Back case fan not spinning + overclock speed question

[Jammysticks]

Hi all,

I recently received a desktop from PC Specialist, and all is well except two things:

1) The fan at the back of the case hasn't spun once despite heavy use at some points.

2) The CPU is an i7-9700K which was meant to be overclocked to 5GHz (base clock 3.6GHz), yet in BIOS and task manager I can see that it it doesn't exceed 4.6GHz.

I would greatly appreciate some advice on what can be done here to fix these issues!

 

[Oussebon]

What is the full spec? Pasted from your PCS account.

Many case fans aren't PWM and won't vary speed with load, they'll just spin at a fixed rate. So your rear fan may be unplugged. Follow the cable from the fan and see where it leads.

 

[Jammysticks]

Specs here:

CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 460X RGB GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU	Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-9700K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 5.0GHz)
OC BIOS FIle	Download Overclock BIOS File
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Master: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs WIFI - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)	32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card	11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive	2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive	4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
Intel Optane Memory	16GB INTEL® OPTANE MEMORY - USE WITH MECHANICAL HDD
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader	USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply	CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling	Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste	COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans	2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card	ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking	10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options	2 PORT (2 x TYPE A) USB 3.1 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System	Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language	United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media	Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software	FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus	Norton 360 Deluxe: 1 User, 5 Devices - 1 Year Subscription
Browser	Google Chrome™
Keyboard & Mouse	Corsair K55 RGB Gaming Keyboard (UK)
Mouse	Corsair Harpoon RGB Gaming Mouse
Gaming Mouse Pad	CoolerMaster MP510 Gaming Mouse Pad - Medium
Warranty	3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Where should the fan be plugged in?

Thanks

EDIT: I'm seeing the "Download overclock BIOS file" option now, which wasn't there before I don't think. Is this necessary to get the 5GHz?

 

[Oussebon]

Note that PCS don't guarantee 5GHz (it says "up to"). But 4.6GHz across all cores would be a bit of a bad joke, being lower than single core boost (4.9GHz) and only the same as what the CPU boost itself to anyway across all cores! i.e. left at stock speeds the CPU would just boost itself to 4.6GHz with all cores under load.

That said - Task manager shouldn't be trusted with core frequencies. It's well known that it can misreport them, though I'd expect it would show in the BIOS.

I'd probably get something like HWinfo, and check the CPU frequencies in that.

Maybe use Cinebench, and check the frequencies of the various cores with HWinfo while running the Single and then Multi threaded benches.

The PC should be pre-overclocked. The BIOS profile is in case you reset the BIOS and need to reload the settings.

 

[Jammysticks]

Note that PCS don't guarantee 5GHz (it says "up to"). But 4.6GHz across all cores would be a bit of a bad joke, being lower than single core boost (4.9GHz) and only the same as what the CPU boost itself to anyway across all cores! i.e. left at stock speeds the CPU would just boost itself to 4.6GHz with all cores under load.

That said - Task manager shouldn't be trusted with core frequencies. It's well known that it can misreport them, though I'd expect it would show in the BIOS.

I'd probably get something like HWinfo, and check the CPU frequencies in that.

Maybe use Cinebench, and check the frequencies of the various cores with HWinfo while running the Single and then Multi threaded benches.

The PC should be pre-overclocked. The BIOS profile is in case you reset the BIOS and need to reload the settings.

Many thanks for that comprehensive response! I got 3663 points on the cinebench test, and the cores all ran at 4600MHz according to HWinfo. When I did a single core test, I saw all the cores operating at 4700MHz. Is there something wrong here? All I need is for one core to get to 4.9, really (the main game I use - X-Plane 11 - is highly dependent on single core performance).

 

[SpyderTracks]

Many thanks for that comprehensive response! I got 3663 points on the cinebench test, and the cores all ran at 4600MHz according to HWinfo. When I did a single core test, I saw all the cores operating at 4700MHz. Is there something wrong here? All I need is for one core to get to 4.9, really (the main game I use - X-Plane 11 - is highly dependent on single core performance).

It does sound a bit fishy imho... I'd personally take that up with PCS as it's not reaching the speeds you paid for.

It doesn't sound like an overclock is in place from your analysis.