I'm in Brisbane (3000 kilometres from the equator) and I can tell you BOINC could have fried my CPU if I didn't install ASUS PC Probe (it ran at almost 90 degrees Celsius with stock cooling).

Even with v7 & optimised applications my i7 2600k only ran in the mid 70°s when the ambient temperature was in the mid 30°s.
Your system running at that temperature indicates a problem with your system.

I think BOINC really needs to rethink their policy of enabling 100% CPU usage, on all cores, 24/7, as the default installation settings (the average PC user isn't aware of their CPU temperatures, runs stock cooling/fans, and installs BOINC with default settings - this could potentially damage the CPUs of these people).

The only risk is to systems that have faulty cooling setups.

Current ultra books & the like do have very limited cooling abilities and have significant temperature capping of their operation, so even for them, it's not an issue.

At the very least, I think BOINC should inform the user during setup that using BOINC using default settings may pose a risk of increasing CPU temperatures above manufacturer maximum specifications (which could damage their CPU)

What to do if a system overheats is addressed in the Rules & Policies, which should be read before installing the software. If people choose not to do so, then that's their choice.
And once again- that will only occur is there is a problem with their system.

I right clicked the system tray icon and clicked exit (to stop BOINC and reduce the CPU temperature) my Windows 7 Resource monitor showed that it was still being used 100% - I had to start BOINC again, click "snooze" (to stop all running tasks) THEN exit BOINC before my CPU usage went down from 100% to less than 5%.

Check your settings- by default closing the manager shuts down BOINC. If you change the default, it won't happen. Also make sure you only have once instance of the manager running.

It seems that just exiting BOINC isn't enough to stop some projects from happily crunching away anyway - how bizarre !!!

See above.

I think BOINC should seriously address this CPU overheating issue - it's beyond a joke as far as I am concerned.

What to do if a system overheats is addressed in the Rules & Policies, which should be read before installing the software. If people choose not to do so, then that's their choice.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I reversed the fan direction and the CPU temps immediately dropped 10+c.

Which fan? Side fan, front case fan, rear case fan, top case fan?

The mentioned fans are connected to the H75 LCS in a intake push/pull configuration.

OK, not surprising the CPU temperature dropped significantly as you're now using air from outside the case (which would be much cooler than the air inside it) to cool the CPU. One of the reasons custom liquid cooling systems have always mounted the radiator externally.
Did pumping that heat back in to the case have much effect on the GPU temperatures? With all those other exhaust fans I wouldn't expect much more than a 1-2° bump in GPU temperatures, if any.
The system & PSU temps may have gone up slightly more.



EDIT- many years ago I saw pictures of one particular setup, the piping from the CPU block ran outside to a large outdoor pond.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I've found the best way to control temperature is decent system cooling. No need for software.

Mate, you live in the tropics (less than 1400 Kilometres from the equator) you need decent system cooling just to browse the web ;-)

I'm in Brisbane (3000 kilometres from the equator) and I can tell you BOINC could have fried my CPU if I didn't install ASUS PC Probe (it ran at almost 90 degrees Celsius with stock cooling).

I think BOINC really needs to rethink their policy of enabling 100% CPU usage, on all cores, 24/7, as the default installation settings (the average PC user isn't aware of their CPU temperatures, runs stock cooling/fans, and installs BOINC with default settings - this could potentially damage the CPUs of these people).

At the very least, I think BOINC should inform the user during setup that using BOINC using default settings may pose a risk of increasing CPU temperatures above manufacturer maximum specifications (which could damage their CPU), then it should allow people to select how much CPU time they want BOINC to use, finally it should place a shortcut on the desktop that could include general information on how to monitor your CPU temperature.

I think BOINC has an ethical responsibility to make this information easily available, easy enough to understand by the average user, BEFORE installation is made possible. It should also provide options to change default CPU settings DURING installation of the BOINC client.

Oh, and by the way, when I installed a CPU monitoring program and found the temperatures excessive I right clicked the system tray icon and clicked exit (to stop BOINC and reduce the CPU temperature) my Windows 7 Resource monitor showed that it was still being used 100% - I had to start BOINC again, click "snooze" (to stop all running tasks) THEN exit BOINC before my CPU usage went down from 100% to less than 5%.

It seems that just exiting BOINC isn't enough to stop some projects from happily crunching away anyway - how bizarre !!!

I think BOINC should seriously address this CPU overheating issue - it's beyond a joke as far as I am concerned.

Ps: this post is probably more appropriate in a BOINC forum, not a SETI forum (because it's not SETI's fault). Still, people should be aware that this could be a real problem.

You could check to see if others are raising these concerns over on the forums for BOINC http://boinc.berkeley.edu/. They have addresses concerns in the past. Such as adding the "Suspend work when non-BOINC CPU usage is above xx %". Perhaps it is time to have the set a lower default value for "On multiprocessors, use at most".

Having a way to monitor the system temperatures can be tricky & not all system/motherboard manufactures include the resources to do this. Another issue can be the accuracy of the software. You can have several different applications running each giving you a different value for your component temperatures. With none of them being accurate.

As far as BOINC closing when you exit the manager. It does by default. There is an option to tell it to leave BOINC running in the background when closing the manager. You have probably unchecked the option so it leaves BOINC running & disabled the the "Enable Manager exit dialog" option. Which you can reenable from the Advanced > Options menu.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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I reversed the fan direction and the CPU temps immediately dropped 10+c.

Which fan? Side fan, front case fan, rear case fan, top case fan?

The mentioned fans are connected to the H75 LCS in a intake push/pull configuration.

OK, not surprising the CPU temperature dropped significantly as you're now using air from outside the case (which would be much cooler than the air inside it) to cool the CPU. One of the reasons custom liquid cooling systems have always mounted the radiator externally.
Did pumping that heat back in to the case have much effect on the GPU temperatures? With all those other exhaust fans I wouldn't expect much more than a 1-2° bump in GPU temperatures, if any.
The system & PSU temps may have gone up slightly more.

There is only one exhaust fan, on the top.

Back when I initially installed the GTX660SC it was with an i7/950 cooled by a H70 LCS in a intake push/pull configuration, and I found that pulling in its exhaust kept the CPU around mid 70c. After I reversed the direction of the LCS fans the CPU temps dropped to the mid 60c. When I upgraded to the 4770K with a H75 I kept the same configuration with the CPU temps within the same range even after I replaced the 660 with 2 GTX750Ti FTW, as they are generating lower temps. I reversed the fan direction back to intake on the radiator and the CPU temps dropped to mid 50c. The LCS is governed by the PWM in the BIOS and the GPU temps are monitored/controlled by EVGA Precision X.

Last week I joined in on another thread concerning a GTX780 & the 340.52 driver, and followed a suggestion of upgrading my AP tasks to r2399 from http://mikesworldnet.de/home and started using the -use_sleep option. CPU temps are now averaging low 50c & the GPU temps are in the mid 50c range. Prior to upgrading to r2399 my CPU & GPU run times were running about the same, afterwards the CPU run times dropped considerably and the total run time did not increase. Things went so well that I have increased the number of AP GPU tasks from 2 -> 3, and the % of processors from 80% to 0 (same as 100%). The total run time for AP tasks has increased since then, but I can live with it. I don't have to worry about watching video, etc. as the HD4600 is used as the monitor, leaving the GPUs to concentrate totally on crunching. I use HWinfo064 4.42 to generally monitor the system temps and Outertech's Cachman 7.7.0.0 to monitor the system usage.

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I don't buy computers, I build them!!

Mine is still running 24/7 on 100% with default configuration (x37 multiplier and HT on). Room temperature is now in the lower 30's (compared to 20's when this started). CPU temperature is usually in the 60's, with peaks in the mid 70's.

I noticed that your GTX780 is similar to my GTX750Ti FTX in one respect, and that is it exhausts air into the case. Up to a few days ago I was pulling air from inside of the case getting the same temps that you are now getting. I reversed the fan direction and the CPU temps immediately dropped 10+c.

Another thing that I noticed is that your running you AP tasks using the r1316 version. I've joined the following thread that you might find interesting.

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=75309

I've made the suggested changes for my AP tasks and couldn't be more satisfied, you might want to take a look at it.

I won't be back home for another month, but I will look into it and check if I can do it remotely. So in brief, this will allow the cpu to work less during AP tasks?

As for the fans setup, I've got the h100i installed on top with 2 exhaust fans under it (120mm) and 2 exaust fans above it (case fans, 230mm). There's an additional exhaust in the back (140mm) and all others are intake (side 230mm, front 230mm, bottom 140mm which will be removed when i add the 2nd 780, as it is blocking the PSU). If I change the top fans for intake, it will leave the rear one as the only exhaust, and I don't have dust filters on the top side of my case. I am satisfied with my temps, as this is as hot as it gets where I live.

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