Overclock i7 960

Cycrow

80C under a stress test is high, but not high enough to cause any trouble.

as the pc will never likely reach that high under normal circumstances.

CPUs can generally run upto 100C before they hit problems.

but everyone has a difference tolerance to temps

Also make sure you clean the dust from the case and fans, as this can impede airflow, using a can of compressed air every few months is a good idea.
A clean case will run cooler

PenguinJim

As it's surely a 4-year-old PC, have you cleaned the HSF at all since putting it together?

Can of compressed air, blow all of that fluff out of the heatsink. You can use cotton wool to clean the fan blades (careful, now!), but I usually just grab a tissue. Edit: oops, didn't see there was a second page and Cycrow had beaten me to it!

You'll be surprised what ten minutes of fluffing can do.

Just go ahead and get the GTX 970, it'll go great with that CPU already.

Luffy321

Thanks for the reply guys.

80c temp has me concerned. OCing the chip seems to be easy and stable but temperature seems to exponentially rise during prime95 test and intense games.

Even at idle im getting temps of 49c which I hear isnt good

I'm wondering if I should get a new cooling system?

Oh well when I install the 970, I will clean out my system and see if that helps.

Cycrow

the Temperature will always rise alot when under intense load. The main problem is the high idle temps.

i would suggest first cleaning it out, It may knock down the temps alot, especially if its really clogged up with dust.

Also, you could try getting some new thermal paste and applying that, which might improve things some more

This would be cheaper than replacing the whole cooler, and ideally should be done anyways.

if the system is pretty stable, then it might even be possible to drop the voltage slightly.

its possible its the ambient temp inside the case thats causing everything to heat up, so improving airflow can help

Luffy321

Yea my case fans are very dusty, I will give them a good clean. Im skeptical that it will improve cpu temps because when I look at my current gpu temps, it's chilling at 33c idle. Plus I have the Antec 900 which is a pain in the !!! to clean.

As for replacing the thermal paste, I find this intimidating as from what I have seen it is the messiest part of building a PC but if cleaning doesnt work I guess I have to try it.

[Deleted User]

I usually test mine with P95 Blend for at least 8 hours.

I wouldn't like to see temperatures over 80 degrees tbh.

Kendall80

You'll need to P95 blend test for small file sizes and large file sizes. You'll want at least an hour of stability with consistent temps.


Air flow is crucial. I had to remove 2 of my fans to improve airflow. Suck in from bottom and lower front. Output air at the top and upper rear. Also tidy up internal cable routing and as others have said clean out the dust.


You may also need a higher rated PSU. 630W seems a little low, especially when considering a GPU upgrade and overclocking. I have an efficient 730W BeQuiet PSU which is ideal for me but if I were to look at increasing either my chip or GPU I'd definitely consider raising it to 800+. There are various sites which can estimate the amount of power your system requires.


I don't know if you have them already but in addition to the tools you are using I'd suggest coretemp and HWMonitor also. The latter if I remember correctly was particularly useful in monitoring the socket temp. This, in my experience rises faster than the individual core temps when overclocking.

Luffy321

I'm not worried about the psu. My system draws 532w. I always buy Asus whose parts are very power efficient. For example, the ASUS 970 I plan to buy only needs one 8 pin to power it.

But I will try coretemp and HWMonitor.

[Deleted User]

http://www.overclock.net/t/538439/guide-to-overclocking-the-core-i7-920-or-930-to-4-0ghz

Have a read, should be helpful

Luffy321

Ahhh....ok

I'm starting to realise this is going to be a long journey. So here is the plan. I brought the Asus 970 which will arrive tomorrow. The card is absolutely massive and I'm not sure it will fit my antec 900. (fingers cross). While i'm hammering the card into place tomorrow I will be giving the case an extensive clean as well.

However, it is a bit disheartening to see in the guide anewhope linked that my cooler was specifically ill advised against. I went to amazon and read some reviews and it wasnt good. So I have decided to that it is best I change the cooler.

I want to absolutely iceblast my cpu so im thinking of getting H80i because H100i might be too big for my case. I'm also planning to use artic silver 5 thermal paste. However, after the big expense of the 970, i'm going to have to wait till a couple of weeks into November to afford the cooler etc and I will be update the thread slowly as and when the parts arrive. I hope everybody can stick around till then.

A question I have is, I have put my cpu back to stock and the temp idles around 40, which again I hear isnt good. Could this be because my multiplier is at a stock of 25 (instead of 24) and has technically been OCing itself at 3.3ghz (instead of 3.2) since I brought the PC in 2011?