QX9770 CPU & X48 Motherboard Temperature

[guptasa1]

Hey all,

Building on an X48 with the QX9770 and I'm getting these temps in the BIOS:

CPU: 39-42C (fluctuates; average around 40)
Motherboard: 30C

This is with the side off. Thanks.

 

[guptasa1]

Just freaked myself out a bit. Was looking up temperatures, and though I know early versions of the QX9770 (such as the one shipped to Anand) came with an air cooling solution, it appears Intel's company line is now that the QX9770 *requires* water cooling. I'm on air (stock speeds) and am using an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. Am I in trouble? (I had a bit of trouble getting this thing to install but think I finally got it and used a bit of extra thermal paste since I had to take it off a few times.

 

[Toadster]

Originally posted by: guptasa1
Just freaked myself out a bit. Was looking up temperatures, and though I know early versions of the QX9770 (such as the one shipped to Anand) came with an air cooling solution, it appears Intel's company line is now that the QX9770 *requires* water cooling. I'm on air (stock speeds) and am using an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. Am I in trouble? (I had a bit of trouble getting this thing to install but think I finally got it and used a bit of extra thermal paste since I had to take it off a few times.

what are your LOAD temps? 39-42C at idle sounds pretty good for a smokin quad

 

[guptasa1]

heh - I haven't gotten that far yet. =oP I just got the case fans all going, motherboard installed in the case with CPU, RAM, video card, and of course PSU and the front connectors all hooked up so I could turn it on and check out the BIOS. I was so nervous, but it works! I've done maintenance on my old machine, but this is my first from scratch build, so I'm pretty excited. I'll test temperatures as soon as I get it finished and an OS installed (I'm *hoping* tomorrow but it may take a bit of the week).

Glad to hear at least so far those temps sound reasonable. Can anyone recommend a good utility (Vista) to monitor temperatures? (I'd guess one comes with the ASUS P5E3 Premium mainboard but I'm not certain.) Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Toadster]

personally, i use speedfan to monitor temps/fan speeds - but the newest intel desktop utilities (built by Avocent) seem to be pretty cool...

i'm going to build an x48 system myself soon, so keep us posted!

 

[Scottae]

Is this the air cooler you got? I know this is what was supposed to come with the processor I thought

http://www.frostytech.com/arti...iew.cfm?articleID=2278

NM just read up.. damn you pay 1500$ for a chip and intel cant throw in a freaking Heatsink? what the hell.

 

[guptasa1]

Thanks for the info, Toadster!

No, I ended up getting an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro as the retail QX9770 doesn't come with a fan/heatsink. But yes, when Anand previewed it, the fan/heatsink Intel apparently was going to release looked similar to that.

I'm hoping the Freezer 7 Pro will get me cool enough. I don't want to overclock - just run stably at load and such. The rest of the system should be quite cool (5x 120 mm fans + Corsair Airflow RAM cooler).

 

[Hugh H]

An Artic Freezer Pro will do the job at stock speeds. As long as you stay below 65 - 70C, your chip wil last a long time. If you want to overclock, however, you would need a beefier air cooling solution (assuming you don't want to use watercooling). I used the Artic Freezer Pro for a while and it did its job on a E8500 @ stock speeds, and just swapped it yesterday for a Tuniq 120 since I started overclocking.

For right now just get your system stable but honestly, start looking into overclocking since that processor is perfect for overclocking.

 

[guptasa1]

Thanks for the feedback! Glad to hear the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro will work for now. Assuming I always kept it at stock, do you think it's a good cooler to keep and I can trust it without worrying? What temperature readings would be considered dangerous for this processor? I had a hell of a time with the push pins (hardest part of the whole install) but think I finally got 'em - I hate to take it off - lol.

I read these processors have thermal throttling (ie. it gets to hot, it slows or shuts down). Is there any way I can tell if it decides to start doing this? Not only do I want to make sure it's at safe temps, but I also want to make sure it's not getting so warm it has to throttle down at load.

And I'll take your advice - if I do decide to overclock, I'll look into a different cooling solution. I really, really am not comfortable with trying water - I had no idea Intel changed their tune on this thing and no longer support air cooling for it (though at least I know people have had good luck with air and even OC'd with it okay). Thanks!

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Toadster

what are your LOAD temps? 39-42C at idle sounds pretty good for a smokin quad

stock and yorkfield, thats quite normal, maybe a tad bit higher if he's using stock cooler.

 

[guptasa1]

Well, I decided to stop grumbling and remove the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. I was relieved to find out I could do it without removing the motherboard try again, and now that I understand the pin system I'm doing better with those too. I think I got it on secure this time.

I realized after some research I used way, way too much thermal paste (I screwed up the initial installation with the pre-applied stuff because of pin problems so felt like I needed more). So I cleaned it off (used Swim Ear ear drops...alcohol - lol) as I had way too much excess. Then I followed the MX-2 directions on the website - just a dab in the middle of the processor.

Annnd...I'm now getting (in the BIOS still) 36-41C with an average around 39C. So a little bit of improvement.