I7 3770s temperatures pretty high

[domdoran]

I recently put together a tidy little gaming/general purpose pc. I'm not interested in overclocking. My days of pencil tricking processors and dremelling cases are long behind me. I just want a fast, reliable, quiet, and reasonably sized machine. I bought the following:

I bought a 3770S Ivy Bridge i7, a micro atx Intel motherboard, a nice little 640W power supply, a Lian Li tiny tower case, and an Nvidia 670 GTX which I literally had to bend the case to get into place. Everything works fine, but when idle the CPU temps are mid to high 50's C, and when running Prime95, they get into the mid to high 90's. This seems a bit high to me (and certainly outside of the operating temps recommended by Intel). I'm using the stock cooler. I've read about removing the heat spreader and applying my own high quality thermal grease. Would you recommend this? I've thought of an aftermarket HSF, but it'd have to be pretty much stock in size, because there's not much room in there. I was worried that airflow might be a problem as it is, so I pulled it apart and ran the test with plenty of room for air to move around with the same results.

So what should I do? Somebody recommended a cheapo watercooling solution, but I don't think I'll have room. Is there a HSF around stock size and stock noise with better performance? Or do you think it's a problem with the processor, not the cooling solution?


My setup components:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121507
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112296
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130782
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371056
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116503

 

[popatim]

make sure the front fan is hooked up and working.
try using another temp monitoring program.
check the temp in the bios and if its still hot the take the side cover off and point a housefan into it. With only 1 fan and no place to mount another this certainly isnt designed for gaming.

 

[domdoran]

I know you're right, I was hoping to get by with the front intake and the exhaust of the PSU. I'll try your advice. Thanks. Do you think there's any value in re-greasing with high quality stuff if these steps yield no progress?

 

[satyamdubey]

well the best thermal compounds out there will lower temps only about 2 Celsius max (compared to stock) maybe even less. Thermal compounds are not coolants, they are just heat transfer agents and you need to bump up the flow of air through your heat sink. check out the link below. It's an India based site but you can find out the "Deep cool" HSF probably anywhere...

http://www.theitdepot.com/products-Cooling+Devices_C10.html

good luck
- Satyam

 

[zaxevil]

maybe you didn't put the heatsink at the right place

 

[domdoran]

It is my first 1155. It's symmetrical, no?

 

[InvalidError]

It's symmetrical, no?

Based on the Hyper 212+ bracket, it certainly appears to be.

If there was a 'wrong way' you would have a very hard time pushing pins in nice and snug if you found it.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Obviously something wrong with either your temp monitor or actual temps. My 3770K at stock frequency is running Prime95 large FFT and according to the Asus AI monitor, CPU temp is 45 degrees C. Ambient is 27 degrees C and mobo temp is 32 degrees C.

I have a Zalman 9900 cooler however - fan speed is 2770 rpm - plus a Cooler Master HAF case with gigantic fans all over the place ..

I had previously run Intel's stress test which stresses all 4 cores 100%, and got just 40 degrees C, but now I think the test took all the CPU cycles and so AI suite never updated...

 

[ijc778]

I recently put together a 3770s with DH77DF, and the CPU idle temp was in the mid 50s. Still in the "green" zone according to Intel Desktop Utilities but a 3570k on DH77DF idles in the mid 30s. Something's wrong with the 3770s I thought. Re-sitting the heatsink on the 3770s with some arctic silver 5 bought the idle temp down to the 30s. I guess I didn't do a good job putting on the heatsink initially. I always hated that thermal grease pad that comes with the Intel heatsink.