Corsair H70 and some other noob questions

[Recluse]

Hi, I'm new to the forums and with building PC's aswell, just threw together the system (Rampage 3 Extreme, i7 950, GTX 580, 800d, Corsair H70, Dominator GT 2000 MHz CL8) as the first ever and was wondering something from you experienced guys about my temps and some other stuff (hope it's okay that I fill it into one topic, I know it's the water cooling forum I'm in but it's most about H70 so ).

 

I'm idling with 2 cores at 30 degrees C, 2 cores at 25 degrees C, full load at around 50 degrees, haven't done too much testing but that's what I get from prime95, are these fine temps for H70 or have I done something wrong? It's not after many minutes (10-15), but the temps seem to be stable around that point. And do you think with these temps I should be ready to do some clocking or are they too hot? This isn't overclocked yet as I await to RMA my mobo Here is the stock Vcore which I think is pretty damn high aswell, increasing temps.

 

As it was my first build I had to take the cooler on and off some times as I forgot stuff like 8 pin CPU connector (thought it got power through the 24 pin) so that's one thing I'll do when I get an RMA on my Rampage board (the first RAM channel doesn't work ) to try improve the temps.

 

Another thing is what way I should do push/pull config. As I see it now my logisys exhaust fans in the top blow out more air than I got intake for right now, so the temps actually went lower when I turned them off lol. Right now it's intake in the bottom of the 800d and intake in the back with the H70 in push/pull config. Don't have the top fans enabled right now as I need to get 3 pin extensions to get them all 3 up and running without having them on the PSU sata connectors with full RPM all the time due to noise levels. Do you reckon I should get the H70 and all 3 fans to be exhaust? My thoughts are that the simple intake wont be enough to cope with those fans and that it wont work very well if I do it like that, that's why I set the H70 as intake.

 

Also a bit offtopic but right now my Dominators are running a bit underclocked (they did from when I put them in the board) do you think I need to have the fan on them? As I can get 2 of the 3 exhaust fans going with 3 pins close to the top if I plug out the RAM cooling fan

 

As you probably understood my knowledge is pretty limited but I'm pretty good at understanding stuff fast so overclocking when I go in for it and such shouldn't be a problem!

 

If you bothered read it all, woah, sorry for the wall of text but when I get to writing it's easy to just go on and on

 

Here's a pic for reference for the questions about airflow and such for the H70, I know it's not a good cable management but it's my first build

http://i55.tinypic.com/2e1rmhd.jpg

Edited February 21, 2011 by Recluse

[Alexandre]

First of all Welcome to OCC Recluse!

 

I would trust the load temps more than the idle temps as they should be more precise. For the H70 your temps look fine. The i7 chips have a very high temperature tolerance so anything under 80 degrees C is awesome with Prime95.

You are definitely ready to overclock with those temps! Here's a great overclocking guide for you chip.

 

The RAM should run fine on 2000MHz at CAS 8 if that is it's rated speed. I doubt you will really need a fan on the RAM sticks with your case.

Anything about 1600MHz on the Rampage 3 Extreme mobo is considered an "overclock". So even if your rated RAM stick speed is 2000MHz the board should run it at lower speeds. You need to overclock your DRAM Frequency in the bios to get to your sticks' rated speed of 2000MHz.

 

As for the other stuff you asked about...I will let someone more knowledgeable give you an answer.

 

Hope you get that board RMAed quickly so you can use that beast

Edited February 21, 2011 by Alexandre

[Boinker]

Welcome to OCC!! Also welcome to my wall of text... watch your step, its slippery.

 

As it was my first build I had to take the cooler on and off some times as I forgot stuff like 8 pin CPU connector (thought it got power through the 24 pin) so that's one thing I'll do when I get an RMA on my Rampage board (the first RAM channel doesn't work ) to try improve the temps

 

I'm shocked it booted to be honest.

 

I'm idling with 2 cores at 30 degrees C, 2 cores at 25 degrees C, full load at around 50 degrees, haven't done too much testing but that's what I get from prime95, are these fine temps for H70 or have I done something wrong? It's not after many minutes (10-15), but the temps seem to be stable around that point. And do you think with these temps I should be ready to do some clocking or are they too hot? This isn't overclocked yet as I await to RMA my mobo Here is the stock Vcore which I think is pretty damn high aswell, increasing temps.

 

Nope: that is just fine. I see a happy I7 there. 1.190v is where the I7 920 is factory set. Is your processor set to auto and if that is the case when High TDP turbo mode your voltage will hop up a bit. Make sure Intel C-state and speed step are disable and that feature are disabled before you go OC'in. they interfere sometimes. Try to leave load line calibration alone until you have to use it. Refer to link over there > for your CPU-data. CPU-world.com

 

Another thing is what way I should do push/pull con-fig. As I see it now my logisys exhaust fans in the top blow out more air than I got intake for right now, so the temps actually went lower when I turned them off lol. Right now it's intake in the bottom of the 800d and intake in the back with the H70 in push/pull config. Don't have the top fans enabled right now as I need to get 3 pin extensions to get them all 3 up and running without having them on the PSU sata connectors with full RPM all the time due to noise levels. Do you reckon I should get the H70 and all 3 fans to be exhaust? My thoughts are that the simple intake wont be enough to cope with those fans and that it wont work very well if I do it like that, that's why I set the H70 as intake.

 

Don't use it as an intake. There will be hot air behind the case from the Video card and the Power supply. I would use it the way you have it if it works how it does now. But if you must, please turn them around and test the theory for us.

 

Also a bit offtopic but right now my Dominators are running a bit underclocked (they did from when I put them in the board) do you think I need to have the fan on them? As I can get 2 of the 3 exhaust fans going with 3 pins close to the top if I plug out the RAM cooling fan

 

You will have to set those manually in the bios. sometimes the I7 will get with this ram easy, sometimes it will not. To get my memory stable @ 2000 I had to use 1.55v Qpi and a 3n timing mode to make it work. This may be different for you. What i would do is try the memory auto set @ 1600, then 1866, then 2000 and run a stability test to make sure its stable. This way you will have a grasp for what your chip and board need for stock settings. If you will not post when you move it up. move to a 2n-3n timing mode. if you do not pass a stability test then check said timings and move up the QPI 2 steps at a time. Read into your chip though. Im not sure what the rated QPI limit value is. Just know for a 920 @ 1.55v QPI/Dram link..... IM WAYYYY OVER.

So no screw efficiency OC'ing for your first time. Do your steps and work it up nice and easy and you shouldn't have any trouble. Once you get comfy. Then you can have some fun.

After you read the guide Alexandra put out this will all make plenty of sense.

[Recluse]

Hehe it didn't boot first but then I quickly found out something was wrong and thanks to the great LED system on Rampage I found out what was wrong aswell rather fast!

 

Thanks a lot to both of you for your tips, most of it made sense (the only thing I dont understand basics of yet is RAM timings ). I think that's some really great feedback, especially for me to stop worrying about the temps and such! My H70 per now pulls air from outside btw, doesn't work as an exhaust, and while CPU temps might be good I haven't checked the system temps a lot

 

PS: I have an i7 950, not 920, but yeah I understand now why the vcore might seem so high now, thanks a lot for taking your time to write that wall of text to help, I'll do some stuff right now and see how it works out

[Alexandre]

Hehe it didn't boot first but then I quickly found out something was wrong and thanks to the great LED system on Rampage I found out what was wrong aswell rather fast!

 

Thanks a lot to both of you for your tips, most of it made sense (the only thing I dont understand basics of yet is RAM timings ). I think that's some really great feedback, especially for me to stop worrying about the temps and such! My H70 per now pulls air from outside btw, doesn't work as an exhaust, and while CPU temps might be good I haven't checked the system temps a lot

 

PS: I have an i7 950, not 920, but yeah I understand now why the vcore might seem so high now, thanks a lot for taking your time to write that wall of text to help, I'll do some stuff right now and see how it works out

Hopefully this article will clear up a few things about RAM and RAM timings.

 

Glad we could help mate

[Recluse]

Yeah that certainly cleared up the memory stuff! I decided to not get an RMA board until after a huge LAN party in my city due to it coming up and with vacations and . next week, I'm going to paris the week after the LAN party so sending it then Might do some overclocking tomorrow, probably find my max base clock on stock voltage today and see what I do tomorrow. Just some questions about 800d case cooling, do you think this fan setup would work? Per now if I turn the H70 rad to blow out, I only have the intake in the bottom (without the lower fan in the PSU chamber), that's maybe a bit too little for having 3 exhaust fans in the top and the H70 rad blowing out? Just thought of some stuff in paint and came up with that I could get a triple 5,25" bay to 120mm fan and get a fan in there, and saw some people putting another fan in the PSU chamber like on that pic. Or do you think I should just skip the fan in the PSU chamber, or possibly both the new fans? As per now it's intake bottom and rear, then double (triple when I get a 3 pin extender) exhaust in the top Saw that about the video card heat so I dont know really, I think right now having H70 as exhaust will blow out too much air for my intake, but I dont know if that's possible or something

 

Edited February 22, 2011 by Recluse

[Recluse]

Running my 1 hour stability test at 200 BCLK as in that test with 1.35 QPI voltage and 1.3 vcore, pray that it passes!!!

[Recluse]

 

Wohoo! Overclocking memory and cpu frequency tomorrow now that I got a stable uncore and bclk

[Recluse]

 

And here the OC is for now, can still go to 200 BCLK and see how that goes, but for now I'll run some hours stability test at 4 GHz and see how that works out, IntelBurnTest was working fine with this as shown on pic, what you guys that know a bit more about it than me think?

[The_Slayer]

Those are pretty good temps for the H70. For comparison, I'm running an i5 760 overclocked to 4ghz (stock is 2.8) and I run around 25-32c idle (depending on my room temperature) and around 50-55c with Prime95 running. The stock thermal paste on the H70 is alright, but not great. I used it for a few weeks and decided to replace it. When I took it off, I realized it was VERY thick. Replaced it with some arctic silver and my temps dropped a few degrees.

 

I'm also not using the stock fans on mine. I have a good 120mm fan I stuck on it that moves over 70cfm of air and is much quieter and that seems to work with just one pull fan on.