Temperatures normal for i7-950 with H50?

Programs: Real Temp 3.6; Prime 95 (Torture Test); SpeedFan 4.42

Bios Settings: 'Turbo' mode for Fan settings; Nothing else tweaked.

 

10:27 PM - 10:42 PM (Fifteen Minutes)

Idle Temperatures: 37ᵒC 36ᵒC 38ᵒC 35ᵒC

System Fan Speed: ~1075 RPM

CPU Fan Speed: ~675 RPM

 

10:43 PM - 10:58 PM (Fifteen Minutes)

Load Temperatures: 64ᵒC 65ᵒC 64ᵒC 62ᵒC

System Fan Speed: ~1360 RPM

CPU Fan Speed: ~1650 PM

 

What temperatures relative to my idle and load are normal on the i7-950 processor utilizing the H50 cooler? I feel these temperatures I am receiving are higher than normal. If so, how would I be able to decrease my temperatures? I built this setup yesterday, so assume all components are of stock quality. Please inform me if you require further information. Thanks in advance for reading.

 

Edit:

Ambient Temperature: 22ᵒC (Thanks 'Wired')

What's your ambient temperature?

Ambient Temperature: 22ᵒC

I have struggled with my 950 for a while now and only yesterday, after trying everything and almost RMA'ng my H70 I figured out a solution to the problem.

 

Firstly, many newer 950's tend to run a bit hotter than what is considered common, secondly - you've got a fresh mobo too and I suspect that its BIOS Auto settings are giving the chip/system too much voltage by default. If you're at Auto your vCore should be set at around 1.2 idle and 1.37 full load.. Get Everest and see what your vcore voltage is doing under full load..

 

Taking the above to account - I'm willing to wager that your 950 can be perfectly stable at stock speeds using much less voltage than the Auto settings are assigning it. My 950's Auto settings were also 1.2-1.37V vCore and 1.82 CPU PLL - I tweaked them down to 1.075V vCore and 1.75 CPU PLL - as a result my cpu runs about 15c cooler in full load.

 

Also bear in mind that the Thermal Paste must be applied correctly, your case airflow is important in getting the H50/H70 temps down and your motherboard North and South Bridge temps also play a role in the CPU idle temps - especially if your using H50/H70, because, unlike massive tower-aircoolers which have big fans right at the middle of the motherboard - providing airflow near the Bridge coolers - the H50/H70 does not - so I'd look into getting a big side fan for more cool air on the system or increasing airflow into the system in some other way.

 

The temps you provided with your post are not at all that bad btw - My cpu doesn't get below 39c at idle and I'm on a H70! Just get the vCore down a bit and you should be set.

First off get in to the bios and disable the fan controller and set it to run at max rpm... looks like your bios is slowing your pump and fan when no load is applied... this can damage your pump, it needs max rpm.

 

Report back once you have made your changes.

Great assessments. First, I will follow the suggestion from '..Venom..' and then follow up with the suggestion from 'moskwiz'.

Programs: Real Temp 3.6; Prime 95 (Torture Test); SpeedFan 4.42; CPU-Z 1.56 (in lieu of Everest)

Bios Settings: Fan controllers disabled; Nothing else tweaked.

Ambient Temperature: 21ᵒC

 

1:50 PM - 2:05 PM (Fifteen Minutes)

Idle Temperatures: 34ᵒC 32ᵒC 35ᵒC 31ᵒC

System Fan Speed: ~1360 RPM

CPU Fan Speed: ~1680 RPM

Core Voltage: 0.936 V

 

2:06 PM - 2:21PM (Fifteen Minutes)

Load Temperatures: 65ᵒC 65ᵒC 64ᵒC 62ᵒC

System Fan Speed: ~1380 RPM

CPU Fan Speed: ~1650 PM

Core Voltage: 1.224 V

They look excellent if you ask me. I believe the fans are loud when at max rpm with the H70 so I would suggest buying better(quieter) ones or maybe set them to run around 80%. Ideal max load temps should be around 67c.

 

Do you plan on overclocking?

That's reassuring to hear. Initially, I planned on overclocking, but these temperatures make me uneasy about the entire process. Following up on the advice from 'moskwiz', my core voltage under idle was relatively low compared to his initial values. Should I continue to tweak voltages in order to obtain better temperature changes or does his case not relate to mine in regards to obtaining a ~15ᵒC decrease? I'd have to admit I do not know anything about voltages and how it affects other variables as of yet.

The point on airflow will surely be taken into consideration.

@andoh

You can pretty much set all of your voltages to their lowest stable settings.. "Auto" settings in BIOS usually mean that, while the BIOS is modulating the voltages in real-time - they're still all set to a certain value, you could start by setting all the voltages (except for the DRAM which you have to set to the specified voltage - it's written on your ram sticks and QPI/PLL and QPI/DRAM which you can leave at Auto) to what they are in Auto - having them fixed is better because BIOS wont modulate them then. After you do that you can start lowering the Core voltage, CPU PLL, ICH and IOH.. if you're running in stock speeds I'd try 1.1 vCore, 1.7 CPU PLL, 1.15 ICH, 1.1 IOH..

 

950 Auto vCore should be around 1.2-1.3 depending on BIOS and it is common that ASUS boards give too much vCore and CPU PLL voltages as "Auto" .. getting these two down to as low as possible is vital to a cool system.. The IOH and ICH volts are North and South Bridge volts and getting them down lowers the Motherboard surface temp by up to several degrees and the cooler the ambient temp, the cooler the liquid in the H50 and the cooler your cpu ^^

 

If you start fiddling with the voltages, as long as you go lower there's no risk. If a system is unstable it will either BSOD or hang.. just get back in the BIOS and up the vCore (or whatever it is that you changed to cause instability) a bit and see if that gets it stable again. Don't be discouraged by BSODs and stuff - that's how OC'ng is done.. Just that, before you start OCng you should get the best stable settings (lowest all around volts ie. temps) so good luck. Keep us posted ^^

 

One more thing - try to do a little reading on OCng (http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/overclocking/22106-core-i7-overclocking-guide-beginners.html) and when you start changing voltages, I advise you to change one variable at a time so if you get unstable, you'll know what to revert.

Thanks a lot for all of your input moskwiz. Your information has been very thorough and with it, I hope I will be able to lower my temperatures.