# Nzxt Vulcan 3770k cooler?



## JC531 (Sep 27, 2011)

Hey TSF! Long time 

So I built my pc around I don't know 3 years ago and intended to get an aftermarket cooler for my 3770k....never did and really want to now since I have a work-study job to actually have money for upgrades and obviously books haha.

I currently have a 3770k as the cpu, NZXT Vulcan as the case, and a Maximus V Gene as the motherboard.

What coolers could you guys suggest that should fit my case given my hopes are to go around 4.5Ghz? I've looked at the 212 evo but most seem to be mixed in whether it will fit the case or not. I'm also not totally sure about case clearances to be quite honest :/

Thanks so much!


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

I would be hesitant to start overclocking after it apparently has been working well for so long. It is like taking an old car the race track. 

What are your temps now? 

Another reason I would be hesitant is (assuming this is your case) is that you have a µATX case, which means it has limited fan support. Remember, it is the case's responsibility to provide a sufficient supply of cool air through the case, not just for the CPU, but for all the heat sensitive components, include the voltage divider/regulators devices and the chipset, RAM, and graphics. 

It looks like your case came with 1x120mm fan in front, and 1x120mm "blowhole" (top) fan and it does not provide for any additional fans, except a side panel fan. Side panel fans are not always as helpful as marketed because they can, in some scenarios actually disrupt the desired flow through the case. 

Note contrary to what many believe or may tell you, the OEM fans that come with AMD and Intel coolers are actually very good coolers compared to those from 10 to 15 years ago - fully capable of providing adequate cooling even with mild to moderate overclocking, in a properly cooled case. They have to be. Only OEM coolers have a warranty that covers the CPUs too. And neither AMD nor Intel want to replace either because the supplied cooler failed to do its job. I would give it a try to maybe 4.0 first, and if stable, be happy with that. 

You did not say what else you have in this box, but I might consider bumping up the RAM, upgrading the graphics, or replacing HDs with SSDs before going into risky extreme overclocking which can result in instability and will result in increased component aging.


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## JC531 (Sep 27, 2011)

Firstly, thanks so much for the quick reply Bill_Bright! 

Sorry should have put specs.
Case: Nzxt Vulcan
motherboard: Asus Maximus V Gene
Cpu: i7 3770k @ stock clocks
Ram: Dual Corsair Vengeance 4GB 1600 Mhz (8GB total)
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM
PSU: Corsair HX 750
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 Vapor-x Ghz Edition

In my case I have a front 120mm fan, the top has 2 120mm fan and the back has a currently disabled 92mm fan (fan got bad making loud noises).

So looking at HWMonitor my temps look like they're sitting minimum at around 35C and max around 63C (it's been on for a couple of hours now after some hours of off time since I had it running overnight). I've never looked at temps during video editing or heavy Photoshop but I do know when playing on the emulator PCSX2 I can hit 70-72C under heavy load (for some games I have to switch to reliance on the CPU since too many bugs would exist with GPU rendering)(I only know this because I get a black and red warning message saying 7X centigrade (no higher than 73 ever)).

I guess the goal with the cpu when first getting it was looking for a 4.5Ghz overclock for the extra power and for my engineering software I need for my classes, though I know it could handle them stock, I was interested in the ability of an unlocked processor.

I'll look into using the stock cooler for some overclock (I just replaced my thermal paste not too long ago so I would imagine I'd be good to do so as well.

With my current setup and situation do you think a cooler upgrade could allow me to go further or would you strongly advise against attempting an overclock past 4.0Ghz with a new cooler? The best part I suppose would be that I could carry the cooler over to a mobo+cpu upgrade in the future and I plan to get a new gpu soon either an R9 380 or something newer if it proves worth it over the coming months.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

Your 35°C is great. But if you are not overclocking and still hitting 70 - 73°C, that is not very good. Even with the OEM cooler, you should be able to keep it under 60 - 65°C most of the time when stressing it. Is the interior clean of heat-trapping dust? You need to make sure and I might consider moving the front-most top fan to the rear. You generally want really good front-to-back flow. 

Are your ambient (room) temperatures "normal" room temperature? In the warmer months, that is generally no warmer than 75°F. 

You don't normally need to replace the TIM (thermal interface material) unless the cured bond has been broken. Contrary to what many think, it will easily last 10 years or longer, but it will lose a few (<5) degrees effectiveness over time. But that is rarely a concern unless your temps are already up there, as yours are. 

So if you are using the OEM TIM, you might want to replace it with a properly layer of top quality aftermarket TIM. This could give 5 - 10° more wiggle room.


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## JC531 (Sep 27, 2011)

Ouch just looked at HWMonitor and it was showing a max package temp of 86C! So obviously something is wrong in my system. With regards to dust and the like I cleaned it last week so if any, dust its very little to none that could cause issues. My current ambient should be 62F (it's really humid so it feels a tad warmer).

With the thermal compound I had applied some Arctic Silver 5. Currently my temps are floating around 43C (just here on the web) but from what you told me that 86 is extremely high...is it possible that that was a fluke? Did I perhaps apply the paste wrong? I applied a line of compound across the processor and just sit the radiator onto it.

I'm going to check the seating of my cooler, I usually have lots of trouble applying the stock fan for some reason, maybe it's off somewhere.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

Arctic Silver 5 is what I use most of the time. 

It is important to note the purpose of TIM is to fill the microscopic pits and valleys in the mating surfaces only! Any excess is actually in the way as the best transfer of heat occurs with metal to metal contact. So a little goes a long way. You need thorough coverage, but as thin as possible. And yes, the HSF clamping mechanism must be secured properly. And of course, all your fans need to be spinning properly.


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## JC531 (Sep 27, 2011)

Alright so I checked the cooler and all seems fine. I used pcsx2 a bit in the most straining situation I knew of with one game and at around 60-70% load I hit 80C max. Out of curiosity I tried prime95 and hit 101C. I'm not really sure what to think of this. I had forgotten that Ivy Bridge was supposed to operate hotter but I don't remember how much this was the case.

It's possible that maybe my line of thermal paste was too thick. Do you think perhaps I should reapply it and if so how should I proceed in doing so? I'm used to reading a line, rubbing it all over in a thin layer, a dot the size of a grain of rice...Not sure which to use.

One more note, to make it a bit more aesthetically pleasing I had switched my Red led Bitfenix spectre pro to the front of the case with the stock NZXT fans at the top. I noticed when I bought it I could not necessarily "feel" the air from the Bitfenix fan but definitely could with the NZXT fans. Should I perhaps keep that Bitfenix fan as an exhaust at the top front of the case and one of the NZXTs at the front since they pull more air?

Thanks so much again you're truly a great help!


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

Just to make sure, your top fans are configured for "exhaust" right? 

I suggested before to move the front-most top fan to the back of the case because I fear it (assuming it is exhausting air) may be pulling too much of the cool air from the front fan up and out of the case before it can benefit the CPU. Your goal needs to be moving massive amounts of cool air across the CPU. I like top fans because of the idea that heat rises. But with forced air flow, front to back flow through the case is often the best. 

But there is no set rule for this as every case is different, just as the setup/hardware used inside every case is different. So experimenting and trial and error to find the best solution is often best. 

Make sure you also have good "cable management". Use tie wraps to tie cables out of the way of your air flow. 

I don't like benchmark programs like Prime95 because they are synthetic. They intentionally push the hardware to the breaking point, and beyond. They don't present real-world scenarios. That said, if your system was still stable with Prime95, that is good.

Here's my method of applying TIM. Power off and unplug the computer from the wall. Using a plastic shaft Q-Tip/cotton swap, cut off the cotton swap near one end. Bend the plastic shaft about 1/2 inch from the cut end to make a nice little hockey stick. This is the working end of your TIM application device. Clean the die and heat sink mating surfaces with a soft, lint free cloth dampened (not dripping wet) with acetone or 91% alcohol. Do not let any fluids run down the sides of the CPU die. Clean skin oils from the working end of your applicator with the alcohol dampened cloth. Blast the surfaces with a quick blast of compressed air to ensure the surfaces are dry and no lint or dust remains behind. Do NOT touch the CPU die or heatsink mating surfaces, or the applicator's working end from this point on.

Application: Apply one "drop" of paste, about the size of a grain of rice, on the corner of the die and spread it out across the die with the applicator, like spreading icing on a cake. Spread the paste as thin as possible while ensuring complete coverage. It is easier to add more than remove excess. Remember, too much is counterproductive.​
You might also open the side panel and blast a desk fan in there. If your temps are still high, then I would worry you have a failing component drawing too much current.


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## JC531 (Sep 27, 2011)

Alrighty, I'm gonna reapply the thermal paste in a few. Really quick though, do you believe it's possible that disabling the rear fan made a big difference? I know many due to the rear fan being a 92mm don't even get a fan there to begin with...but if it helps I'll also look into replacing that fan.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

Older cases used 80mm rear fans so 92mm would still move a lot more air than 80mm.


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## JC531 (Sep 27, 2011)

So I reapplied the thermal paste like you describe but now I'm pulling several degrees higher in operating temps  Currently floating around 56C and when using PCSX2 it went all the way up to 90C vs 80C like the time before... I out an evenly thin layer, perhaps it was too thin?


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

It is normal for temps to drop a few degrees after 4 or 5 heat up and cool down cycles, and several hours of run time.



> perhaps it was too thin?


No real such thing. Remember, the best transfer occurs with metal to metal contact, no matter how good the TIM is. The TIM need only fill the microscopic pits and valleys in the mating surfaces. As long as you have complete coverage across the die, that is fine.


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## JC531 (Sep 27, 2011)

Alright. Thank you very much. I'll keep it as it is for some time. I did notice temps a little cooler at idle after some hours. So with my current setup could I look into overclocking some? And perhaps in a few weeks upgrade the cooler? I would really like to see how far I can get stable and take advantage of the unlocked feature of my cpu.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

> ...after some hours.


"Hours" really should not affect temps that much - except for big massive devices and components like hard drives and the big transformers and capacitors in power supplies. But even then, we are talking about 20 - 30 minutes, 1 hour at most, not "hours". 

Processors cool down almost as quickly as they heat up. Heat sinks, by their very nature, do not retain heat and quickly dissipate the heat into the surrounding air which is [hopefully] _flowing_ past. 

Most programs are not very disk intensive. For most users, the drive is worked hardest at boot and the beginning of the "user session" when the user starts all their normal programs. But even if disk intensive, there "should" be enough air flowing over the drive(s) to prevent them from heating up the whole computer. In any case, the drive will not keep getting warmer and warmer. After about 15 minutes, it should stabilize. SSDs can get pretty warm, but because of their size, not impact case cooling significantly. But also, because the mass and composition of SSDs, they cool down rapidly too. 

PSUs can get pretty warm, but they have their own fans directly pushing their heat out the back of the case. In fact, all top mounted PSUs and many bottom mounted PSUs help pull additional cool air into the case. 

Your graphics solution may or may not be helping here. Most dual slot cards vent most of their generated heat out the back of the computer - a good thing. But all single slot cards, and some dual slot cards dump the heat back into the case - not so good. 

You can upgrade the cooler anytime you want. You will need to clean the CPU and apply a fresh new layer of TIM at that time anyway. 

As far as overclocking now, not sure I would if you temps are climbing into the 80s and 90s now. You can tell by the last line in my sig I take heat seriously. 

The problem with heat in electronics is it is like loud noises on our ears, or sunburns on our skin. The permanent damage may not be immediately apparent, but it IS there and IS accumulative. So even if your temps remain below the "hot" threshold, running components for extended periods at "very very warm" temperatures WILL increase the aging process of those devices, shortening their lifespans. Now whether that results in failure before you would normally upgrade/replace the device is anyone's guess. 

All I can say is I don't like my temps to sit above 60°C for longer than a few seconds. When they do, that is generally a sign to me I need to clean my filters. 



> My current ambient should be 62F (it's really humid so it feels a tad warmer).


You must live in the far North (like Canada) or southern hemisphere where it is approaching colder winter months. Normal "room" temps are around 72°F. If your computer temps are that high when your ambient temps are that cool, you will definitely be in trouble in warmer months. Humidity does not affect the temperatures of electronics. 

If you look at the Intel ARK for your processor, the 3770K, note the maximum Tcase temp allowed is 67.4°C. Tcase (Case Temperature) is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS). Unfortunately, this does not relate directly to the internal or core temps most monitoring programs display. And there is no set formula to convert Tcase temps to core temps. 

There is, however [more or less] a general consensus that core temps can be 10 to 15°C warmer than Tcase before the CPU starts throttling down as a self-preservation measure. 

So, assuming the best, 67.4 + 15 = 82.4°C. So if me, I would not allow the core temps of that 3770K to exceed 82.4°C. And if I could not keep my temps below that with normal clocking, I sure would not overclock - period.


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## JC531 (Sep 27, 2011)

Wow, thank you very very much! Your help has honestly been very insightful. For now I suppose I will look into replacing that rear fan. As for the cooler if I do upgrade it I may not bother with an overclock and if I do then very little to what I was initially intending.

Thanks again! ^_^ You went above and beyond and I feel comfortable that I know more about the heat side of things to my pc and computers in general - definitely will come in handy.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

Thanks for kind words and you are welcome. Good luck.


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