Good cooler for I7-920 OC

TanyaC · 05 Feb 2011

Time to give up.

I have now replaced to the mobo with the sabretooth X58. After everything, I've managed to reduce the temp from 20 above ambient to 15 above ambient.

So, with a room temp of 20c, the temps is 35c at idle;

This was achieved by;

New case; 3c drop; with improved airflow (cabling was terrible in old case)
New mobo; 1c drop
Underclocking PC; 1c drop (dropping vcore, RAM speed and others).

The original intent was to drop to temp enough to enable me to overclock the PC.

So I did some overclocking just to see what the temps were; At 3.6ghz the temp went to 30c above ambient, so at 20c it runs at 50c, and on hot days it idles at 60c. Way too high. We found that running games like World in conflict, Crisis, Sacred 2 with elite graphics "cooked" the PC and shut it down after a few minutes, with warning temps set at 90c.

Alternative is to spend $700 per machine to get faster CPUs, which we already tested and run at 20c above ambient, but it's better than 30c.

We also tried a new batch of I7-920's. Same results. The batches were manufactured more than a year apart.

I've now formally given up. Seems we are stuck at 2.66ghz, with ram now running 1333 instead of 1600.

tanya

Golden · 05 Feb 2011

TanyaC · 06 Feb 2011

Golden said:

Oh dear!

Qmass55 · 06 Feb 2011

Edit, I didn't read the whole nine pages at first and looking back i've repeated a bit! Do check flatness on your coolers mating surface, and you do have a D0 chip.

I dont understand what's going on with your system, I run mine, see my specs, at 3.5Ghz in a house heated to 20C and I dont idle at 50, I get 35-40max at a vcore of 1.6875, without fans at full speed! and 65 max at full load on prime95. Firstly no chips are equal, Secondly if your aftermarket cooler makes no difference you either have a defective one, it may need lapping (check for flatness), or you haven't fitted it properly. The case is the most overlooked factor in cooling, take your cover off, point a house fan at it and put it on high, if it makes a big difference under load, your case is no good. Does your cpu fan point at the case exahust? I personally am suspicious that your o/c settings are wrong if your oc temps are so high, your QPI voltage maybe too high? Maybe there right but at the risk of being impertinant heres some tips.
Here are my settings, they are not too far from the 920, and they will give a starting point, However they are for a D0 chip (late series), and it makes a difference if you have an early C type. I'm on a 21 multiplier, but you may require the 19 with the 920 and the applicable block. Keep your target ram frequency below it's rating, stability will be aquired at lower voltage and it will make no noticable difference to your performance. I have 1866 Corsair Dominator running at 1600ish and I still rate 7.9 on the WEI for memmory.
Vcore, 1.16875, Dram 1.64 Qpi Dram 1.25625, CPU PLL 1.82, ICH 1.2 IOH1.18. C1 disabled, and that other power saving thing whose name escapes me at the moment turned off too (for stability). I'm no expert but the key is to keep all voltages as low as possible and achieve stability, all changes should be small. If all this fails or is not applicable you can disable Hyperthreading if you are using it for gaming because most don't use it and it may even be detrimental, depending on which forum you believe! and this will drop your temps by up to 10C under max load.
Good luck
P.s aim for 3.5Ghz at first, gains are in my experience, exponetially difficult and you get to a point where it's not worth it. I can get mine to go 4.1 on air but why run at about 80 max temp at load for no noticable gain, even if intel say it's an okay stock temp? 4.1Ghz raises my WEI to 7.7 from 7.6 at 3.5Ghz so why stress it? BSOD Error code 124 increase or if it's too high already, perhaps decrease QPI, BSOD 101 increase vcore, 1 increment at a time.

Dave76 · 06 Feb 2011

Sorry to hear that Tanya, you've got a tough one to solve.

TanyaC · 06 Feb 2011

Qmass55 said:

Edit, I didn't read the whole nine pages at first and looking back i've repeated a bit! Do check flatness on your coolers mating surface, and you do have a D0 chip.

...

Here are my settings, they are not too far from the 920, and they will give a starting point, However they are for a D0 chip (late series), and it makes a difference if you have an early C type. I'm on a 21 multiplier, but you may require the 19 with the 920 and the applicable block. Keep your target ram frequency below it's rating, stability will be aquired at lower voltage and it will make no noticable difference to your performance. I have 1866 Corsair Dominator running at 1600ish and I still rate 7.9 on the WEI for memmory.
Vcore, 1.16875, Dram 1.64 Qpi Dram 1.25625, CPU PLL 1.82, ICH 1.2 IOH1.18. C1 disabled, and that other power saving thing whose name escapes me at the moment turned off too (for stability). I'm no expert but the key is to keep all voltages as low as possible and achieve stability, all changes should be small. If all this fails or is not applicable you can disable Hyperthreading if you are using it for gaming because most don't use it and it may even be detrimental, depending on which forum you believe! and this will drop your temps by up to 10C under max load.
Good luck
P.s aim for 3.5Ghz at first, gains are in my experience, exponetially difficult and you get to a point where it's not worth it. I can get mine to go 4.1 on air but why run at about 80 max temp at load for no noticable gain, even if intel say it's an okay stock temp? 4.1Ghz raises my WEI to 7.7 from 7.6 at 3.5Ghz so why stress it? BSOD Error code 124 increase or if it's too high already, perhaps decrease QPI, BSOD 101 increase vcore, 1 increment at a time.

lapping - I put a straight edge across the CPU and the heatsink diagonally corner to corner then north to south then east to west, and it looks pretty good to me, at least to the maked eye. Not that that means much. I haven't been able to find anyone local that laps HS's

My settings are all back to stock, save a few which have been underclocked to lower the temp. VCore is 1.1000, Hyperthreading is turned off, and power save are all on to reduce power consumption, and memory is running at 1333 instead of 1600. Multiplier is at default of 20x133.

Qmass55 · 06 Feb 2011

Hi, if you can put a true staight edge on it and slip a thin piece or paper between, it's bent, a cigarette paper is 2 thousands of an inch but a bit thicker is acceptable, I think (automotive feeler gauges would let you measure it perfectly). Your temps on your most recent set up aren't that bad, 15 degrees over ambient. Don't forget humidity affects heat transfer too, I dont know quite how, it's not an issue here and may not be an issue there?. My thoughts were generally about your oc results, they were much higher than I'd expect even given your stock settings temps, which now seem bearable if not ideal for heavy oc'ing. Try Oc'ing again with my settings and see. Dont bother turning off H/T if you are not OC'ing. Cheers

Qmass55 · 06 Feb 2011

ps. for some reason I don't really understand the general consensus seems to be that odd numbers work better as a block multiplier for 920/30's potentially giving you greater stability at lower voltages, hence the 19x suggestion.

Layback Bear · 20 Mar 2011

You have tried so many things, I would go back to basics without spending a lot more money. A good tower. I installed cardboard sides on my tower for the purpose of making vents, moving fans around and testing temps. When I got the best temps and air flow I used the temp-lets for cutting the tower side panels for extra fans and vents. Remove you tower from and enclosure. Try to remove what ever you can that slows incoming and out going air flow. brackets, grills, ect. You have already went through all the cpu cooler and quality fans, so I will leave that dog lie. You probably have enough parts left over for another tower. Cable routing is very important for air flow. I direct out side air directly on my cpu cooler but that only works good if your exhaust fans can get the hot air out of the tower. Because your room temp are so high here is another trick. If you have a basement or a crawl space use the cooler air from those places. My basement air is normally 20 deg.f. lower that my room temp. A car blower motor (used) with a voltage converter, (used) 110 vac to 12 vdc. or a a/c 110 vac fan and duct work, dryer exhaust duct works for most people. Use a filter on the incoming air. Where I live summer temp get to 33deg.c I chose the fan and converter and switches, resistors because it's cheaper to run and they were donated to me by my place of employment. What ever method you can get free cooler air in you tower is a plus and no I not crazy. My employer thinks I am. That's why they donated to me. There is a reason for this long story. No mater how much you cool each component in a computer tower you get poor results unless you circulate cooler air through the computer tower.