Normal CPU temps?

[dotOrion]

Righto, just put together my system and doing some stress testing before I start overclocking.
Now, I've found plenty of guides, and I'm not looking for 5Ghz overclocks on my i5-2500k, so I should be fine with some multiplier messing and a touch of vcore ..
However, most of the guides I've read have said to "check your temps" without actually giving any reference on what those temps should be.

I've googled a bit, but I'm still unsure. Right now, at stock speeds, these are my temps:



One guide mentioned that an initial overclock at 4Ghz "shouldn't go much above 55°C". Is my cooling/airflow that bad, or is this fine to start overclocking a bit?
I'm using a Coolermaster CM690II Basic, which came with one front 140mm fan and one rear 120mm fan installed, and a Mugen 2 Rev B cooler.

[Wries]

On 4.8 GHz at 1.350V, my Sandy K can reach around 68C during stress test-load . TjMax is 95.. In my book these are OK numbers.

I'd suggest you try just clocking up to 4 GHz without tweaking voltage (though you should monitor it and see if the mobo tries to "auto" an absurdly high value with your new clock). This shouldn't result in much of a higher temperature.

[dotOrion]

On 4.8 GHz at 1.350V, my Sandy K can reach around 68C during stress test-load . TjMax is 95.. In my book these are OK numbers.

I'd suggest you try just clocking up to 4 GHz without tweaking voltage (though you should monitor it and see if the mobo tries to "auto" an absurdly high value with your new clock). This shouldn't result in much of a higher temperature.

What are you using to cool it, though? (x amount of case fans, air/water?)

And yeah, after this test has run for an hour i'm planning to give it a shot.

[Deleted]

Well "check your temps" mostly tells you that you do not want to reach +110°C. My CPU default configuration was to do an emergency shutdown at 120°C I hope that gives you an idea what they might mean by "check your temp".

Also you must keep in mind that overclocking during the winter might have different results in the summer. While I was able to overclock my graphics card by 20% in the winter (stood right in front of a badly insulated window) I was merely able to overclock it by 12% during the spring months where the ambient temperature was higher. Keep that in mind and just go up slowly. I would guess that 80°C isn't a problem as long as you check that your ventilation is clean and won't cause your tests to be good now but off in 2 weeks.

Not an expert but since CPUs and GPUs use similar or the same materials you can guess that they can bear the same temperatures before getting too hot. My GPU goes up to 85°C while my CPU stays at 55-60°C. I use a gaming notebook, so its hotter anyways. In the end performance might go down the higher the temperatures go. (safety catch)

[dotOrion]

Well, I know GPUs can get a lot hotter than CPUs, I just don't know how hot =)

And yeah, i'd dial down the overclocks when ambient temp rises.

[dotOrion]

When it comes to temps, you do have to research each chip. Generally, the new Sandies work well up to about 75C. After that, you're running a risk. Generally speaking, if it's staying at 50C load, you've got good temps.

Well, that's why I was asking - mine is at 50°C load at stock speeds. So it's not gonna stay there if I start overclocking

[Wries]

What are you using to cool it, though? (x amount of case fans, air/water?)

In the case there are 2x 200mm fans and 2x 120mm fans. On my CPU cooler (hyper 212 +) there are 2x Scythe 1850RPM fans in push/pull.

Wish I had kept the numbers on what temp was when at stock clocks. But I'm afraid I don't have them. Might reboot and load up defaults because I'm curious now. We'll see. It doesn't feel like 50C would be something alarming at stock, though.

[Saithes]

Hitting about 64-66C here at 4.8 1.36v. With Stock Clocks its about 41-43C tops at max load.

[Wries]

Maybe your temp is a liittle higher than what's humanely possible. Though ambient temperature matters A LOT as you might know. If I open a window out to the cold winter my cores in idle can go down to 19 celcius.

Did an extremely short 5 min stress test just now with stock clocks and got up to 45C.

in short. gogo start the OC. As you said you're not aiming for 5GHz. 4GHz or even 4.5 should be no prob and give reasonable temps.

[dotOrion]

Well, it's probably 21-22°C in my room here.
Temps went up a little around the 1h mark (54-55°) of the Prime95 test.