Help choosing CPU cooler

[Ejay8400]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking into getting a CPU cooler as the stock cooler from Intel isn't doing well enough.

My build is as follows:

Case: Fractal Design Define R5
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 Skylake
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSL-F
HDD: 6 3TB WD Red
Power Supply: Corsair RM650X, 650 Watt, 80 PLUS Gold
RAM: Crucial DDR4-2133 EEC (CT8G4WFD8213)
Extra fan intake: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm

The CPU temperature gets some big spikes when it need to get to work, so I am looking for some suggestions on good CPU coolers. Should I do air cooler or go with water cooling? Any specific suggestions?

The current cooling on my cabinet is 2 140mm fan intakes in the front and 1 140mm exhaust in the back + the stock CPU cooler from Intel.

So far what I have looked at is Noctua NH-D15 for air cooling or Corsair Hydro Series H105 for water cooling.


All help and suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[Spearfoot]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking into getting a CPU cooler as the stock cooler from Intel isn't doing well enough.

My build is as follows:

Case: Fractal Design Define R5
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 Skylake
Motherboard: Supermicro X11SSL-F
HDD: 6 3TB WD Red
Power Supply: Corsair RM650X, 650 Watt, 80 PLUS Gold
RAM: Crucial DDR4-2133 EEC (CT8G4WFD8213)
Extra fan intake: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm

The CPU temperature gets some big spikes when it need to get to work, so I am looking for some suggestions on good CPU coolers. Should I do air cooler or go with water cooling? Any specific suggestions?

The current cooling on my cabinet is 2 140mm fan intakes in the front and 1 140mm exhaust in the back + he stock CPU cooler from Intel.

So far what I have looked at is Noctua NH-D15 for air cooling or Corsair Hydro Series H105 for water cooling.


All help and suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you!

I've had good luck with the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO in my two FreeNAS servers.

But are you certain you really need better cooling? How high does the CPU temperature spike under load?

 

[Ejay8400]

I've had good luck with the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO in my two FreeNAS servers.

But are you certain you really need better cooling? How high does the CPU temperature spike under load?

when its being pushed a bit, for example transcoding 3 videos at the same time using Plex it spikes up to 100 and goes down to between 50-70 celsius. eiher the sensor is messed up or it really needs better cooling.

 

[Spearfoot]

when its being pushed a bit, for example transcoding 3 videos at the same time using Plex it spikes up to 100 and goes down to between 50-70 celsius. eiher the sensor is messed up or it really needs better cooling.

Yikes! I agree!

 

[wblock]

The Hyper 212 Evo is very good, worth it for the mounting system alone. Although the instructions are not good. Just remember that the way that bracket looks to fit is not the way it actually fits.

 

[Ejay8400]

The Hyper 212 Evo is very good, worth it for the mounting system alone. Although the instructions are not good. Just remember that the way that bracket looks to fit is not the way it actually fits.

Seems quite cheap too in comparison to what I have been looking at so far at least, big plus for that, as long as it does a good job!

What makes the mounting system special btw?

 

[wblock]

What makes the mounting system special btw?

It is just simple bolts, a technology that has been proven over probably a thousand years. Unlike those terrible plastic pushpins that Intel uses for their stock fans. My theory is that somebody had an engineer nephew who was chronically underemployed (for good reason).

 

[Nick2253]

it spikes up to 100 and goes down to between 50-70 celsius

I have a hard time believing this, because the max temperature for this CPU should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 70C. If it were getting to 100C, then the CPU would shut itself off.

If those numbers were in Fahrenheit, then they'd be more believable. So I'm really wondering if you're reading the number correctly, or you're getting the correct sensor value.

How are you getting the CPU temp?

 

[Jailer]

I have a hard time believing this, because the max temperature for this CPU should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 70C. If it were getting to 100C, then the CPU would shut itself off.

He means 100% CPU utilization=50-70C. And his temps are correct, I see about the same temps with mine at 100% on all cores.

 

[Nick2253]

He means 100% CPU utilization=50-70C. And his temps are correct, I see about the same temps with mine at 100% on all cores.

I'm not sure I agree with that conclusion.

@Spearfoot asked "How high does the CPU temperature spike under load?" [emphasis added] @Ejay8400 responded that "it spikes up to 100" [emphasis added] and then "goes down to 50-70 celsius". If the temperature were peaking at 50-70C, why would he use the phrase "goes down to"? The only logical reading of that is that the temperature spikes up to 100C, and then, when not running, goes down to 50-70C.

If it's the case that he's peaking out at 50-70C, then I'd say he probably doesn't have an issue. If he's spiking at 100C, then I'd think something's wrong with the sensor, or the interpretation of the data.

 

[Spearfoot]

I'm not sure I agree with that conclusion.

I agree with you, @Nick2253. That may not have been what he meant, but it's certainly what he actually said.

 

[Jailer]

Yeah I read that wrong. If he is indeed seeing 100c that's a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

 

[Ejay8400]

I'm not sure I agree with that conclusion.

@Spearfoot asked "How high does the CPU temperature spike under load?" [emphasis added] @Ejay8400 responded that "it spikes up to 100" [emphasis added] and then "goes down to 50-70 celsius". If the temperature were peaking at 50-70C, why would he use the phrase "goes down to"? The only logical reading of that is that the temperature spikes up to 100C, and then, when not running, goes down to 50-70C.

If it's the case that he's peaking out at 50-70C, then I'd say he probably doesn't have an issue. If he's spiking at 100C, then I'd think something's wrong with the sensor, or the interpretation of the data.

What happens is that the alarm on the motherboard goes off and I go in to check on it in the IPMI, it can say around 90-100 c, when i auto refresh the results it usually goes down to around 50-70c.
This is still while things are running.

 

[Ejay8400]

example of the event log I had yesterday:

Yes, this is clearly not a good sign.

 

[Nick2253]

I'm honestly amazed that the system doesn't reach thermal shutoff at those temperatures.

Have you checked if there's an update to your IPMI firmware? It could be a bug.

 

[Ejay8400]

I'm honestly amazed that the system doesn't reach thermal shutoff at those temperatures.

Have you checked if there's an update to your IPMI firmware? It could be a bug.

Yes, looked into updating the IPMI, but I have the newest version here already.

 

[Stux]

What fan mode have you got the board set too?

 

[Ejay8400]

It is set to " Set Fan to Optimal Speed"

 

[Spearfoot]

It is set to " Set Fan to Optimal Speed"

One thing you could try before replacing the stock CPU cooler: re-install it, making sure to thoroughly clean off the old thermal paste and correctly install new paste. If your problem is just a poor thermal paste installation, this ought to take care of it.

 

[joeschmuck]

Could you toss us a few photos, I'd like to see what the air flow is like. Your CPU temps should not be doing that at all and the stock cooler is very good for that CPU. All I can think of is maybe you didn't remove the protective plastic covering on the thermal paste on the CPU heatsink before you first installed it, or it's not installed correctly, or it's not spinning at all.