Inadequate CPU cooling PO3-620 i7 10700 GTX3070

Hi all. My conclusion it that the out of the box cpu cooling is inadequate in the PO3-620 i7 10700, GTX 3070. The number of comments regarding cooling related problems in the po3-620 on this forum supports my conclusion. In case reports by @SeoulFinn @GotBanned and me the problems were fixed by a cpu fan uppgrade.

Sadly uppgrading the CPU cooler is not really supported in the PO3-620. To change cooler the cpu backplate needs to be pried of the the main board as it is glued on. The back plate then has to be cut with pliers or a dremmel tool. Just thinking of upgrading the cpu cooler kind of takes all warranty away from the product.

Anyone on this forum who would argue that the cooling of the PO3-620 is adequate?

Accepted answers

All comments

GotBanned

(Fingarn, you know what? We'll get both banned for this, but so be it! This time I won't come back as the modified PC is on the way to my friend.)

In the current design the air intake for the front fan is too restricted. Even if you are brave enough to remove the mesh from the inside of the case, the front fan is still working too hard to keep components cool under load. If the fan could breath easier and had less restricted access to air, it wouldn't only push more cool air into the case but also do it with less RPMs and noise. Same goes with the rear fan. (After all mods rear fan is still the loudest.)

The little cool air that enters the case only underlines the inadequacy of the original CPU cooler. As as result the CPU gets too hot and starts to throttle. When CPU does this, it is plain as day that the case design is far from optimal.

I'm not saying that the PC is bad. No. It is pretty good for what it costs. You just have to keep in mind its limitations, or be willing to do what is needed to keep it running at full tilt.

An easy way to avoid CPU throttling would be to change the "Maximum Processor State" from 100 to 99 in Advanced Setting (Power Options). After that change the CPU maxes out at 2,8GHz or so but should be cool (and quiet) enough and not throttle.

Anyway, it was fun to be here and do some mods. Let the banhammer now come, if it has to.

Take care all!

SkyLord

Hi, i bought too this machine. Predator orion 3000 with i7 10700f and rtx 3070. My problem is when i start playing hi heats up to 100° c

but processor usage is only 20% why? I alredy think about cooler change to lyquid cooler but are the heat problem will be fixed???

Fingarn

@SkyLord according to my experience so far an uppgrade of the CPU cooling and the case fans will address your problems. It will still be a very noisy machine (high dB) when operating at full capacity but it will be able to cope with the workload.

On delivery the machine will not be able to cope with heavy loads like gaming without throttling. Your story is yet another report of the inadequate cooling in the PO3-620 i7 10700 GTX 3070.

BrentNH

Great, I've read too many post related to inadequate cooling of the CPU. This bums me out and it seems to me (as a person who doesn't build computers in anyway) replacing the stock cooler isn't as easy as just unscrewing the existing one and replacing it. Someone mentioned changing the max CPU from 100 to 99%, how does one go about doing this? Also how much of a difference will this make while gaming? Thank you all in advance.

GotBanned

Did you read the tread few posts lower? It might be possible to just do that - unscrew four screws, clean CPU die, apply new thermal paste and screw new cooler on. Youtube has gazillion videos how to do this.

GotBanned said:
[...]This might interest you. On a Finnish tech site someone said that he didn't remove the original backplate at all. He inserted four black plastic "washers" and "metal wings" that came with a Noctua cooler on those metal studs surrounding the CPU. Then he secured everything with M3 screws.

I'm not sure about the M3 screws, though. I remember seeing a post on this forum where the screw is M4. Maybe M3 being smaller than M4 went in the hole and kinda secured things? Anyway, maybe this M3/M4 is something you can try if you do not want to remove the board from the case[...]

If you have thermal paste at hand, why don't you take out your cooler and see what screws are being used? (I'd do this but I don't have the PC anymore and went "the hard way".) It is either M3 or M4. Maybe take the original HSF screw to a hardware store where they will sell you what you need. I'd suppose lengthwise similar as originals. Just to be safe, get another set bit just a bit longer.

When back at home, if the new screws really do fit perfectly, place an order for one of those Noctuas mentioned on these forums. Of course you can try something else, but I have no idea which will work and which won't.

GotBanned

More about the length. This was bothering me and I checked the post I was referring to. He used M3x12 screws with Noctua heatsink. So, it is either that or M4x12.

Fingarn

I finally gave up on my PO3-620 I7 10700k, grx 3070.

After changing case fans and CPU cooler I got the machine running without throttling or any problems with USB ports. However, even after the uppgrades the noice it made during gaming and heavy load was just not acceptable.

Salvaged components now resides in a fractal design meshify 2, Corsair 750W, MSI z590.

The best thing about this horrible buy was that I got my hands on a decent GPU.

Fingarn

BrentNH said:

Great, I've read too many post related to inadequate cooling of the CPU. This bums me out and it seems to me (as a person who doesn't build computers in anyway) replacing the stock cooler isn't as easy as just unscrewing the existing one and replacing it. Someone mentioned changing the max CPU from 100 to 99%, how does one go about doing this? Also how much of a difference will this make while gaming? Thank you all in advance.

Throttle stop was a good way to keep temps and noice down for me. Google and just go with the very basic setting of blocking the turbo on the cpu will work fine. I did not experience any real performance difference while using throttle stop.

BrentNH

Thank you, I will look into it.

GotBanned

I wondered what happened to you. Good to hear you got things sorted!

Because the GPU market being what it is atm, I bought this system because of the GPU. If I sold my 3070 now, which I'm not even considering, I could get 1000€ or more for just the card when the whole system was 1199€! I'm planning on using 3070 until the 4xxx series are out. Hopefully the market AND prices will be a lot better by then.

Fingarn

What annoys me the most is that my 18y old son said this would happen even before the machine was out of the box.

GotBanned

Haha! Thankfully I have no kids, so I can freely make my own mistakes and don't have to listen to "Pops, I told you so!"

Fingarn

24h of testing new build. New case and new motherboard. It is silent as a whisper. Runs smoothly. No throttling. Cpu and GPU temp never over 80C.

I can’t explain it in any other way than that airflow in the PO3-620 is severely hampered. What confuses me is that I was not close to these stats even with the side panel removed in the original case.

GotBanned

Off Topic/

Good choice for a case! Airflow makes all the difference - breathing is important. If you use quality 120 or 140mm fans, they move a lot more air than 92mm ones while being quieter.

The air intake in my Lian-Li 011D XL is taken care of by 2x200mm Noctua fans. While on desktop and surfing the Internet, the noisiest part in my case is the 3070. ^^

/Off Topic

PrskMate

I have the model with 2070 Super, i7-10700 cpu, and I don't really game, but I do hardcore creative work with very heavy apps. To be honest at the moment I don't have any issue with heat, and all what you mention, but I did had until I had the predator sense installed together with their mouse and keyboard app. Since I uninstalled them, and than I clean installed windows and did the last windows updates, I never had the issue again. No heat, no noise, it's a smooth, silent machine with very low temps. The only thing I would like to upgrade is the cpu to an i9, but I'm very confused about what to choose, and if yes, should I upgrade the fans too, and if yes, when those new psu-s come out so I can ad more power to it. I need the i9 since I'm using more very huge apps at the same time. What my i7 basically can handle at the moment very good, but I'm a daily user of them, so I would like to make it sure that it will handle them smooth also next year.

billsey

You can run the i9-10900 as pretty much a drop in replacement, since they have the same power and cooling requirements. You won't see a huge speed improvement, just what you'd expect with 10 cores instead of 8.

Masquirrel

Have the PO3-620 with the 3060ti and first day I set up and used cpu ran at about 71C when playing several games for a few hours. Next day was not so good, and temps were in the 90s! Turned off the PC and powered back on and temps were back to 71C. Next day temps were great, then all of a sudden they started going into the 90s. I once again turned powered off and on and the temperatures were great. Next day, same thing but I noticed that I started having these high temps right after I woke my PC from sleep. Went to power settings and turned off Sleep mode and have not had temp issues since. Was looking at coolers but glad I was able to figure this out, maybe that's what's happening to some other users.

GotBanned

Interesting find. I can see how PredatorSense might have some issues reporting temps correctly. Or what is more likely, there might be something wrong how it controls the fans and that's the reason your temps go up occasionally.

When I still had this little box I used other temp monitoring software. At least in my case, the temps remained high until I replaced HSF and fans. So, could it be that your temps are still high but PredatorSense is reporting them wrongly?

Grezoo

I Buy Cooler Master Hyper H412R, and open the box, I adjusted it a little with pliers, 1mm, and it could be put in place. Not need disassembly motherboard etc...

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