Noctua NH-D14 + 2 Scythe fans

[chocobo1104]

Im currently running Noctua NHD-14 with 2 scythe fans at 500~550 rpm each push pull (basically inaudible) on stock i7 950. Case is Silverstone Fortress 02 and bottom 3 180mm fans are at max speed. Question is, my idle right now is at 48~49 for the hottest core and the lowest core is 44~45. Ive ran prime95 and ran succesfully for 10 hours but reached peak of 84C. Im a little bit worried about these temps as I will be running my comp for 24/7 at this setting. What do you guys think? (my first scythe fan that is in between nhd14 is currently on "Silent" option from asus bios and it is connected via 4pin cpu fan pin on 400rpm, and the other one is connected to my fan controller running at 700rpm) If I change from "silent" to normal setting, I can start to hear the fan noise which I really dont like. Is it better then to have bios controlled fan on the outer heatsink or in the middle?

[Fire-Flare]

My experiments with push-pulls (Using a Scythe Mugen 2) Show that the rear fan merely attracts air that loses momentum in the fins.

I suggest letting the front fan adjust speed as needed and have the rear one stay at your tolerance level.

[chocobo1104]

but is 50c ok for idle 24/7?

[chocobo1104]

Also, how can my temp make sense? Im using 1.15V AT STOCK SPEED and this chart that is using NH-D14 on 1.38V reaches 78C ON LOAD! How is this possible? How can 2 650 rpm on nh-d 14 on MUCH higher voltage be so much more cooler than my set up? This guy's case is open antec 1200, mine is Silverstone fortress 02.

[quest_for_silence]

What do you guys think?

Indeed your temps seem way too high to me: due to the enormous cooling power, you should be around the fifties (I guess even under those figures) but at load, not at idle.

What happens to those temps if you put the case sitting on its rear side s(where the PSU vent is located), instead that sitting regular on its feet? Do they change? And then what happens if you use only the middle fan?

However, it's rather incredible to me that you can hear a Scythe over the three 180mm Silverstones set at "high".

[CA_Steve]

What's your ambient and case temps at idle and after this burn-in session?
What temperature sensing utility are you using and did you calibrate it before using?
What happens to the case temp and CPU temps if you remove the case door(s)?

[chocobo1104]

What do you guys think?

Indeed your temps seem way too high to me: due to the enormous cooling power, you should be around the fifties (I guess even under those figures) but at load, not at idle.

What happens to those temps if you put the case sitting on its rear side s(where the PSU vent is located), instead that sitting regular on its feet? Do they change? And then what happens if you use only the middle fan?

However, it's rather incredible to me that you can hear a Scythe over the three 180mm Silverstones set at "high".

Is it even possible or safe to orient my case that way? Also, using only the middle fan, I get few celcius higher than now. And my mistake for not mentioning this, but I set the fan speed via case switch of all 3 on "low" then connected those to my fan controllers. Then I put them on "max" on fan controller which really means its going at "low" speed on CASE setting, which is 650 rpm.

[chocobo1104]

What's your ambient and case temps at idle and after this burn-in session?
What temperature sensing utility are you using and did you calibrate it before using?
What happens to the case temp and CPU temps if you remove the case door(s)?

I live in Canada and right now its pretty cold out and my room dont have alot of heating power. My room i believe stays well below 18~20 celcius. I am using Real Temp and HWmonitor to monitor my temps and if I remove case doors its pretty much similar, not much drastic. I would like to mention that I have applied very little artic 5 thermal paste for maximum heat transfer. Please give me more inputs and it will be greatly appreaciated.

[CA_Steve]

Did you follow the calibration procedure for Real Temp?

If, after calibration, you are still seeing these temps...I think you need to reinstall the cooler. Perhaps the mounting hardware isn't well seated. The Noctua + 2 fans should keep your CPU very cool and be able to remove heat quickly. In fact, after calibration, run this quick test:

- Record the idle temp.
- Start Prime95 with small FFTs. Run it for ~30sec to let the temps stabilize. Record the temp.
- Stop Prime 95. Record the temp 2 seconds, 5 sec, 10 sec, and 20 sec after stopping.

The temp should drop in a very steep curve in the first ~5 sec and then decrease at a decreasing rate. If it drops slowly over the first 5 sec, then the cooler isn't making significant contact with the CPU.

For example - My e8400 has the profile of 33C idle, 52C load (~30sec). After stopping Prime95:
1 sec 36C
5 sec 35
10 sec 34-35
20 sec 34

[chocobo1104]

Did you follow the calibration procedure for Real Temp?

If, after calibration, you are still seeing these temps...I think you need to reinstall the cooler. Perhaps the mounting hardware isn't well seated. The Noctua + 2 fans should keep your CPU very cool and be able to remove heat quickly. In fact, after calibration, run this quick test:

- Record the idle temp.
- Start Prime95 with small FFTs. Run it for ~30sec to let the temps stabilize. Record the temp.
- Stop Prime 95. Record the temp 2 seconds, 5 sec, 10 sec, and 20 sec after stopping.

The temp should drop in a very steep curve in the first ~5 sec and then decrease at a decreasing rate. If it drops slowly over the first 5 sec, then the cooler isn't making significant contact with the CPU.

For example - My e8400 has the profile of 33C idle, 52C load (~30sec). After stopping Prime95:
1 sec 36C
5 sec 35
10 sec 34-35
20 sec 34

Thank you for input I'll try it out then report back to you.

[quest_for_silence]

Is it even possible or safe to orient my case that way?

Yes, it's possible and safe, but you should do so not as normal working mode, just rather in order to first verify whether or not the Noctua's heatpipes are working properly. If temps should improve a lot, then more probably that not the D14 cannot work inside your Fortress (but currently I don't think so).
If nothing changed, then you might remove the motherboard to perform further testing, and if in case re-install the Noctua cooler.

[cordis]

I have a noctua nh-d14 in a fortress ft-02 with the stock fans, and it's cooling an i7 980x overclocked to 3.9GHz, and it reaches low to mid 80s at full load. I think I have the 180mm fans on low. So it's probably not the orientation, but if you do try turning it, let us know how it goes. Pulling it and reapplying some paste is a good idea, it could be a seating issue. Since noctua coolers typically have that rougher base, it usually helps to have a little more paste that less. But I do have an i7 950 in a different system, and it does tend to run hotter than my other i7s, I'm not really sure why. You may just have one of those chips that runs a little hotter than others, how Intel bins these things isn't exactly clear.

[chocobo1104]

LOAD for 30s = 72

1s : 57

5s : 50

10s : 49

20s : 48

[CA_Steve]

You are a man of few words

The temp decline over time looks good. Now to figure out why you see 28C over ambient at idle - that's still baffling. It should be 5-10C over ambient.

For load, Frostytech shows only a 17C rise over idle temp with 150W TDP (yours is 125W) and Noctua fans at low speed in an open platform. So, 48+17 = 65C. Not 72-80C.

Is the CPU failing to downclock at idle? Use CPU-Z and see if the core speed drops significately at idle (my e8400 goes from x9 multiplier to x6 muiltiplier at idle).

Finally, try manually underclocking in the BIOS and see if it has a significant effect.
.........................
After that, remove the mobo from the case and run idle/load tests for comparision to see if it's your case environment. If still high, it's time to remount the cooler.

[chocobo1104]

CPU Z shows it is currently at 1.12V running 21X150 = 3150 MHz. I have turned off all of intel power saving features. So, I would assume that voltage and clock would stay the same no matter what. I will try reseating the heat sink and see what happens. Do you think scythe fans running (120mm) at 350~500 rmp is the cause of this problem? Back when I was overclocking with noctua fans that came with NH-D14 and not care about noise level, I would get 42~44C on 1.3V running 20X200 = 4000MHz. But it was VERY VERY loud for my liking and this is why I decided to change to current settings.

[CA_Steve]

CPU Z shows it is currently at 1.12V running 21X150 = 3150 MHz. I have turned off all of intel power saving features. So, I would assume that voltage and clock would stay the same no matter what.

Lol. Ok, that's why your idle temps absolutely SUCK. Why did you turn off the power saving features?

I will try reseating the heat sink and see what happens. Do you think scythe fans running (120mm) at 350~500 rmp is the cause of this problem?

And that's a large portion of why your load temps suck. It's a 125W TDP processor. I think you might need to dial up the fan rpm to 800 or so.

[chocobo1104]

haha well I turned off my intel power saving features because I hated how my computer could go down as low as 2000MHz. I would just like to have my computer at 3ghz at all times... I will try out reseating + raising rpm abit and report back... (however I really do want this cpu to be as silent as possible...) And another reason why I turned off intel power saving features is that when it is on I think my psu is making alot more electric buzz than normal. Im currently using AX850 and yes fans are indeed quiet, but the electric noise is NOT. Please if you guys use this power supply let me know how it performs for you guys!

[CA_Steve]

I would just like to have my computer at 3ghz at all times

Will it explode if it slows down?

[Fire-Flare]

haha well I turned off my intel power saving features because I hated how my computer could go down as low as 2000MHz. I would just like to have my computer at 3ghz at all times.

You know that's 2GHz, right? Not a shabby idle rate.

Disabling SpeedStep should disable automatic underclocking so it runs at full speed. I haven't tried it on Intel CPUs, but it works on AMD's equivalent.

[ces]

I would just like to have my computer at 3ghz at all times

Why would you do that?

[Fire-Flare]

I would just like to have my computer at 3ghz at all times

Why would you do that?

I once did it because I thought the system might lag if ton of data hit it at idle.

[ces]

I would just like to have my computer at 3ghz at all times

Why would you do that?

I once did it because I thought the system might lag if ton of data hit it at idle.

I have been told these chips jump up and down in microseconds.... far beyond a human's ability to sense the change.

[Fire-Flare]

I have been told these chips jump up and down in microseconds.... far beyond a human's ability to sense the change.

Sensors show mine does. Even when locked at specific multiplier it goes a little over and under its designated speed with each detection cycle.

[CA_Steve]

At 2GHz, one clock cycle is 0.5 nanoseconds. Even the most complex operation will happen faster than you can possibly notice. The only possible reasons to disable EIST are:
- you are an overclocker operating well beyond the stock speed.
- you have a real-time application that could possibly stutter if the CPU changes memclock multiplier on the fly.

For the other 99% of us, EIST is a good thing. Less power used => less heat generated => less fan rpm needed => quieter, longer lived system.