Overclocking and Temperatures

60 degrees is fine. But I wouldn't want it to go over 75 for p95 or ibt. Could you fill out your specs so we could help you a little better. Thanks

More important information would be the CPU. I to would no suggest going above 75C for the newer intel chips. Although i dont think that it would be horrible if you went up to 80C if you have a decent cooler

http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2525&page=5

Under load that cooler should be capable of keeping your i5 less than 17C above ambient at low fan speed........

You should read a few reviews on different methods for applying thermal paste, and then remove your heat sink and re-mount it as best you can. That's your largest source of variation, but your overall case ventilation should be considered as well.

Edit: Just realized I assumed i5, but if not please list what it is you are using.

Honestly I would have to disagree that 17C above ambient is possible short of watercoolin and even then really top notch. Load can be subjective when looking at 30 minutes vs 72hours+. I have ambients of 21C in my room and see loads tempts 50+ using an aftermarket cooler (a 212 if i remember right). even in the basement on my server (also with an aftermarket CPU cooler) my idle temps are just above 15C ambient (although a night stand converted to custom case so not great airflow)

Edit: not to be ruffle any feathers but I would say the linked article in question is about 4 years out of date. Although it says published in 2010 no one has honestly used a p4 for 4-5 years
Edited by crystalhand - 4/24/12 at 7:03pm

The benchmark isn't even using a specific CPU...... it's directly generating 85W and 150W of heat and forcing each cooler to dissipate that heat. This is a lot of heat, and reading more than the header on a chart in an in-depth article could be useful in making these distinctions.

http://www.frostytech.com/testmethod_mk2.cfm

Edit: There's a reason people pay good money for Noctua brand coolers and it's not just because they look cool. There's also a reason people say to stick with air cooling unless you're getting a serious water cooling setup. Human error often misrepresents what coolers are capable of in ideal conditions.(best mounting pressure/perfect grease application/good ventilation) Just another thing that makes water cooled rigs better is the fact that people willing to put one together spend more time getting all of these details just right, and this widens the perceived gap even more.
Edited by Subcutaneous - 4/24/12 at 8:10pm

Ok no you are right the chip should not matter as much as the wattage being consumed. Although I would bet that they are all a bit different it probably is not a big deal. Although they do have an open air test setup so.... not exactly real work unless you are running caseless. Although they are demonstrating the relative performance of each cooler.

With my 212 they said between 17-19C above ambient and i see about 35-40 above ambient in a push pull (2500k overclocked to 4.7)


Regardless of this fact with a decent aftermarket cooler you should be fine folding 24/7 unless your ambient temperatures are not really high or you are running a crazy clock. You have a decent chip so i would not worry to much about it. Focus on increasing the multiplier and not any of the voltage. You should probably get a decent overlocking without kicking up voltage and that should help to keep the temps lows. I would also make sure that you did apply the heat sink properly as 60C does seem high with no overclock

Maybe I'm just the master of internal case airflow, but personally with the stock cooler my processor not overclocked yielded a load temperature of 45C. I picked up this cooler just for the heck of it(my processor can't overclock) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5543190&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE It was $12 when I ordered it, and the fan stopped working within a month. I have been running it passively ever since, and my current peak load for both cores is 39C. That's with 25C ambient so with a (currently 15$) cooler im seeing 13C over ambient with no fans on the cooler.

Granted my processor is only half of what an i5 is quite literally, but even then with a much larger heatsink with more heat dissipation capacity(heat pipes) and active cooling (fans) pretty good temperatures are very achievable with air cooling.(close to any modest water cooling setup) Check out the best temperatures some people have gotten with good air coolers before saying "there's no way close to ambient temperatures are possible with them"

Did you know there are plenty of threads I have posted in where people have a brand new water cooler(H50/H80/Antec 620) and they are getting high temperatures.(and want to know why) It's not because of poor general performance...... if all coolers performed poorly no one would upgrade from the stock unit!

The cooler can only be as effective as your own internal case setup. If it is not properly oriented to complement case airflow this is going to work against it. If case airflow is not even(intake:exhaust ratio) there will be either be hot air building up in the case(not enough exhaust/too much intake) or there will not be enough fresh intake air to keep the cooler as near ambient as possible(too little intake/too much exhaust creates a lack of fresh air available to the coolers own fans) This will effect a case like the cm storm scout to a much lesser degree than more common case designs, because of the abundance of mesh allowing free air exchange.

So on top of getting the heat sink mounted just right, you also have to make sure your airflow patterns make sense and effectively bring in fresh ambient temperature air to where it's needed most while minimizing turbulence. Getting the best temperature out of a given setup is not something you always get right the first time, sometimes changing around the fans and experimenting will make you realize a different more effective way to organize your internal case airflow, and you will be rewarded with better temperatures and potentially even a quieter case.