360mm AIO high temps i7 7700k

I made another thread at Tomshardware: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3377520/7700k-temp-problems.html#19513701
If you bother please read the conversation between me and Makentox, a few potential problems got ruled out.

Here is a copy paste of my post:

So I have an i7 7700k overclocked to 5Ghz at 1.36V and a thermaltake water 3.0 ultimate which uses a 360mm rad and I push-pull.

Okay so idle temps are around 33 degrees celsius idle when I first launch windows but after hours of gaming the idle temp is at 37 degrees (completely normal I guess?).

But here is the thing. Running aida64 my cpu package reaches a temperature of 93 degrees within one minute. I once ran aida64 for an hour and when I came back it appeared that the cpu had thermal throttled at some point... Intel burn test and prime95 28.5+ small fft test runs 100+ degrees within a couple seconds and I shut it off. BF1 runs my cpu in a 70-85 degree range with cpu usage around 40-80% at 1440p. I have also been running Prime95 v26.6 and this person is using the same AIO cooler as me with 100Mhz higher frequency and 0.032V higher than me on the cpu and is getting around 20 degrees lower temperatures than me: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/728046-intel-i7-77... I am unsure if this person delidded or not though...

I have heard the 7700k runs hot, but, I have seen people with similar voltage, same overclock with h100i's, h110's, h115's, kraken x62 etc get temperatures that is far below mine. My aio cooler is supposed to perform better than all of these, and that's why I think there is something wrong with my temps.

The backplate is not loose except for one of the thumbnailscrews that can be pulled out maybe 0.5mm (I know it should sit 100% but can 0.5mm be causing my problems?...). I also screw the backplate and pump together with a screwdriver to the point where the screws don't turn anymore.

The pump is running full speed according to AI suite 3 and other monitoring programs, there is only a small buzzing sound coming from the pump that I only hear when I have my head close the case.

Here is what I have tried in order to fix the problem so far (all the temps I mention above is after I did all of this btw):
1. Replaced the stock TIM of the aio cooler with kryonaut: temps increased.
2. Reapplied kryonaut but with less TIM: temps is the same as with the stock TIM, maybe 1-2 degrees hotter than stock (WTF tho?...).
3. Replaced the fans that I have in "push" with faster ones and it made no noticeable difference.

Edit: I reapplied the thermalpaste once again. Ran aida64 for 1 minute 4 times, 3 times the temp reached 91 and 1 time it reached 92 while before it would reach 93 within one minute (could be within margin of error here). I also tried running aida64 with a pull config only and that showed 93 degrees the second I turned on the test. Also forgot to mention that in aida64 my temps is hovering around 68-78 degrees but sometimes spikes up to 85+ and once in a while 91+.

Any type of suggestion would be highly appreciated, thank you

When you are gaming, what are you recording temps with? When you are done gaming and look at the temps are you sure you have captured the peak temp or are you just looking at the current temp? The cores cool down very quickly when you take the load off.

You should summarize the conversation between yourself and the guy on the other forum instead of expecting people to read all of it.

I look at my temps while playing and use HWinfo, I also tried HWmonitor and realtemp and they all show identical temps. The max temps is usually reached during loading screens except for battlefield 1. I use a 1440p monitor and that causes my cpu usage to be a bit lower than if I would game on 1080p. While playing bf1 I have temps around 70-85 (cpu usage 40-80%) while playing and max maybe 87 degrees? Something like that. While playing other less cpu demanding games I get 60-70 degrees (30-40% cpu usage). Even launching google chrome can cause my cpu to jump up to 80 degrees for a split second so I tend to not look much at max temps other than when I am stresstesting.

delid the chip.

R_Pierce said:

delid the chip.

Click to expand...

Yeah I plan to but the only store that sell delid kits in Sweden does not have them in stock yet.

Yes, with the more detailed description of the chip's behavior under various loads it does seem to me the behavior is consistent with poor heat transfer between the die and the IHS. Delidding should help that tremendously but make sure you use Liquid Ultra under the lid instead of some conventional thermal paste so as to get the full benefit of delidding.

trents said:

Yes, with the more detailed description of the chip's behavior under various loads it does seem to me the behavior is consistent with poor heat transfer between the die and the IHS. Delidding should help that tremendously but make sure you use Liquid Ultra under the lid instead of some conventional thermal paste so as to get the full benefit of delidding.

Click to expand...

Yeah I was planning to delid when I first got the chip so I researched the whole idea of delidding. But I decided to try and replace the thermal paste between IHS and heatsink but that didn't help a thing. I will have to wait maybe two weeks or so for the delid kit to arrive.

CreamyBeast said:

Yeah I was planning to delid when I first got the chip so I researched the whole idea of delidding. But I decided to try and replace the thermal paste between IHS and heatsink but that didn't help a thing. I will have to wait maybe two weeks or so for the delid kit to arrive.

Click to expand...

I dropped over 20*c under load after delid (during stress testing)

Yup... sounds like you are thermal limited here.

Just to check, the rad is mounted higher than the pump? A pic of the build would be nice as well.

I have similar results at similar voltage on 2x 360 rad. Waiting for delidding tool which delivery is delayed by ... 2 months. Actually more radiator capacity isn't helping in this case. On AIO 280 results are not much worse. So only delidding can help ( or you have any freezer ).

Soulcatcher668 said:

Yup... sounds like you are thermal limited here.

Just to check, the rad is mounted higher than the pump? A pic of the build would be nice as well.

Click to expand...

why does the rad need to be higher than the pump?

Possible erroneously, I was always under the impression that some part of the rad needed to be above the pump to avoid an air pocket that would causing cavitation.

Soulcatcher668 said:

Yup... sounds like you are thermal limited here.

Just to check, the rad is mounted higher than the pump? A pic of the build would be nice as well.

Click to expand...

I am not at home right now so I can't take a picture just yet. However the rad is above the pump, however the pump is rotated 90 degrees if that even makes any difference. I had to because my custom built case has such a high clearance between mobo and radiator that I have to rotate the pump 90 degrees for the tubes to be long enough. The tubes are not 100% stretched either, they still bend a bit.

Soulcatcher668 said:

Possible erroneously, I was always under the impression that some part of the rad needed to be above the pump to avoid an air pocket that would causing cavitation.

Click to expand...

maybe if your res isn't before the pump... but even then, can't say I've heard of that.

I guess every 7700k can't have the identical spread of TIM under the IHS from factory and that will probably cause temps to differ from chip to chip even at same clock speeds and voltages, but I am no expert at all. After some help and processing of information through my own brain I've come to the conclusion that my AIO is not bad, it's just that the TIM under the chip on my IHS is horrible. An uneven spread between IHS and die could possibly explain why core #0 is 6 degrees hotter during load than all of the rest cores even after remounting the AIO and reapplying thermalpaste several times. (I mean, if that core was cooler then my cpu temps would be 89 degrees max.. not 95).

Ofcourse any more suggestions would be appreciated if you people know about anything that could give me lower temperatures, meanwhile I will wait for my delid kit to arrive.
Thanks!

EarthDog said:

maybe if your res isn't before the pump... but even then, can't say I've heard of that.

Click to expand...

This is an AIO. The rad is the res.

6c temp spread between hottest and coolest cores is certainly not abnormal.

I also ordered the tool when doing my delid but it was going to take a few weeks so I ended up using a razor blade and cancelling my order.

I will say if you are savvy with a razor it was actually super easy.. took me maybe 20 minutes for the entire delid

Okay so this weird thing just happened. When I powered on my system today, my pump made these weird sounds a few times (almost as if it was squeezing water), and now my cpu hits a maximum of 89 degrees in aida64 after 2 minutes vs 93 degrees after 1 minute. So basically after my pump made these noises I now get a few degrees lower temp. I saw a similar result in Prime95 aswell.

Sounds like you may have air in the cooling system. Is it under warranty?