Intel® Core i7 860 with Thermaltake SpinQ VT cooler

[proton_chain]

Hello guys,

I have a Core i7 860 @ stock 2.8 GHz and had it running for a few months using the stock cooler. The stock cooler is awfully awful, it has 0.75" thick aluminium fins, and a "kinda" silent fan. This stock 1156 box cooler was intended for low noise and small cases, I know. But what is the point of sleeping in peace when your CPU is burning at 94°C? This cooler looks like one third of a Pentium D cooler! Come on Intel, either give good coolers, or drop the price and let us take care of the cooling system. I do graphics designing, gaming, video editing and encoding and 3D modeling. And the stock cooler has horrified me countless times when doing anything (with the exception of gaming).

At an ambient of 33°C, the CPU cores idled at around 46°C. Maybe thats more likely because of the i7 downclocking feature than the efficiency of the cooler, LOL. Gaming used to hit 60-67°. Prime 95 Large FFTs used to hit around 84°C. 3D rendering using mental ray hit 81-82°C. And the worst nightmare, Linpack x64 pushed it as high as 90°C!!

So I dismantled the case, removed the stock cooler and installed Thermaltake SpinQ VT (http://thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1417&ID=1904).

This cooler is HUGE, and the stock one looks like a child when put side by side. But what about performance? Let's find out.

Installing was painful, I had never installed aftermarket CPU cooler before. So, I had hard time deciding how and how much thermal grease should be applied. I tried spreading a thin layer over the CPU and ran prime 95. Temps jumped near 96 instantly and I shut it down. Removed cooler, cleaned, applied a lot, and booted. This time, prime 95 hit 90C. Something was wrong. Removed cooler, cleaned, applied just one drop at the center, and booted. Finally, it showed acceptable temps around 67°C. I'm not sure if that is 100% perfect, though, but its best I've found, and I can't risk doing it again and messing everything up in some way. I'm satisfied with 67°C, ha ha.

After installing this cooler, I ran the old benchmarks again to make a comparison. The CPU cores idled at around 38°C. Prime 95 Large FFT hits 67°C now. And that Linpack benchmark hits 71°C. And yes, the ambient is still 33°C.

I made a comparison below to summarize the things.



Please note that the temperatures I have mentioned is the average of the "core" temperatures, not to be confused with "CPU" temperatures. I used realtremp and coretemp to monitor the temperatures.

So... are my temps fine? Please feel free to share your opinions on this subject. If you have the same cooler or CPU or both, then please share your own experiences.

Thank you.

M. A. Akif Mustofa Khan Shuvo

 

[jimishtar]

one very important question: what kind of case are u using, and how many case fans do you have? A case with a rear fan is the minimum recommended.
the SpinQ VT is one of the best looking coolers, but its an average performer. still, it should bring quite a drop in temperatures at stock cpu speed.

note that i7 860 can handle temps up to 72-72 C degrees.

 

[proton_chain]

one very important question: what kind of case are u using, and how many case fans do you have? A case with a rear fan is the minimum recommended.
the SpinQ VT is one of the best looking coolers, but its an average performer. still, it should bring quite a drop in temperatures at stock cpu speed.

note that i7 860 can handle temps up to 72-72 C degrees.

It did drop, but I'm not sure if that is quite "significant". I have rear exhaust fan, PSU has 140mm fan, there is a 240mm fan at the side, and one 120 mm front intake fan. Its a mid tower case, but it doesn't hurt losing by 1-2 degrees. This was the only cooler available at my locality. And it looks very very very....... sexy. I had cut my hand trying to reseat it though...

 

[jimishtar]

i dont think you will ever hit temps as high as the linpack or prime 95, maybe in some games, but they dont stress as close as the benchmarks.

u have good case and good rig overall, dont worry about temps. also, some thermal grease need times to burn-in, so it might drop few degrees in future.

 

[proton_chain]

i dont think you will ever hit temps as high as the linpack or prime 95, maybe in some games, but they dont stress as close as the benchmarks.

u have good case and good rig overall, dont worry about temps. also, some thermal grease need times to burn-in, so it might drop few degrees in future.

Games hover around 45-53 most of the times. I know that nothing is gonna push things as high as Linpack. But doesn't that mean that you are bulletproof if you pass that? Linpack showed me error with stock cooler at stock speeds, but it doesn't show any error now.

 

[jimishtar]

dont worry now, the new cooler does the job well. take in consideration that your ambient temp is 33, thats pretty high. most benchmarks that u see on internet are done with ambient temp ~25 tops, mostly ~23 C degrees.