My new build

[ChanceCoats123]

How are the noctua fans powered? Are they pulling through the same molex connector? If so try running them separately.

 

[hdtv00]

Nope different connections. I seriously have the least amount of experience with mounting heatsink and fan. I've never done it before really. But I thought to myself fan doesn't seem to spin fast. Then temp issue so I said hmm double checked its not backwards push and pull. Well when I took it off, was a freaking coin toss as to which side was push and pull. So little air movement couldn't tell. I think I got it right but if its weak wasn't sure. Had friend check it out who has massive amount of work with them. Said yep that has to broken, touch of finger barely stops it, no resistance. Other one you know you can feel it hit finger with force. Other clearly nothing. Have special color coded cable for different speeds. Has to be fan far as I can tell.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Wait, me thinks that if you had the fans []>>>Heatsink<<<[] then one of the fans would be fighting the other, have you taken the fans off the sink and tried powering them up?

 

[hdtv00]

Yeah I thought the same maybe it was on backwards and not push and pulling. So when I did take it off I couldn't tell which way the air was flowing because it was so weak. I think maybe I figured it out but the air flow can't be that low and be normal. So I took finger and put it fan while moving and get no resistance at all.

One thing that's odd only one fan is reading fan speed on board. Maybe its not plugged into the correct spot on MB. I don't know have to dig deeper to see whats what, have to check other fan too. All I do know is 53c idle isn't what this heatsink is designed for..

 

[ChanceCoats123]

So you are using a utility and can see the readout speed of the down fan? What speed is it? Maybe you plugged into a header that can't supply full power? Do you have 4-pin molex to 3-pin connectors? That is usually the best way to run them anyway.

 

[hdtv00]

Yep MB and speedfan among others report one cpu fan @1244 rpm other there is no reading for at all. Like you said must just be plugged into header that can't report I guess. I'll have to go over MB doc and find out for sure. It's a 3 pin cable off fan right off the bat. They do come with LNA versions of black and blue for 1100rpm and 900rpm for noise level options. I've used black and neither both those run it 1100-1200 range.

Thanks for your input. I am the weakest at pc build when it comes to cpu cooler, I've never installed one before, friend did. I know what's what and everything just never done it before. So any input or feeback I get might help me greatly. I'll report back when I check where its plugged in at, Noctua wants fan speed number but hard to do when every monitor tells me 0 lol.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Have you tried running straight power from the psu to the fan? That should work the best granted you have a 3-pin to 4-pin connector.

 

[hdtv00]

Ok I took off the cooler and whatnot to have a look. I never mounted it someone else did so I decided to redo it. I've never done it before but with those temps I said time to learn. Here is what the heatsink looked like right after pulling it off.


That in no way looks even or correct to me but I also have no idea wtf I'm doing when it comes to mounting having never done it. Any thoughts, sorry about crappy pic best I could do. Thanks for the feedback

 

[jamesman32]

I cant really tell from the pic, but that looks like thermal compound. Touch it and see what it is if you aren't sure. If it has the consistency of peanut butter, its probably thermal compound. Wipe all of it off the heatsink and processor with alcohol and then reapply some thermal compound and reseat the heatsink.

 

[hdtv00]

Yep it's Noctua thermal compound that comes with it. Supposed to be really good compound. I did just that cleaned it and remounted. Temp at first was 48c, now it's 51 but fans aren't on properly yet only one is on. But to me shouldn't the thermal compound be evenly across the heatsink. To me that looks like it'd be missing half the cpu.

 

[jamesman32]

Put a pea sized dot on the center of the CPU and then put the heatsink on it and tighten it down evenly on all sides. The compound will spread out. I've never worked with i7's, but that temp seems a little high. Make sure the heatsink is actually conducting heat. Touch the heatpipes if you have to.

 

[hdtv00]

I've redid it now 3 times. This last time I did the small and baby dot method like a 5 on a dice. small dot in middle and tiny dots on 4 other corners but not at the corner.

I clocked from the 3ghz I had it at to stock for a 920. Temp is now 42c on core 1/2 and 39 on cores 3/4. So basically it's cooler but slower. At stock a 920 should be about 35c is that not correct. I seen tests on the Noctua and they all in the 35-38c range stock. I guess that's getting close to where I am but damn.

I felt heatsink pipes couple of times, they had no heat in them at all. So contact on this chip with the board seems crappy.

Sucks damn it. I had friend who is 20 year pro at building systems try it. That didn't help either. First I thought it was fans, now I don't know what it is, bad TIM maybe don't know for sure.

 

[ChanceCoats123]

I smell a convex chip, or a convex heatsink! Lap that puppy!

 

[nzaneb]

Your board has 1 CPU fan header (the red 4-pin header to the left of the socket), so unless you have those fans run through a molex and speed controlled by that header, you're most likely plugging one of the fans into a system fan or chassis fan header. This will not allow that fan to vary its speed based on the thermal readings of the CPU... and is probably the reason it's not spinning at the same rate as the other.

The CPU die does not span the whole IHS. I wouldn't be too worried about the idle temperature, your load temperature is what you need to pay attention to.