James, Just a thought. Have used Artic Silver 5 for a long time. Note that it does take some period of time post application to 'set-up' or 'cure.' I usually wait 24-48hrs post application to even start meaningful temp checks. Heard of Ceramic; never used it. And, water-cooling is way out of my purview. Again, just a thought. Best, Duncan
On 07/10/2011 14:19, James Maki wrote:
Greg, Again, thank you for the well thought out answers and analysis. I downloaded CoreTemp this evening and it is giving approximately the same temps. Not sure on the fans. They are the stock fans that come with the Swiftech kit. I backed off the oc frequency to 120 (a 2.5 GHz value) and backed off the cpu voltage to 1.2V from the default 1.225 V. I made no other changes for the original overclock in the BIOS. These changes resulted in little or no change. As the CPU throttles itself back due to inactivity (currently running at 1.8 GHz), I see no change in the temperatures. After changing to the Arctic Silver 5, the temps are currently running 39 to 43 for the four cores at idle. If I run the Prime95 torture test, the temp rises almost immediately to 60 to 64 degrees C. (This is with no overclocking, running at 2.5 GHz). After 3 minutes, 64 to 66 degrees C. After 10 minutes, the temps are still 64 to 66 degrees. After 20 minutes, a slight change to 65 to 67 degrees C (although the high and low fluctuate up and down over time). Raising the clock back to 150 (a 3.0 GHz cpu speed) resulted in the temps raising to 71-74 degrees C. Halting Prime95 drops the temps to 42-45 almost immediately. After 5 minutes, the temps are back to 38-43 degrees C. Backing the oc back to 120 (2.5 GHz) leaves the temps at 38-42 degrees C. What does it mean that the temps rise fast to a max and fall fast to a min? There is little upward or downward trend between idle and 100% usage with time. I could try the thermometer in the reservoir, although it would require some dis-assembly and acrobatic maneuvers. :) I find it strange that the idle temps seem unchanged between the overclock and the underclock situations. Also, the maximum temps reached are lower this evening (which could be related to cooler ambient temperatures) after changing the TMI, but the idle temps have actually raised even with the underclocking/undervolting. I have been searching google about this problem/situation and see a wide variety of temperature claims for the i7 920. Some claim almost ambient temperatures at idle and 50-60 degrees C at 100%. Others seem closer to my results with 35-45 degrees C at idle and 70-80 degrees at 100% usage. These result are usually on air cooling. Thanks for the guidance. Jim <snip>
