Greetings everyone.
Well, I decided to try to address some ongoing issues with my initial node 202 build. Namely, the CPU temps and the noise being higher than I would prefer.
In the process, I decided to upgrade to a i7 7700k processor and swap one of the two 850 evo 500GB drives for a 2 terabyte firecuda storage solution.
I'm also trying out a new CPU Cooler, the cryorig C7, in the hope that it might be a little quieter than my scythe shuriken big.
My first day of tinkering yielded me some positive results, though the biggest gain was possibly from one of the most bone-headed things ever.
My CPU was running extremely hot at stock speeds with my initial configuration where I had the case vertically-oriented with the GPU at the top and the CPU at the bottom. By flipping the case orientation 180 degrees I lowered the CPU temperature a good bit while keeping the GPU temperature still well within thermal tolerance. The reason I feel so dumb about it is that it looks so obvious if you just eyeball the case. There are large vents at the top of the case if you have vertical orientation with the CPU at the top. The GPU has much smaller ventilation at the top If running the case GPU-up in vertical orientation. By flipping the case, I was hitting low 90s C after sustained BIONCing, but it wasn't SUPER loud... I do want those temps lower though. I was also able to get two runs of the latest Futuremark Time Spy stabiliy / burn in to go off without a hitch... Just from flipping over the case.
I'm experimenting with undervolting today, in an effort to lower overall CPU temperatures. I manually set my CPU down to 1.2v vcore down from the stock 1.26. I've only done some mild overclocking in the past, so undervolting isn't super familiar to me. Lowering vcore by .06 volts, from testing I'm doing while typing this, have so far been positive. Temps seem down around 10C lower than before in BOINC (peaking around mid 80s), and I'm running the same Futuremark Time Spy stability / burn in test now to see if I get any blue screens. It aced one run already, but I forgot to have up temperature monitoring software, so I'm running it again.
I would be curious to get feedback from other node users on a few things.
If anyone else is running a 7700k in the Node, what sort of temps are you getting (particularly if you are using the Cryorig C7 and/or are undervolting)? For fellow 7700k owners, what sort of undervolting have you been able to do stably at stock speeds? Do many folks have luck doing small (100MHz or so) to moderate overclocks while undervolting in thier SFF builds?
