PC Fan/Heat Dissipation Issues

[Greatguardian]

Hiya BG. So, I rebuilt the majority of my computer this week. I picked up a Core i7-930, a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R motherboard, and 6GB DDR3 RAM. Totally didn't click that the case I already owned and planned to just shoop everything into was a Mid-Tower while the board was a full ATX. So, I just popped everything into an ancient Hewlett-Packard case from the early 90's. Thing was shit, had no ventilation, and I was getting CPU temps upwards of 45C idle and up to 70C load.

That was bad, so I ordered a new case off of newegg and a tube of Arctic Silver 5. Now, I have that all set up, but I'm still having heat issues and do not really know why...

First off, total system specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7 930 2.8Ghz (I can't OC without overheating it)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0
RAM: 6GB Triple Channel DDR3 1600 G.Skill F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ
PSU: XTreme Power Plus 550W
GPU: ATI Radeon HD5750
HDD: WDC WD2000JS-60NCB1 SATA 200GB
DVDRW: TSST Corp CD/DVDW TS-H652L SCSI
OS: Windows 7 Professional x64
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811166004
Monitor: LG W1953T
Using a Logitech G15r2 (orange one), Logitech Dual Action USB gamepad, and a random Microsoft wireless mouse and some $10 speakers I found at Fry's if it matters at all (power consumption).

Current CPU temps with only firefox and skype open:
43C/46C/41C/45C

I made sure all of the p4 pins are connected to each of the 4 Case fans, but they don't seem to want to turn on.... The back fan turned on, and after a while one of the two side fans, but I do not like having my temperatures sitting at 45C+ and can't get them all to turn on.

I hear a lot about people getting a 4.0 Ghz overclock and still having significantly lower temperatures with their i7's, even on stock cooling (which I have). I noticed when I took off the CPU fan to put on the Arctic Silver 5, that there was some stock thermal paste on there. I just sorta ignored it and put a bit of the AS5 on top of it. Thinking back, would it have been better to have scraped off all the old paste before putting on the new stuff? I'm thinking along the lines of conductivity and such. I have plenty of AS5 left over so if I need to go back and do that I can, but I still don't know what's up with my fans...

I also tried going to BG's list of free apps and utilities, and downloaded and ran SpeedFan. It tells me that I'm getting 0RPM on a ton of my fans, but I'm not sure how to get it to manually increase their speed / turn them on. Gigabyte's "Easytune 6" tweak software doesn't seem to help much either. It's not as if any of the fans are connected to the motherboard in any way so I'm not sure what it matters. They are all connected directly to the power supply.

If it is relevant, I am able to spin the fans with my fingers so it's not like anything's obstructing them... so confused.

Thanks

[Tythera]

Those temperatures do seem a little high. I would definitely suggest cleaning off any old paste and then applying only the ever so slight amount of AS5 you actually need on the processor.

As far as the fans go, how do you have them powered? If they're going into motherboard headers it seems like you should be able to control them. On the other hand, if you have them plugged into molex connectors you're not going to have any control over them at all.

[Celeras]

I noticed when I took off the CPU fan to put on the Arctic Silver 5, that there was some stock thermal paste on there. I just sorta ignored it and put a bit of the AS5 on top of it.

Problem found. You should have no more than a pea-sized drop of AS5 on there. Clean to processor to a fine shine, then do it again.

As for the fans, how they're set up is usually a case-by-case(pun) basis. Usually, you only need 1 fan hooked up to a 4pin on the power supply, and just connect all the fans to eachother. Cyclical with two open ends, one side being the PSU and the other being an open 4p from the last fan. Can't say for sure without knowing how its set up. And you can't control fans with speedfan unless they're hooked up the motherboard somehow.

[Greatguardian]

Yeah, I feel really stupid. I had what Jimmy Neutron would call a brain blast and opened up the case to realize that I had connected two of the fans to the LED in the front instead of to an actual power supply... damn thing had a male connector coming off of it. I feel like an idiot. Fans work now (were all molex btw).

I'm gonna shut it down and scrape off all the paste then. It's okay to use tools on this stuff, right? Like, I'm not going to file into the processor and fuck it up? <_<

[Tythera]

I'd use something like a razor blade to scrape off the paste. I'm going to go out on a limb and say a file would be a bad choice for that.

[Greatguardian]

Bah. Still idling at 45C. I do not understand it at all. Am I just never gonna hit below that? I'd go for third party cooling but I'm plain broke after all the other crap I bought. Given all I've heard I figured the i7-930 would be fine with stock cooling anyways.

[Tythera]

I sit at 42C idle with a i7 920 @ 3.6 GHz, but I also have a Noctua NH-U12P. It seems odd that you'd be that high without overclocking at all. What's the system temp in speedfan?

[Greatguardian]

Weird.. SpeedFan says:

Temp1: 43C
Temp2: 40C
Temp3: 46C
Temp: -128C
HD0: 32C
Core0: 28C
Core1: 28C
Core2: 27C
Core3: 27C

But when I run CPUID HWMonitor (What I normally check temps with), it says:

Intel i7 930
Core #0 43C
Core #1 44C
Core #2 46C
Core #3 44C

Is that just reading the diodes rather than actual processor temp? If so I may have to just use Speedfan from now on instead of HWMonitor.

[Cephius]

Couple things.

Where do you live? Remember you have to adjust temperatures based on your ambient temperture.. it is summer so if you live in a warm place without AC it could explain why yours are higher.

Speedfan isn't the greatest app to measure temperatures. It typically under-reports the actual temps and the fan speeds aren't really accurate. Rivatuner fan control is better suited to GPU temperatures as I recall.

And really, the stock cooler is crap, don't listen to reviews on Newegg or wherever, when people routinely lie about the temperatures and speeds they're getting out of their machines. I'd strongly recommend getting a better heatsink.

EDIT: Hwmonitor is more reliable, use that. Like I said above (before I saw your post) speedfan typically reports temperatures as much cooler than they really are.

[Greatguardian]

I'm down in Texas, but the AC here is pretty great and I have my ceiling fan going all the time so it's pretty cool in here. I guess I'll have to grab a better heatsink the next time I get some spare cash. For the meantime I'm not going to cause any long term damage by letting the system get up to 65C-70C under load, am I? For the record, my GPU and HDD temps rarely get anywhere near as high so any heat damage would be localized at the CPU.

Thanks a bunch, by the way

[Crowort]

No 70c is not going to do any damage, the chips are designed to run safely even higher than that. The official max safe temp from Intel is 100c. People (and I include myself in this) are overly worried about it. I'd say under 80c is about the max I'd be 'happy' with under load.

The only real problem is you can't get overclocking your chip because of it.

I'm sure when you get the cash for a 3rd party heatsink you'll be fine.

[Cephius]

I worry about those types of cases too. If your airflow doesn't let you displace heat quickly enough, the type of heatsink you have is irrelevant since the air isn't cooling the coils. I like cases with front-side intake and back/side outtake. Regardless, it helps to have a heatsink that blows air away from the processor and not down on it like the stock 930.

[Celeras]

Did some homework for you:

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/...k-cooling.html
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1522680

You can't really ask for much better on stock cooling, and it was better to have your thermal compound applied correctly regardless.. so it's still a good thing that you fixed it. Will most definitely effect load temps over the gunk~

[Pikarya]

Isopropyl Alcohol 70% to clean the heatsink base, and CPU heat-spreader with lint-free cotton balls

Once cleaned fully, let it dry. Apply a pea sized amount in the middle (don't spread, its been tested over and over the "spreading" or "PB&J" method causes air pockets in the paste once sealed with the heatsink.

Also apply a small amount of pressure to the heatsink downwards onto the processor when finalizing the seating for mounting. Especially with Arctic Silver 5, give it about a month to break in before seeing marginal drop in average temps.

Other than that you should be good.

Not going to state the obvious, but what is the intake/exhaust fan setup on your PC.?

[Dainslaif]

If you wanted to go a little overboard (like I did) you could throw a fan on your computer door right on top of where the CPU heatsink sits. That way the colder outside air is going directly onto the CPU before it passes over the rest of your components.

[Visc]

Set the Shutdown temp to 85 celsius in the BIOS/CMOS configuration. If you're paranoid, do 80 C. The CPU can still burn hotter than that but it's probable that issues will crop up years down the road if you intend to keep the system for a long time. If it's running 70 C while loaded on a modern CPU, don't worry about it. Simply follow arctic silver's instructions for the proper thermal application method, they were right there on the site the last time i checked. Also, if you're re-applying the thermals, only use iso-alcohol if you don't have their step 1 and 2 cleaners. The step 1 (citrus) and step 2 (alcohol) gets into the micro pores way better than simple rubbing alcohol. Every time I've used the step cleaners from arctic silver, it takes at least 15 C's off the temp. Lastly, just use common sense with the case fan mounting. hot air rises, cool air sinks. Not difficult to figure it out.

Lastly, there shouldn't be any real reason to use Speedfan and I'm not sure if they even still update the software to accommodate all the new motherboards. It was traditionally used 4+ years ago to slow down screaming systems that ran the sensor controlled fans at 100% by default.

[Pikarya]

If you wanted to go a little overboard (like I did) you could throw a fan on your computer door right on top of where the CPU heatsink sits. That way the colder outside air is going directly onto the CPU before it passes over the rest of your components.

http://www.everyjoe.com/thegadgetblo...-pc-case-1.jpg

Ghetto-powers initiate!

[Dainslaif]

http://www.everyjoe.com/thegadgetblo...-pc-case-1.jpg

Ghetto-powers initiate!

That actually works hilariously well, but I was talking more like this.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/IMG_0499.jpg

[Omniyoji]

Just go for the case fan case!

http://www.2dayblog.com/images/2007/...r/fan_pc_2.jpghttp://www.2dayblog.com/images/2007/...r/fan_pc_2.jpg
http://www.2dayblog.com/images/2007/...r/fan_pc_3.jpghttp://www.2dayblog.com/images/2007/...r/fan_pc_4.jpg

[Pikarya]

Yo bro, you got a spare fan laying around?