[dvhouw]

Hi everyone,
I've a quick question about cpu temperatures.
I use a Dell T3500 as a render node with a Xeon W3680 processor.
When rendering, temperatures rise between 75-84 degrees Celsius. Is this acceptable or is it too high according to you guys?
My workstation has an i7-3820 cpu and doesn't get hotter then 60c.
Your opinions are very welcome.
Thanks.

[jojojoj]

I think that these temps are a bit too high. something around 70°C should be better on the long run. Did you notice a temp rise lately, or has that always been like that?

[numerobis]

How did you measure this temperature? With Coretemp or Realtemp or something else?

I think everything above 75°C is definitely too high in my opinion. If the sys is still stable it should be ok for short times but not for the long run.
Max. TCASE for the W3680 is 67.9°C http://ark.intel.com/products/47917/Int ... -Intel-QPI
This is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS). So the core temp can be higher.
I normally try to keep it under 70°C.
And if you get these temps at default clocks and while "only" rendering there is definitely something wrong - if you would stress your sys to max load using Intel Burn Tool, Prime95 or LinX you would see maybe 10°C higher temps...

As jojojoj said, the first question would be if the temp changed lately or if it has always been that high. (Or if you simply haven't measured it before)
If it has changed, it could be an airflow/fan problem, the mounting of the cooler or the thermal paste. I don't know how old this build is, but looking at the release date of the W3680 it is max close to 4 years old. This should normally be no problem for a thermal paste, but i don't know what Dell is using there...

[dvhouw]

Thank you for the replies.
I bought the T3500 (circa 3 years old) second hand a couple of months ago and the temperature has been like this since I started measuring. I use Coretemp.
When the pc is not rendering is gets only around 28-35c.
Should I maybe open it up to check for dust etc and clean the whole case?

[numerobis]

Should I maybe open it up to check for dust etc and clean the whole case?

I thought you would have done this already...

And check the fans and the cooler. Is this using the Intel i7 boxed cooler or something different?
If nothing of this helps you could reseat the cooler, replacing the thermal paste (and maybe using a better cooler)

[polynurb]

Is this using the Intel i7 boxed cooler or something different?

I have two older nodes running i7 870s
Using the boxed coolers, even with fresh paste these hit 80+ with maxwell.

Trow away the boxed cooler if you happen to find one in there, they suck.
Also the retention mechanism is really bad, make sure all 4 plastic pins are tightly secured in the mainboard

[dvhouw]

The previous owner ensured me that he already cleaned out the whole case, I checked it and it looks clean.
I never really build or modified a pc so I'm a bit nervous to replace the thermal paste.
Should I be thinking of replacing the fan?

[numerobis]

Can you identify the cooler? Is it the boxed cooler? If yes, are all push pins ok?
Depending on the space in your case you could replace it with a 90mm or 120mm cooler (or 140-150mm)
Almost every cooler is better than the boxed one.
Something like these as cheap alternatives:
90mm: http://skinflint.co.uk/thermalright-tru ... 29116.html
120mm: http://skinflint.co.uk/thermalright-tru ... 89414.html
140mm: http://skinflint.co.uk/thermalright-tru ... 17551.html

[dvhouw]

I feel a bit stupid here , but I can't tell apart a boxed cooler from a normal one, I'm really inexperienced with hardware unfortunately.
Here are some pictures from the pc case:

[dmeyer]

What are the ambient temps? That is an important consideration.

Dell also notorious for chassis that run right up to the thermal limit under load.

[dvhouw]

When I'm home it's around 20 degrees Celsius, at night or when I'm away I assume it drops to about 10-15 degrees.

[numerobis]

ahh ok... this looks like a proprietary solution from Dell.
With the HDD above it there seems to be not much room for a cooler. How big is the current one? Maybe 70x70mm? I would say this is really small for a hexacore...
But at least the mounting is using screws.
As i said, you could replace the thermal paste - but seeing the size of the cooler i don't think it will result in much better values. But you could try it.
If you want to replace the cooler you should measure the space available to the HDD and the distance of the mounting holes to check if they are using standard holes.
If you want to use a bigger cooler, you could try to remove the HDDs from this place - not sure if you need two of them. You could move them to the free 5,25" slot.
The only problem could be that they were running vertically now for a long time and it wouldn't be good to turn them now...

Concerning the fan: What is the size? Can you read out the fan speed? Is it noisy? Maybe you could replace it with a better one like you said.

[dvhouw]

I agree with you that replacing the fan, and also to relocate the HDD would probably cool it down the most.
I'll have to make some free time to do this, but I'll let you guys now when I succeed to reduce the temperatures.
Thanks for your advice!

[numerobis]

I agree with you that replacing the fan

But this would only make sense if it is really a bad one. Therefore i said you should check the fan speed, specs etc. - replacing a normal fan on a bad heatsink will not make a real difference i think.
For me it looks like the biggest problem is the size and quality of this heat sink which looks quite small for a hexacore with 130W TDP.

[dvhouw]

I apologize for my late response. I working from another office these weeks so I can't get to the node.
I'll get back to you when I have a change to check it out thoroughly.
Thank you very much for your help!