Dell T3600 + Xeon E5-2680 = very high CPU temperature

I am seeing the same temperatures (~55C at idle) in a Dell T7810 with an E5-2680 v4.
I'm using the stock heatsink and Arctic MX-4 thermal compound.

My GTX1060 GPU shows the same temperature (even a little higher), so I think that's really the temp inside the enclosure.  At idle, CoreTemp says my CPU is still consuming 30-40W and at idle the GPU draws another ~7W; that's a substantial amount of heat to dissipate with 80mm fans.  When I run a CPU load test, temperatures quickly reach max, but then the CPU fan ramps up and brings them back down to ~70C while maintaining 100% CPU load at 90W.  The fan becomes audible but not obnoxious.

I suspect that since Dell used relatively small (80mm) fans throughout the enclosure, they decided that in order to keep fan noise down, they'd let the system run hotter.  I plan to add a 120mm exhaust fan at the rear of the enclosure to see if that will keep things cooler without raising the noise level excessively.

Hello @Mormislaw ,

I have Dell T3610 with Xeon E5-2660 which works fine on the stock Heatsink. But I think you need to upgrade your heatsink to this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E1JGFA0/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00E1JGFA0&linkCode=as2&tag=greenpcgamers-20&linkId=5c3809166114eaf49f72d101312a5849 . You'll have to get some washers from your local hardware store to properly attached the aftermarket heatsink to the motherboard at the right depth. Hope it helps

Greetings, this sounds similar to what I was thinking for the same issue, however I'm uncertain how to power another fan or 2, what were your plans for this?

Dell T3600 has a temperature sensor on the front i/o plate and therefore measures the incoming air temperature. You can modify the T3600 to add a 2nd sensor (it's just a transsitor used in dios configuration) . I added one above the cpu and now the fans ramp up nicely. Also the stock coolers are not flat . The heat pipes seem to be deformed at manufacturing and will help if the are smoothed out via homing.

Hi all,

May I share my experience on T7600 which with similar chassis design as T3600.

There are 2 units of E5-2687W @ 150W TDP in my T7600 which is the hottest one among E5 v1 family. With stock settings, they often rise up to 89°C under full loading. After the following modifications, temperature drops significantly to 73°C under stress test and keep at 4X°C on generally usage.

CPU Cooler Replacement

Replace original stock CPU fan with TMJK2 which originally designed for T7910 CPU water-cooling but also works on T7600/T5600/T3600. It comes with a cooler mount that perfectly fit on motherboard. Fan control in BIOS set to Auto is good enough.

Addition Fan

Adding one 8cm fan at back of the workstation case helps increasing air flow within the chassis and pulling hot air out. There is a spare 5-pin Dell fan header at the corner. For T3600, it should be located here:

To use it with generic 4pin or 3pin header fan, add a 5pin-to-4pin Conversion Cable like this:

Here's how it looks like now:

I have this water-cooling unit installed in my T7910 doesn't make that much difference than the stock standard unit supplied. Fans becomes noisy on a regular basis when the temperature increases.

I have also replaced the side panel with one that is vented.

 It could only be acoustic related as the noise subsides after a while but is very noticeable.

Like a lot of other fans, I have replaced in NAS units and switches to reduce noise is there any fans out there for this? I know the Dell fans are specific in design with 5 pins and not easy to replace outright with just anything.

I think it doesn't help when running 2x Xeon E5-2697 v4 CPUs with a Thermal Design Power of 145w and Tcase of 79 Degrees Celsius (Case Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS).)

Most of the time the computer is absolutely silent so not too worried 

I could play around with the CPU fan settings in the BIOS, but acoustic noise starts 

I have dual 2699As in a T7910. Stock temperatures are high, and the T7910 design has a significant flaw in that the exhaust from one cooler goes directly into the intake of the next.  I think that these coolers were designed more for rack mount where you have enormous amounts of air flow, AND the two units blow in parallel and not in the T7910 serial fashion.  Seriously bad design. 

I was looking at the upgraded (liquid) cooler from Dell (made by Asetek, no longer available).   I'm concerned that these are all 5 year old units, may have lost liquid to evap, and really aren't going to be super reliable.   The only one on ebay is like $240.   Plus, you need to buy a side panel with vents (or cut a hole in the existing panel).  Another $100.

Both the stock heat-pipe and upgraded liquid coolers are compact.  For that reason, at least in my system, I don't think some of the fancier integral heat-pipe units will fit.  Does anyone have experience to the contrary?  Even if such units would fit, they still would be serial (exhaust from CPU2 goes into the intake for CPU1). 

I was thinking of the easiest way to fit something into my system.  I suspect that the easiest thing will be to buy two AIO coolers, cut the hoses, mount the cooling blocks to the CPUs and rout the tubes out of the case via barbed bulkhead fittings.  Also add wiring to bulkhead plugs.  The radiator and fan assemblies could be mounted on top of the box. Blowing up.  I'd use standoffs to keep the assemblies off the top of the unit, and would have more standoffs to keep a panel over the top of the fans spaced out. I would plan to top off the liquid before reassembling the hoses (to the barbed bulkhead fttings.  I suppose I could get fancy and add a reservoir on top as well. Has anyone every done this?

This seemed simpler, btw, than a custom liquid system. 

Comments? 

One quick question.  If you've used modern all-in-one PWM controlled AIO coolers in a T7910, I've been informed (thanks for the help!) that I need an electrical cable adapter between the AIO and the Dell mobo. I'm assuming its the one listed on amazon here.  Is that all I need?  For example, the Arctic Liquid Freezer series has a little fan attached to the cold block to cool the PWMs.  Does that run off the single main fan power connnector or do I need another power connection?

Thanks,

Jim