I7 860 @ 71 degrees

Well 71 c for 3.5 ghz with a cooler, it doesnt look very good, i would advise not to exceed 65c -but that depends upon the person.. What are your ambient temps ?

i know my i7 laptop is safe all the way to 100* c and i would think the the desktop versions are similiar so i would say yes it is safe.

Seems you about temps well.
Let's see this in a year's time, with constant 100 c temps-

honestly i dont care what negative affect it might have cause it is under warranty for 3 years. also i feel confindent that people have some misconception on the max temps for these.

"What we have found is that Intel Core i7 CPUs have extremely good temperature tolerance. Not only are they made with a Hi-K silicon which is able to withstand higher temperatures, but they have very good power management. There are more transistors dedicated to power management on Core i7 CPUs than there were transistors in the original Pentium Pro CPU! What we’ve found is that the Intel Core i7 CPUs throttle down their speed starting at 100C. So, 100C is the maximum operating temperature of Intel Core i7. However, due to the great power management, we have never seen instability due to temperature. We can run full stress testing at 100C and have no errors. Of course, that’s not a good idea, but my point is that the excellent management features reduce the risk of high temperature."

http://www.pugetsystems.com/blog/2009/02/26/intel-core-...

if intel has it throttling down at 100*c it cant be horrible on it to run at higher temps. obviously the cooler the better but according to that article 71* isnt that bad.

Btw my laptop as i speak is idling at about 61* with about 8-10 browser tabs open.

OMG, what a moron that Puget systems guy is. In one breath he says 100c is the max operating temperature and the next he says of course it's not a good idea to stress test at 100c. Make up your mind moron.

Intel states a thermal max temp for a reason, and even states your chip will degrade above this temperature. For an i7 it is 68c Tcase (about 72-73c core temp). You might want to download the Intel data sheet with all of Intel's pertinent data, since they make the chips after all.

ok smartass link please and maybe a page number in said document.
Oh hey i believe that you can actaully only run these processors under 40*C, why you might ask. Cause i said so.
Talk all you want but i will tell you this. my i7 which i have had two laptops with a quad core i7 will and does run at well above 68c and does not throttle down. Now to the best of my knowledge a mobile processor is the same as a desktop just underclocked. correct me if i am wrong but just dont say i am wrong but if they are the same which i am going to assume that they are, why would a mobile processor built with lower end chips be able to run hotter and still be warrantied for three years, the same as a desktop. why would they warrant a chip that operates hot straight from the factory.

Running intelburn test temps will get in the high 90's and have seen a triple didget once. no shut down or crash but thats 30c above max temp?

Whats the point of these ^^ unnecessary discussions ?
@cbrun enjoy your pc with 100 c , i just wouldn't.

just ran intel burn test and maxed out twice at 94*c. nothing i can do about it. thats just how it is.