Please review these just-performed i7 930 4Ghz OC @1.271v (Pics Posted)

Hello friends,

Just built my first custom rig, includes i7 930, Asus rampage ii MB, 6GB 1600Mhz Corsair Tri channel RAM, with newly-installed Corsair H50 water cooling system, and HAF922 case.

I've utilized the push/pull technique by purchasing an extra 120mm fan to maximize airflow.

Trying to reach optimal OC but my temps seem to be a bit high...Here's a shot of my last Linx 7 min. run: (4Ghz @ 1.27v, 191 x 21 multi)



Now I realize these temps are considered to be quite high; especially considering the H50 hard at work. I've done a lot of online research and apparently this chip gets extremely variable results. Some tests I've seen haven't passed 60-70C max temp, others are in line with mine.

Considering this is my real first OC experience, I'd like a guru here to give some insight as to whether this is completely downright unacceptable, or, if I happen to have a hot-running chip, whatever the reason, looks pretty within range but still a bit on the high side.

As far as trouble shooting goes, I've tried reseating the pump at least 5 times now to the point my fingers are sore from turning the screwdriver. Using Arctic thermal paste, which I cleaned thoroughly and re-applied with the greatest of care each time. I've optimized my BIOS settings to provide maximum (90%) constant power to each and every utilized fan. I have a total of 7 fans in the system itself, all thermo-dynamically positioned to allow for optimal heat exhaustion. However, case fans have don't have much effect on CPU core temps, as everyone knows. I've ran 3dmark06 several times and each time has been a stable run, one screen shot here:



System idle temp seems to hover around the mid-to-high 40's. I know for some that is ghastly but overall the system seems to perform quite well.

I've run several tests with the case open. During the peak of each test I made sure to feel the tubes, which were hot, and also feel the pump itself, which was vibrating slightly and warm, inidicating that the pump is operative. I've even by-passed my motherboard 3-pin fan for the pump and connected it directly to my corsair HX850 PSU via molex adapater.

Bottom line is, I need to know if I should return this H50 to compusa and either a) get a replacement one, to see if mine is defective (a scenario which I doubt) or b) look for an air-cooled alternative.

As I said before, I've done much research online regarding others results with the H50 with the same chip, and I'm getting a lot of different information and numbers that range from 30-40 idle/60-70 Max load, to 40-50 idle/80-90 max load = acceptable values. One guy was freaking out because his idle temps were 38C LOL, I thought, "Man, if he thinks THATS high he'd go insane if he saw mine! ) I just don't know what to think at this point.

I'd greatly appreciate any feedback on this issue as, to put it frankly, it's driving me nuts!

EDIT: Also, please keep in mind, I'm not looking to run any 24 hour torture test on my comp to see if it blows up or not, I use my comp mainly for gaming, word processing, and internet browsing. As long as I have a stable platform to work from and I'm not significantly shortening the lifespan of my CPU, it's really negligible to me if I can hit 50C with a 5GHz OC on LinX for 72 hours... Id just like to know if I got what I paid for and/or if it is functioning properly. Thanks.

Got a batch number on your 930? Your temps look high, but not out of line with a lemon...that said, the h50 really isn't that great. The one thing I notice right off the bat is the disparity in core temps, you're at 6c at idles, makes me wonder if it's a bad mount. Have you tried remounting it? What TIM did you use? I'll let some other people more familiar with these pre-built doo-dads weigh in, but I think you'll see more response in the main board, since this is more about custom loops and the h50 really performs more like an air cooler.

The H50 is ok, and at like 3.6-3.8 it should keep you in the low to mid 80s probably, however, how many volts are you throwing into the cpu.. i'd also try to re-seat the heatsink on the cpu.

If you followed any of those oddball set your vcore to 1.35 and start overclocking that'd be where your getting alot of heat.. also Turboboost creates approximately 6-8degrees itself being turned on (if you don't run a ton of single core apps.. disable it!

for a D0 you should be able to get like a 3.8 around 1.25-1.28v w/HT on and turbo off and with the h50 it should be sitting in the mid-low 80s if not high 70s

I appreciate the responses, guys...

@psionic98: Volts are pretty much as low as possible for a 4Ghz OC, 1.27. In regards to the disparity, should they all be the same value? I always thought core0 was just, since the "primary" so to speak, would always run the hottest?
As for the turbo, I've always read to keep it on. I guess I'll give it a go with it off to see if temps change.

As for the batch #, it is BATCH#: 3002B000

Any negative info about that batch #? I couldnt really find anything, but perhaps others know better...

As for the mounting issue, yes, I have attempted several re-seats. About 4 or 5. I've installed it perfectly, without a doubt. Thermal paste I got (most expensive one they got) at compUSA is from company called ULTRA, and it's applied with a small brush in a thin layer over the entire surface of CPU, the heatsink was wiped clean. The guy at compusa said this one was just like Arctic Silver, with a different brand name. I also have Cooler Master thermal paste.

Obersturmfuhrer said:

I appreciate the responses, guys...

@psionic98: Volts are pretty much as low as possible for a 4Ghz OC, 1.27. In regards to the disparity, should they all be the same value? I always thought core0 was just, since the "primary" so to speak, would always run the hottest?
As for the turbo, I've always read to keep it on. I guess I'll give it a go with it off to see if temps change.

As for the batch #, it is BATCH#: 3002B000

Any negative info about that batch #? I couldnt really find anything, but perhaps others know better...

As for the mounting issue, yes, I have attempted several re-seats. About 4 or 5. I've installed it perfectly, without a doubt. Thermal paste I got (most expensive one they got) at compUSA is from company called ULTRA, and it's applied with a small brush in a thin layer over the entire surface of CPU, the heatsink was wiped clean. The guy at compusa said this one was just like Arctic Silver, with a different brand name. I also have Cooler Master thermal paste.

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h50 is not really proper watercooling
even with a good setup, you'd see temps above 65c all day long

e6600 said:

h50 is not really proper watercooling
even with a good setup, you'd see temps above 65c all day long

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Understood, however it should perform significantly better than stock fan.

When you say seeing temps above 65 all day long, are you referring to load or idle? Or either lol?

Right now, just idling, my temp is 46C. (with 4GHz OC @ 1.27v)

I will attempt to try to turn off turbo and maybe even perhaps HT to see if temps reduce. Biggest issue is just to know if whether or not I need to return my H50 and either get another one or b) get a whole different setup, possibly air.

Obersturmfuhrer said:

Understood, however it should perform significantly better than stock fan.

When you say seeing temps above 65 all day long, are you referring to load or idle? Or either lol?

Right now, just idling, my temp is 46C. (with 4GHz OC @ 1.27v)

I will attempt to try to turn off turbo and maybe even perhaps HT to see if temps reduce. Biggest issue is just to know if whether or not I need to return my H50 and either get another one or b) get a whole different setup, possibly air.

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load
i dont know i7 that well, but i know that high end water setups with 4.1/4.2 ocs sit at 70-75c full load 4c/8t i7s

turbo should be off by default anyways, since your ocing
and you will see a big drop in temps when you disable HT. HT is a huge heat dump, but its well worth it if you need those extra cores

and IMO keep the h50 rather than going air, or go h70
air wont be that much better than the h50, unless you feel like listening to push/pull 38mm fans at 2k all day long

e6600 said:

load
i dont know i7 that well, but i know that high end water setups with 4.1/4.2 ocs sit at 70-75c full load 4c/8t i7s

turbo should be off by default anyways, since your ocing
and you will see a big drop in temps when you disable HT. HT is a huge heat dump, but its well worth it if you need those extra cores

and IMO keep the h50 rather than going air, or go h70
air wont be that much better than the h50, unless you feel like listening to push/pull 38mm fans at 2k all day long

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Thanks for advice... Will disabling HT be a significant/noticable performance hit to high-resource games?

Just tried turning turbo off, had no effect on temps, still idling at same... Will turn off HT and see what happens. I think voltages have the biggest part in CPU temp in my case... Anyone know what the absolute lowest v setting I can set and still hit a 24/7 4Ghz? Currently at a stable 1.27v.

Lastly, do you think keeping comp like this with temps in high 40's on idle will have any long-term or short-term permanent damaging effects? Definitely don't want that.. wouldn't mind scaling back down to 3.8Ghz and reducing vcore a bit...

here's a quick shot of my system with realtemp, CPU-Z, and SpeedFan I took a sec ago.. Is it normal to have such a large disparity of degrees between cores??

Obersturmfuhrer said:

Thanks for advice... Will disabling HT be a significant/noticable performance hit to high-resource games?

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it really depends on if it has multithreading support, but generally, no.

Obersturmfuhrer said:

Just tried turning turbo off, had no effect on temps, still idling at same... Will turn off HT and see what happens. I think voltages have the biggest part in CPU temp in my case... Anyone know what the absolute lowest v setting I can set and still hit a 24/7 4Ghz? Currently at a stable 1.27v.

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I've seen them as low as ~1v, but those are extreme cases, you can't say, even within batches, what voltage will work for what particular cpu, it's not a cookie-cutter thing, it's a chip by chip thing.

Obersturmfuhrer said:

Lastly, do you think keeping comp like this with temps in high 40's on idle will have any long-term or short-term permanent damaging effects? Definitely don't want that.. wouldn't mind scaling back down to 3.8Ghz and reducing vcore a bit...

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40 shouldn't hurt it, depending no how long you load it and how often you replace your system 90's may.

Obersturmfuhrer said:

here's a quick shot of my system with realtemp, CPU-Z, and SpeedFan I took a sec ago.. Is it normal to have such a large disparity of degrees between cores??

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not typically, have you tried reapplying thermal paste like I said? You can get a preliminary test of if this will help (and note this isn't fully accurate, if you didn't use enough TIM then you won't really see much difference) by pushing down on the top of the h50's block (so that you push it towards the cpu and increase the mounting pressure), while you do this, have a temp chart of all your cores open in speedfan, if you see it drop on most/all cores, you need to remount or you need to washermod for greater mounting pressure (one or the other typically, rarely both. I've seen temp drops as low as 20c@idle from just a bad mount (that was on my own machine and due to a bad pushpin on a cooler I was using as a stand-in)

I'm going to have to go with a bad mount on the cpu, too. The disparity in the core temps kind of points at this. Your voltage is pretty low, you should consider yourself lucky to be stable at that overclock with such a low voltage.

Ugh... Ok, well here we go again with a re-seat... The only thermal compund stuff I could immediately get my hands on is from a brand called Ultra, typically sold at CompUSA, a retail chain of computer supply stores in the US. Can be seen here Apparently, it's supposed to be the equivalent to Arctic Silver. Its in a small bottle with a nail-polish type applicator. I was instructed to put a THIN layer of the stuff over the entire CPU block (none on the heatsink) and mount.

I also have Cooler Master PTX TIM, but I won't be using that bc I've read bad reviews.

Also tighten screws in criss-cross order for even pressure distribution... Am I missing anything?


EDIT: You know, to be completely honest & after thinking it over a bit, I might just leave everything the way it is. Everything seems to be stable at 46C idle, with 4Ghz OC @ 1.2v... No BSOD's, no freezing, no errors, nothing.. Been gaming for a few hours today and everything running fine, monitoring temps after each game and the occasional CPU spike of 69-70C might hit once in a while, but for the most part it just hovers around 40-60. As everyone knows gfx cards take most the beating during gaming, not CPU... If I notice any errors or oddities down the road then I might consider remounting, etc, but at this point I just kinda feel like "if It aint broke dont fix it" sort of mentality. My goal really isn't to run Prime95 for 72 hours right up to the point my computer spontaneously combusts.

Just think, in 3-4 years Core 0 will fizzle out while the others are going strong! And since there's a 6C disparity between them all, I know I have 6 years before my last core will die... Long live core3! =)

As long as you're happy with the way it runs, just leave it. You're never going to push all the cores to 100% unless you run prime or something similar. For everyday use it should be good to go. I was just offering a way to maybe get the temps better. Probably not worth the hassle.

Twigbutt said:

As long as you're happy with the way it runs, just leave it. You're never going to push all the cores to 100% unless you run prime or something similar. For everyday use it should be good to go. I was just offering a way to maybe get the temps better. Probably not worth the hassle.

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Yeah, I know u were trying to help Twigbutt and I appreciate it... funny name BTW. Is that a pic of u in ur avvy, are u in a heli? wicked pic dude. btw, how does one change their avatar pic? I clicked on my name on the top of the screen but there's no option to change/upload picture anywhere...? EDIT: never mind I found it. <feeling stupid right now>

Obersturmfuhrer said:

Yeah, I know u were trying to help Twigbutt and I appreciate it... funny name BTW. Is that a pic of u in ur avvy, are u in a heli? wicked pic dude. btw, how does one change their avatar pic? I clicked on my name on the top of the screen but there's no option to change/upload picture anywhere...?

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Not aviation (I wish). Just a pic of me as a truck commander on an MRAP while I was in Iraq (we use headsets, too).

To change your avatar use the user cp tab at the top of the forum. All the edits are in there.

Actually, Im just noticing after about an hour or so usage (web browsing/folder usage only) core0 temp is idling around high-40's, stabilizing around 49 or 50 occasionally, then dropping back down to 49.. At 46 I was willing to deal with it, now nearing 50 I think this might warrant a re-mount, what do you guys think? Looking at it right now, my core0 reads 48C and core3 is 41C, a whole 7C disparity!!

order some good thermal paste and do a remount. I've heard of h50's being defective, so don't think that this is a guaranteed fix. If you post pics of the bottom of the block/top of the ihs right after you pull off thee block we can tell you if you've got good contact or not more often that not.

m0r7if3r said:

order some good thermal paste and do a remount. I've heard of h50's being defective, so don't think that this is a guaranteed fix. If you post pics of the bottom of the block/top of the ihs right after you pull off thee block we can tell you if you've got good contact or not more often that not.

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Ok, will do. But I think I already purchased some good thermal paste, I posted a link to it a couple of posts above, it's supposed to be the equivalent to Arctic Silver. I'll take a pic of what you want, just hope I Can get up close enough to make everything you'll need to see visible..

Also, if I wanted to, I could go straight away today and return the H50 to CompUSA... While its Sunday (my day off) I'd like to take care of this stuff today if I can. They'll give me a replacement in a snap, or my $$ back, either or.. I might try another one actually.. I dont know yet, the thing is a real PITA, espeically since I've configured it with the push/pull fan config on the Radiator... So theoretically Im supposed to be seeing BETTER than average results, due to the push/pull config.. Imagine if I didnt even have that? lol I'd probably be idliling in the mid 70's hahaha... and yes, I've checked the airflow direction of both fans, and they are at constant max RPM. Had to use custom screws that didn't "exactly" fit perfectly in the mounting holes so it's a tight fit.. the screws are gonna be hell to take out if I do indeed intend to return this shyt today... ugh, i dread the thought.

Obersturmfuhrer said:

Ok, will do. But I think I already purchased some good thermal paste, I posted a link to it a couple of posts above, it's supposed to be the equivalent to Arctic Silver. I'll take a pic of what you want, just hope I Can get up close enough to make everything you'll need to see visible..

Also, if I wanted to, I could go straight away today and return the H50 to CompUSA... While its Sunday (my day off) I'd like to take care of this stuff today if I can. They'll give me a replacement in a snap, or my $$ back, either or.. I might try another one actually.. I dont know yet, the thing is a real PITA, espeically since I've configured it with the push/pull fan config on the Radiator... So theoretically Im supposed to be seeing BETTER than average results, due to the push/pull config.. Imagine if I didnt even have that? lol I'd probably be idliling in the mid 70's hahaha... and yes, I've checked the airflow direction of both fans, and they are at constant max RPM. Had to use custom screws that didn't "exactly" fit perfectly in the mounting holes so it's a tight fit.. the screws are gonna be hell to take out if I do indeed intend to return this shyt today... ugh, i dread the thought.

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what about different paste?
everyones going to say theirs is better than as5, since its the tim benchmark

mx-2/3, shin etsu, ocz freeze, icd7 are all good pastes that have been proven to outperform as5

e6600 said:

what about different paste?
everyones going to say theirs is better than as5, since its the tim benchmark

mx-2/3, shin etsu, ocz freeze, icd7 are all good pastes that have been proven to outperform as5

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I could look into it but do you really think thermal compound could really make up for 10-15C at idle?? Im starting to think more and more it has to do with an improper mount, or should I say, not PERFECT mound... I still haven't tried removing the heatsink, taking a pic of what it looks like (on the base) and posting it.. For instance, right now core1 is idling at 50C, while core 3 is at 43, and this is 1.5 hours of continuous Mafia play... In other words, when I resume my comp from sleep mode the same disparity exists, only in lower numerical values, Ie: core1 46, core3 39..

I tried taking side panel off of the case and putting pressure on various areas around the heatsink pump of the H50 while monitoring RealTemp, however I didnt notice any change whatsoever, temps remained the same on all cores.. The thing is in-place, and tight as hell on the block of the CPU.. So, Ill give a re-mount another shot but other than that I might just live with the temps, they seem to be running pretty stable with specs at 4.01GHz, 191 BCLK, x21 Multi @ 1.27v. RAM speed is at 1553, just shy of factory speed of 1600MHz, something I suppose Ill just have to live with.

Id like to learn more about OCing my RAM just a tad, every time I attempt it I get frozen boot or invalid config error. All I am doing is increasing the QPI/DRAM volts to ~1.3, and increasing speeds to the next level up, which is around 1700 or so, and nothing seems to be working. Only way I can get RAM at 1600 is if I do a x20 Multi w/ BCLK 200, but with those specs I have to increase the voltage up from a reasonable 1.2 to nearly 1.3-4v, which increases CPU temps, something im already having an issue with and Im looking to lOWER my core temps, not the opposite.

Thanks for the help...

m0r7if3r said:

order some good thermal paste and do a remount. I've heard of h50's being defective, so don't think that this is a guaranteed fix. If you post pics of the bottom of the block/top of the ihs right after you pull off thee block we can tell you if you've got good contact or not more often that not.

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Okay, just remounted it 3 times, first time the temps were nearly 10C worse than I started with, the 2nd time they improved a bit, and 3rd time they are 2-3C higher than before I 1st remount... Anyway, here are the pics right after removing heat sink, & cPU block, after cleaning both, then after re-mounting.

I noticed that after I applied new paste to the cpu I placed the sink right on top of it, put some pressure on it, then lifted it up, and only dabs in different areas were located on the heat sink copper plate, leading me to believe its most definitely gonna be a biatch to do a good mount.. I played with it a bit, after the 3rd attempt I got fed up with it and just left it after I saw it made somewhat of a decent adhesion footprint.. anyway idle temps are now up to 48-50, whereas before I removed it they were 43C after a SLEEP resume and 45-46 during idle/desktop usage... So at this point im bascially going crazy.. Anyway here are pics... (Chronologically they are backwards; start viewing from bottom most to see progression.. last pics are of 1st finished remount attempt... For some reason theres some real un-even areas on this CPU block or sink copper plate or BOTH.. I dunno.. I might try mounting it upside down or something... What can U guys gather from these pics? Thanks !!!!