Q9450 + XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 still runs hotter than I'd like

At all stock settings (vcore of 1.200) with my Q9450 and Asus P5E mobo, my temps are in the 36-45 range at idle, depending how cool/hot it gets in the room over the course of the day. I used to have an Arctic Freezer Pro 7 but didn't think it was doing a good enough (temps were about 5 degrees higher than now) job so I upgraded to this Xigmatek thinking I'd get a much larger drop in temp than I did, considering I also replaced my rear exit fan with a Scythe Slipstream and added an 80mm fan to the front that blows directly to the Xigmatek.

It seems that I should really be running low 30's at idle without a problem based on other users' reports but I just can't seem to get there. Any idea what the problem could be?

Idle temps aren't really that important, what are your full load temps like?
Try pulling the side panel off your case and pointing a house fan in it... if that lowers your temps, you likely have inadequate case flow.

Prime95 torture test brings the temps to about 56 degrees max.

Quads do put out some heat, so those temps aren't too bad. They could be better. How is the airflow in your case?

I think it should be pretty good. In the upper part of the case I have an 80mm fan pulling air in through the front upper area blowing into the Xigmatek HSF which blows toward the 120mm Scythe Slipstream pulling air out the back.

At the bottom of the case I have another 80mm pulling air in but not much else really going on down there and my graphics card seems to put out a decent amount of hot air.

I just opened the case and pointed a house fan at it and two of the cores dropped to about 53 degrees from 56 while still running Prime95.

So, I dunno. I thought the Xigmatek was supposed to be amazing.

After running Prime95 for about 20 minutes and stopping it, the temps that were around 41 at idle are sitting around 44 now. It appears it's not so easy for them to get cooled back down to what they were before.

Anyway, do you think I have enough room to play with the vcore a bit as I want to at least bump the FSB to 400 so it can run 1:1 with my DDR2 800. Vcore at idle is 2.000 and drops to 1.168 under prime95 load.

Have you lapped the HDT cooler that should really help.
I found the base of the one I had needed some work.

FliGi7 said:

In the upper part of the case I have an 80mm fan pulling air in through the front upper area blowing into the Xigmatek HSF which blows toward the 120mm Scythe Slipstream pulling air out the back.

At the bottom of the case I have another 80mm pulling air in but not much else really going on down there and my graphics card seems to put out a decent amount of hot air.

I just opened the case and pointed a house fan at it and two of the cores dropped to about 53 degrees from 56 while still running Prime95.

So, I dunno. I thought the Xigmatek was supposed to be amazing.

Click to expand...

Which case do you have exactly? It sounds like you might be starving the coolers from fresh air. Air flow is key, and pointing a house fan might feed the air in, but it certainly does nothing to the routing of the air.

Post some pictures of your setup.

Bryan d

I agree, it seems like you need a top vent or top fan to help exhaust air, you seem to have more air being put in than taken out. This causes the hot air to sit in the case.

After following guides and experimenting with setups, I find that it's true what some others have said, paying attention to pressure is key. You ALWAYS want more exhaust fans than intake, and running passive intakes works wonders. Just placing vents in key places is enough to draw in cool air where you need it, and will run quieter too. And yes, don't read too much into what you see posted in forums, my experiences have varied greatly from what I see in sigs and such...too many variables and people posting their best case results.

Posting up pictures of my setup was the next step to really show what's going on here. I will do that tonight after work.

I would suggest buying the Xigmatek Crossbow mounting bolt thru kit, as well as buying a lapping kit from easypckits.com to lap your cpu and heatsink. Also when applying AS5 thermal compound (I prefer MX2) I use the tip of a mechanical pencil to apply a tiny line across each of the heatpipes. Less is more but you need to make sure the whole thing is covered or you will have bad temps.

The 1283 is pretty flat out of the box but it is easy to put too much paste on it.

Red arrows show the two 80mm fans pulling air into the case.




Red Arrow = 120mm Scythe Slipstream
Green Arrow = Xigmatek HSF
Blue-ish Arrow = 8600GTS with fan that blows hot air downward.




Red Arrows show direction of air flow through the top
Green Arrows show my hard drives.

Some cable management would likely help you out some. Is it possible to put larger fans in the intake positions?

Ha, I know. The cables are a mess. I know it would help some but I'm not sure that's really the main problem that I'm trying to address. It's not really possible to put any larger fan in the front bottom part. It might be possible to put my old 120mm rear fan in the front. But, I'm wondering if making it an exhaust fan and mounting it in the bottom fan location of the side panel pictured above would be the better route.

Bueller?

If you have a spot to add a fan on your side panel (its not pictured above) then yes, by all means, add another fan there and make it intake. Leave the front fans as intake as well.

To the OP,

That is funny that you have the exact same case as I do! And sadly the most probably cause of your heat issues is related to the exhaust power of the case. That 120mm exhaust is just overworked from the GPU/NB/CPU/etc heat, and the situation is exacerbated with the rear fan grill.

The "first" mod I performed on the CM5 was to remove the front and rear grills. Later on I opted to mod a 120mm in the CD compartment, and also the lower compartment. The mods did help with temperatures, but the exhaust is too weak; the reason why the antec900/CM590/690 are so effective at cooling.





In the coming weeks, there will be a large overhaul of the case, but sadly I think it has already reached its peak simply do to exhaust limitations.

bryan d

PS - the CM6/590 is priced fairly nowadays

The 590 is awesome!

To the OP...don't get so caught up in software temp readings. Its nice to see a low number, but I've gone through several chips (many of the exact same model and stepping), and the reported temps can very widely. Some chips just run 'hotter' than others.

That being said, you also have to take into consideration that intel has said directly that the DTS sensors should not to be used to read absolute temps. There is a large margin of error, and the error gets worse the further you move from Tjmax.

The DTS sensors are designed to prevent damage to the chip, and they do that very well. They are not designed to read absolute temps. The author of RealTemp has attempted to use calibration to account for the 'slope error' inherit in these chips. I suggest you get the latest beta RealTemp, and read the documentation to figure out how to calibrate your chip. Without calibration your idle temp readings are meaningless.

Best thing you can do is to keep your Distance to Tjmax greater than 20-30 when under load, and use stability as your guide while you OC.

I don't know if you plan on OCing, but if not then you can probably reduce your vcore a little if you want to get your temps down a bit.