3570K temperatures and speed

biton161

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Mar 16, 2013
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Hi.
I recently put together a new PC based on 3570K, GA-H77N-WIFI and a Noctua NH-L9i cooler.
When I boot into BIOS, temperatures (both the unified and core specific ones in M.I.T) read around 46C in which is high considering the low load (don't know if it considered IDLE in OS terms though).
I also notice all cores run at 3800Mhz, which is the Turbo Boost upper limit.
When is switch TB off temps go down to ~41C (still hot IMO) and speed is 3400Mhz of course. It seems silly to keep TB off as it's only supposed to operate at load.
Why is TB activated in BIOS when there is no load? shouldn't all cores show 3400MHz as the operating frequency?
I read somewhere that BIOS temp readings are inaccurate and that certain power management features are not implemented, namely it does load CPU more that the OS would at "idle". Is this true?
Any app I can use in OS X to tell what speed TB operates at and read the accurate temps?
Thanks.
 

biton161

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Mar 16, 2013
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It's neither Windows nor OS X at the moment, I'm more likely to put Win 8 on it. I was just asking since I know Intel provides a Turbo Boost monitor for win.
 

biton161

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Mar 16, 2013
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don't have anything installed.
all readings are in the BIOS itself, which I presume should resemble idle as it's not doing much.
if I don't disable TB all 4 cores report 3800Mhz frequency in BIOS and temperatures are 46-47.
 

$hawn

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Oct 28, 2009
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I was highly suspecting that. Although I'm not 100% sure, but in most BIOS's, the CPU will be at it's highest multiplier state, and will stay there. Even speed step won't be in action. This is what my CPU does.

To really test your CPU behaviour, you must install an OS, and then check with some software, preferably CPU-z. :)

Incase you don;t wanna purchase an OS before testing this out, just download a free OS like ubuntu and check it out. You don't even need to install Ubuntu, you can just run it straight out of a DVD/pen drive.
 

biton161

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Mar 16, 2013
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Thanks. No point in disabling TB then.
I'll give the OS a try.
EDIT- which tool for Ubuntu?
 

biton161

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Mar 16, 2013
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thanks, but Ubuntu says pick 64bit for UEFI motherboards
 

$hawn

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Ok then settle for the 64bit version.

However, I just realized that checking for turbo inside ubuntu may not be that easy. Just check around for any tools that detect turbo boost in ubuntu.
One such tool is this, try out the pre-compiled binaries first. If it doesn't work, you'll have to download free code, and compile it yourself.
http://code.google.com/p/i7z/

If your not comfortable with using terminal/compliling code yourself, then you might have to do something technically illegal, but morally fine. You could download a fake XP copy, use CPU-z to test for turbo boost, and then delete the XP partition after your done testing. Or does windows have a trial pack version??
 

biton161

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Mar 16, 2013
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Thanks for the help.