming. My "CPU temp" read by the mobo was at like 60 C and in games it's reading 82 C. I realize the "new" fan isn't as good at pushing air into the rad + I've lost one exhaust fan (it was exhausting out the top but is now the one taking air in through rad at the back), but I don't see how my CPU temps are reading so high and my core temps are so low.

TL;DR: New liquid cooling I installed had a CRAZY noisy fan which I replaced with a case fan and now my temps are just entirely crazy in HWmonitor + are there any SILENT 120mm fans that can move air well enough to cool the rad? Am I going to fry my cpu/mobo circuitry because my temps are > 80 C in the motherboard sensor even tho cores are < 30 C? (it seems this sensor was functioning 'ok' before this fiasco)

Here's some images before liquid cooling at full load (prime95) @ 4.05ghz

0eXx2h.png


and after @ 4.5ghz idling

qBtmyh.jpg


As I said, even tho that's idle it's with the better BUT NOISY fan + I was still getting 72 C "CPU temps" and 30 C core temps at the same time after a couple hours of gaming. Now it's higher. Worried it'll keep going up
 

steddora

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I'm just wondering... In your second screenshot there, it's showing the processor is running at 9C or 48F?!?!? Do you have the thing in the refrigerator, lol? Those temperatures are crazy low; what's the ambient temperature? Even the best of water cooling systems without some heavy modifications and a refrigeration unit would take those temperatures in a 70F room. Those temperatures seem off any way you look at them.

What type of temperatures are you seeing just sitting idle in the BIOS? I'd trust that temperature over any software. There definitely is something fishy going on there and I'm not sure what it is. I do know however, the motherboard usually has a temperature sensor in or around the CPU socket that it can read the processors temperature from. Also, the processor should have a sensor for each core. I'd find out exactly what temperature readings you need to be watching. Some of those temperatures just seem completely off.
 

Gluske

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Ambient was prob ~20-25C. Cores will go 20 when I load up HWmonitor then 15 13 10 8 15 13 10 20 15 8 etc. They fluctuate fairly heavily.

Now that I've swapped their stock fan with one of my case fans that is really quiet but not as efficient it's more like 28 25 20 15 20 15 18 20 under idle conditions, but the "CPU temp" (or TMPIN1) is 60-70 (40-50 when I first start up computer).

When I go into bios it's usually when I first boot the computer up and so it's reading 23-25 (ambient) and slowly climbs, but it's never shown me anything above 40. That said how could HWmonitor be so far off? Also used core temp and it's showing me 10-20 as well, just like the core temps in HWmonitor, which seems excessively low. Speedfan shows same temps as TMPIN1 which are excessively high.

Something's wonky here and I'm worried about it :/ May get a new fan that's actually designed for radiators (that's a thing right?) instead of using that case fan (which would also give me more exhaust) + might downclock just in case...

I'm at work now, but later I will go home (computer will be on all day) and I'll be able to get a good idle temp in BIOS, SS of the current setup in HWmonitor before and after gaming, and anything else you or others think I should get to give you a better picture.
 

steddora

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I don't know why the temperatures are off. But I'd imagine that being at idle you shouldn't be at anything less than 20C in a 25C room. Remember, even if the system is off, that processor is going to sit at room temperature. So those temperatures show me there is something not being reported correctly. When my processor is at a constant idle with my hyper 212 the voltage is at 0.9v and the processor is at 1600mhz. I still idle at about 30C with ambient temperatures around 74F. Windows is never completely idle, so don't worry if the temperature fluctuates a little as the processors cores will heat up at an insane rate as the heat begins transferring to the cooler. I've seen immediate temperature spikes from idle to full load of 50-60C on the cores but it's never out of hand. However, I've never seen a temperature lower than 20C at any idle state with ambient temperatures over 60F.

We need to find out exactly what is the CPU's temperature and start from there. TMPIN1 does look to be about right for the processor; but it may not be. Narrow the thing down and use that bios temperature reading to make sure it's not skyrocketing and the software just isn't picking up on it. In the bios the processors temperature shouldn't be high. I idle in Bios at 30C, so make sure you're not sitting in the 50's or something.
 

Gluske

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I should add I re-seated the thing because one of the bolts was ****-eyed (in the AM2 socket configuration I'm assuming). The instructions were garbage + I didn't notice til after it was in and the standoffs were spinning when I tried to undo it so I took care of it the next day because I was tired. When I removed the block from the CPU there was some of that pre-applied thermal paste drooling over the side of my chip + some looked to be on the mobo.

I quickly removed all of the excess fearing it'd short out my board or chip + reseated the block.

Maybe I should go back and re-apply paste as well, but it seemed to be in excess as it was...

When I'm home later I'll get you my bios temp. I am pretty sure the FX-4100 is not rated for anything higher than 72 that's a major concern if I'm going over that, but I figured it'd shut down long before that
 

Gluske

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Pic #1: computer's been idling all day, just logged on

kpwQoh.jpg


Pic #2: immediately after screenshotting I went to bios and took a photo of temps.

HmGcFh.jpg


Pic #3: turned off all my overclocking features and went with mobo defaults (cool n quiet on I guess)

B1m8Eh.jpg
 

thequn

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my educated guess is that is not seated correctly and you put too much tim/cpu paste on the processor. which is not transferring heat away. or the pump got to hot and is not as strong as it needs to be.
 

Gluske

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It WAS seated improperly but I re-arranged the bolts correctly later. The problem I noticed was that the pre-applied paste was excessive. I cleaned some of it up when I re-seated it, but did not put fresh paste on. This might just be the issue (doesn't explain the super low core temps AND super high 'cpu temps' despite bios showing basically an average of the two).

The pump should be more than enough for an FX-4100 at stock or OCed. I opened my case before shutting it down last night and found that the radiator was cool and the pump/cpu block was luke-warm.

I think over lunch I'll head down to a local computer parts shop and pick up some Arctic Silver or other metal based paste + a high performance/low noise fan and re-seat the thing with fresh paste and a proper fan. :S
 

chugot9218

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With the metal based paste you have to be very careful to not spread it onto anything else, ceramic based pastes won't cause a short. Have you tried other temp monitoring programs? The one you are using may have difficulty reading temps from your MOBO/CPU, try a few and see what kind of results you get.
 

Gluske

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Maybe I'll go for ceramic just in case.

I've used:

Speedfan (shows motherboard 'cpu' sensor) ~65 C
Core temp (cores obv) ~15-20 C
HWmonitor (Shows both) cpu ~65 C, Core 15-20 C
BIOS ~30-40 C

Should note that since I installed the new cooler my GPU now idles hotter. So clearly the case is running hotter than normal since I removed the stock radiator fan for one of the case fans (which was exhaust and is now intake to get cool air over the fins).

I'll probably end up putting my case fan back so I'm exhausting out top + front and put this on my radiator: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608004

+ re-seat the pump with fresh paste (from my limited understanding you use a bead no bigger than a grain of rice)
 

chugot9218

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Yup, just a little smaller than a grain of rice, I believe my CPU cooler had instructions to set the cooler on and rotate it slightly on an even plane to spread the TMI a little (but you want to do this with the cooler still flat and slightly pressed onto the CPU, if you lift off after making contact with the TMI you can create air bubbles) and then to clamp it down and let the cooler finish spreading it as you finish screwing it down.
 

Gluske

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I threw on a Corsair SP120 + applied IC Diamond instead of the stock messed up thermal compound that was there.

The fan is still humming, and I kinda wish it were silent. Unfortunately this pump doesn't have a way of toggling fan speed :/

Temps are currently (at idle):

HWMonitor + Speedfan "TMPIN1" (aka CPU): 47 C
HWMonitor + Coretemp "CoreTemps": between 10-12 C

Bios CPU temp is 20 C
 

Gluske

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Correct. I work in a biochemistry lab and used "100%" isopropanol. Should note that once I removed the paste the copper plate seems damaged. scratches and stuff on it. Looks like it was a re-furbished product but the scratches were towards the edges where the bolts are + aren't actually in contact with the cpu. Still such shoddy worksmanship from what is a great company ;s
 

chugot9218

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Well, if the BIOS is correct your temps are great (assuming that is at room temp or a bit higher), according to the 47C coming from HWMonitor though that is still kind of high. But, I think the moral of the story is that your readings dropped about ~20 from both programs due to the change, and you are probably in good shape, just watch your temps for a while under heavy/gaming loads and make sure they look reasonable/stable, and enjoy your new rig!
 

Gluske

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I'm still kinda annoyed by the fan. It was silent when I first turned on the fixed rig and then ramped up to this "hum" which is similar to the stock antec fan. Is this just something you have to live with? I swear it's louder than the stock AMD CPU heatsink fan that was running at 3600RPM. Or maybe I'm just spoiled.
 

chugot9218

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You could look into speedfan and set up a profile for it to keep the sound down, but then you will definitely have to keep an eye on your temps. What kind of fan did you get again? Depending on the corsair model you may have one of the louder ones, I bought maybe the second quietest set of those fans and I found one of them to have a minor hum, it bothered me a lot at the beginning but I got used to it. The thing is, and this happens to a lot of people, is my cooling was probably adequate before adding the fan. If I didn't already have it installed and not already used to the minor hum it adds I would not have bothered. You could RMA the fan and go for the strictly low noise model, but that may not provide enough cooling.
 

steddora

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999344

I LIVE by these fans. I actually have two bolted onto my Hyper 212.

Honestly, that Bios temperature looks about right. Remember, the processor is at an almost idle in the bios. The only OS I've ever used that actually let me processor idle at a lower usage was an older DSL (Damn small linux) distro from back in the Socket A and Socket 370 era. However, the BIOS idle is about the best you can get as windows; unless it's completely fresh for an install and bare minimum; it won't truly idle. SO... That temperature looks phenominal. 20C is great.

Even though you're water cooling; CASE AIRFLOW IS A MUST! Make sure you have a little more intake CFM then you do exhaust as it helps keep dust out of the system and keeps some positive pressure; unless you're running a really nice vented case like the Rosewill Thor V2 or Antec 1200 styles of full tower cases.

Also, With the fan I linked it runs from a 4-pin Molex connect, has a motherboard 3-pin connector so you can see the speed in bios/hwmonitor, AND A FAN CONTROLLER! However, the controller is for a 3.5" drive and can be miserable to install in some cases. BUT, the great thing is these fans have decent CFM even at 600rpm in which they are as close to silent as you could ever imagine. At full bore though, they are loud and could cool the space shuttle; best of both worlds. They are expensive but I've been running them for years and never had a failure and always provide the airflow I'm wanting. Not to mention they look good with LED's on shining on them!

CPU/Block seating. This can be a PAIN IN THE REAR with a closed loop. Those lines get in the way, make it miserable... Ceramic is great, but you got one of the best. I only recommend IC or Artic Silver MX. Both are my favorites and I ALWAYS have some laying around. That stuff even boosts stock coolers abilities! But for a water block with lines on it, there's an EASY way to put the past on the CPU.

Now people moan and groan about too little and too much, but the thing that will never change, too little is 100x worse than too much. As for the stock stuff, it's usually ceramic and won't hurt a thing, but metallic styles will. So you don't want to over do it. Either way, my method for solid blocks like a water cooler; make four dots that equal a little more than a grain of rice in total. So imagine a grain of nice rice and quarter it up and lay it about where it would be a small square in the middle of the CPU contact area. I've noticed this gives the best spread when dealing with something that is a pain to install in the first place. With a bolt on model, I'll just barely put the bolts on where the block still moves a bit and use that small motion and press it on the cpu and move it around a few times to make sure it's spread. Then pull it off and check the spread of it. If it's good, clean the cpu and block again and then after using the method to spread it, tighten it down where it won't move. Don't ever get a new cooler, slap TIM material onto it, and then install. Make a few attempts to get the maximum spread on the CPU and get it down. Most TIM containers have enough for at least a few installations; so use them to test the spread. It's better to KNOW than it is to THINK you know.

As for the software, it's almost a certainty that there's a problem with the software reading temperatures. Three things I want you to look for. Idle in BIOS for five minutes and record the temperatures you see on the CPU and Mobo. Now, once you have those you have a control rating. Next try some different software and see which readings are closest to the ones you're seeing to the BIOS readings. Make sure with task manager that the CPU is at a very low usage +/- 2% max. If you find software that's CLOSE to those readings, double check with a small stress of the CPU. Nowadays the motherboard shouldn't move much with stress but that CPU should. So run a fast test and watch the CPU increase and decrease and keep an eye on the temperatures.

This is why I don't trust just one single program for temperatures; especially HWMonitor.

http://i.imgur.com/BHbjJ.jpg

So, find one that works for you. I actually uses the Asus Tweak for my GPU temperatures, the ASRock eXtreme Tuner for the ambient temperatures and mobo's CPU temperatures, and HWMonitor for the core temperatures (which it reads the CPU pretty well!) Now I left this on for almost 24 hours just for this picture and I hope it helps you understand how wierd things can be. I'm pretty sure ANY single temperature on my system at 127C would cause a complete meltdown. However, right now with all my fans at minimum speeds and silent operation (idle/browsing), the important ones are noticeable.

I hope this helps you out bud. Once you get the temperature thing worked out, next work on getting great airflow and get to clocking that processor! No processor should live a life of stock clocks! That's just mean! :)
 

Gluske

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My case is VERY well ventilated (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129181&Tpk=antec%20gaming%20series%20one). It's like 90% vents 10% metal. It had break-away expansion tabs which I also had replaced with vented tabs. So I've got, presumably, really strong intake (for the radiator) and two exhaust fans (one at ~900 RPM and the other about 1100 RPM). One exhausting out the top (adjacent to the radiator to exhaust some of that warm air) and one out the front because I assumed it should be directional (back to front). My videocard has 2 90-100mm fans exhausting warm air into the case too but it's never too warm anyways because its heatsink is pretty damn good (gigabyte gtx660). I don't mind occasional dusting either so I think this setup will be ok.

Now aside from that I think we're golden. I'll idle in bios for 5 mins and get a new pic later for reference.

I'm on the "OC Genie" overclock atm, but I'm a novice at this stuff. It raises my FSB from 200 to 225 and leaves the multiplier the same (18, so 3.6ghz to 4.0), but it downclocks my ram speed to 1066mhz :/

Can I just set my ram to 1333 + my multiplier to 20 and assume that as long as I don't overheat + can run stably I'm OCed ok?
 

Gluske

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpQnQqRrUrk&feature=youtu.be

Here's a video of my bios settings/temps after 10 or so minutes of idling. Took a video so you could hear the jet engine that blows air onto the radiator. Any fixes for that?
 

steddora

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Honestly, with the FX series being unlocked; you have a billion options available to you. What I prefer with unlocked multipliers if I'm not going to overclock the ram I'll find my stable overclock range with the multiplier. Since my 2600k is easy with a 100mhz FSB I'll use it as my example.

Stock is 100 x 34 = 3400mhz

So I'll take that to say
100 x 40 = 4000mhz and say that's the highest I can be stable.

If my 1600mhz ram runs at 16x the FSB and the FSB is 100 it will stay stock speeds at 100 x 40.

So if I want to overclock my ram and I'm settling at 4Ghz, I'll drop the multiplier and start working up to something like...

110 x 35 = 3850 which is a little lower than my stable 4Ghz but will push the ram up to 1760.

That isn't achievable by stock RAM settings and must be done that way. I'm not perfectly familiar with your setup personally but I know there's a lot of options with RAM clocking these days. But in real life use, 1600mhz Ram vs 1866mhz ram will show very little if any gains.

So in your position; I'd start tinkering with the multiplier and work with that for now and forget all about the ram. Leave it at stock and if it's stock at 1600mhz, you probably won't need anything more than that. That way you're stressing just the CPU and the NB/PCIx/RAM is all running at stock speeds.

As for the tornado inside of your case, you need some fan control! I couldn't deal with that! You can pick up a multitude of different fan controllers around different e-tailers and they usually are pretty cheap. I actually just jumped into a Thor v2 from Rosewill and it has dual fan controllers on the top panel of the case which made my day. It controls up to three fans per knob and two of them are the loud at full bore silverstones on my hyper 212. If I'm needing some massive cooling; I have it on tap but at 4Ghz and just browsing the web, 600rpm does more than enough for the cooling. Personally I'd rather have full control of my fans as I know when I'll need the cooling and I'm completely OCD about that and with my fans all down on low for the first time in years I actually hear my PSU running.

Now if you're plugged into one of the motherboards headers you should be able to control it through the bios and have a "profile" like setup. Some applications such as Speedfan can do such things as well through the motherboard headers. So you have options; to each their own with that. Just remember, with fan headers and applications you can make the system completely automatic with the fans and not have to worry once you figure it out. But like I said, I'm completely OCD and I want that control at my fingertips without having to look to an applications to speed things up with my fans. A quick flip of the wrist and a turn of my knob and booya; she's running. If I get a chance I'll roll a video for you to hear my setup at idle and full bore. It's quite amazing. :)
 

Gluske

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It's SO LOUD now. louder than yesterday it seems and this type of fan is supposed to be rated for 2300 RPM. Youtube videos have it running nowhere NEAR this loud at the same RPM. I'm really gettin POed with this. It's enough to drive you crazy. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE sounds like a hive of bees in my apt. I swear I can hear it while taking a shower.

It's plugged into the pump which is plugged into mobo as 3pin into 4pin configuration so there's no control, but maybe I can get a fan controller and bump it down a bit.
 

steddora

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Can't you power the pump and fans on different headers? I wouldn't put up with it being that loud, that's a certainty. Also make sure the thing is secure and not vibrating to death. If it's just the blades cutting the air, I'd be flopping the fan out or grabbing a better fan.