4690k overclocking and heat.

[Killora]

Hey all. Just built my new computer. Specs are as follows:

I5 4690k
Asus z97-e
GTX 970
16gb 1600mhz corsair ram
Be Quiet! Dark rock 3 CPU cooler

Started overclocking my CPU and noticed a few issues. Here's a picture

One, i have about a 5-10c delta between some of the cores. Is this normal or is there something wrong with the seating of the cooler?

Also, it seems to me that my temps are slightly high, in general, given my cooler. I could be wrong but i feel like it should be running cooler given i only have it set to 1.25v.

Right now i can't really get a relatively stable 4.5ghz without going up to around 1.3v but then my temps hit 90c+ in stress testing. I feel like i should be able to do 1.3v with this cooler considering i've heard people doing that much on a 212 evo...

Anyway, any help and advice is appreciated.

[Deleted]

you realize it displays your VCore as 1.9V? which is way too much

[stalkerzzzz]

you realize it displays your VCore as 1.9V? which is way too much

VCCIN is input voltage, not core voltage.

Make sure you're using Large Data Set when testing with OCCT (if you're testing with OCCT mode instead of Linpack). They recommend it because it finds problems faster and also produces the least amount of heat. My 4670k at 4.6ghz gets to 75-80C with 1.32 VID and a Noctua NH-D14.

[yurano]

One, i have about a 5-10c delta between some of the cores. Is this normal or is there something wrong with the seating of the cooler?

This is normal. Core 4 on my i7-4770K is consistently 5C cooler.

Probably due to how Intel mounted the IHS on the die.

[Erous]

The performance of the dark rock pro 3 is heavily based on case airflow, particularly air coming in from the front and exhausting out the rear. What case do you have and what is your fan/airflow set?

[Knslyr]

You could have gotten the cooling paste wrong, remove the old one and apply new cooling paste.

[Cilraaz]

VCCIN is input voltage, not core voltage.

In OCCT, it's showing vCore as 1.94V. That's not good. The VID is 1.25V, but the actual vCore is 1.94V. Personally, I'd pull up CPU-Z to check whether these numbers are accurate.

[Killora]

The performance of the dark rock pro 3 is heavily based on case airflow, particularly air coming in from the front and exhausting out the rear. What case do you have and what is your fan/airflow set?

It's not the pro, but i have a Define R4 with 1 140mm rear exhaust, two 140mm top fans blowing directly onto the heatsink, two 120mm front intakes, and of course the 140mm CPU fan pulling heat out of the heatsink and blowing it out the exhaust.

After fiddling with my fan configuration and everything i managed to get temps down to about 80c at 1.32v instead of 90c at 1.25v. Which i'd say is a massive improvement. I also re-seated the cpu cooler with new thermal paste but i don't think that helped much. However still seeing the same temperature delta on the same cores.

And don't worry, my vcore isn't 1.9v. OCCT is just displaying it wrong. My VCCIN is 1.95v atm and vcore is 1.32v.

I've managed to get to a stable 4.6ghz though so i'm happy. I can run 4.7ghz with around 1.35v but for the added heat i don't really gain enough (if any) performance out of it so no point in running it there.

I'd really like to crack this bleeding temperature difference though. It's annoying. Core #1 and #2 run at 80c now, while Core #3 runs at 70c and COre #0 runs at 75c.

[Tapaj]

Could Delid...

[MMKing]

Troubleshooting.

1 - check the thermal paste, it may be applied poorly on your CPU.

2 - Check that your CPU cooler is functioning properly. One of the fans may be off, spinning in the wrong direction or in other ways functioning poorly.

3 - Your CPU may be poorly made, Intel is only required to give you CPU that performs at factory settings. Not that easy to check if this is the case, but it may the reason.

Solutions:

1 - Get a new CPU cooler. Seeing some benchmarks your CPU cooler seems to be a top notch one, so you're not going to get much return on your investment
1b - Get new fans. Especially if noise is not a huge issue, you can get fans that vastly outperform the stock fans included with your CPU cooler.

2 - Reapply thermal paste, it may have been improperly applied. Check around on the internet as well, for stock settings any thermal paste will do. But if you're going to get it up to 4.5GHZ you may want to put in a few extra dollars for a few extra degrees.

3 - Get new/more fans for your case. Once again, stock fans are rarely premium quality and if noise is not a problem you can get a real cool computer that will benefit your GPU as well.

4 - Move your GPU. Companies like Asus, MSI and Gigabyte are more concerned with marketing their GPUs as the coolest and/or quietest at the expense of blowing hot air directly inside your case. The stock designs on the other hand blow the hot air out the back. Moving it further away from the CPU may improve thermal performance on your CPU.

Extreme solutions, will void warranty.

1 - Delid the cpu. Intel's thermal solution when it comes to anything after their sandy bridge CPUs have been poor at best. So instead of soldering the top part of the CPU contacting the CPU cooler to the die itself, they use thermal paste. Option 1 is to open it up, clean it an reapply higher quality thermal paste. Option 2 is to sold it yourself, which requires much more experience and is much more risky.

This should improve the thermal situation, and as an added bonus the heat should spread more evenly between the cores.

2 - ''lapping''. Simply explained you polish down the CPU with sandpaper or other materials in order to make the metal between the heat sink and the CPU die thinner for improved thermal conductivity.

DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY OF THE EXTREME SOLUTIONS ABOVE BECAUSE I MENTIONED THEM, READ UP ON THE SUBJECT AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF

[Lathais]

I'd really like to crack this bleeding temperature difference though. It's annoying. Core #1 and #2 run at 80c now, while Core #3 runs at 70c and COre #0 runs at 75c.

This is very normal and nothing to worry about. Without going to extremes there is not much you are going to do about it. It's not hurtning anything and you have a good OC on the system. Just leave it alone.

[MMKing]

Since Ivy Bridge intel doesn't use solder between the die and the heat shield (they claim they changed it due to their manufacturing process...). They use TIM now.. this does not help at all since they are using 3D transistors now in the dies.

If you do not want to delid the cpu and replace the TIM with liquid metal, just get use to the temps. They are OK to run hot.

The middle cores will ALWAYS be 5-10C higher than the outer cores as well, they are in the middle and will get hotter.

This is bullshit. Intel's piss poor solution may yield irregular heat distribution in the whooping ranges of 5-10c. But properly done deliding and with high quality thermal paste the difference will go down to 1-2celsius difference between the cores and the overall temperature may go down by over 15 degrees Celsius.

[Vash The Stampede]

Personally I would go through the trouble and lap the CPU and heatsink and then use metal polish to get a shine. Using wet-dry sand paper from 400 600 800 1000 and finally 2000 grit sand paper. I've done this with even the worst coolers with amazing results. Though you would void your warranty on the CPU.

[Groen28]

It is not bullshit my friend. I have always observed the middle 2 cores being 5-10 C hotter than the outer cores even after delidding my i5-3570k and using liquid metal between the die and IHS. Believe what you want though. Peace out.

My i5 4690k core 0 and core 3 are always the coldest by 5 Celsius on average. Same as yours.

[BicycleMafioso]

Just like the 212 EVO, the Dark Rock Pro is overrated.
But you probably have just gotten unlucky with the silicon lottery. It's a thing - you have to luck out on getting a good chip.
Mine is set to 4.4 and I handle that fine, without delid. It can survive even linpack and AVX2 enabled test suites (albeit getting toasty).

It is not bullshit my friend. I have always observed the middle 2 cores being 5-10 C hotter than the outer cores even after delidding my i5-3570k and using liquid metal between the die and IHS. Believe what you want though. Peace out.

That doesn't make it the case. My outer cores, #0 and #4 (i7 4770K) in general are much warmer than the inner cores. The #0 and #1 was warmer with my older cpu (i5 760).