i7 920 OC + 2 GPU's = 1 loop?

[ajcfalcon]

I used a template on tomshardware.com and they were using 1.35v so i just used that. ive seen some people use higher so i just assumed i was alright.

The incoming water goes to the center of the block, the barb that has the changeable plate on it... i think thats the inlet....

Thermochill got rid of the bleedscrew, but im pretty sure its full.

According to swiftech, the sides of the waterblock that have the 3 screws are supposed to run parrallel to lever... which it does.

Im kind of at a loss...

 

[Sneaky]

And there is a specific way to mount the XT, umm it has to be parellel with the chip lockdown clamp. Forget exactly, but it matters. Look it up on the Swiftech site, there is good instructions there

Yup... try remounting the block and turning it 90 degrees... i7/Apogee mounting is pretty specific

The cold plate surface is topographically mapped to provide an optimized TIM joint with socket LGA 771, 775, 1156 and 1366 compatible processors. As a result, the Apogee™ XT requires a specific mounting orientation with respect to the CPU socket in order to optimize performance as illustrated below:

 

[ajcfalcon]

so im looking at the bottom surface of the apogee XT and there are some pretty severe grooves in it. I know these things are going to have cracks/scratches... but could this be an issue?

 

[Conumdrum]

Did you pull the plastic off? Mine was mirror smooth.

Post pics

 

[mrgettmann]

My i7965 at stock speeds loads at 55C or so in 2 hours of prime and my room temp is 80C.

WOAH dude, do you live in an oven? I think you mean 80*F not C....if you room temp is 80C...that is close to 180 degrees C...I used to live in the Mojave desert and it would only get to 145-150*F in the hottest part of the summer(in the shade).

 

[ajcfalcon]

hmm.. yeah it looks like there are chunks in it. I put it all back together but ill pull it back off tomorrow and take a picture.... i was thinking maybe air pocket or something. It really the only thing i can think of lol

Ill report back tomorrow. Thanks again Conumdrum

 

[Conumdrum]

WOAH dude, do you live in an oven? I think you mean 80*F not C....if you room temp is 80C...that is close to 180 degrees C...I used to live in the Mojave desert and it would only get to 145-150*F in the hottest part of the summer(in the shade).

Yea, my bad. 80F. I live in Vegas.

 

[ajcfalcon]

ok, this was pretty difficult since my camera sucks, i suck at taking pictures, and the surface is reflective with bad lighting... but here are a couple shots:








In the first pic you can actually feel that divet, the other shots just show large scratches. I feel like im just creating possible issues where no real issues exist because i dont understand what the problem is.

My idle temps are now

44 -43 -42 -38

under prime for an hour

83 - 82 - 80 - 77

Any other ideas or things i could try?

 

[Conumdrum]

Are any of the scratches rised up and don't let the block sit flat? If so RMA the block.

And have you got your CPU voltages under control? Try going back to stock values. You should load at under 60C stock I figure prime 95 small ffts for 30 min.

Secondly, have you opened the block yet?

 

[Hsnopi]

olk i knwo this is a sort of low level question but are all the fans working? i had one die and didn't even notice for ages cause it is so quiet. I don't think the area where the scratches are are really uon the core. but they can be picky. you can either lap it opr get it replaced if it is still under warrenty.

what thermal paste method are you using?

have you given the radiator a shake while it is on? maybe there is air lodged in there. try unbolting it, bringing the top part down so it is level wiht the barbs.

 

[Conumdrum]

You don't want to lap it. It's actually convex for higher pressure in the center of the CPU where the silicon is.

 

[ajcfalcon]

@ Conum: The scratches were in, including that indent in the first picture. I examined both the block and the cpu pretty closely and they are both pretty damn smooth, exept for that indent but i dont think that would cause a 10*+ increase but i could be wrong.

I did get the clock stable, voltage sat evently at 1.35v which was actually less than some people were running. I have not opened the block yet, i suppose that is the next step.

@Hsnopi: All fans are working but for some reason they randomly just dropped 100rpms today i have no idea why, so they are running at 1500rpms... i have the scythe ace fan controller and all 3 fans are on 1 channel. Im using Arctic MX-3 thermal paste.

I ran the water loop without the MOBO plugged in, unbolted the radiator and moved it all around. Even disconected the tube just to see and its definitely full.

Some new numbers:

I went back down to stock clocks, here are the results:

idle:

34 - 35 - 34 - 30

Prime95 - 30 minutes:

48 - 48 - 47 - 44

Based on these figures, im thinking my overclock was whacked? I mean, i know they are supposed to run hotter but are these stock figures on par with what my system should be running at?

Thanks again guys, you are invaluable.

 

[Conumdrum]

My i7 965 stock at 3.33? Is a bit hotter than yours. Low 50s to 55ish, but my ambients were 82 when I checked it last.

I also have a XT and a 120x3 radiator on my CPU.

Yea, your overclock seems to be the culprit. There is a very nice overclocking guide on the front page here that maybe you should try. It's really good.

I'll say with a bit of certainty it's not your watercooling loop since temps droped to something reasonable once you removed the overclock.

 

[Widowmker]

Make sure none of the screws/backplate on the Apogee XT block are stripped, if any click when you tighten them, it's stripped and will give you a bad mount. They're known for that.
It happened to me a few times to where I ditched the factory screws and fabricated my own mount.

Here's a link to that guide Cunumdrum suggested. It's a very good guide and will help you with more than just your voltage.

http://www.overclockers.com/3-step-guide-overclock-core-i3-i5-i7/

Edit: If you bought that cpu block new from a store and it came out of the box with dings in it I'd RMA it cause it's possible that the inside is damaged and/or it's not milled flat to within spec.

 

[Conumdrum]

The XT is NOT milled to be perfectly flat! It is convex by a teeny bit. Get over it.

You have an XT, try the ketchup test on glass.

Hmm, never heard of that? New guy.

 

[Hsnopi]

wow. nice temps on the standard settings. Sounds like your loop is pretty solid except for the 100 rpm fan thing. You may have bumped the connector when moving things about.

 

[ajcfalcon]

Yeah im gonna have to go in and look at the wiring... its just one thing after another lol.

I actually used the guide on this website to do my overclock. It says to start at 1.3v vcore and go up from there....

I guess ill start looking at the overclocking section on this forum since this doesnt apear to be a watercooling issue anymore. But as a final update, i have my voltage 1.25 now and my temps under prime are in the high 60's... im gonna have to make sure this is enough voltage because it seems really low to me.

Anyways, thanks again guys for helping me trouble shoot this!

 

[Widowmker]

The XT is NOT milled to be perfectly flat! It is convex by a teeny bit. Get over it.

You have an XT, try the ketchup test on glass.

Hmm, never heard of that? New guy.

I didn't say milled perfectly flat, I said "milled flat TO WITHIN SPEC". If that block got hit hard enough to put a ding in it then it is very possible that it got bowed in and is now concave creating a larger gap between the block and CPU = higher core temps.

I put ketchup on my hamburgers. When I measure something to see if it's within spec to a thousandth of an inch I use a micrometer.

New forums yes, new to WC OC'ing no, been doing it for ~10 years. I was out of it for a couple years up to a few months ago so I'm still on a bit of a learning curve on the new hardware and architecture but the basics are still the same.

It's like you say Conumdrum, "you can't fight physics".

 

[Hsnopi]

well, you CAN fight physics, yer just gonna lose