Are these temps normal on i7-3970X?

earwicker7

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Just set up my new motherboard/CPU/memory, and I'm a little lost on what is going on with the temperatures on the CPU (i7-3970X ). I'm running RealTemp GT, and with ambient temperature of 25C on a water loop, I'm getting temperatures of up to 40C just running Windows 8 with nothing but my core programs, and I haven't even started overclocking. I'm looking at the speed the CPU is running through CPU-Z, and it is all over the place... one minute it is 1.2GHz, and the next it is running close to 4GHz.

I'm going to assume that there is a difference in the way this CPU runs from the i7-980X, or there is a difference in the motherboard, which used to be a Gigabyte UD9. I haven't changed any speed settings in the BIOS, but on my old motherboard, the speeds would be very constant.

Are those kind of temperatures normal at running stock speed? They seem kind of high... do these chips run hotter than the old ones?

I tried reapplying thermal paste, and it didn't make a difference. I have changed the position of my pump/rad combo; it's a little lower than before, as it is very loud, so I moved it.

Thanks!
 
What temps do you get under load?
Also it there may be a setting on your mobo that sets how your water cooler works, I have my mobo fan set so the max speed it can reach is %50 under 40C. You may want to check this out, I am not sure if this works with water cooling though.
Your CPU frequency changes alot to save power, you dont need to be running at 4GHZ whenever your just looking at the desktop, so if your doing that it will underclock to around 1GHZ and sometimes spike to 4GHZ for a sec or two. When you go play a game it will go up to 4GHZ to use its full power, then it will use turbo boost(If that CPU has it)
 
What kind of thermal paste are you using and how much did you use.
Also, what water cooler are you using.
And lastly, do you know what the general temps inside the case are?
 
Stock is 3.3 and turbo is 3.9. Depending on what cooler you actually have that sounds normal. At 4.5 under an H50 with 2 Scythe Kaze fans my load temp was 65c. The enthusiast chips run warm compared to the 1155 SB chips.
 
PP, you sure 40c is normal for that chip with no OC while at idle while being water cooled?

I did some reading from ppl cooling that chip with a H100 and at a OC ranging from 4.4-4.8 they are reporting 35-41c at idle. 40c seems high for no OC even for a high end air cooler.
 
Here are some more details...

I ran Prime95 for five minutes, and one of the cores got up to 60C.

At idle, there is a 16 degree difference in peak core temperature over time! Could I have tightened the heatsink too much, or could this be due to a bad thermal paste install? I used Tuniq TX-4 the first time, and Arctic Silver MX-4 the second. On the first one, I did the credit card method, on the second one, I did an X. The spread after I removed it from the first time was bad (which is why I tried the X... I only switched to Arctic Silver because I couldn't find the Tuniq... I found it later), so maybe I just suck at spreading paste, although my temps on my water cooled GPUs are fine.

What is the normal voltage for these CPUs?
 
PP, you sure 40c is normal for that chip with no OC while at idle while being water cooled?

I did some reading from ppl cooling that chip with a H100 and at a OC ranging from 4.4-4.8 they are reporting 35-41c at idle. 40c seems high for no OC even for a high end air cooler.
I just realized he put 3970x and not 60x. So yes, it could be normal depending on the cooling of which he didn't specify. "water" could be anything from an H50 to a quad rad double loop monster. Also depends on ambient but they do run a tad warm.

Here are some more details...

I ran Prime95 for five minutes, and one of the cores got up to 60C.

At idle, there is a 16 degree difference in peak core temperature over time! Could I have tightened the heatsink too much, or could this be due to a bad thermal paste install? I used Tuniq TX-4 the first time, and Arctic Silver MX-4 the second. On the first one, I did the credit card method, on the second one, I did an X. The spread after I removed it from the first time was bad (which is why I tried the X... I only switched to Arctic Silver because I couldn't find the Tuniq... I found it later), so maybe I just suck at spreading paste, although my temps on my water cooled GPUs are fine.

What is the normal voltage for these CPUs?
You still haven't specified your actual water setup. Don't do those crap methods for spread. A grain of rice size ball in the center of the IHS is all you need. Doing the others can result in air pockets which will hamper performance on any cooling setup. Also, if you have a custom water loop make sure there are no air bubbles.

Since the 3970x is clocked higher if you have an AIO unit with poor airflow then 60c load is nominal. Besides, if you're only hitting 60c with auto settings then I wouldn't worry at all. I would try lowering volts as long as they are still stable and that will lower your temps. Disabling HT will also lower temps.
 
Sorry... I've got this and homework, so I'm a bit disjointed lol.

It's a Swiftech external pump/rad combo with 3 fans; there are two loops, one for CPU, one for GPU. The HD-7970s (two of them on one loop) run stock at 31C. I will see if disabling HT makes a difference.
 
Redo the paste in the fashion I mentioned and make sure the block is level on the IHS.

Speaking of, what block do you have and what rad? Just trying to assess the situation.

Another thing I would do is go in to the bios and try lowering the voltage. Another thing I should mention is this is a 150w TDP chip opposed to the 3960x being a 130w TDP chip so it will run warmer.
 
Yup, seems to be the paste application as PP mentioned, a grain of rice size in the middle and don't do anything to it, mount the block on and tighten it down, this lets the block spread out the paste in an even fashion, go back to the tx-4 though for a few less degrees.
 
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