Problem with overheating CPU while overclocking

[DoctorSarcastic]

I have just started to attempt to overclock my 4770k. The cooling I have on it is the Corsair H100i with a pair of Noctua NF-F12 fans mounted on the bottom pushing air through the rad and out the top of the case. I have just successfully booted and ran a 2 minute stress test using the one built into Aida64. The CPU frequency was set at 4.3GHz at a voltage of 1.2v. I am a bit sad that this chip is not a real good overclocker as I tried 4.5GHz at 1.2v and it gave a BSOD on boot up. Anyway, I am not worried about the chip and it's overclocking abilities, I am worried about the temperatures I am getting while putting under stress even at this low of a voltage. I am getting an average of 89 C on all cores and at one time a max of 97 C on the first core. I read all over the internet that the H100i performs exceptionally well with high loads. These temperatures are not resembling that. The last time that I removed the cooler, I had noticed that the thermal paste had not really bonded very well with the CPU. Could this be part of the reason for low temperatures? Or is it just because the pump isn't running fast enough or something like that? Also, is there a way I can know for sure that the pump is actually running and that the liquid is actually flowing? Many thanks and sorry for the long post.

[Boink]

The 4770K has rather a poor thermal interface material between the processor die and the heat spreader. You can try replacing the thermal paste on the H100i but it might not help too much, you may need to just lower your overclock a little.

[gollum99]

Never do stresstests on haswell, mine crashes under testing too but does everything else (even rendering videos) fine. If you wanna know if the pump actually spins, just use a fan speed reading tool and look at the header the pump is plugged into, should be like 2400rpm or so but dont quote me on that!

[DoctorSarcastic]

Never do stresstests on haswell, mine crashes under testing too but does everything else (even rendering videos) fine. If you wanna know if the pump actually spins, just use a fan speed reading tool and look at the header the pump is plugged into, should be like 2400rpm or so but dont quote me on that!

I looked in the bios for the fan speeds and the connector that the pump is plugged into read around 450-500RPM. You said don't quote me but you probably have a better idea at what the pump should be running at than I do.

[DoctorSarcastic]

The 4770K has rather a poor thermal interface material between the processor die and the heat spreader. You can try replacing the thermal paste on the H100i but it might not help too much, you may need to just lower your overclock a little.

So de-lidding the CPU would be my best option? What if i just bought some better paste and applied a little more then usual? I wonder if the uneven spreading could be becuase of some motherboard flex or uneven tighting of the screws.i do remember however that I did tighten the screws down very hard the last time I removed the cooler.

[LogicalDrm]

Never do stresstests on haswell, mine crashes under testing too but does everything else (even rendering videos) fine. If you wanna know if the pump actually spins, just use a fan speed reading tool and look at the header the pump is plugged into, should be like 2400rpm or so but dont quote me on that!

 

"Don't do stress tests..." How on earth will you find out about stable OC then? Even testing if cooling works on stock config may need benchmark/stress test.

 

@DoctorSarcastic, 1.2V is really low voltage for 4770K OC. The sweetspot is 1.27-1.28V and max recommended is 1.3V. The chips are really weak in general. Like mine which can barely do 4.3GHz.

[gollum99]

My OC crashes on stress test but never in real world use. NEVER. even when gaming or rendering. Thats why I dont recommend stress testing.

[D2ultima]

My OC crashes on stress test but never in real world use. NEVER. even when gaming or rendering. Thats why I dont recommend stress testing.

That might be because gaming or rendering does not put the biggest strain on the CPU? If you tried streaming a game like CoD Black Ops 2 running at 120fps constant while using x264 + slow compression + high encoding profile in the stream settings, you might see your CPU actually getting some real-world "work" done.

[gollum99]

well i dont stream so i dont need it

[LogicalDrm]

My OC crashes on stress test but never in real world use. NEVER. even when gaming or rendering. Thats why I dont recommend stress testing.

 

That may be your case. But for most its highly recommended running stress tests in order to find out if there is any problems with settings.

[runit3]

I looked in the bios for the fan speeds and the connector that the pump is plugged into read around 450-500RPM. You said don't quote me but you probably have a better idea at what the pump should be running at than I do.

First issue, The pump should be running ~2200rpm. Plug the pump into your CPU_FAN header, if you have fan control within your BIOS set it to full speed, if you're using software set it to full speed.

There is also a known mounting problem with the H100i. @Faceman has multiple posts around here about how to fix the issue,

Here are some links:

Read Posts #1 and #3

Corsair Forum Washer Mod

Once you've addressed those issues and gotten the temps down you still may run into the problem of abnormally high temps at relatively low voltage. Almost all first run Haswell's have die/IHS TIM issues where delidding is the only solution, but you should still be able to hit ~4.4-4.7GHz @1.25-1.3v as long as you can keep the temps in the 80-85C range while synth benching.

[ablangc]

As mentioned with Runit3, there is a slight mounting problem with the bracket.  I have also read of improper mounting with the bracket on the back of the MOBO. (see pic) Use new thermal paste and utilize the pea size method.  Reseat everything and run your tests again.  I had the same problem with my 4790k.  Good stress testing software, AIDA 64, INTEL XTU, Prime 95 VERSION 26.6 (Do not use the new Prime 95).