Best Air Cooling for 1366?

[goose90proof]

Hey there OC! I just got a new board and have been working on getting a stable overclock. Its been almost 2 years since I joined up with you nerds and Im finally getting a hang of tweaking. As I push for the limit, my problem now is cooling. I currently have an H50 and I have learned from experience that it is a piece of garbage.

So my question is, what is the best air cooling solution for my 1366 platform? I currently have an i7-950 clocked at 3.13gHz and Im reaching tj max while running blend on prime95. This is a very small overclock. Could I be doing something wrong as well?

 

[Boulard83]

Its all about the space you have and the look you want. I have a few Noctua cooler and i currently run a BIGGG Phantek cooler on my I7 3820 and he is staying nice and cool. There are TONS of good air cooler.

 

[Conumdrum]

Shouldn't be that hot, with summer temps going away.

Case cooling? Stock cooler? If stock does the fan reach max RPM at those temps? You using auto overclock? You could be supplying too much voltage for that OC to the CPU.

Post pics of your setup/case, screen shots of CPU-Z, Your Prime95 window and Realtemp while it's running prime. Maybe HW Monitor also, so have all 4 open when you take a screen shot.

In fact take one at idle and another at load.

 

[Knufire]

Phantek, NH-D14, Thermalright Silver Arrow, Prolimatech Armegeddon. Or the H80/H100.

That sounds like a bad mount or something though...most can OC that far on the stock cooler.

 

[goose90proof]

Its all about the space you have and the look you want. I have a few Noctua cooler and i currently run a BIGGG Phantek cooler on my I7 3820 and he is staying nice and cool. There are TONS of good air cooler.

Not too concerned about aesthetics right now. I'm working on a budget so I'm interested in performance. Space is of course an issue, but I'd say I have roughly 6-7 inches from the die to the chassis. Looking for specific suggestions if you have any. I hear Noctua is popular...

Shouldn't be that hot, with summer temps going away.

Case cooling? Stock cooler? If stock does the fan reach max RPM at those temps? You using auto overclock? You could be supplying too much voltage for that OC to the CPU.

Post pics of your setup/case, screen shots of CPU-Z, Your Prime95 window and Realtemp while it's running prime. Maybe HW Monitor also, so have all 4 open when you take a screen shot.

In fact take one at idle and another at load.

You're right it should not, but I think I've identified the problem. This Gigabyte board has an option to run the CPU voltage on an "automatic" configuration which I thought I would try. You'll see in the screenshot that this auto voltage is 1.376v (very high)! I'm going to turn this down and try again. You can check out the rest of my profile in the screens. 1st attach is at idle and 2nd is under load, running prime95.

Phantek, NH-D14, Thermalright Silver Arrow, Prolimatech Armegeddon. Or the H80/H100.

That sounds like a bad mount or something though...most can OC that far on the stock cooler.

Thanks for the suggestions on the air coolers. Will check those out. Mount should be ok. Problem is most likely with CPU voltage. Testing . . .

 

[redduc900]

You're right, the current Vcore of >1.37V is way too high for such a small overclock. It shouldn't need to be any higher than ~1.0-1.12V or lower for that clock.

 

[goose90proof]

You're right, the current Vcore of >1.37V is way too high for such a small overclock. It shouldn't need to be any higher than ~1.0-1.12V or lower for that clock.

Yayy! I love it when you chime in on my posts redduc, because you were the first person here to help me get started with overclocking. I've learned a lot since then, and having gone back and tweaked my voltage, things are better now.

Ok! So I just scaled down my voltage to 1.125v (stoked that I unwittingly met your recommendation) and everything is working better now. My temps are within the anticipated range ~69C for my cooling hardware. Now that I'm moving in the right direction again, I'm going to bring my multiplier back up slowly and see if I can reach my goal of 4.0gHz. With the current cooling capacity (or lack thereof) of my H50, I doubt I'll be able to maintain 4.0 within comfortable operating temperatures.

I has a question though... I followed the guide outlined by Miahallen for the 1366 platform and through those methods, I was able to achieve a stable bclock of 174. Is it normal/sane procedure to scale cpu ratio instead of bclock to find highest processor frequency like I am doing, or is that madness? Thanks again for yours and everyone else's help who has chimed in.

Still accepting more air cooling suggestions.

 

[Boulard83]

Both my Noctua cooler are doing excellent job while remaining nearly silent. I have a Noctua NH-U12 and a NH-C14. My Phantek TH-CP14 is awesome bot its a HUGE cooler.

 

[redduc900]

Figure in the neighborhood of ~1.275V Vcore for a 4.0GHz clock (175 BCLK x 23 for example). You might want to later change the BCLK, and in effect the DRAM multiplier after you find your max. overclock, depending on the rated DRAM frequency of your modules.

 

[ivanlabrie]

He has an H50 atm...you can cool your chip just fine with it as long as you put two good fans on it.
Grab some high rpm fans from Ebay and forget about it.
Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000's are good, but noisy...You can use 2k rpm fans, Scythe Slipstreams 110cfm 120x25mm fans work great in push pull.

 

[goose90proof]

Figure in the neighborhood of ~1.275V Vcore for a 4.0GHz clock (175 BCLK x 23 for example). You might want to later change the BCLK, and in effect the DRAM multiplier after you find your max. overclock, depending on the rated DRAM frequency of your modules.

Noted. Thanks for those figures.

He has an H50 atm...you can cool your chip just fine with it as long as you put two good fans on it.
Grab some high rpm fans from Ebay and forget about it.
Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000's are good, but noisy...You can use 2k rpm fans, Scythe Slipstreams 110cfm 120x25mm fans work great in push pull.

Perhaps it would perform better with so,e more edficient fans. If you note my signature, you will see that I have acknowledged the need for some new fans long ago. That will definitely have to be next purchase before pursuing other options. Thanks for reminding me.

Ive read of modding the H50 to loop through a reservoir to increase pwrformance. Your thoughts on this?

 

[ivanlabrie]

Too much hassle...you can try, but I'd go with faster fans first.
Nidec Beta-v's go for 9usd + 6 shipping. 220cfm lol, you need a decent fan controller though, they eat current.

 

[Conumdrum]

Adding a res does nothing to increase performance. It just ensures you have no air pockets and yours is a sealed unit, use it till you want more then go custom and sell the alum in the rad for scrap. For sure not worth it for an H60. Heck a basic Swiftech res would cost more than you can sell that H60 for.

Depending on the depth of your case if you have room you can get better temps with a better air cooler, but those will prolly need at least an 8.5" wide case. And it'll be just a few C.

Good for you oto figure out the auto clock voltage, much better.

 

[goose90proof]

This board seems to use less voltage than is applied in bios. I'm working on the 4.0ghz goal and while I have set the voltage to 1.2785, cpuid reads 1.264.

 

[Conumdrum]

Common. There is something about Vdroop and you can play with it. Don't worry a lot about it, it's for final tweaking. You can learn a ton in the Intel CPU sub-forum in the stickies etc.

 

[ivanlabrie]

That's normal, it's called vdroop. No need to worry, test for stability.
Consider the faster fans, Slipstreams offer good performance with reasonable but loud noise levels...

Run Prime95 small fft's for 30 min first, and tweak the vcore.

 

[goose90proof]

Working on it. You guys/gals are awesome. Everyone staying in tonight cuz of black friday as well? Keyboard batteries went out and had to go get some trip a's earlier. Was not fun.

 

[ivanlabrie]

No Black Friday fun for me...I have to pay for lots of stuff already lol

This is a very good deal!

 

[goose90proof]

I keep feeding this thing more juice. At 1.325v now. Temps are rising ~90 May have to sacrifice some speed for stability and peace of mind.

 

[goose90proof]

No Black Friday fun for me...I have to pay for lots of stuff already lol

This is a very good deal!

Put it in my bookmarks. Soon...