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i7 920 : Acceptable temperatures - Stock vs Overclock

idata
Employee
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Hi Guys, I realise this topic has been covered in quite a few other posts however the ones I have read there seems to be a lot of conflict in the answers given, so I figured I would ask again due to the fact that personal friends vs answers on these boards are very very different.

I recently purchased an i7 920 and put it on an asus rampage 2 extreme motherboard. When I acquired the bundle the shop had advertised that they were going to safely over clock the chip and mobo so they could run easily at 4.0ghz. When both arrived the store had not over clocked either. At the moment the chip is running at its stock speed however as I am a recent intel convert, I am not really much aware of what temperatures the computer should be running at.

When the computer first starts up the bios reports that the chip starts out at around 32 degrees celsius but climbs to around 37-40 when completely started up and given a period of around 20 minutes to warm up.

I downloaded real temp and as idle the computer usually hangs around this mark:

39 37 41 39

I then decided to put the computer under load by running a few games and put an alarm on for different levels of CPU temperature.

For the most part the cpu tended to hang around 44 42 47 41 but did occasionally set off the alarm a few times in odd spikes when it passed over 50 degrees celsius.u

Now I have a few friends who have informed me that the chip should never run over 45 degrees celsius otherwise I run the risk of damaging the chip, this has me really paranoid now. I did carry out some research by reading toms hardware and they class the boundaries as:

30 - 60 : Normal

61-70 : Warm

71+ : Hot

I am not sure what readings to believe as I have had so many numbers thrown at me I figured I would be best asking those who actually have purchased similar hardware. As the computer is not overclocked I am now very reluctant to perform any overclocking if the machine is already deemed to be overheating.

Any information or input you guy can put in will be greatly appreciated.

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idata
Employee
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Well see i have a intel core 2 duo and its running at 45 degrees c and thats at stock clock at 3.006 ghz so i think your good so far but i would recommend getting some new thermal paste like artic silver 5 or if you can aford it try a water cooler

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idata
Employee
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Hi,

The max temp for the CPU on Intels documents is 69.7. But i dont even believe taht is the max temp for the CPU. But even if it is your temps are fine.

On anotehr matter, if you bought it already overclocked but when you got it it wasn't did you pay more for the overclock???? should you not get the system changed?

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