I7 2600K hitting over 90 Celsius under load

cookiedude

Posts: 160   +1
Hi all

I'm a 3D designer and have recently experienced a few BSODs whilst rendering, the cause of which seems to be the USB 3 drivers (according to the minidumps). However, I have also started to notice that my CPU temps are going through the roof, caught my attention when it hit 85 degrees... now it's hitting 95 degrees under load (45-50 idle)!! I have always aimed to keep the temps below 80 and have only really strayed slightly above this on particularly warm days, so I'm a little concerned that something may have failed on my PC. Setup details are:

i7 2600K professionally overclocked to 4.5GHz (CPU fan seems to max at 1250rpm shouldn't this go higher?)
Asus P8Z86-V Mobo
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 Pro + 120mm Apache Black chassis fan x 2

I've had this PC for over 2 years and never had this problem before. I was inclined to think that the readings were inaccurate, but both CoreTemp and the Asus monitoring software show the same temps. I'm going to lower the overclock in the meantime but would love some help figuring out why this may be occurring? If you'd like any further info please let me know.

Thanks in advance.
 
Thanks, what's the best way to check the thermal compound? What should I look for that might indicate a problem? It's a work PC so don't want to tinker too much (not in my job description for one thing), as it's under warranty and wouldn't want to invalidate it. If the TC is to blame, what would you recommend as an alternative?

So the fan seems to be running almost at max speed, I'll check there's nothing getting in the way, but seemed pretty clean when I looked earlier.
 
Thanks, what's the best way to check the thermal compound? <snip> If the TC is to blame, what would you recommend as an alternative?
I should have stated replace because thats the only way to check. There is no way to know, without taking the cooler off and inspecting the old compound.

I use this thermal compound. - Arctic Silver 5

However if you are not authorized to service the machine, perhaps you should have someone who is look at it.
 
Cheers, I'll look into ordering some of that. What's the best way of removing the existing TC?

Without contacting the company we purchased from, I'm about as close to being "authorised to service the machine" as anybody in the office gets :) I've built plenty of computers in the past, so no problem doing it, the problem will be getting permission to do it! But it's that or be without the PC for a few weeks whilst it gets serviced.
 
This page shows that idle is 51, load is <59. It's most likely the thermal compound.

Take the heatsink off and give it a good clean while you're there.


Oh. And you're using an overclocked machine for work? For 3D rendering? That's...unusual.
 
This page shows that idle is 51, load is <59. It's most likely the thermal compound.

Take the heatsink off and give it a good clean while you're there.


Oh. And you're using an overclocked machine for work? For 3D rendering? That's...unusual.

I overclock my workstations. They offer huge improvements in photoshop performance. I am trying to find a benchmark from Toms that shows exactly this, but I cannot seem to find it.
 
Might be worth checking the CPU's thermal compound. The thermal bond between CPU and cooler may be weakening. If the fans blades are not clean, they will not spin as fast due to restriction of air flow across the surface of the blade.
The Freezer 13 PRO in this review shows 1100 RPM @ idle and 1300 RPM @ full load.
Conspicuous in its absence from this review, is the CoolerMaster Hyper 212!

What were they using, an unheated garage to wring the numbers out of a few of those HSF?

It would have been been nice if they had added an extra column and done the subtraction for you. (Full load - ambient = degrees rise).

Yeah I know, I'm a ****, and a lazy one at that.
 
I don't deny the advantages of overclocking for Photoshop etc. However, overclocking decreases stability, whichever way you look at it. A 'proper' workstation is unrealistic for most, but it's a Xeon with ECC memory. :p
 
Oh. And you're using an overclocked machine for work? For 3D rendering? That's...unusual.

Not unusual in my experience, overclocking offers massive improvements in render times, which in our line of work is hugely important. The overclock was done by the company we bought the workstations from (I have done it myself in the past, but never really fully trusted myself with it) and has always been stable. These temperature spikes just started out of the blue, though did seem to coincide with summer finally arriving in the UK :).

On that note, I have tried reducing the OC settings a little and dropping the CPU voltage has made a big difference to idle temps, which are now in the low 40s. It is, however, still pushing 90 when rendering... don't think the 30+ degrees ambient temperature is helping much. Next stop is to contact the company we purchased from, if they can't do an on-site fix I'll change the TC myself... saves losing the machine for 2+ weeks!
 
So before I had chance to see if changing the TC would make a difference, my windows installation became corrupt so had to reinstall everything! Avoiding any overclocking at the moment and the CPU hasn't gone over 70 degrees even under heavy load. Seems the overclock settings may have been pushing the CPU a little too far!
 
Over time, Thermal Paste can do bad or the heatsink can start to move/adjust from temperatures changing. I think you should just go ahead and take it off and replace the heatsink and then try your overclocks again to see where the temperatures are hitting.

I also noticed you said it was still under a warranty from the company and you working on it would violate that warranty. Well honestly since you have had the machine for 2 years and you know what your doing, I would not worry, if your careful and you don't make it look like it was serviced by yourself, you could probably still get them to repair it if something broke in the future. Ive done it with Dell Machines many time (Including my old XPS Laptop)
 
Your CPU cooler (Arctic Freezer 13 Pro) has a known problem with the plastic retention module breaking, letting the cooler come loose (look at NewEgg buyer reviews). Given the sudden dramatic temp increase, I'd say it's a good bet that yours failed recently. My advice is to buy a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo ($35) and just replace the damn thing (the Evo comes with a small tube of thermal paste, just carefully clean off the old paste with rubbing alcohol). However, with that overclock & workload, I'd consider a liquid cooler such as the Corsair H80i for better temps and stability.
 
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