TVS-x71 (PT, i3, i5, and i7) CPU+System+HD Temperture? Plex New Transcoder = High CPU usage/temps

[iunlock]

"Plex New Transcoder" running in the background is causing my CPU (i7) to dance at 72C @ 80%+ load!

The max operating temp. for the i7-4790S is 71.35C. Should I be worried?

What are your temperatures of your TVS-x71 NAS?

* If you could, please copy/paste the format below.

--->

Model: TVS-871
CPU Type: i7-4790S
Room Temp: 22C/72F
Idle Temp: 41C
System Temp: 31C
Avg. HD Temp: 30C

Fan Speed: Auto

Avg. Temp during normal tasks: Mid 40C
Highest Temp under 80%-Max Load: 72C

<---

The fans set to "Auto," don't seem to kick in fast enough to cool down the CPU. I'm having to manually set the fans to "High," and it's getting very annoying.

I'm thinking that I have something 'checked,' in the Plex settings that I should 'uncheck.' Perhaps the generating of the thumbnails? I've just added a bunch of movies on there (hundreds) so that's likely the culprit.

Any tips on what to turn off in the Plex settings to avoid this?

Has anyone else hit 72C under max load? Is this normal? Should I be worried?

Anyway to manually change the "Auto," fan speed values within the code to adjust the low, medium and high fan speed trigger? I wish the current manual settings allow you to adjust the fans based on CPU temp and not just System temp.

Thanks and please input your temps in the poll.

***Update:***

Here is a great link for future reference.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/ar...nscoder-using-my-CPU-when-nothing-is-playing-

Excellent write up about Intel Temp Guide:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

 

[sfx2000]

What version of QTS are you running?

In any event, it's probably the thumbnail generation that's driving your CPU load high at the moment, it will pass...

There were some issues with Auto Fan Control on the 4.1.3 builds that the 4.1.4 releases fixed, at least for the *53 models.

 

[iunlock]

What version of QTS are you running?

In any event, it's probably the thumbnail generation that's driving your CPU load high at the moment, it will pass...

There were some issues with Auto Fan Control on the 4.1.3 builds that the 4.1.4 releases fixed, at least for the *53 models.

I'm running 4.1.4.

I think my temps are unusual, which is why I'm curious to see how it compares to other max temps out there.

Is there a way to adjust the low, medium and high trigger settings for the "Auto," mode?

 

[sfx2000]

I think my temps are unusual, which is why I'm curious to see how it compares to other max temps out there.

Is there a way to adjust the low, medium and high trigger settings for the "Auto," mode?

Your temps are high, and that was one of the concerns with bumping/swapping out the processor for the i7...

You'll have to probably define the temp steps, and this can be done... see below

 

[iunlock]

This is my TVS-871 (i7) lol....has nothing to do with a swap.

My 671 with the i7 runs cooler than all the stock temps I've seen.

Thanks for the link.

 

[iunlock]

Those adjustments are only for system temp which is useless. I've been in there manually turning the fans on to high.

I don't know why qnap didn't have the brains to allow a manual temp set for cpu temp....my system temp on the 871 never goes past 42C.

 

[sfx2000]

Could be a calibration thing - seen this before on other platforms - consider that the CPU has internal temps, and will throttle back as much as it can - so, going back to the original issue - it's probably just really busy with thumbnailing all those movies you uploaded

Worst case, might consider the HS mounting... maybe something to do there...

My J1900 hasn't gone above 42C, even when ambient was close to 35C and working it hard, but it's hard to compared a J1900 with a Core-i7... there's times where I shutdown my i7-4790 desktop as ambient is just too warm late in the afternoon, and I don't need the additional heat-load in the home office

(no, I don't have Air Conditioning, so when it's 95 degrees outside, it's close to that in the home office, but at least it's a dry heat)

 

[sfx2000]

My J1900 hasn't gone above 42C, even when ambient was close to 35C and working it hard, but it's hard to compared a J1900 with a Core-i7... there's times where I shutdown my i7-4790 desktop as ambient is just too warm late in the afternoon, and I don't need the additional heat-load in the home office

(no, I don't have Air Conditioning, so when it's 95 degrees outside, it's close to that in the home office, but at least it's a dry heat)

and yeah, it's hot in the office, and I hear the NAS "mooing" as it's trying to keep things reasonably cool (and doing a fine job of it)...

 

[iunlock]

and yeah, it's hot in the office, and I hear the NAS "mooing" as it's trying to keep things reasonably cool (and doing a fine job of it)...

Wow! That's warm...95F in the office? Yikes.

I have a feeling it's a poor job of them putting on the thermal paste at the factory. The i7 Haswell chips also are known for their poor thermal paste underneath the IHS. Reapplying that with quality paste has significant drop in temps...as I know from experience from modding the CPU on my gaming rigs. I have a Haswell i7-4790K in my primary gaming tower, overclocked and it stays incredibly cool compared to before when it had the stock paste on there.

I bet it's the heatsink and/or the IHS thermal underneath it....darn....

 

[sfx2000]

Wow! That's warm...95F in the office? Yikes.

Yep, it's a bit, erm, uncomfortable... nice heat-stress test for me, and my gear - luck has it that most of my servers are in data centers on a work aspect...

I have a feeling it's a poor job of them putting on the thermal paste at the factory. The i7 Haswell chips also are known for their poor thermal paste underneath the IHS. Reapplying that with quality paste has significant drop in temps...as I know from experience from modding the CPU on my gaming rigs. I have a Haswell i7-4790K in my primary gaming tower, overclocked and it stays incredibly cool compared to before when it had the stock paste on there.

I'd be worried a bit, these NAS cases and their cooling solutions, but I wouldn't go so far as de-capping a CPU package...that's a bit extreme, and even then, how to get the heat out - the stock HS solution is a heat-pipe, which is actually decent in general use..

With the ARM's and Little Intel Cores, things seem to to fine - when getting into the big Intel cores and AMD on the *63 series, they tend to throw a lot more heat - and with the QNAP cases/cooling solutions...

 

[iunlock]

My hats off to you for being there for any heat stress related questions Someone has to do it...right? Haha..

I'm curious to know the temps of other TVS-871 owners with the i7...

Right now everything is running fine on the TVS-871. Idling at 41C, System at 32C and HD'S at a cool 29C. Room temp is 22C/72F.

I've turned off the generating of the thumbnails on Plex.

Today, there were 10 people streaming at the same time (1080p) and it was running within normal temp range.

It's only when Plex is creating those large amounts of thumbnails that cause my CPU to Rev to 80%, which then causes it to dance around 70-72C.

I've updated the OP with a great article on Intel temp guide. 70C+ range is considered just warm. From the sound of it the CPU doesn't bother to do anything until it hits 100C! Although they do consider 80C as hot. I guess I'm okay then....

As for removing the IHS, I've done the fix more times than I can count. Flawless every time. It's not as bad or hard as it seems. There is a dramatic difference in temp drop. I might consider it this weekend for fun. It's cake and more importantly, it works and extremely well.

It'd be nice to manually change the temp trigger values in the bios. It's silly how QNAP decided to only put manual system temp values instead of adding CPU temp adjustments. It baffles me.

On the system temp settings the lowest you can adjust it to for "high fan speed," is when the system temp reaches 45C. I'm assuming this is the low end of what QNAP considers, "...ehh OK we should start the fans from here..." ie...not an issue at 45C... because you can see the values on that setting go way high...

 

[sfx2000]

It's only when Plex is creating those large amounts of thumbnails that cause my CPU to Rev to 80%, which then causes it to dance around 70-72C.

Well, Haswell i7's will ramp up, sometimes beyond the installed HSF, mainly because they can, and then they hit the internal set-points and back-off

(you mentioned you have a 4790K on a desktop - I've got similar with a i7-4790... so I think you know the behavior there - throwing more voltage doesn't help with OC'ing for example)

FWIW - Haswell i7's are totally bonkers there, and they're very much TDP driven with the on-board sensors - and once they hit internal TDP values, they'll throttle back just enough to stay on the edge, so pull the heat off, and they'll stay at the best speed...

I'm not sure how to make the QNAP thermal solution any better as space is pretty tight, and they're already on a heat pipe to an external radiator... removing the heat spreader isn't really an option because of the mechanical stack on how the HSF/Thermal solution works on this platform...

 

[iunlock]

Well, Haswell i7's will ramp up, sometimes beyond the installed HSF, mainly because they can, and then they hit the internal set-points and back-off

(you mentioned you have a 4790K on a desktop - I've got similar with a i7-4790... so I think you know the behavior there - throwing more voltage doesn't help with OC'ing for example)

FWIW - Haswell i7's are totally bonkers there, and they're very much TDP driven with the on-board sensors - and once they hit internal TDP values, they'll throttle back just enough to stay on the edge, so pull the heat off, and they'll stay at the best speed...

I'm not sure how to make the QNAP thermal solution any better as space is pretty tight, and they're already on a heat pipe to an external radiator... removing the heat spreader isn't really an option because of the mechanical stack on how the HSF/Thermal solution works on this platform...

Absolutely. I with you there. The Haswell's do have a personality of their own and like you've mentioned live very much on the edge. Given the nature of NAS environments, my only two options are as follows:

1. Buy another CPU because I think mine is without a doubt from a bad batch and see if I can gain some minus C's there. But, this would be my absolute last resort as I'm not the one to give up on what I have until I have exhausted my options.

2. I'm going to just de-lid the IHS and remove the cement junk Intel puts on there and replace it with something real. I know for a fact that I'll gain huge 'minus' numbers in the temp, which will solve this heat issue. Then I can be on vacation without having to worry about the CPU revving at 80% with it living on the edge while I'm away. It's just stupid to be honest. If this was my tower I wouldn't really care because there's much more room in there, but with this compact NAS environment with HD's right next to it packed like sardines, it's something that needs attention.

Despite the Temps at high rev, when it's at idle or just doing normal tasks, the temp ranges are very normal.

Right now at Idle for example the 871 sits at:
Room Temp - 72F/22C
CPU Temp - 41C
System Temp - 33C
HD's Temp - 29C

Everything there is right on par with my 671 model with the i7, except my 671 idles at 37C CPU Temp, 30C System, and 29C HD's. Much lower CPU Temp with the same ambient temp. This is why I'm almost sure this particular CPU just so happened to come from a bad litter.

Before when I used to OC my Intel 4690K, I had two gaming rigs...both with almost the same set up, but the temps were very different. After replacing the cement gunk on the die I've always had nothing less than a 14C drop on Core 1. This is normal as I've seen gains of minus temps of 18C+. Of course the towers have a much better cooling system than our NAS's.

 

[sfx2000]

1. Buy another CPU because I think mine is without a doubt from a bad batch and see if I can gain some minus C's there. But, this would be my absolute last resort as I'm not the one to give up on what I have until I have exhausted my options.

2. I'm going to just de-lid the IHS and remove the cement junk Intel puts on there and replace it with something real. I know for a fact that I'll gain huge 'minus' numbers in the temp, which will solve this heat issue. Then I can be on vacation without having to worry about the CPU revving at 80% with it living on the edge while I'm away. It's just stupid to be honest. If this was my tower I wouldn't really care because there's much more room in there, but with this compact NAS environment with HD's right next to it packed like sardines, it's something that needs attention.

I think it was Plex doing it's thumbnail thing, and as you noted, without thumbnails, things were fine - even with 10 clients streaming from the NAS...

I would not worry too much about it - perhaps check that the Heatsink/Fan is properly mounted - replacing the TIM with something 'better' perhaps - and there are better fans that move more air at the same speed - I would consider those first before going so far as decapping a haswell CPU..

 

[iunlock]

I think it was Plex doing it's thumbnail thing, and as you noted, without thumbnails, things were fine - even with 10 clients streaming from the NAS...

I would not worry too much about it - perhaps check that the Heatsink/Fan is properly mounted - replacing the TIM with something 'better' perhaps - and there are better fans that move more air at the same speed - I would consider those first before going so far as decapping a haswell CPU..

For sure Plex was taxing the CPU as does the stock multimedia center on the QNAP. They both cause it to rev high. I do feel that the stock fans are very weak. What a pity...I'll definitely look into an aftermarket fan.

Removing the TIM and replacing it with something real is not a big deal. I've done it more times than I can count. It's something that I can do in my sleep. Plus, I haven't seen anyone do this yet with a CPU for the NAS environment so I'm curious to see the results with the NAS architecture compared to a tower that has way better cooling system.

 

[sfx2000]

For sure Plex was taxing the CPU as does the stock multimedia center on the QNAP. They both cause it to rev high. I do feel that the stock fans are very weak. What a pity...I'll definitely look into an aftermarket fan.

Removing the TIM and replacing it with something real is not a big deal. I've done it more times than I can count. It's something that I can do in my sleep. Plus, I haven't seen anyone do this yet with a CPU for the NAS environment so I'm curious to see the results with the NAS architecture compared to a tower that has way better cooling system

Just wanted to follow up and see where things were...

 

[iunlock]

Just wanted to follow up and see where things were...

Hey there! I was on vacation over this past Holiday thinking about what method I wanted to use....in terms of the TIM.

I plan to do the mod this coming week and here's the plan. Since the heatsink does not sit flush with the IHS (as I've noticed from the several times I've reapplied the TIM with varies pastes in hopes to provide an aid to the high temps) I'll be going the deep route in ditching the pastes and going straight for the liquid goodness.

So between the Die and IHS, I'll be using the Cool laboratory Liquid Pro as it is the best, but also the most dangerous as this stuff is very conductive. However, I'm not worried about any misapplications as I've done this a million times. You do have to take extra care and time with this stuff though.

Between the IHS and Heatsink, I'll be using Cool Laboratory Liquid Ultra as it is more of a paste, which will fill in the gaps better on the sides of the IHS because the heatsink does not sit flush. I didn't want to gamble with the Liquid Pro stuff possibly running off and/or not being enough to be able to fill the gaps. The Pro (liquid) stuff could work, but since the Ultra (paste) is well...paste, I've found it more practical for this particular application between the IHS and Heatsink.

I'm confident that it'll drop the temps. Now I'm excited to see just how much....I'll keep yall posted for sure. Exciting stuff....So far, I haven't seen anyone perform this on a NAS environment to date. If someone has, they're not on the numerous forums where I've looked to get some temp numbers after this operation.

 

[sfx2000]

I plan to do the mod this coming week and here's the plan. Since the heatsink does not sit flush with the IHS (as I've noticed from the several times I've reapplied the TIM with varies pastes in hopes to provide an aid to the high temps) I'll be going the deep route in ditching the pastes and going straight for the liquid goodness.

Yikes - so you're saying that the heatsink is not flush with the IHS? That's a problem, I agree...

I'm assuming it's similar to what QNAP did for the TS-x70 line - aluminum finned baseplate and a couple of heat pipes to a finned radiator... I'm not seeing a reason that it wouldn't seat right unless there is either interference or something (bad bend?) that is keeping it from...

Maybe reach out to QNAP and ask them to send a replacement part...

 

[iunlock]

Yikes - so you're saying that the heatsink is not flush with the IHS? That's a problem, I agree...

I'm assuming it's similar to what QNAP did for the TS-x70 line - aluminum finned baseplate and a couple of heat pipes to a finned radiator... I'm not seeing a reason that it wouldn't seat right unless there is either interference or something (bad bend?) that is keeping it from...

Maybe reach out to QNAP and ask them to send a replacement part...

Indeed. It's just an aluminum finned base plate with a copper pipe going to a finned radiator that curves to the back to sit behind the right fan. I assume that it's the same material as yours from the look of it.

I've just remembered that the Cool Laboratory Liquid Pro is NOT to be used on aluminum LOL...So it looks like the Pro will only be used on the Die and IHS.

I wonder if the Ultra is okay to use on aluminum....hmmm...I should find out eh...since the heat sink base is an aluminum base plate.
(UPDATE: Folks are saying not to use Ultra on Aluminum as well...hmm...let me look deeper into this....)

ps...great pics!

 

[sfx2000]

ps...great pics!

meh, cribbed them off a German Web Site that was interested in tweaking the *70 series... not my stuff, I've got a J1900 with the passive little thing one would expect, lol... I grabbed and shared these to put things into context for others that might follow the discussion

The heat pipe radiator, based on those pics, is not well placed, IMHO... might work for a celeron or pentium chip, but going into the Core i5's and i7's, I can understand why they throttle, just not enough HS to displace the heat..