37 replies to this topic

[Lionsroar]

Gents

About a year ago my son and I built my first computer with the help of a friend and advice from the members of the forum. It has been working great, but in the past 3-4 months I noticed that after 5 or 6 games I would experience moments of significant lag, almost a stuttering effect and when I F9'd I would see the FPS drop drastically at those moments. I would also hear breaks in the conversation on teamspeak, I noticed that the computer felt very warm. Simply rebooting only helps a little, shutting it for 5 or 10 minutes helps a lot. I normally run 80-100 FPS and it would drop to 10-15 for a moment. As time goes on it would get worse and the periods of low FPS would occur longer.

First I cleaned out the case, sprayed everything with the compressed air cleaner, and wiped some of the fan blades with a q-tip.

Then I went and installed a CPU monitoring program, HW monitor. I noticed that after playing for a while the CPU cores were reaching temps in the high 70C range-77C, 78C etc. And the GPU temp was even higher.

I ran the MWO repair tool.

When we built the computer, we only plugged in one of the 2 case fans because there was only one spot on the motherboard to plug in a fan. So we plugged in the one in the back right by the cooler. The one in the front we did not plug in.

The computer is located under the desk, not too close, but not too far from the baseboard heat, and the house is kept around 70 F. I positioned a small desk fan to blow into holes in th case near the cooler but it does not seem to help.

The system gets quite a bit of MWO use, both my son and I play MWO on it, but it is not used for anything else except a little web surfing.

I know a little about computers, but not a lot......

My questions are, first are these temps normal? If not is there anything that I can do to improve them? Do you have any suggestions to improve performance?

I'm logging on to the game now and will post the numbers from the monitoring program later.

Thank you in advance for your help.


The specs for the system are:

[color=#959595]CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($188.00 @ Amazon)[/color]
[color=#959595]Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($70.38 @ SuperBiiz)[/color]
[color=#959595]Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($74.70 @ Newegg)[/color]
[color=#959595]Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.99 @ Amazon)[/color]
[color=#959595]Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 265 2GB Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)[/color]
[color=#959595]Case: Rosewill Galaxy-03 ATX Mid Tower Case ($36.00 @ Newegg)[/color]
[color=#959595]Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)[/color]
[color=#959595]Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)[/color]
[color=#959595]Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)[/color]

[Lionsroar]

After 2 CW matches the CPU is averaging 66C-68C with highs of 72C-74C, My GPU hit a high of 87C. I'm starting to hear interference in the teamspeak after 2 matches

[Euklides]

There can be many reasons as to why you have your issues, but that heat is not good to maintain at those levels none the less.

First off, I gather you have two fans, one on the chassi and one on the cpu?

First try to achieve a good airflow. Cool air pulled from the bottom and hot air pushed out top.

I am going to assume by cooler you mean the cpu fan (or passive solution?), where does this fan push the air?


There are fan controllers that you can buy that go into pci ports or other similar solutions, these can be used to power and control the other fans that you can not plug into a motherboard. I'd recommend you to get one so that you can guarantee a good flow inside the computer.


Dust can also be a culprit, open up and check vents and heatsinks for dust accumulation, preferably remove it with a can of air.

Edited by Euklides, 10 January 2016 - 08:36 PM.

[Lionsroar]

It does have a CPU cooler. The one case fan that is plugged in is right next to that cooler.

[color=#959595]CPU Cooler** | [Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler[/color]

[Euklides]

So what are the fan directions?
what are the flow in the chassi, are the cpu fan and the chassi fan right next to each other?

[riverslq]

Euklides, on 10 January 2016 - 09:02 PM, said:

So what are the fan directions?
what are the flow in the chassi, are the cpu fan and the chassi fan right next to each other?

Are you using the stock cpu fan that came from intel?
If so, that might be a major cause of your cpu temps.

[Lionsroar]

I'm not using the stock fan, I'm using

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
https://pcpartpicker...er-rr212e20pkr2

[Oderint dum Metuant]

The Hyper 212 should keep that chip plenty cooled.
Why haven't you plugged the second fan into the PSU using an adapter that most of the time comes with the fans themselves.

Is the single case fan you have plugged in setup as an intake rather than an exhaust?

[Flapdrol]

Yeah, connect that other fan too.

If there's not enough case ventilation the gpu will heat up the air in the case quite a bit, making it hard for the cpu cooler to keep temps low.

[Camron Lyraus]

Those vids might help you somewhat:

Positive, Negativ, Neutral Case Pressure:
https://youtu.be/4NYHC3DXynM

And move that PC as far from the Heater as possible. Those fans need to draw coold air.

What case do you have?

[xWiredx]

Here are a few things to think about.

First - There needs to be an intake and an exhaust fan in addition to the CPU cooler running, or you're just helping keep warm air in the case. I highly recommend a front-to-back and/or bottom-to-top approach. Meaning the front of the case and/or bottom would blow air into the case, and the read and/or top fan would blow air out of the case. This, my friend, is a necessity and definitely worth the purchase of more (and better) fans.

Second - Thermal compound is ideally replaced after 6-12 months. I know, a lot of people will groan about me saying that as the stuff generally does most of its job well into 2 years after application. Those people probably have not had Sandy Bridge chips do 5GhZ without a fuss for 3 1/2 years, though. If you used whatever came with the heatsink, you may or may not have some left. Even if you do, maybe you want something slightly better. In case you're out or want to upgrade, MX-2 or MX-4 is the way to go. Definitely youtube how to properly apply it again just in case (because gobbing it on is usually not a good idea).

Third - Every inch you can put in between a heat source of any kind and the desktop is a good thing.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

xWiredx, on 11 January 2016 - 06:08 AM, said:

Here are a few things to think about.

First - There needs to be an intake and an exhaust fan in addition to the CPU cooler running, or you're just helping keep warm air in the case. I highly recommend a front-to-back and/or bottom-to-top approach. Meaning the front of the case and/or bottom would blow air into the case, and the read and/or top fan would blow air out of the case. This, my friend, is a necessity and definitely worth the purchase of more (and better) fans.

Second - Thermal compound is ideally replaced after 6-12 months. I know, a lot of people will groan about me saying that as the stuff generally does most of its job well into 2 years after application. Those people probably have not had Sandy Bridge chips do 5GhZ without a fuss for 3 1/2 years, though. If you used whatever came with the heatsink, you may or may not have some left. Even if you do, maybe you want something slightly better. In case you're out or want to upgrade, MX-2 or MX-4 is the way to go. Definitely youtube how to properly apply it again just in case (because gobbing it on is usually not a good idea).

Third - Every inch you can put in between a heat source of any kind and the desktop is a good thing.

This.
As to thermal spread pea dot middle of the chip let the cooler pressure do the spreading

[Napoleon_Blownapart]

case fans plug into the power supply not the MB, so you can add as many as you have holes in the case and refer to Camron's links

[xWiredx]

Gorantir, on 11 January 2016 - 09:56 AM, said:

case fans plug into the power supply not the MB, so you can add as many as you have holes in the case and refer to Camron's links

Actually, that's only true if you have the fan to molex adapters, otherwise fans DO plug into fan headers on the motherboard...

OP should be able to get one or a few of those for really cheap.

[Big Tin Man]

1. Position away from heat, out of cabinets
2. Dust, including the PSU and GPU. Every nook and cranny.
3. New Thermal Paste
4. More Fans, and check that your CPU fan isn't going out (i.e. check RPM's in utility). If you GPU has fan speed on the utility, check that as well. Fans don't last forever and are dirt cheap to replace.
5. Set fan speed in BIOS to 100% all the time. Could be a controller issue, though not likely.

CPU's will throttle performance to preserve themselves if the heat gets too high.

Edited by Big Tin Man, 11 January 2016 - 10:20 AM.

[o0Marduk0o]

Your temps are not normal. ~60°C with fan cooling when running MWO on your CPU is something I would aim for. Listen to the hints of the guys here to improve your airflow.

[Tom Sawyer]

I use water cooling for my system. Last December I bought a new computer desk for my den and decided to move my full tower under the desk so that it would look neater. I saw that the top exhaust fans where about 6 inches away from the bottom of the new desk. Sure enough my temps climbed when ever I gamed or ran intensive programs.

I then took my computer and completely dusted it via my home compressor. I then moved it back to the top of the desk and ran the cables to hide them as before.

Temps once more never get over 40C with even heavy gaming and normally idle in the mid 20's via CPUTEMP.

So as others point out check how much dust you have, and the airflow. It will make a huge difference.

[Lionsroar]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'll take a look at the video in a moment.

I did use thermal paste when we did the build, I don't remember the brand, but it was one that was recommended, not the one included.

A few other things I noticed.

The case has a good number vent holes on the bottom (why would they be on the bottom?) and sits on a carpet. So I have propped in on a couple of books as a temp fix. I'll work on re-positioning it out from under the desk this week and coming up with a better solution than propping it up on books.

There are also holes in the left side which are unobstructed. The vents in the front has the unused fan, the vents in the rear has the one used fan.

The case fan is right next to the cool master CPU fan, only about a 1/2 inch apart. They seem to be spinning in opposite directions. The CPU fan spinning clockwise and the case fan spinning counter clockwise. I feel some air, not a lot being vented out the back of the case. How do I tell if it is spinning in the correct direction? Am I better off ditching this case fan and just using the front case fan?

The unused front case fan has a small 3 pin female connector, is there another spot that I can plug it into? The power supply has much larger unused ports, is (labeled VGA, SATA,) is it possible to use one of these? Also there are unused long flat plugs coming from the power supply. Can any of these be used?

The power supply has a fan, as does the video card. I feel a decent amount of air from the power supply fan, but not much from the video card fan, although it is a very small fan....

Thanks again

[Golrar]

On the side of the fan frame there is an arrow denoting which way airflow is going to go. If you only have 1 case fan, make sure the airflow is pointing OUT of the case. And make sure your 212 EVO is blowing air TOWARD that fan so it sucks that hot air out of the case.

But you do need more fans. The unobstructed holes (like a grill) are for mounting more fans. My system has two 120mm fans in front pulling cool air in, one 120mm pulling air out the back, one 240mm fan on the side pull air out off the MB and GPU, and then my radiator is mounted up top pulling cool air in through the radiator.

Even in the the Prime95 stress test my system never got above 54 C on the CPU with a mild OC, so I figure my setup is working well. I use the Corsair 500R case.

[sspfunk]

Hello Lionsroar,
I had a similar problem and this is what worked for me.
Clean all of the fans and the heatsinks. If the heatsink fins are dirty/dusty, they will not radiate heat very well.
Make sure that all case fans (especially the one next to the cpu cooler fan) are pushing air into the case.
The powersupply fan (or fans, mine has 2) will be enough to get the hot air out.
Put a flat piece of wood (think a shelf from a bookcase) on the carpet and put the computer on top of that.
If that does not help, or does not help enough, you might want to try ducting the fan nearest the cpu cooler to blow air in and down towards the video card.
I just got a piece of cardboard and made a makeshift duct to direct the air down as it comes inside the case.
I have the same cooler btw, helped tremendously for me. Lowered my cpu temps at least 20 degrees C.

Hope this helps.

PFunk