I7 Temp and Cooling Question

[TODDTH]

I just upgraded my system this weekend going from a Core2 Due (E7300 I think) to:
- i7 3770
- ASRock Extreme4
- 16 GB Corsair Vengance DDR3 1600
- Agility 3 240GB SSD

Wow what a difference! The biggest reason for the upgrade is I'm doing some video ripping and coversion with a media center. Ripping to an H264 MKV file took so long I pretty much didn't even try. A single movie with the old processor could take the better part of a day 15-18 hours as I recall (not exagerating). With the new setup, my test run took an hour last night. VERY pleased with that.

Of course this brings me to my real question in all of this. With the 3770 wide open for a solid hour I saw temps in the 75/76C range (maybe 77, but did not hit 80 that I saw). From what I could find on Intel's website the Tcase max for a 77W 3rd Gen Chip is 70C (unless I misinterpreted something among the tables). This leads me to a few questions.

1. How big of a deal is the 76C temp? I dont want to cook my chip as it wasn't cheap (at least for me). I do read of people hitting 80C before getting to worried but being over the 70 listed at Intel concerns me. It's not like I will be doing this every day but I do want to convert a number of movies so there will be some heavy use initially and then drop back to maybe a half dozen times or so a month (guessing). I went back and forth with overclocking and decided not too, hence I didnt get the 3770K.

2. How much of a difference does a larger cooler make on the wide open operating temp? I have been reading some reviews on coolers and they all seem to help at idle to mid range use, but there were a number of comments about that they dont make a significant difference in high use conditions. Here are the two I was looking at. I think I need to use the first due to my Vengance RAM.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

3. I would strongly prefer not to get into water cooling. Any reason to think this is necessary?

If you have any other suggestions on cooling fans/heatsinks let me know. Prefer something that is pretty quiet at lower speeds. I know they all will be noticable at high use.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

First of all your temperatures are not bad. The 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 can reach up to 105c. If you would like to run a little quieter you can add a cooler like the Cooler Master 212 +/Evo and it should drop your temperatures down maybe 5c with a single fan maybe up to 8c with a push/pull set up. After that you really don't need to worry.

 

[InvalidError]

Package (IHS) temperature is not the same as core (TJ) temperature.

TJ on Ivy Bridge CPUs can go up to 105C, even 80C should be no big deal although people around here do not like seeking core temps that high.

Using a CM Hyper 212EVO should drop temperatures 12-15C below stock HSF. You can flip the fan to the non-RAM side (move clips to the fan's opposite side) if you run into clearance issues with your RAM.

 

[jay_nar2012]

Those aren't exactly the best temps, the thermal limit is 100c (when it turns off).

Getting a aftermarket HS is an option, you could always try reappying thermal paste.

 

[TODDTH]

Thanks, good to know its not an immediate high concern. I may till get a aftermarket HS/Fan in the near future.

I see two reccomendations for the 212EVO. Is this suppoed to be that much better than the GeminII? The EVO is cheaper so no complaints there.

There is a case fan directly behind where this fan will sit. Being a rear case fan I think it pulls out. They will be close enough that fighting each other would be bad. Blowing into the case and then accross the CPU fan may be a good thing though.

The GeminII on the other hand would probably get the benefit of two fans accross the horizontal heatshik.

 

[jay_nar2012]

The Hyper 212 is one of the best budget aftermarket heatsinks.

The GeminII will probably perform a little better due to the design of the heatsink.

 

[InvalidError]

I see two reccomendations for the 212EVO. Is this suppoed to be that much better than the GeminII? The EVO is cheaper so no complaints there.

Aside from having one of the best performance-to-price ratio of any HSF out there, my other reason to like the 212+/EVO is that it uses a screwed-in mounting plate, studs and metal clip instead of plastic fan frame and push-pins, which eliminates any chance of the HSF loosening up.

Almost everyone I know along with dozens of people on this forum who used the stock Intel fan with plastic fan frame and pins runs into "mysterious" high fan speeds and high temperatures after 2-3 years which I suspect are due to vibrations and thermal cycling wearing out and deforming the all-plastic Intel retention mechanism, loosening it up until the heatsink no longer makes proper contact with the IHS. Re-installing/re-pasting the stock HSF rarely helped for more than a few weeks.

I wonder how many people are cursing their slow/noisy PCs not knowing that their 3+ year old push-pin PC may simply be suffering from poor HSF contact and would be good-as-new with a simple upgrade to aftermarket HSF.

 

[TODDTH]

I just checked out the GeminII install instructions and it looks to have the same sort of retaintion system as the EVO that goes though the MB with a plate on the back.

Since it's not urgent, I'll probably keep an eye out for a deal on NewEgg. I seem to have pretty good luck catchin sales if I can wait a couple weeks.