Cold idle, HOT Orthosing

[General Septem]

Some of you saw my review for the Tuniq Tower 120, well in this review I stated that my idle temps were low-20s. At the time I hadn't run Orthos yet so I didn't know how it would do with a load. I just assumed it would be better than what I had before.

 

Well the other night I ran Orthos and logged the temperatures. I'd seen this thing get kind of hot, but Orthos turned it into a boiler. Core #0 got as high as 60 C in brief bursts with a logged maximum of 59 C. Core #1 got up to 68 C. All the while, the Tower was perfectly cool to the touch.

 

Something is going on here. With temperatures of 68 C, the Tower at least should not be cool to the touch.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts as to what might be going on here? I'm going to try lapping this thing and possibly the IHS in a few days, I'm hoping that will solve the problem.

 

I've also noticed that temps fluctuate a LOT just between a few % CPU usage. At completely idle the chip will reach its lowest temperature, but the slightest thing will raise it by a few C. It's not just the Tuniq I noticed this with, the stock cooler did the same thing.

 

I'm not going to remove the IHS until I get WC. Even though this is a bolt-on cooler, it's much too heavy and too big a lever for me to feel comfortable doing so. But with any luck, lapping will make a big enough difference. Does anyone have any other thoughts?

[wardog]

That Tuniq is heavy. Too much for my sanity.

 

Related. Assuming it's mounted in a tower case, do the temps get any better when the MB is horizontal?

 

Edit, Eh now on re-reading I see that the chip did this with the stock cooler too.

[General Septem]

That Tuniq is heavy. Too much for my sanity.

 

Related. Assuming it's mounted in a tower case, do the temps get any better when the MB is horizontal?

 

Edit, Eh now on re-reading I see that the chip did this with the stock cooler too.

 

It's not in a case actually, I've never had it mounted vertically with the Tuniq installed. I'm currently building a case for it, so it'll be interesting to see how it holds up. I can always fabricate some kind of stiffener to mount the cooler through the board to if need be. By that time I may have WC and I'll use the Tuniq for a secondary rig, which will be installed in the same case only horizontally.

[THEnumber337]

It's not in a case actually, I've never had it mounted vertically with the Tuniq installed. I'm currently building a case for it, so it'll be interesting to see how it holds up. I can always fabricate some kind of stiffener to mount the cooler through the board to if need be. By that time I may have WC and I'll use the Tuniq for a secondary rig, which will be installed in the same case only horizontally.

 

Have you checked the flatness of the CPU and/or the Tuniq by holding up a straight-edge such as a razor to it and gliding it across with a light behind it such as a light bulb to see if any light passes through?

[General Septem]

Have you checked the flatness of the CPU and/or the Tuniq by holding up a straight-edge such as a razor to it and gliding it across with a light behind it such as a light bulb to see if any light passes through?

 

I haven't, how much light constitutes a lot?

[THEnumber337]

I haven't, how much light constitutes a lot?

 

Hmm... I have never done this myself but I would say anything more than a couple little specks of light. I guess use your own judgment. It might be possible that your IHS is concave.

[General Septem]

Hmm... I have never done this myself but I would say anything more than a couple little specks of light. I guess use your own judgment. It might be possible that your IHS is concave.

 

It is, at least, very rough (the HSF anyway), so I'll have to look into that. I'm thinking the same thing actually.

[White_Hair]

I think some lapping for both the IHS and the base of the heatsink will yield better results.

[Biomixy]

Just to let you know you get no bennefit going over 600 gritt other than a nice shiny appreance!

[General Septem]

I lapped both the IHS and the Tuniq to 600 grit. I went ahead and lapped the Evercool VC-RE while I was at it. It definitely helped.

 

I used a full sheet of 320 grit before I decided to use 220. We have a roll of that though so it was very narrow. A little bit with the 220 got it pretty much flat. I used up the rest of the 320 getting it perfectly flat. At that point two quarter-sheets of 400 and one of 600 were enough to finish all three. When I got to the 600, I kept using the same piece of paper which caused it to polish the parts to above 600 grit as it wore and mixed with copper dust. I got the pieces so flat and smooth that placing the surfaces together created a small amount of suction, enough to just slightly lift the CPU off the workbench.

 

Temperature results were odd. Both cores now idle at 30 C, but they don't go above 50 C at load. It seems lapping them caused slightly higher idle temps but much lower load temps and much less fluctuation. I'm also not sure what the room temperature is nor what temps will be once the AS5 is set.

 

It also made a big difference in the Evercool as well. About 3-5 C improvement, although it is difficult to get an exact measurement because I don't know exactly where the knob was set before the mod.