Overheating (brand new) Dell Precision Tower

[Bruno_A]

Hi all,

We bought a Dell Precision 3650, at work, with a Core i7 10700K, and an Nvidia Quadro P2000.

 

While it has decent specs, it overheats and thermal throttles out of the box, hitting just over 100C. I changed the stock thermal paste to Arctic MX-2, and it actually made a massive difference. It no longer thermal throttles, and the fans are quieter, however, it still hits nearly 100C, and that's without the heat of the graphics card being dumped into the CPU. Here are some pictures of the stock cooler, and an exploded view of the different components, which is a similar version to ours:

 

 

Why would Dell do this, is beyond me.

 

I was wondering what were my options for a cooler upgrade.

As you can see, the PSU goes right on top of the CPU cooler, which massively limits my options. I measured the clearance, and I have up to 65mm, so, it would have to be something very low profile, that would keep up with an i7 10700K. Noise levels aren't a concern, within reason.

 

Any ideas?

 

I looked into Noctua's range, and the Noctua NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition seems decent, but I'm not sure it will fit, only by a couple millimeters. Also, I looked into a Corsair H60. Someone has already done it, actually.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

11 minutes ago, Bruno_A said:

My goodness that's bad, they probably would have been better off NOT having an exhaust fan at all as its not likely to shift as much air as that blower thus causing the air to bounce back into the cooler.

Rule 1 of cooling IMO is not having mismatched fans back to back like that.  Its not a problem if there is a gap such as in large cases, but when space is tight its just asking for trouble.

So personally I'd suggest trying WITHOUT that rear fan, assuming the BIOS doesn't throw a fit from it being missing.

[TrigrH]

Is the PSU ATX? id consider getting a new mobo cooler and case, that way you can use any cooler you like and even overclock the CPU.

[mariushm]

You could cut a hole or drill some holes in the power supply wall that's above the cpu fan , so that some air could be pulled from the air inside the power supply. Careful not to damage components inside power supply if you drill holes. 

Could also take some pliers to cut the metal mesh from the case to improve the air intake a bit.

Make sure the fins aren't clogged with hair and crap (the space between the squirrel cage fan and the actual heatsink with heat pipes)

 

[Bruno_A]

14 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

Is the PSU ATX? id consider getting a new mobo cooler and case, that way you can use any cooler you like and even overclock the CPU.

Not really an option due to cost, really. But if it were up to me, I would seriously consider it.

[jaslion]

Welcome to dell shitty computers by design. This thing is basically a recycled alienware internal chassis but they didn't  do an aio on this one. This is a common problem and it's pretty much just because the cpu cooler is far too weak for the cpu it's supposed to be cooling. It's basically a thick laptop cooler meant for under 60w tdp cpu's at most which the 10700k easily goes past. There is little to improve here as the air intake for the cooler is also semi blocked.

 

The best you can do is for some more airflow with better fans but thats about it. Or just leave the side open. Put a piece of tape over the case door sensor and you are good to go.

[Bruno_A]

7 minutes ago, mariushm said:

You could cut a hole or drill some holes in the power supply wall that's above the cpu fan , so that some air could be pulled from the air inside the power supply. Careful not to damage components inside power supply if you drill holes. 

Could also take some pliers to cut the metal mesh from the case to improve the air intake a bit.

Make sure the fins aren't clogged with hair and crap (the space between the squirrel cage fan and the actual heatsink with heat pipes)

 

Our version doesn't really have a fan at the front. Also, the machine is brand new, so, the heat sink fins are squeaky clean. Doing such mods wouldn't be an option, too, in our workplace. It would certainly be a last resort.

I can either slap a fan at the front, which I'm not sure would make a difference, or upgrading the cooler to a "somewhat" decent low profile one.

[pach86]

Take a look at this video. And hope you haven´t spent money trying to cool it while it's note necessary.

 

 

[pach86]

On 2/1/2022 at 4:25 AM, Bruno_A said:

Hi all,

We bought a Dell Precision 3650, at work, with a Core i7 10700K, and an Nvidia Quadro P2000.

 

While it has decent specs, it overheats and thermal throttles out of the box, hitting just over 100C. I changed the stock thermal paste to Arctic MX-2, and it actually made a massive difference. It no longer thermal throttles, and the fans are quieter, however, it still hits nearly 100C, and that's without the heat of the graphics card being dumped into the CPU. Here are some pictures of the stock cooler, and an exploded view of the different components, which is a similar version to ours:

 

 

Why would Dell do this, is beyond me.

 

I was wondering what were my options for a cooler upgrade.

As you can see, the PSU goes right on top of the CPU cooler, which massively limits my options. I measured the clearance, and I have up to 65mm, so, it would have to be something very low profile, that would keep up with an i7 10700K. Noise levels aren't a concern, within reason.

 

Any ideas?

 

I looked into Noctua's range, and the Noctua NH-L12 Ghost S1 Edition seems decent, but I'm not sure it will fit, only by a couple millimeters. Also, I looked into a Corsair H60. Someone has already done it, actually.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

On 2/1/2022 at 5:03 AM, jaslion said:

Welcome to dell shitty computers by design. This thing is basically a recycled alienware internal chassis but they didn't  do an aio on this one. This is a common problem and it's pretty much just because the cpu cooler is far too weak for the cpu it's supposed to be cooling. It's basically a thick laptop cooler meant for under 60w tdp cpu's at most which the 10700k easily goes past. There is little to improve here as the air intake for the cooler is also semi blocked.

 

The best you can do is for some more airflow with better fans but thats about it. Or just leave the side open. Put a piece of tape over the case door sensor and you are good to go.

Take a look at this video. And hope you haven´t spent money trying to cool the processor... because it's not really necessary.

 

[thejackalope]

I just got a T3650 workstation with Xeon W-1370P 125 watt version with that same heatsink. I disagree with a lot of the posts above!

 

Mine throttles too, probably largely because I live in Hawai'i where it's 80-85F ambient temperature. I think the main issue is that Dell sets the blower to quiet speeds rather than effective cooling speeds. It's capable of more than 1 amp of power draw! But I can't find any way to set or even monitor fan speed. Noctua makes a fan controller that goes inline with the 4 pin and lets you modify the original fan speed, might be worth trying.

 

The case isn't badly designed, Dell just chose a stupid fan for the top. They put in a 38mm 120mm fan so it doesn't have enough room to pull air from above the power supply. A 25mm or thinner fan would help. The challenge is finding one that is capable of the same speed range as the OEM fans.

 

The heatsink/fan also isn't badly designed. The small opening you see is the rear of the blower. The intake side faces the CPU and pulls air over the CPU and VRMs. The blower design is clever way to send heat out of the case without watercooling. I don't think there is any available low profile HSF that would perform as well

[thejackalope]

My bad, the stock top fan is a 25mm one! I think it's also 1 amp so it's capable of moving a lot of air. I see Noctua makes a 120mm x 15mm but it's only 0.16 amp and 1850rpm max so I don't think it can move more air even with the extra 1cm of clearance

[jaslion]

6 hours ago, thejackalope said:

My bad, the stock top fan is a 25mm one! I think it's also 1 amp so it's capable of moving a lot of air. I see Noctua makes a 120mm x 15mm but it's only 0.16 amp and 1850rpm max so I don't think it can move more air even with the extra 1cm of clearance

Yeah this is a heatsink failiure. The thing in the dell can be found on ali express n stuff and is rated up to 65w max. Your cpu or the 10700k are far above that.

 

This is another case of dell cheaping out.

[thejackalope]

5 hours ago, jaslion said:

Yeah this is a heatsink failiure. The thing in the dell can be found on ali express n stuff and is rated up to 65w max. Your cpu or the 10700k are far above that.

 

This is another case of dell cheaping out.

The blower heatsink is rated for 125W and in my testing it can handle that... I just ran Cinebench R23, it's over 80F in my room right now, and watts stayed pegged around 120-130W. The CPU was thermal throttling and staying around 4ghz and 89C, but it was right at the TDP so the blower heatsink does do its job!

 

If I got a bigger heatsink or water cooler, would the CPU exceed the 125W TDP and increase clocks for sustained periods of time? I probably won't, just curious

[jaslion]

22 hours ago, thejackalope said:

The CPU was thermal throttling and staying around 4ghz and 89C

So. It's not handling it.

[thejackalope]

45 minutes ago, jaslion said:

So. It's not handling it.

It is handling the 125 watt TDP... If it didn't thermal throttle it would also pull more watts and be out of spec

 

But what it can't handle is the GPU pulling its full 250 watts, even though it's a blower card because some of that heat stays in the case. I was playing BF2042 in 4k low settings last night and with ambient temperature at 82F it was getting throttled to where CPU power was around 95 watts. Dell needs a) choose a better fan for the top and b) let users choose faster fan profiles even if it's in the BIOS

[thejackalope]

A simple solution would be a PWM speed increaser. Noctua makes a fan controller than can reduce speed from what the motherboard puts out, but not increase it. I haven't been able to find any device that will increase speed by 10% or 20% or whatever