My CPU Story - A cautionary tale

[denarced]

Hi,

 

I thought I'd share my story which could be titled "how I messed up my build"

I started building my new and beautiful rig in last May and after it was done I noticed that my CPU temp was 105°C during heavy folding (100% CPU usage). I thought it was odd but being a lazy guy I just stopped folding on my main rig and left the folding for my laptop which is always on. Then I mentioned my max temps to some people at work and someone suggested that I should check if the cooler is properly attached. Yes, you guessed it: it wasn't.

At this point I thought that at least everything is now properly attached and there are no obvious heat sources so everything should be fine. Max temp during heavy folding: 105°C At this point I had nothing. No idea what was wrong and I decided to be a lazy guy once again.

A week ago I visited my best friend and he suggested that the stock thermal paste might have dried out when the cooler wasn't properly attached. I thought he was wrong but I know that some thermal pastes are better than some others (Linus might have mentioned this once or twice). I ordered a tube of Arctic Cooling's MX-4, got some alcohol from the pharmacy and an hour ago replaced the thermal paste. Folding has been raging on for 20 min and the temperature remains at 83°C! My friend was right and I was wrong and it feels so good

 

All newbies out there: Intel's stock cooler for i7 3770 can appear to be attached while it really isn't. That same cooler is probably used for quite a few Intel CPUs.

[AlwaysFSX]

How do you not completely attack the cooler? It's just four pegs you shove through the holes?  :huh:

Gratz on your nice temps now

[denarced]

How do you not completely attack the cooler? It's just four pegs you shove through the holes?  :huh:

Gratz on your nice temps now

I don't even know how I didn't attach the cooler properly I've been building my own rigs for the past 10 years and still I messed up ..

[CwGoh]

I don't even know how I didn't attach the cooler properly I've been building my own rigs for the past 10 years and still I messed up ..

Push pins. Bloody push pins. Always happens to me too. Only way to be sure is to visually check it every time.

[neision]

 

for 20 min and the temperature remains at 83°C! My friend was right and I was wrong and it feels so good

 

 

 

My CPU could never be above 60 degrees -___- folding or not I won't allow it to, I'd threaten her with pushing her stock cooler in her face! Folding or not..

Lenore stays under 40 degrees period

[mandrigald]

At least there was a happy ending to your tale....

[Pauloboss]

Why didn't you buy an aftermarket cooler? it's just 30 bucks for a decent one

[denarced]

At least there was a happy ending to your tale....

Indeed. When I noticed that my CPU is at 105C and the spec says that the max is 105C, I was wondering why the mobo didn't stop the fun  :blink:

[denarced]

Why didn't you buy an aftermarket cooler? it's just 30 bucks for a decent one

This time around I thought that I really had no use for one. I had one previously but this time I took my time and I selected the parts very carefully. At the end I guessed that I will have no use for an aftermarket cooler and so far it appears that I was right. The noise hasn't been a problem since all other parts aim for silence. I had no plans to overclock and I still don't. That's why I got 3770 instead of 3770K. I had heard (no experience thou) that the stock cooler is quite sufficient when you're not overclocking and my primary concern was and still is silence. But I wasn't sure about the aftermarket cooler when I bought the parts. I just figured that I can always add it after the fact.

[Kick]

I made the same mistake, but luckily it was on an old scrap machine running a Pentium 4 (with roughly the same stock Intel fan). Great learning process, though.

[denarced]

I made the same mistake, but luckily it was on an old scrap machine running a Pentium 4 (with roughly the same stock Intel fan). Great learning process, though.

Very good one indeed. And in order to make it even more effective I'm advertising my mistake

But I was worried there for a while. The CPU itself would've cost another 300€ if it had burned. My understanding is that the mobo is suppose to protect the CPU. It should violently shut down the system if the temperature is too high. That eased my mind a bit but when I noticed that it didn't shut down at 105C ...

[Kick]

Very good one indeed. And in order to make it even more effective I'm advertising my mistake

But I was worried there for a while. The CPU itself would've cost another 300€ if it had burned. My understanding is that the mobo is suppose to protect the CPU. It should violently shut down the system if the temperature is too high. That eased my mind a bit but when I noticed that it didn't shut down at 105C ...

105C is the Tjunction for the i7-3370, had it gone any higher and the system should have shut itself down or throttled to prevent damage. http://ark.intel.com/products/65719/#Package You were damn close

[TechFan@ic]

What ? this was on a 3770 ? thermal paste needs years to dry out, I honestly thought you were talking about a core 2 duo or quad CPU.

[denarced]

What ? this was on a 3770 ? thermal paste needs years to dry out, I honestly thought you were talking about a core 2 duo or quad CPU.

How about when the cooler is not properly attached for several months? Someone thought it could then dry out pretty quickly. I don't really know. I thought it was probably more dry than it should be because no one believed that stock cooler wouldn't be able to keep temperature under 80C. I guess the CPU could be a bit off but not completely broke??