Just upgraded my PC with a Gigabyte Z590 Master running an Intel i7-11700 CPU, (stock, no overclock) I have been running no problem using my Intel liquid cooler (I think it is a BX....something, not exactly state of the art) 

Up until a couple of days ago before we really got high temperatures here it was pretty much OK, it ran in the 50-65C range.

 

The last few days we are getting high 30's with high humidity and the cooler just seems to get overwhelmed. The room is non air con, only fans and is about 40C ambient, possibly more. The CPU temps. have gone up into the mid to high 70C's - I think the current cooler is getting swamped. Opened the case and stuck a couple of bench fans on it and it gets it down to the 60C range.

 

Wonder if anyone has experience of the Noctua NH-D15 Air Cooler? I hear good things but am a bit concerned that no matter how good a cooler it is, it will never be able to cope if the ambient air is around 40C - I don't really want to go down the liquid cooling route again, air would be better.

 

Air con is not an option in the type of room the computer is located, so what would be the best to expect?

 

Thanks!

2 hours ago, Formaleins said:

have gone up into the mid to high 70C's

If this is under load then there is no problem with your temps, just keep your current cooler.

 

2 hours ago, Formaleins said:

Wonder if anyone has experience of the Noctua NH-D15 Air Cooler? I hear good things but am a bit concerned that no matter how good a cooler it is, it will never be able to cope if the ambient air is around 40C - I don't really want to go down the liquid cooling route again, air would be better.

In general it's as easy as: The bigger the cooler surface, the better.

The Noctua NH-D15 is one of the biggest you can buy, it will get the job done.

 

The original Intel coolers which come with the CPU do the job.

70 degree temperature is no problem. It depends on the exact CPU model. Some of them are certified for more than 90 degrees Celsius.

And all modern CPUs have over temperature protection build in. If they get too hot then they will run slower. You can see that in the Windows Task Manager. And if they get too hot then the shut down. 

 

If you want to be absolutely sure buy any 3rd party cooler i.e. from CoolerMaster or something similar.

If you want exact information then download this free software:

https://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

 

It is, or at least was, regularly used by overclockers.

 

 

Some more information is here:

How Do You Know When a CPU Is Running Too Hot? (techjunkie.com)

 

 

14 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

The original Intel coolers which come with the CPU do the job.

70 degree temperature is no problem. It depends on the exact CPU model. Some of them are certified for more than 90 degrees Celsius.

And all modern CPUs have over temperature protection build in. If they get too hot then they will run slower. You can see that in the Windows Task Manager. And if they get too hot then the shut down. 

 

If you want to be absolutely sure buy any 3rd party cooler i.e. from CoolerMaster or something similar.

Cheers, but the i7=11700K comes without a cooler, I am using an Intel liquid cooler, but I think it is underpowered for this processor in these temperatures. Thanks for that software link, I run RealTemp and HWinfo.

25 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

Cheers, but the i7=11700K comes without a cooler, I am using an Intel liquid cooler, but I think it is underpowered for this processor in these temperatures. Thanks for that software link, I run RealTemp and HWinfo.

Great, I have to admit I didn't look carefully at the CPU model.

Maybe others might be interested in the following:

 

- "Normal" Intel CPUs don't have a K at the end of the model number. They are bought together with the Intel cooling element (heatsink and fan). They can't be overclocked (at least not officially).

- Intel CPUs with the letter K at the end of the model number are for users who want to overclock their CPUs. They are sold without heatsink because users who overclock their CPUs need more cooling than non-overclocked CPUs.

Normally it does not make sense for normal users who don't want to overclock their CPUs to buy the -K models because they are more expensive and have, as far as I know, no other advantages.

 

And just in case anybody thinks about overclocking: In most cases it does not make sense and is not necessary because mostly the CPUs in modern PCs run seldom on 100%. If you really want a faster CPU then be prepared to learn, test, test again for hours, and spend more money.

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Great, I have to admit I didn't look carefully at the CPU model.

Maybe others might be interested in the following:

 

- "Normal" Intel CPUs don't have a K at the end of the model number. They are bought together with the Intel cooling element (heatsink and fan). They can't be overclocked (at least not officially).

- Intel CPUs with the letter K at the end of the model number are for users who want to overclock their CPUs. They are sold without heatsink because users who overclock their CPUs need more cooling than non-overclocked CPUs.

Normally it does not make sense for normal users who don't want to overclock their CPUs to buy the -K models because they are more expensive and have, as far as I know, no other advantages.

 

And just in case anybody thinks about overclocking: In most cases it does not make sense and is not necessary because mostly the CPUs in modern PCs run seldom on 100%. If you really want a faster CPU then be prepared to learn, test, test again for hours, and spend more money.

 

 

 

 

Agreed in general, most users do not need to overclock (nice to have the option though) There are a few instances where a bit of a boost works wonders - Take X-Plane for instance, just to get the damn thing to run a decent frame rate used to require a bit of clocking. But as you say, these days there is not the same need as before, especially now that processors can turbo boost to over 5 GHZ. Problem is, the software companies keep adding on more bloat, thus upping the anti. I just want my machine running at about 55C under load, which with the ambient temperatures in my place at 40C is proving difficult.

 

I was just curious to to find out what sort of temperatures you could get with an air cooler running in ambient 30-40C compared to a liquid cooler. In some respects, I would have thought an air cooler would have performed better than liquid once air temperatures reach a certain level and a certain humidity.

 

I put in 3 extra fans today and honestly it maybe shaved off 1 degree C, basically did nothing, probably generated more heat from the additional power consumption that it did to cool anything.

 

Seems the specs for the 11700 is around 100 C for TjMax, so it is still in spec, but with this sort of temperatures, heat is the enemy. The stupid case design is not helping, I made an idiot decision and bought a BEQUIRT Case, it has so much sound insulation the damn thing has no airflow so I have been opening the side panels and that can drop the ambient temperatures by 10C!

16 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

Agreed in general, most users do not need to overclock (nice to have the option though) There are a few instances where a bit of a boost works wonders - Take X-Plane for instance, just to get the damn thing to run a decent frame rate used to require a bit of clocking. But as you say, these days there is not the same need as before, especially now that processors can turbo boost to over 5 GHZ. Problem is, the software companies keep adding on more bloat, thus upping the anti. I just want my machine running at about 55C under load, which with the ambient temperatures in my place at 40C is proving difficult.

 

I was just curious to to find out what sort of temperatures you could get with an air cooler running in ambient 30-40C compared to a liquid cooler. In some respects, I would have thought an air cooler would have performed better than liquid once air temperatures reach a certain level and a certain humidity.

 

I put in 3 extra fans today and honestly it maybe shaved off 1 degree C, basically did nothing, probably generated more heat from the additional power consumption that it did to cool anything.

 

Seems the specs for the 11700 is around 100 C for TjMax, so it is still in spec, but with this sort of temperatures, heat is the enemy. The stupid case design is not helping, I made an idiot decision and bought a BEQUIRT Case, it has so much sound insulation the damn thing has no airflow so I have been opening the side panels and that can drop the ambient temperatures by 10C!

Interesting

In terms of case and cooling it seems I did basically the opposite from you.

My Cooler Master case (CM 690 II Advanced) is basically a lot of mesh material with large and slow fans everywhere.

The fans are speed controlled by the ASUS motherboard software. Under normal conditions the fans run so slow that I don't hear them. If I really stress the CPU then I start to hear the airflow - but I really have to listen for it.

 

When I set it up I overclocked my PC to (I think) 4.7 GHz and the temperature was well into the acceptable area. I don't remember the temperature but it was nothing to worry about. Personally I don't see a reason to bring the temperature down more than necessary. I.e. I think 70 degree CPU temperature under heavy load is fine. Why should I even try to bring the temperature down? I can't touch the CPU. I can touch the cooler anytime but there is also no reason to do that.

As far as I remember it is a lot easier to reduce the temperature i.e. from 70 to 60 compared to from 60 to 50. And it doesn't really matter because the CPU and the rest of the electronics is build for these temperatures. Maybe the caps will live 10 years instead of 7 with lower temperature. But it's unlikely that I will every use one motherboard and CPU for more than 5 years. So what would be the point?

 

That's the case which I use - I bought it a couple of years ago.

 

 

Just a remark about heat, my SSD's were getting hot. I have liquid coolers and some case fans. In the end what did it was to move the computer a bit more from the wall. It shaved 10 degrees of my SSD temperature. So i bought fans for nothing. Sometimes having your computer too close to a wall can be a problem too for the airflow.

Well, here is an update - This is a new MB and I had just updated the BIOS - (I still think something is awash as it takes a long time at the POST screen) However, The only new software was automatically loaded from the Gigabyte App Centre, which seemed to make the PC slower, it was a load of bloatware and useless garbage so I uninstalled it)

 

Then things began to go strange - there was a lot of delays trying to uninstall each item, and after I finished I found that Windows update was not working! (The strange thing is, when I ran the Gigabyte SIV program it would also open the Windows Update page)

 

Windows Update was also missing from the "Services.MSC" page. Ran SFC Scannow, no problems found, did the DISM restore health, but still cannot run update.

 

I managed to manually run it by editing the registry. The machine still felt buggy and slow.

 

I just ran Malwarebytes and it found 28 backdoor trojan entries in the registry, and they were all in parts of the registry that I never touched.

 

The machine was constantly running at about 13% CPU usage, until I opened task manager and it would drop immediately to 0.3%.

 

All Gigabyte software has been removed and my temperatures are now at 43-47C opposed to high 60's. Beware Gigabyte, their software (and support) has always been terrible, but it looks like their software is riddled with threats.

38 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

Well, here is an update - This is a new MB and I had just updated the BIOS - (I still think something is awash as it takes a long time at the POST screen) However, The only new software was automatically loaded from the Gigabyte App Centre, which seemed to make the PC slower, it was a load of bloatware and useless garbage so I uninstalled it)

 

Then things began to go strange - there was a lot of delays trying to uninstall each item, and after I finished I found that Windows update was not working! (The strange thing is, when I ran the Gigabyte SIV program it would also open the Windows Update page)

 

Windows Update was also missing from the "Services.MSC" page. Ran SFC Scannow, no problems found, did the DISM restore health, but still cannot run update.

 

I managed to manually run it by editing the registry. The machine still felt buggy and slow.

 

I just ran Malwarebytes and it found 28 backdoor trojan entries in the registry, and they were all in parts of the registry that I never touched.

 

The machine was constantly running at about 13% CPU usage, until I opened task manager and it would drop immediately to 0.3%.

 

All Gigabyte software has been removed and my temperatures are now at 43-47C opposed to high 60's. Beware Gigabyte, their software (and support) has always been terrible, but it looks like their software is riddled with threats.

Good that you fixed it.

My advice: buy only ASUS. I use ASUS motherboards since my first 486 PC and they always worked great.

22 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Good that you fixed it.

My advice: buy only ASUS. I use ASUS motherboards since my first 486 PC and they always worked great.

I have used Asus for years, but had some issues with the last two that I had, P77E and the Maximus Code IX, both had 2 of the 4 memory slots fail, so I thought I would give Gigabyte a try as their 1060 Nvidia card has been rock solid. Be back to Asus or maybe MSI next time.

2 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

I have used Asus for years, but had some issues with the last two that I had, P77E and the Maximus Code IX, both had 2 of the 4 memory slots fail, so I thought I would give Gigabyte a try as their 1060 Nvidia card has been rock solid. Be back to Asus or maybe MSI next time.

That's interesting.

With memory I had over the years only two problems:

a) When someone else installed them and touched the module contact with their fingers. Often It takes years but at some stage those contacts corrode. I had that problem many times over the years.

b) It seems a mouse <deleted> on top of a computer case and the urine landed on the memory sticks. I didn't see it happen but that is the only way I can explain the condition of those slots and modules.