Noctua NH-D14 Temps

[GerarRv]

Hi everybody. A friend of mine was selling a completely sealed Noctua NH-D14. Due the price (60$) i decided to buy it. i was sure that Noctua NH-D14 architecture was amazing for air cooler. Reading some reviews, i saw that the normal IDLE temperatures are something around 20-25C @ 133x20 in stock and around 30C in full.

i'm using a intel core i7 930 @ 2,8Ghz and for some reason i get this temp´:



in idle, without even trying to OC the CPU. Are that temps normal? i can't believe i'm getting over 20 degree more just for nothing. A friend is using almost the same build than me with a EVO Hyper 212, and he is getting better temps, and that's obviously ain't normal.

Did i do something wrong? i'm using orientation to make the Noctua fans get the hot air out of the case

 

[Arbiter Odie]

I'd try re-seating the heatsink.

 

[GerarRv]

may the room temperature have something about those temp? i'm i a room with 30C of regular temp-

 

[Scout]

Your not going to be able to go below ambient temp with an air cooler. Did you properly use the thermal paste ?

 

[GerarRv]

I use the regular amoung o thermal paste. Just a little before mounting the noctua.

Those are the temps i am getting with HWMonitor:



And this is how i'm currently using the Noctua NH-D14

https://imgur.com/u0oJv

 

[GerarRv]

Noctua is giving me over 50C in full load. Definitely theres something wrong in here

 

[Conumdrum]

Over 50C at full load. Perfect, good temps.

No one loads at 30C. Unless you live in the artic and the PC is in the snow at -5F temps. Even my massive WC rig loads my 920 at stock clocks at 78F room temps is 53C on the lowest core.

Your temps are exactly where they should be. Take reviews from some of these sites and the posts you can find as a politcal ad. E-Peen and cooling are kinda the same word.

Your temps are good, now overclock it!

 

[GerarRv]

Are you sure, conumdrum? i insist that those temps are a bit to high for a CPU who is ain't even under OC. Look at this review

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/noctua_nhd14/4.htm

 

[Conumdrum]

Are you sure, conumdrum? i insist that those temps are a bit to high for a CPU who is ain't even under OC. Look at this review

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/noctua_nhd14/4.htm

Load test overclocked is 53C. You must of only saw the idle temps.

Load test at stock is 45C.

I don't know what to think................... I know your first assumptions were way wrong, and the data from that site is solid from many other reviews about that cooler.

Ohh and idle temps mean squat, xip, nada, no issues unless they are in the 60's, then it was really messed it up.

I finally looked at your pic. No front fan? It would help a bit for idle.

Run Prime 95 for 10 minutes and record your room temps. Every C of room temps is a C of temp. Let us know. 30 C is warmmmmmm.

You at stock no auto voltages? Your temps at idle are kinda high but matters little. I'm sure they had a better case cooling also, might want to beef it up. I can't say if thier room temp was 70F or they had all the case fans on high. Not sure what your fans are set at either, or if your fans are put in prpperly. They should be right to left, the right one pushing, the middle one pulling, both to the fan at the back of the case.

Keep at it. Some things I see need work, kinda. Only a load test will tell.

 

[freeagent]

I think alot of depends on the cpu itself, the quality of the silicon, the ihs, your tim application, the base of the cooler etc.. There are many factors to consider. You could just have a hot cpu. I used to think all cpu's were cherry picked just for me, but then you come across a couple that makes you doubt everyone elses luck with their oc until you see proof lol. At the end of the day, after all of youre hard ocing attempts, all youre only missing out on is a few hundred mhz, nothing that youd really notice anyways, just the benchmarks

 

[ehume]

I wouldn't trust that review. No mention of ambient temps at all. We don't know if he holds them steady -- which is very hard -- or what. That's why with my heatsink and fan studies I always report net temps.

I've never tested my D14 at stock (next time I mount it I will do so). But the reviews I have seen where it is compared at stock and OC vs other heatsinks, it is not particularly impressive until your heatsink starts to get hot. That's when it shines.

I agree with Conundrum. Go OC your baby.

Oh, and report your ambients.

 

[GerarRv]

After 10 minutes of Prime 95, these are the results:



Fan speed is full 100%

temp room is 32C, according to my Thermometer. I saw a few others review, and they all agree that those are way too high temp for a noctua cooler. Was something i did wrong, maybe? how was the performing for you ehume?

Any protip? at this point i'm gonna try to unmount it and then do it all the installation again.

 

[freeagent]

I havent used the d14 on 1366 since I got my H100. It was able to cool my old 970 gulftown @ 4000mhz @ 1.35v, and load temps were about what you are seeing iirc with f@h. Intel Burnt Test or Linx will probably make you panic if those are the temps prime gives you

Edit:

32c ambient is gross

 

[GerarRv]

i'm starting to get a problem with this, really. What dou you recommend to see if those temps improve the perfomance? Apply more thermal compound? re-seating the heatsink? unmount and mount again? Maybe the heatsink is not making enough contact with the CPU or something.

 

[wagex]

dude, you arent going to get better temps, your ambient is 32c the cooler cant make magic happen, those chips run hot anyways. the cooler your ambient is the cooler the chip will run lie everyone else said. there is nothing wrong with the cooler. appart from putting some 5k rpm screamers on there you arent going to get any better temps.

the only thing that could be wrong other than the high ambient temps is going to be either you put too much or too little thermal paste on the cpu a small dot about half the size of a pea is plenty. more isnt better.

 

[azanimefan]

Ok, long time OCer pulling out the dusty database of OC troubleshooting.

Step 1: Take your load/idle Temps subtract ambient with case sealed and fans on.
Step 2: Take your load/idle temps subtract ambient with case OPEN to the room temps.

Analysis -

if your temps with the case open are significantly lower (>5 degrees C) then with the case closed, you have a MAJOR airflow problem in your case. That will need to be solved ASAP. Note: GPUs are a huge source of heat, and unless your GPU is properly cooled, and your case properly ventilated, you can see a significant degradation of your air-cooling.

if your temps are pretty much the same case airflow isn't an issue.

NEXT - Once case airflow has been resolved/put aside as an issue/found to be fine... You will need something to compare your temps with. Every chip and motherboard/ram combo is a little different. To look on the net and expect the same temps from the same rig is nonsense. it doesn't work that way. SO... we need to find a control temp for your setup. A stock CPU cooler that came with your CPU is a good choice.

retest your temps with the case closed on your new cooler. subtract ambient.
replace the cooler with the stock, and repeat the test. subtract ambient.

If you are not seeing significant reduction in system at full load temps then you might be failing to get good thermal connection, perhaps your mounting brackets are installed wrong. Or maybe you have a faulty sink/fan. You'll need to test that with another board however to find out (note, if you do test on another board that boards temps will NOT be indicative of your boards temps, you'll only be testing the effectiveness of the cooler vs a stock heatsink), you probably can test the airflow from the fans however you'll need special eq to do that.


Finally - the i7-930 runs hot. Its a 130W chip. It won't be "ice cold" unless you're doing something far more extreme then using a big air cooler... It looks like you have unrealistic expectations for the temps you should be getting. That's not to say you're not right, and something isn't working properly, which is why i gave you a list of things to do to establish if it IS working properly or not.

That said, your temps look great to me, i'm mostly in the camp there is nothing wrong, however since you are concerned and it IS your rig, follow the above process and see what you can uncover. If nothing else it might put your mind at ease... and perhaps WE are wrong and something isn't quite right, you'll be able to address the problem effectively with more and better info.

 

[Conumdrum]

Amen azanimefan. Great post.

Glad your here.

 

[ehume]

azanimefan: great suggestions

Ambient of 32C. Whew! You must be sweating, OP.



This is my rig (from my OCN gallery)(my D14 is downstairs where I use it for fan testing). Notice what I have done with my rear grill and backplane slot covers. I have no fans there. OTOH I have no obstructions there. And that top fan is an intake.

The idea is to blow cool(ish, in your case) air in, and let the hot air move out.

That said, no review reports ambients over 25c. My own testing of the NH-L12 going on downstairs as I write this is at about 21c. But let us consider 25c as a normal ambient. You are 7c over that, so you should expect at least 7c hotter temps.

Than there is the observation in many heatsinks that cooling falls off as ambient temperatures rise. It may be a function of transferring heat from fin to air. But that would add another few degrees.

Then there is the issue of heat. Your chip is hot (so are mine; I have i7 8xx's). Hot chips need great coolers. I can tell you that the Mugen II you see above is something like 10c behind the D14 in cooling ability.

Run through the exercises azanimefan outlines. Then if you're still not happy, remove the heatsink and look at the TIM spread. Getting that right is a minor art, easy to learn but important to master.

But again, where the D14 shines is on overclocking.

 

[azanimefan]

ultimately in the end, its important to know your eq is working right before you start to try to fry it, right?

 

[GerarRv]

@azanimefan

i'm gonna try that. I was never too busy looking at temps when i was using the regular Intel Stock fan cooler.

By the moment i put those screenshots with real temp/speedfan, i was using the case open, so airflow is not a major issue.

I'm getting surpired mostly because, like i said, i bought and build a Rig for a friend using a EVO 212 Hyper, and he was getting almost the same temps than me. But then again, he was using a Intel Core i5 2600k, who use a different archquitecture and consume around 95W. He was also using the same case as me Cooler Master HAF 922

@ehume I'm using a similar orientation with my case, only with the classic orifices to attach a cooler master 12mm fan.

About the Noctua orientation, i put it like this:



Do i did it in the wrong way?

@azanimefan

i guess that's important too. removing Noctua NH-D14 can be a real headache

Thanks for the reply everybody.