GA X58a-UD3R, Temperatures, Features and such, need advice.

[Zcythe]

CPU

Core 0

Core 1

Core 2

Core 3

Motherboard Temp

NorthBridge

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA X58a-UD3R, Temperatures, Features and such, need advice.

CPU temp is not what you need to worry about, you need to only watch the Core temps.

Is this at stock speeds/voltages? What are you putting it under load with?

Motherboard/System temp is a sensor located close to the IOH in the PCB. If you use Everest you should have a northbridge sensor readout, I see you posted one above so it may be the same one.

NB on X58 is very warm, even at stock voltages. 100C is Intel's posted limit, average temps I see around the web are 38-55 or so, depending on cooling such as fans added to NB, or the UD5 and above have a larger heatpipe, some also redo the thermal paste under the NB.

If you are concerned you can redo the paste, or add a fan directly over or beside it and that will help. LED's only go up when it gets past 60C I think, or when you use higher voltages on the IOH such as 1.8+

I am not sure about that cooler, have you read good reviews on it that used an i7 for the review? If those are idle temps, stock voltages and speed, and no load above you may need a better cooler

Check with Everest Ultimate and see if temps look the same in that, I know some programs do not read X58A sensors correctly yet, but the latest Everest does for sure.

You can get a trial of it here

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/latest-overclocking-programs-system-info-benchmarking-stability-tools-30530/

[Zcythe]

Re: GA X58a-UD3R, Temperatures, Features and such, need advice.

Thanks for the quick reply Lsdmeasap,

I'll pay more attention to the Core Temperatures instead.

I used stock voltages, Optimized default settings, to measure the temperature in a whole day of activity, right now I'm using a lower vCore voltage.

The most Intensive program I use, might be some Games (Team Fortress 2, Crysis) some tests benchmarks (Sandra 2010), Handbrake to convert some videos, or just some minutes of Prime95. But in those particular graphs, I was only surfing the web, checking email, listening music, and played a game.

I guess that my best bet would be either adding a Fan, or changing the thermal paste?
Any thermal paste would be fine? Like ArticSilver?

And about the cooler, it was cheap, less than $30, and I read that it was "Ok" for i7. I ran across some articles ok TweakTown, and other sites. But I guess I'll think about an "upgrade" later.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA X58a-UD3R, Temperatures, Features and such, need advice.

I suggest TX-2 Thermal paste, that is what I find works the nicest. MX-2 is pretty good too, but TX-2 is better.

Arctic Silver is old news, used to be the best but is not for sure anymore.

Ya, you may want to get a better cooler more suited to i7 and not a "OK" one. As for your NB temp, that is a little warm, you could try adding a 80MM fan over it, or by the memory pointing into the NB heatsink.