I7 930 Idle close to 60c

[tusker]

Hey there. I have an i7 930 (not the 920) with stock heatsink fan. It's been idling near 60, or at least in the upper 50's. It is not overclocked at all. Voltages aren't touched. Hyperthreading is on. I can't remember what it's called, but the option to throttle down CPU usage when not in use is turned on.

Based off what I've read, this just seems higher than it should be, if not a considerable amount higher (?), though to be honest I'm not certain. So that's my question -- is this normal, should I be worried, or is there something I can or should do about it?

Details below:

My case is a CM 690 II. I have an intake fan in front and one on the bottom. I have exhaust fans on the top, back, and side. I only recently added the side exhaust hoping it'd help (it's at the level of the CPU), and at most it seems to maybe have dropped idles closer to 56-57c. The side fan used to be a 2nd exhaust on top.

If it's worth noting, I have a Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 video card which also idles 50-55, roughly.

Another thing worth noting is that it's pretty warm where I live, and the A/C doesn't cool my room too well. Ambient temp in here can be 25-28c or so. That's upper 70's in Fahrenheit at the least, and can maybe reach 83 or so if it's real warm and humid in here, though it's not usually that warm in my room. I know ambient temp definitely affects my CPU temp, but I'm not sure if my idles around 60c is appropriate for that. Though I feel like even when my room is in the mid 70's (F) or even a little lower, my idle temps maybe only drop slightly, if at all.

I have a tiny 1-2 year old tube of Artic Silver Ceramique, though I can't remember if I've cleaned and reseated this processor with it, or if it's using the stock thermal compound.

I've checked numerous times to make sure the heatsink fan is seated properly, and I swear the pins are all the way through and there's no wiggle room.

Playing something like Skyrim, the temps on my CPU and graphics card barely change, they raise about 2 degrees. Running World of Warcraft, it seems to be around 58-63F, same with the graphics card.

I appreciate the help. I've read the i7 920 can run warm, but I see wildly different idle temps, ranging from people who have both stock and aftermarket HSF.

Also, I'm using CPUID HW Monitor to check temps, though I've also used RealTemp and they seem to report the same.

 

[amuffin]

Try re-installing the cooler and clean off the cpu and heatsink with some 90%+ rubbing alcohol. Then reapply thermal paste and turn the system on!

 

[tusker]

To be honest, I think a year and half ago I reseated the heatsink with this Arctic Silver Ceramique I have. Is it worth cleaning and reapplying it again? I guess it can't make things worse, unless I do a poor job

What would be the next step if new thermal paste doesn't help?

 

[amuffin]

It doesn't hurt to try!

 

[apache_lives]

install the hsf correctly

also make sure it isnt clogged

 

[tusker]

install the hsf correctly

also make sure it isnt clogged

I'm not sure I know what you mean..? Are you suggesting I reseat it? If something in my post made it seem like I didn't install it correctly, I'd like to know what it is so I don't do it in the future I've built a number of computers, and haven't ever had any idle this hot, though Though this is the only build I've done with an i7 9x0 series processor.

There was some (not a lot) dust in the heatsink, but I removed it and it didn't change anything.

I don't know if this also helps, but I have an Asrock x58 motherboard, and I went to the BIOS and let it sit for about 10min. It reads CPU temp at 50c and the M/B temp around 38c. Booting into windows, HWmonitor shows it idling at around 56c. Does that seem right?

 

[amuffin]

Any dust?

 

[aznplayer213]

yup like most people say, re-seat the heat sink and the cpu. if properly seated your temps should go down by 15c easy. add some arctic silver for good measure!

 

[tusker]

Alright, sounds like it's worth a shot. The computer is a little over two years old and I can't remember if I used arctic silver when originally building it, but I might as well re-seat it anyway.

Is my two year old tube of Artic Silver Ceramique okay for the job? or should I get some AS5? My Ceramique is not Ceramique 2, it's the old one

Thanks for the help so far will update after I re-seat it

 

[aznplayer213]

as quoted by a commenter in the NCIX forum:

"Arctic Silver 5 has no expiration date when still in the tube. After a couple years of being in the tube,the paste may separate, but it can be mixed back together and is 100% effective. "

its safe to use just a little hard to spread.

 

[smorizio]

also when the pc powered off when you turn it back on from siting awhile check to see if the cpu fan is spinning up to speed.
a lot of times the stock fans when they fail they wont spin or they slow way down. i would also see in your bios if you can change the fan speed and make it faster. also see if you can change the fan speed to full speed and not pmw where the fan spins up and the cpu heats up..

 

[tusker]

I ordered a new tube of Arctic Silver, got the Ceramique 2. Should be here in a few days.

The cpu fan looks to be spinning up to speed. So if I can set it to 100% fan speed (as opposed to auto), I should change it to that and just leave it there?

 

[KNO3]

With your room that hot It seems unreasonable to expect the temperature to drop too much. You should also be able to drop your vcore and remain stable at clock speeds if reseating the cooler doesn't help as much as you want. Honestly you could probably drop your vcore and still have overclocking headroom while still getting lower temperatures. What are your load temperatures?

Also, if you're paying for more paste, why not just get an aftermarket cooler? The stock cooler is terrible.

 

[tusker]

With your room that hot It seems unreasonable to expect the temperature to drop too much. You should also be able to drop your vcore and remain stable at clock speeds if reseating the cooler doesn't help as much as you want. Honestly you could probably drop your vcore and still have overclocking headroom while still getting lower temperatures. What are your load temperatures?

Also, if you're paying for more paste, why not just get an aftermarket cooler? The stock cooler is terrible.

That could be a good idea, hadn't tried changing vcore yet. The vcore is set to auto but hovers around 1.15. How much lower should I go?

I did sorta assume with my room so warm, it'll greatly affect the CPU temp. When my room is cooler, say 63-70f, I believe I was idling closer to 50c or so. That still seems like a warm idle to me, but again I don't really know. I know the stock cooler sucks, but would think it'd idle lower than that..?

Going to try reseating it when I get the ceramique. However in the mean time, I'll do what I should have done before posting, and I'll run Prime95 when I get home and report back. It's been a while since I've run it.

I've considered getting an aftermarket cooler, but even with all the computers I've ever built, I never used or installed one; so it makes me a bit wary I suppose Would something like a Hyper 212+ be good? I think it's something I'm capable of installing, but well, I've never done it before

 

[bac0n]

That could be a good idea, hadn't tried changing vcore yet. The vcore is set to auto but hovers around 1.15. How much lower should I go?

I did sorta assume with my room so warm, it'll greatly affect the CPU temp. When my room is cooler, say 63-70f, I believe I was idling closer to 50c or so. That still seems like a warm idle to me, but again I don't really know. I know the stock cooler sucks, but would think it'd idle lower than that..?

Going to try reseating it when I get the ceramique. However in the mean time, I'll do what I should have done before posting, and I'll run Prime95 when I get home and report back. It's been a while since I've run it.

I've considered getting an aftermarket cooler, but even with all the computers I've ever built, I never used or installed one; so it makes me a bit wary I suppose Would something like a Hyper 212+ be good? I think it's something I'm capable of installing, but well, I've never done it before

I have an i7-950 that I ran with the stock cooler for awhile. I kept having issues similar to what you are describing. The stupid way that the Intel stock cooler mounts is terrible. On my case at least I can see the back of the MB where the cooler mounting holes are. You should see the white plactic part with the black things poking thru. What I found was that the stock cooler would click in place fine one time. After the initial use any moving it, reseating it, etc and the pastic was worn and would never get snug again.

I bought the 212+ for $29.99 at microcenter and even at that affordable price it is literally night and day over the stock cooler.

Thanks,
Tim

 

[KNO3]

Alright for reference I just spent no more than 5 minutes screwing around in my bios to see how low I could get the vcore while maintaining your 2.8ghz stock clock. I have a a 920 C0 revisions which should theoretically actually require a higher voltage to stabilize the same clock frequency. I probably could have got the vcore lower but I really only did that as a demonstration so I think my point has been made as is.

I was able to get the vcore below 1v.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2320343

 

[tusker]

So, my computer has been idling today around 54-56c actually. Ran Prime95 and it seems to hang right around 78-79c.

Not saying I'm going to do nothing, but if left alone, are those idle and load temps bad or irregular? Will it cause damage? I still plan on at the very least reseating the stock cooler with AS Ceramique, though as someone pointed out, if I'm going to that trouble, perhaps I should just get a 212+.

I'd prefer to not have to put an aftermarket cooler on, but if these temps are 'bad' or are going to significantly diminish the life of the processor, I might have to just do it.

Lowered the vcore down to 1v and it didn't really change my temps. Also I checked, my CPU fan is set to 'Full On' in the bios, not Automatic.

EDIT: I swapped the direction my side fan is facing so it blows IN, and on the CPU, and my idles are now 51-54c. Ran Prime95 again and it seems to be a little cooler, more around 74-76c.

 

[jimmysmitty]

One thing some people missed is the side fan. With the stock HSF which pulls air down, you now have a fan pulling air away from it. Its causing a vacuum effect and the CPU fan now no longer gets any air to it.

Swap the fan around as a intake fan so its pulling cooler air from the outside into the case over the CPU instead of pulling the same air out of the case that the CPU is trying to pull from.

In order to have good air flow, where the air stays cooler, you want front, bottom and side to be intake and the rear and top to be exhausts, top mainly since hot air rises and cool air settles.

This is a older CM690 but still same idea:

I have the Corsair 500R and have two 120mms in the front pulling air in, with an extra 120mm on the bottom HDD cage pulling air again from the front, a 200mm side fan pulling air in and two 140mm top fans pulling air out and a rear 120mm right behind my Zalman 9900Max pulling air out the back.

My 2500K at 4.5GHz idles at 30c-37c per core (depends on the tskss) and under gaming it goes to 55-58c and 60-65c under Prime 95. I do have a better cooler but I am also overclocked by 36% so it shows that your airflow is not that great. Its 81F (27c) normally in my house at all times too and here in AZ when summer huts that can jump by a bit.

In all the systems I have built at work, a older Intel Extreme we built (LGA1366) with the same case and the stock fan never got above 60c under full load (Prime 95).

 

[KNO3]

First of all, no, your temperatures shouldn't be that high. Especially if you dropped your vcore to 1v. That said 76c in prime95 isn't terrible. In games your cpu likely won't get over 70. You maximum rated temperature is 100c, although I prefer to stay well below that temperature.

If you've fixed your airflow issue it seems the only culprit left would be your cooler.

 

[jimmysmitty]

It could be one of two things then. It could be your mobo is not putting enough pressure on the push pins and therefore not allowing the HSF to dissipate heat properly. I had one the other day at work, tried one of our own and som Zalman STG2 (one of the best TIMs right now) and it still idled very high and as well high under load.

Ended up having to get the guy an after market cooler. He went with the 9900Max and it made his temps more like 30c idle and 50c load.

 

[tusker]

Having the side intake fan there helps. My setup is the same as the picture you provided, except I only have one exhaust on top and I only have one intake in front (bottom), and I only have one side intake fan (top) and the other 'slot' for the side fan is covered so it doesn't leak air.

Testing with World of Warcraft (lol) my temps aren't going above 56-59c or so. About the same with Skyrim.

Might be a dumb question, but at those temps, the idle/game/load, will the life of the processor be okay? As in, would it be detrimental if I didn't put on an aftermarket cooler?

 

[jimmysmitty]

Yes. The life of the CPU is fine so long as you keep it within its range, which is 67.9c for your CPU, you will be fine. 56-59c is fine.

It wouldn't hurt at all to have a better cooler, yours can support quite a few of the nicer ones. As well you can get the Cooler Master heatsinks which are pretty cheap and do a great job. But overall under load, it will still hit about 50c.

Still glad to hear its doing better.

 

[tusker]

Thanks a bunch for your help, as well as everyone else's in this thread

I'm still considering getting a Hyper 212+, my only reluctance is having never installed an aftermarket cooler before. With an aftermarket cooler like that, do I have to take further special care transporting my desktop so that it doesn't put extra stress on my motherboard?

Again, thanks for the help guys.

 

[KNO3]

Yes. The life of the CPU is fine so long as you keep it within its range, which is 67.9c for your CPU, you will be fine. .

Uh... where are you getting that number? If you pulled it from the Intel data sheet then that's entirely inaccurate. That would be the Tcase which isn't what core tempt is monitoring. It's also not possible to accurately monitor.

Your core temperatures are the temperatures you're capable of monitoring. Your Tjmax is 100c, which is your "red line". It's also the temperature that your cpu will start throttling at. Theoretically it shouldn't be possible for you to damage your cpu from excessive heat because your cpu should throttle which will reduce your temperatures.

That said getting too close to Tjmax for too long can shorten the life of your cpu. But 70c isn't where you need to start worrying.

Everybody has different comfort levels. I personally set a goal when overclocking to raise my vcore and clock speed until my hottest core was 85c during stress testing. In real world applications my hottest core will never see 80. I'm comfortable with this. Which is what your temperature limit is going to come down to: your personal comfort level.

I'm still considering getting a Hyper 212+, my only reluctance is having never installed an aftermarket cooler before. With an aftermarket cooler like that, do I have to take further special care transporting my desktop so that it doesn't put extra stress on my motherboard?

No, there's no practical considerations. However, if you never plan to overclock then there's no real need to get the cooler. You're safe now, you just don't have a large amount of headroom as far as overclocking. Though, honestly, you still have some now

 

[tusker]

Ah okay, that makes much more sense KNO3. I haven't really been seeing it get too close to 70c, and even then 70c has been the max. It's been idling closer to 50c now, and in games or any development I do, it doesn't see to even really reach 60c.

But thank you for that extra bit of info on the temps.

I don't plan on overclocking, no. At least not yet.

One of my main concerns was that I feel like I've seen so many people who idle around 30c and under load go to 50c, and my temps were worrying since my idle was above or at their load temps. If I'm not damaging anything other than maybe not running as efficiently as I could, I might just keep things the way they are.

Thanks again. I wish I could mark mutiple 'answers' as best, as so many of these posts yield useful info