NEED CPU Cooling - Options and Ideas

[CrisisWolf]

My trusty old OCUK "Titan 420i Tanto" Intel Core i7 4770K @ 4.2GHz Overclocked Haswell Quad Core Gaming PC" from 2013, following only a few improvmenets in 7 years:

• a few graphic card iterations: now with an nVidia GTX 1080
• now with 16GB RAM (not 8GB)
• additional case fan

It is only recently, playing the likes of BF5 that I've had stability issues which has led me down the path of temperature monitoring and alarms. Currently using NZXT with in-game overlay to help.

GPU fine, running barly at 20-40% demand and temperatures barely touching 60 degrees.

CPU - different story. I've capped the Frame Rate to 50 and decreased from Ultra to High (reduction from the nVidia optimised settings) to make the game playable for longer than 10mins without the CPU crashing into 80 degrees plus then causing PC to lockup and reset in the mid 80s.

I've cleaned the inside of the PC. I've monitored temperatures. After some ideas to give the machine a bit more life before a full replacement. Unsure what to do/try next.

1. Any further testing/monitoring to help aid a solution? Different logging software to help diagnose.
2. Enough/right balance of in/out air flow
3. Things to buy and try.

Appreciate any thoughts or cheap things that are worth trying or doing anyway. I'm technical but I wouldn't say too technical.

 

[EsaT]

Could be Intel's bubblegum/toothpaste going bad under heatspreader.
Would be also worth of checking TIM under cooler.

 

[Grandmaster Fap!]

Re paste Cpu tim, also couple of good fans on the front and bottom will help, can you remove the HD cages? they are choking the air intake. I'd suggest a couple Arctic P12/14(whichever fits) or Phanteks fans to get some good airflow going. Also put something underneath the case for it to sit on so the carpet doesnt choke the bottom intake.

 

[CrisisWolf]

Could be Intel's bubblegum/toothpaste going bad under heatspreader.
Would be also worth of checking TIM under cooler.

I've read a bit about thermal pastes and replacing/reapplying. Guessing we are on about the same thing?

Re paste Cpu tim, also couple of good fans on the front and bottom will help, can you remove the HD cages? they are choking the air intake. I'd suggest a couple Arctic P12/14(whichever fits) or Phanteks fans to get some good airflow going. Also put something underneath the case for it to sit on and no choke the bottom intake.

Another re-paster! Sounds like the thing to do. Would newer better fans be ideal too? The case has the two on the top, one on the rear, one on the front. Not 10p% sure of the current line up but guessing the rear as intake say and front as exhaust. Tops?

I'll see what I can take out, casing/caging wise to free up the air flow.

TIM?

 

[CrisisWolf]

Thermal interface material (TIM) - Isn't google great?

Case fans or the CPU cooler fan replace/upgrade? Obv do the TIM replace first as that seems a cheap quick win amongst other simple fixes suggested. Going to have a look and minor dismantle now.

 

[Grandmaster Fap!]

Thermal interface material (TIM) - Isn't google great?

Case fans or the CPU cooler fan replace/upgrade? Obv do the TIM replace first as that seems a cheap quick win amongst other simple fixes suggested. Going to have a look and minor dismantle now.

If you are not into spending a bunch of cash at the moment getting some good TIM like Thermal Grizzly or Arctic MX4, and a couple decent fans may help a lot

 

[Slinky69]

If it used to be fine, but now is not, that does seem to suggest that fresh paste could sort it out. Hopefully that will be the case, as it's nice and cheap

 

[chaparral]

I've cleaned the inside of the PC. I've monitored temperatures. After some ideas to give the machine a bit more life before a full replacement. Unsure what to do/try next.

I know you say you cleaned the inside of the case

But did you check and clean all the dust out between all the fins on the Cpu heat sink ?
It best to take the cpu fan off the heatsink and check for dust stuck between the heatsink fins

 

[mickyflinn]

Can you clear see threw the cpu cooler fins ?

 

[CrisisWolf]

I'm back and nothing is broken...

So looks like some new suggestions and actually I've done exactly that.

I took the CPU fan on the heatsink off, I then took the actual heatsink off and yeah lots to be cleaned in there. At first it even looked dented and damaged but its not its fine. Job done. I took the heatsink off as well to have a look, just to see whats what before buying some new paste. Thanks for recommendations on pastes above I'll have a look. Possible to do too little/too much when applying the paste? Actually amazed the size of heatsink, fans etc compared to the CPU. Madness anyway.

Sorry no 'before' filth photo of the heat sink.

In other non-paste related findings. So I have the rear case fan, the CPU fan (black), the two top case fans and only one front case fan. I have two fan controller spurs, with a total of 7 potential fans to connect. I am assuming all fan connections and both spurs are created equal and they aren't different to one another to which fans connected to which makes nil difference? One fan spur is 3 cables all in use and another is 4 fan cables only 1 in use so 3 spare. All 7 connectors are the same type. Plus the CPU Fan.

I've moved the front case fan up to the middle as its probably of more use there which should aid air flow.

So other than PASTE. Worthy of upgrading fans (adding another). What sort of things are worth looking at, RPMs etc. Obviously size so they'll fit as direct replacements. CPU fan I think I have a slight depth limitation due to the RAM at the rear. Not checked fan oritentations but hopefully REAR thru heatsink, thru CPU fan, then out the front casing are all inline and not opposing each other. They are factory from OCUK so expecting nil issue so any replacements to be in the same orientation.

Interestingly, on idle now, CPU is 37-40 degrees on 10% load in idle... so saved 10 degrees already! Fans only at 800 RPM too. I'll re-test with a game later.

THANK YOU ALL but I'm not going to stop just yet - fans and PASTE to make the most of bringing the CPU to life and being able to max out the life of this rig.

Front of case, fan now moved up to the spare location.

 

[CrisisWolf]

Paste applied (MX-4 from Amazon) now as well. CPU tickover is 42 ish now.

2x140mm Top Fan (Exhaust) - 2 installed at 50CFM each
1x120mm Back Fan (Exhaust) - 1 installed at 45CFM

2x120mm Front Fan (Intake) - 1 installed at 45CFM
1x120mm Bottom Fan (Intake) - 0 installed

Very negative setup and having looked at some available fans 50CFM is peanuts to what you can buy 'these days'. Thinking avoid the bottom intake as it'll suck in dust from the floor (now raised on a stand btw). So defo want 2 front fans to bring the system to more neutral (45CFM intake, versus 140CFM exhaust) I think. Might just get 1 or replace both fronts and leave the rest as are unless the CFM changes a lot.

Interesingly all my fan connectors are 3 pin but actually PC side only two wires exist (to the controller/motherboard) which seems odd. My fan controller is ontop of the PC and is a basic switch with 3 positions... a fancier fan controller could work but the switch is somewhat integrated into the top case design, so either leave it as a dead switch, or leave as is and just let the 2 pins do their thing. Ideas?

 

[mickyflinn]

Move the 120mm rear to the side as an Intake.

 

[CrisisWolf]

Move the 120mm rear to the side as an Intake.

Oddly there are no side slots on my case. Actually having said that the side 'mesh' does have some holes to support a 120mm fan.

I'd have thought keeping the rear one as its inline with the CPU fan and now the moved front fan makes a decent straight line air flow. It is definitely cooler now but why stop now for a few quid?

 

[doyll]

Lots of good advice!

Case airflow isn't the best.
Top fan near front of case is likely pulling cool intake air up and out drawing heated air off of GPU up and into CPU cooler.
HDD cages are seriously blocking intake airflow. Not sure what can be done to correct that.

You might find link below to basic guide of how airflow works and how to optimize it of interest. Wrote it up years ago, but cases haven't changed much.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/foru...-i-put-my-temp-sensor.18564223/#post-26159770

 

[freddie64]

Could be Intel's bubblegum/toothpaste going bad under heatspreader.
Would be also worth of checking TIM under cooler.

I've read a bit about thermal pastes and replacing/reapplying. Guessing we are on about the same thing?

Think EsaT means delidding the CPU.

Other stuff i would try

Move HDDs to bottom cage and remove the upper cage.

Install a second front fan.

Remove the front roof fan and block the hole with cardboard or some other suitable material.

Maybe invest in a bigger/better CPU cooler.

Sorry, can't help with the fan controller.

 

[bimbleuk]

You tried some good things already but as I just built a spares PC into that case recently I'll quickly describe what I did.

2 top 140mm fans pulling out. 1 front 120mm fan pulling in. Removed that front middle drive cage as I only used 1 SSD + 1 HDD mounted in the lower cage.

GPU was RX580 8GB being fed air from the side panel with a 140mm NZXT RGB fan.

So air flow was in from the front and side and then up through the CPU cooler and out the 2 top 140mm fans. No issues with heat from the RX 580 + i7-5820K OC @ 4GHz.

Now I used the Alpenfoehn CPU cooler below but turned 90 degrees so the airflow was straight out the top which I'm sure was another small improvement.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-grade-alpenfoehn-matterhorn-black-cpu-cooler-bg-016-al.html

I can imagine that cooler is a step up from the Akasa cooler which has less heat pipes and probably of a poorer design plus the Mattehorn has a proper heat spreader. Absolute bargain at that price and I bought a B Grade one too.