I7-7700k safe temps

loginuser9999,

Q: What is your Core voltage?

Q: What is your ambient temperature?

Here's the recommended operating range for Core temperature:

80C Hot (100% Load)
75C Warm
70C Warm (Heavy Load)
60C Norm
50C Norm (Medium Load)
40C Norm
30C Cool (Idle)
25C Cool

Core temperatures up to 80C are safe.

The following is from SiliconLottery.com, where they bin CPU's and offer de-lidding service: https://siliconlottery.com/collections/frontpage/products/delid

"Temperature improvements vary depending on processor sample and architecture. Temperatures under an overclocked load (1.3V-1.4V) will decrease anywhere from 5° to 25°C. Typical temperature improvements are listed below:

Ivy Bridge: 10°C to 25°C
Haswell: 10°C to 25°C
Devil's Canyon: 7°C to 15°C
Broadwell: 8°C to 18°C
Skylake: 8°C to 18°C
Kaby Lake: 12° to 25°C"

I purchased a 5.0 GHz i7 7700K from Silicon Lottery. At 1.368 Vcore and 22C ambient temperature, my hottest Core running Prime95 V26.6 Small FFT's is 73C using a Cooler Master TPC 812, which is a high-end single tower air cooler that is slightly less capable than your Noctua NH-D15 at a much lighter weight. I also owned a 4.8 GHz i7 6700K, again purchased from Silicon Lottery. The hottest Core was 67C under the same conditions with 1.400 Vcore.

Previously I owned an i7 4770K at 4.7 GHz, which I delidded myself. The hottest Core was 69C at 1.300 Vcore. I also owned an i7 3770K at 4.6 and 1.300 Vcore I delidded with similar results. Prior to delidding, Core temperatures were ridiculously high, well into the 90's.

All the processors listed above by Silicon Lottery are TIM'd, whereas the 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge and previous processors are soldered. In my opinion, Sandy Bridge processors were the last mainstream desktop processors released by Intel that were thermally consistent, predictable and well behaved.

Intel moved away from soldering, because they used "Indium" in their solder, which has a relatively low melting point and high thermal conductivity, but is an exotic and expensive element. Thermal Interface Material, or "TIM" is inexpensive, but has a relatively low thermal conductivity (1/8th to 1/10th) compared to Indium. A Dow-Corning compound was used on many processor variants.

You might want to consider sending your CPU to Silicon Lottery, where they will delid it for you.

Also, you might want to read this Sticky: Intel Temperature Guide - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html

Pay particular attention to Section 10 - The TIM Problem.

CT