High CPU temps with watercooling

[antuk15]

I've been pulling my hair out at this for months!

I've been watercooling for around 3 years and never had any problems with cooling performance.

But since I've moved to AMD my temps seem rather high compared to what others are getting.

I'm running my Phenom 2 x6 1075T at 4.1Ghz with a load Vcore of 1.55v on an ASUS Crosshair 4 Extreme.

I'm running a Thermochil PA 120.3 with an Laing DDC with the XSPC drive bay reservoir and an XSPC Delta V3 CPU block.

There's 6 black and oranage Xigmatek fans on the radiator in push+pull, Each fan is rated at 66cfm. They are pulling air through the case and expelling it through the top, Swapping the fans over so they draw in cold air from outside and blow into the case makes next to no difference.

My loop is going pump > CPU block > Rad > Res but I have also tried pump > rad > block > res and again there's no difference.

Now as I said 4.1Ghz with a load Vcore of 1.55v and it's touching 70c during stress testing!!

If I drop the overclock and the Vcore It's still above 60c, Every other chip I've seen at these speeds and clock speed are running atleast 10c cooler on load then I am with a smaller radiator and less fans!

It's be no meens hot in the room either, generally there's a window wide open and nice cold air fills the room.

My opinion now is that it's my CPU block..

As you can see the centre of the base is a raised square and because of this only around 55-60% of the base makes contact with the CPU. I've thought about lapping it so that the base is removed and making it one smooth surface so the whole of the base makes contact with the CPU.

But from reviews of seen this lock is by no meens a bad block, even though it is getting on.

My second thought comes to fans, Maybe mine are no good?

Any help would be awesome

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Id check water temps. if water out measures 11+ degree celcius above ambient, your rad must be clogged with gunk and not dissipating heat as it should. If your measuring water temps less then 3 degree celcius above ambient, then your block must not be transferring that heat too well, since 5-1 degree above ambient water should give you good temps.

Ever thinking of changing blocks? The latest one from xspc (rasa) are quite cheap and performs just like EK HF or swifty apogee xt

 

[erocker]

Have you tried remounting the block? At what voltage is your CPU/NB running at as that can increase you CPU temp a lot.

 

[antuk15]

I've looked at the XSPC Rasa from from what I've seen it's only 3-4c better then the Delta V3 and costs twice the price!

Have no meens of messuring water temp

I could always take one of the little tape sensor things and drop it into the reservoir?

No idea what ambient is but my motherboard temp sensor is reporting 28-30c and my fans pull air through my case.

CPU-NB is at 1.35v

 

[sneekypeet]

I could always take one of the little tape sensor things and drop it into the reservoir?

yes!

 

[antuk15]

Put some sensors in that came with my board.

One dropped into the res is showing a water temp of 23c

One inside the case is showing 29c

No idea what ambient is tbh..

 

[antuk15]

Water levelled out at 24c no matter what Vcore I used so looks like it's the block that's letting the team down?

 

[SaiZo]

Perhaps it isn't making good contact on the CPU? I don't know how to even measure it (if possible). I used to work for a company that used high-precision gauge blocks to measure if something is perfectly straight.

Now, I know that is not anyway that you can go (they cost too), but something perfectly straight - just so you can see if there are any abnormalities with the cooling block itself.
Perhaps if you know someone who uses them gauge blocks, you could always clean the base of the cooler and take a look. I don't know how exact it must be against the CPU however.

 

[antuk15]

Perhaps it isn't making good contact on the CPU? I don't know how to even measure it (if possible). I used to work for a company that used high-precision gauge blocks to measure if something is perfectly straight.

Now, I know that is not anyway that you can go (they cost too), but something perfectly straight - just so you can see if there are any abnormalities with the cooling block itself.
Perhaps if you know someone who uses them gauge blocks, you could always clean the base of the cooler and take a look. I don't know how exact it must be against the CPU however.

As I said in my original post, Because of that square chunk of copper only 55-60% of the total suface area of the CPU block will ever make contact with the CPU.

That 45-40% of cooling surface area lost! I might lap it to increase surface contact area.

 

[micropage7]

lapping could improve cooling performance
btw what kind of cooler that you use? it could be from that and have you clean up the block and the rad too

 

[antuk15]

lapping could improve cooling performance
btw what kind of cooler that you use? it could be from that and have you clean up the block and the rad too

The blocks only 6-7 weeks old, I re-did my loops about 3 weeks back and there was no sign on sludge build up or anything like that

 

[OneMoar]

WAYYY to much voltage bro
try and get the vcore down to 1.42-1.46MAX
even so 70c is ""safe"' .... considering your near-insane voltage
lapping might help ... but that block doesn't seem to be the best
you really don't wanna push 1.5v for 24/7 it really hurts the life span of the chip

 

[antuk15]

WAYYY to much voltage bro
try and get the vcore down to 1.42-1.46MAX
even so 70c is ""safe"' .... considering your near-insane voltage
lapping might help ... but that block doesn't seem to be the best
you really don't wanna push 1.5v for 24/7 it really hurts the life span of the chip

AMD says max safe voltage is 1.55v, And it's not insane voltage at all. Most water cooling are running atleast 1.5v 24/7

And affect the life span? So my chip will last 5 years instead of 10..big deal.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

Could be an airlock in your rad, tilt your case and or pinch the outlet tube once or twice

atb

Law-II

 

[antuk15]

Temps are sorted

Changed my fan layout again, Fans pushing cool ambient air through the top of the radiator and another 3 fans inside helping to pull it through.

CPU socket temp is showing 5-6c drop

Water temp has dropped 2-3c

Load temps have dropped by like 7-8c

Currently idling at 31c

Running 4.1Ghz with a load Vcore of 1.5v and max temp of 59c instead of 65c

Or I can have 4050Mhz with a load Vcore of 1.46v and max temp of 55c while running Intel Burn test.

God damn LLC on this board overvolting so damn much during load

 

[Law-II]

Temps are sorted

Changed my fan layout again, Fans pushing cool ambient air through the top of the radiator and another 3 fans inside helping to pull it through.

CPU socket temp is showing 5-6c drop

Water temp has dropped 2-3c

Load temps have dropped by like 7-8c

Currently idling at 31c

Running 4.1Ghz with a load Vcore of 1.5v and max temp of 59c instead of 65c

Or I can have 4050Mhz with a load Vcore of 1.46v and max temp of 55c while running Intel Burn test.

God damn LLC on this board overvolting so damn much during load

Hi

nice one, glad you got it sorted out; great temp drop's to-boot

nb: When you next login; please could you go to User CP and populate your system spec's

atb

Law-II

 

[antuk15]

Hi

nice one, glad you got it sorted out; great temp drop's to-boot

nb: When you next login; please could you go to User CP and populate your system spec's

atb

Law-II

I've filled them in they're just set to private

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Thats why I always make my rad to suck fresh air in first .