Improving CPU Temps

[ron_w]

Hey guys, I made a post a while back asking for advice to improve my CPU's cooling, my specs can be found their as well: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/340566-31-improving-cooling

I have since moved my components to an NZXT Phantom case that was supposed to be better designed for air cooling than my Corsair Obsidian 800D. My Phantom has 1 front 140mm fan, 2 side 120mm, 1 side 200mm, 1 rear 120 mm, and 2 top 200 mm fans with two Cougar Vortex 120mm fans installed on the bottom of the H100's radiator. Since the move, my mobo and graphics cards are a couple of degrees cooler, buy my CPU is about 10 degrees warmer than before at idle, about 50-60 degrees now. I'm assuming that if the other parts are showing better temps, my CPU is warmer because of a bad CPU cooler seating, but even if that's the case, I would image that would only bring CPU temps down to where they were before, not necessarily lower as was the intended goal.

So my question is, at this point, would a different CPU cooler be my best bet to lower temps? Is the H100 perhaps underperforming in my rig and maybe something like a Noctua D14 would bring temps down significantly? Or is there something else at play? Fault temp sensor, bad mobo/CPU?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Scotty99]

Sounds like you have speedstep disabled. That is really the only thing that would raise "idle" temps that much.

Ill just throw this in there. I own a 30 dollar cpu cooler (hyper 212+) and my friend owns the h-100, he gets slightly lower idle temps (which in all honesty, dont matter) but i get lower load temps (59c vs his 62c). In my eyes, the H-100 is a total waste of money, even if it does look nice.

 

[ron_w]

Re-enabled Speedstep and resat the H100, this time using the tinting method before applying a thin vertical line of TIM on the processor and made sure to keep pressure on the unit while I tightened it down, to make sure it was as tight as possible on the CPU. Temps are down by 3-5 degrees at idle, but still higher than before my case upgrade, cores fluctuate anywhere between 45-60 degrees at idle, according to Real Temp GT 3.70.

I'm reluctant to buy a new cooler without knowing there is a good chance of seeing a significant temp decrease over my H100. Are there other things I could/should try first? I'm OC'ing the CPU to 4.2GHz at the moment, using the CPU's Turbo mode with the strap increased to allow 4.2GHz. Is there a more efficient way to OC the CPU and this current method is just drawing too much unneeded power? I would like to eventually get up to 4.6-5.0GHz, but with these temps at 4.2 Idle, I don't think I want to push the CPU farther until I can bring my temps down.

 

[kiezz]

what tempature is the room your pc is in ?

 

[ron_w]

About 20-23 degrees C. Thinking about turning my 2 Cougars on the H100 and 2 top 200mm into intake config to pull fresh air right onto the radiator, would that do much or with the 200mm side fan intake, is this unnecessary?

 

[ron_w]

Resat the H100 again for kicks and replaced the NXZT rear exhaust 120mm fan with a Cougar Vortex 120mm fan, still as exhaust to see if temps improved, which they did, surprisingly, so I decided to bump up the CPU to a 4.6GHz overclock. Still relatively high idle temps, but after a couple of minutes on a Large FFTs Prime95 test temps are in the 70s-80s staying around 10-30 degress below TJMax. Is this a decent result so far or still too hot?

 

[xxsjxx1]

Vertical line was too much paste when I did mine. Try reseating with a bb sized amount in the center