Widescreen Gaming Forum

I installed Speedfan on my new computer and read temperatures of 48C for the cores and 53C for AUX (whatever that is) on stock i7 950 cooler and two case fans in pull/push configuration. That was after five hours of Mass Effect 2. Is that considered too hot or quite normal?

Very normal.

Ignore Speedfan nowadays - I haven't had that program read temps right for me since my Opteron 170. Use CoreTemp or Realtemp instead.

But depends... was that 48*C seconds after Mass Effect or minutes after? What are your ambient temps? But the stock coolers usually have the CPUs pretty warm, so I wouldn't worry too much...

(Core i7 chips can take up to 100*C, although I personally don't like seeing mine go over 70*C. Phenom II chips, on the other hand, don't like going over 65*C or so. I forget the exact temp...)

That was immediately after exiting the game.

That stock cpu cooler is noisy at full speed. I'll have to find a more efficient one.

I've gone off Thermalright heatsinks recently, and don't have any solid experience of alternatives for Core i7 CPUs.

That being said, I'm very impressed with my Corsair H70 (all-in-one watercooling unit) but I'm less impressed with the fact that buying it now would cost more than it had when it was just released. :|

One thing i like about Speedfan is the ability to control the speed of the case fans. The Cooler Master Excalibur is quite noisy at full speed (30 db) so it's nice to be able to slow it down without having to purchase a speed controller.

How noisy is the H70?

With stock fans, it's pretty damned loud unless you stick the speed-reducing resistors inline on the fans. With them, they're quieter. And it doesn't impact performance too badly.

Having said that, when I get the chance, I'm going to slap a couple of 38mm fans on it instead, as the 25mm ones provided really struggle to get air through the nearly 50mm thick radiator.

Mostly I haven't because the H70 was a bastard to install with only two hands. Ideally, get someone to give you a hand holding it still so it's easier.

...

I can't stand mobo fan control, as I've only had two boards that actually let me control the fans properly off the mobo headers with speedfan. I've been using a Zalman MFC-1 Plus through five builds now - works great. Although I hate blue LEDs.

I'm starting to understand why the H50 has better ratings than the H70 on Newegg.

Eventually, i'll buy a case fan controller but at the moment i decided that i have spent enough on that new computer.

I actually think the H70 is better - but Corsair need to do an SKU without fans so you can add your own. The rad on the H70 is better than the H50, the cold plate assembly isn't as large, etc.

I decided to go crazy and try to fit a (thick) triple 120 radiator in a P180. My original plan was mount it in the roof (only place, really) but the RAM I'm using is waaaaay too tall with the rad in the case. Need to mount rad externally and fans internally. But that isn't really the way I wanted to do it. It's damned annoying, as if it wasn't for that, everything would work great... although I admit that fitting the 8-pin CPU power might be an exercise in extreme headaches.

Yea, when it comes to temps in 50s don't worry too much.

My laptop hits 80C on the cpu and gpu regularly and it doesn't hurt it (cant say the same about me (it burns sometimes)).

And PS, when has the P180 been anything less than difficult for you?