Swiftech H220 Potential

dakotaritz

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Feb 14, 2013
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I just got my h220 yesterday and installed it with no complications, as it is obviously very easy to do. Today I started looking at overclocking it and am not sure what to make of it. I was under the impression that I would be accomplishing more than what I currently am, which leads me to believe that there is some kind of issue. Just so you have an idea of the circumstances, it is a asrock z77 mobo, 3770k cpu, and I am running the h220 in push/pull with the default swiftech fans pulling and nf-f12s pushing. I am running all 4 fans and the pump at max speed. Upon removing the stock cooler from my cpu, I used isopropyl alchohol and finished it with a microfiber towel to remove the thermal grease. I used the thermal grease that came with the h220 and applied a very small cross. I can't seem to think of anything else that is relevant, but just ask and hopefully I can provide any other necessary information.
The issue is that while running prime95, the temperatures seem to stay at about 62C until around the 15 minute mark and then they shoot up (at only 1.250V). At this 15 minute mark they usually sit around 82C. At 1.3V they sit at 65C and hit 90C at the 15 minute mark. At the point where it hit 90C stopped the test, and I tried the 1.25V but it is still not sitting at acceptable temperatures. At 1.25V I tried 4.6GHz which ran successfully for about two hours then failed. I am currently testing 4.5GHz. Is there an issue with my cooler or is this just what I'm dealing with? The only thing I can really think of doing is taking off the block and reseating it, but it is already very firmly in place and I can only imagine it is making full contact. Should I reseat it and if I do, should I remove the thermal grease and add new? Can you think of anything else I can do to troubleshoot this?

Thank you very much
 

steddora

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Nov 13, 2012
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Once you seated the block; did you pull it up or lift it off at all after making contact with the thermal paste? If so; then you need to reseat it. Once you make the contact between the block and thermal grease to the CPU, you need to keep the contact without removing it in any fashion. This is a big issue that many run into when dealing with CPU coolers. I'd try that if nothing else as it's an easy way to mess up, but just as easy to fix.
 

dakotaritz

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Feb 14, 2013
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Okay, this is definitely a possibility. I felt like I put it on with ease, but I could have definitely broke contact. I'll try this first thing when I get off work tonight!

P.S. With an issue like this, what temperature variations can be expected? What I mean to ask is how vastly can doing this affect your performance? Pretty severely?

Thanks again!
 

steddora

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Nov 13, 2012
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Let's put it this way.. A friend who has a system dang near identical to mine.. his first try his 2500k went to 40C at idle and pegged out over 90C almost instantly with IBT. A quick tutorial from myself to him working with thermal paste (and the hyper 212) got him to similar temps to mine. So this can affect the temperatures to an almost unlimited scale. So it's the single most important thing, yet it's very simple to fix if it is a problem.

So it's best to double check first off, as it could be the problem you know? By the way, MX-4 is like $10 for a nice 10-15 application tube and that's counting some trial and error installs as well. So thermal paste is cheap, the average i7 k-series runs well into the $300's. :)
 

steddora

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Nov 13, 2012
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Wow, that's definitely pushing a lot of heat then. I'm not sure on the performance of the H220, but maybe you should try another cooler and see if it is being problematic. Because the temperatures you're stating just sound like poor cooling. I recently helped a guy overclock his 3570k that had a Hyper212+ stock on top of it, and at 1.25v he never reached 90C! So, I'm kind of wondering if there isn't something wrong with your cooler.

However, first things first, try some different software to monitor temps. You may be seeing false readings as it just sounds odd to me. It sounds like it's cooler is just shutting off at 15 minutes; but you never know. So try some other monitors like RealTemp and HWMonitor and see what the temperatures ride at.