I7 and Tunic Tower 120. (With Picture!)

haxs101

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I just got a i7 930, and I'm using the tunic tower 120 Extreme to cool it. At the moment I'm running the chip at stock speeds (2.8ghz) and Its idling at 37c. I can't even overclock it to 3.3ghz + with out it idling at around 40 plus C. Is there a problem here? And should I be able to overclock this chip to 4.0ghz with this cooler? I did use this cooler to cool my AMD 920 to 3.7ghz with no problem. For the i7 I used the line method. Should I redo it and use the spread method?

Thanks, Xion

[IMG=http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7808/05060020011.th.jpg][/IMG]

Specs:
ATI 5870.
i7 930 at 2.8 (stock)
Tunic Tower 120 Extreme
P658D-E motherboard
Storm Sniper Case
CMPSU-650TX powersupply
CORSAIR XMS3 6GB
 

haxs101

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yes I have tried that, idle temps are around 50-60 if i remember correctly, maybe even more. In prime95 the temps got to over 80c, 90c I think was the max.
 

cadder

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According to frostytech.com that is literally one of the best coolers out there.

I have not worked with an i7 but I've overclocked i5-750's to 3.9GHz, using a slightly lesser cooler, and got temps up to 72. Lots of people overclock the i7's to 4GHz and slightly beyond, so you can probably do it too. You won't know the temps until you actually do it.
 
I have that same exact cooler in two rigs it is a very capable cooler but your cooler is only as good as your case ventilation. If your case ventilation has bad airflow your temps will be high also your thermal paste you might have to much or to little. Also check to see if it is seated evenly.

1 more thing your ambient temps how hot is the room it is in.
 

notty22

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Don't tear it apart yet. I'm sure you know from reading the 930 runs hotter than AMD's, heck they run hotter than 1156 cpu's to. Do you have the Vcore set, and not on auto ?
Did you disable eist or c states ? If you put the power plan in Win7 on balanced, at idle the cpu multi should drop , so might your idle temps if its bugging you. :)
Worst case, others idle at that same temp, i've noted. As long as it does not randomly go up over 70 with load, theres probably nothing wrong.
 

haxs101

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Sorry I lied in my first post lol. I just tried 4.0 ghz, didn't go to desk top. Tried 3.9, same, tried 3.8 got to desk top then bluescreen, as of right now, I'm at 3.7ghz.
 

haxs101

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What do you mean? I have it where it says TUNIC, where you can read it with out reading it upside down. The air from the cooler is going out the top, into the exhaust fan.
 

haxs101

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As of right now, our house is at 72F, 22.2c.
 

haxs101

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The fan should be on the Ram side of the CPU blowing towards the back of your case thru the heatsink.
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So it should be long ways up and down and not side to side like I have it? When I was installing it, I couldn't put it that way.
 

gangstap

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I'm not an expert but I've done a lot of research about cooling/temps with the i7 and in my opinion you should hold off on OCing your cpu. Your idle temps at stock speeds are fine. 36-40c @ idle is about par for stock speeds. But your 3.7ghz temps are way too hot. Aftermarket coolers don't necessarily decrease your idle temperatures THAT much. They do, however, greatly decrease temps under load. even at 4.0ghz, 80c is far too hot. Someone said it before, make sure that your heatsink is sitting flat on your processor. You can tell this by the indents in the thermal paste. I recently RMAd my heatsink for that reason.

As for your idle temps at 3.3, 40c is fine.
 

haxs101

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Well, I have it at 3.6 right now, and I'm happy with it idiling at 40-45c.. and While playing Arma 2 for 3 hours it hit only 58c Tops. So I'm going to keep at it at 3.6. When i put it to 3.7, It blue screened, 3.8, went to desktop, then bluescreened, 3.9 and up it won't even get to windows desktop. So I think I found the sweet spot for my cooler/i7.