CPU idles at 65 C

Hello,

 

I've got a Corsair H60 (or at least something very similar). For the last several days if not weeks I've noticed that my PC was stuttering quite a bit on mundane tasks like web browsing. I had to reboot and my bios halted the boot up saying that the CPU was experiencing a heat event. I've blown out all the dust and reapplied thermal paste 3 or 4 times and it is currently idling at 65 C in the bios. If I boot into Windows, it goes steady around 70 or 75 and if I'm doing anything at all, it'll spike up to low 90s while hovering in the upper 80s. My problem is that I can feel the hot water coming off the water block and I can feel that the water going in is nice and cool. In the bios the CPU fan shows >4000 RPM. To me that indicates that the pump is still working. But why is the idle temp so high? Should I just cave and jump for a new cooler if for no other reason than to test whether that's the problem? It's not manually overclocked, everything in the bios is pretty much stock specs.

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

ETA: specs are Asus X99 Deluxe motherboard

Intel i7-5930K

Leave it off overnight (or at least for several hours). When you first boot up, the CPU temps should be slightly above room temperature, usually +4-7C. If you reach the BIOS and can see the CPU temp continue to tick upwards one degree at a time back toward 60C+, it is likely you have a flow problem. A failed pump is one type, but there can also be blockages where the pump speed continues to read as it should (4000 BIOS speed is correct for that unit). Normally, the first thing to check is you haven't cut the voltage to the pump, but at 4000 is it is getting the necessary 12v. If you are using AI Suite/Fan Xpert, make sure that is not tuning the pump like a fan. Once you reach Windows, its settings will override the BIOS Q-fan controls. Still, it would be fine in the BIOS, so again it is appears to be a pump or flow issue. You can start the RMA process here. You will need the purchase invoice and a new login/password of the Corsair Tech page.

 

Long term, you may want to consider a cooling upgrade. At the default 3.5 level, there isn't a tremendous amount of wattage to dissipate, but you may wish to explore the substantial overclocking room Haswell-E has to lengthen the useful life of the CPU at a later date. Using the 120/140mm slot in the rear is fine, but if you have GPU heavy loads as well, the radiator and coolant will absorb part of that waste heat. Moving to a double cooler (240 or 280mm) would likely give you better temperatures in most scenarios. Of course, much of this is use dependent and there are case fit requirements. My preference would be for a 280mm if you have the room. With the most surface area, it will allow you run extremely low fan speeds even under load and even when overclocked. I run mine at 4.5 and 1.275v with a cache boost to 4.0Ghz. My H110 fans can run no more than 700 when under load and it will stay below 50C almost always with really heavy load peaks near 60. I haven't run a flat baseline test in a while, but at stock frequencies it won't break 45C on a full load stress test. You likely will need to pay shipping back to Corsair with the H60. You may wish to factor that into your cost/benefit analysis.

Thanks for that information. I figured it must be something wrong with the pump, even though it's weird that I can feel the hot fluid coming out of the block. I ordered an H100i to see how that compares and I'm working on getting an RMA going.

 

Thanks again.

When it's at a dead stop, the water will still continue to conduct heat and it will work it's way up the tube. Unfortunately, it is also conducting heat straight back at the CPU and you get some very warm bath water sitting in the pump. Be careful with it until a replacement is secured.

Yeah if the impeller blades have broken off, you'll still see full pump RPM, but water will not be moved in that case. In fact with no resistance on the pump, you'll see higher RPM, which might be why you're seeing something as high as 4000RPM (that seems too high to me). I have an H60 in a machine, I could check if you want...

 

Anyway yeah with no water flow the CPU will overheat in less than a minute if it's loaded. A water cooler with no pump is like an air cooler that fell off completely, lol. There really is no ability to remove heat from a CPU effectively at that point. Definitely don't use the machine until you replace the cooler. If you have the stock air cooler on hand, you can install that until you get the replacement as that will be much better than a dead or no-flow pump in a CLC.

I think the 4000 rpm may be the BIOS interpretation of the speed without the Corsair pump divider modifier (2). 2000 rpm sounds more reasonable. There is some old thread somewhere and this gets sorted out, but I can't find the mark. Regardless, it's time for a replacement.