New i5-2500K Build - Temp Questions

[audiojim]

So things are going fairly well, but as I'd like to do some light overclocking, I really value others' expert opinions on temps. I have one question to the temps I'm seeing and a few related to the OEM HSF and my case. BTW - I'm building this rig for gaming and have yet to pick out and install my new GPU.

Hardware:

i5-2500K
Stock HSF
Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 (w/ F5 BIOS)
4GB (2GB x2) Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 1600
Cooler Master Storm Scout Case
Corsair CX600

So far, I've

*Enabled XMP to allow the 1600 MHz RAM frequency
*Changed the CPU Clock Ratio to 40x
*Everything else is Auto

At Idle:

VCore = 1.00V
HSF RPM = 1275 RPM
System Temp = 40 C
CPU Temp = 26 C
Core Temps = 30, 34, 34, 36 C

With Prime95 Blend after about 10 minutes:

VCore = 1.27V
HSF RPM = 1950 RPM
System Temp = 40 C
CPU Temp = 71 C
Core Temps = 78, 84, 84, 83 C

Is that particularly bad? And related to that:

(A) Did I do a poor job seating the stock HSF?
(B) Or is it just doing what it does (the OEM part) and now I need to buy an aftermarket cooler?
(C) My case fans are not being controlled by the motherboard. By default the molex connectors were just ready to be plugged directly into the power supply and they are all going (140mm front, 120mm rear, 140mm top It looks like the top one has the the 3-wire connector available for it, but I'd need to buy an extension cable to make it to one of the sys_fan connections. Would that be the smart way to go?

Thanks!

~jim~

 

[audiojim]

For a reference, I ran things again this afternoon @ the 34x multiplier:

VCore = 1.21V
HSF RPM = 1730 RPM
System Temp = 41 C
CPU Temp = 63 C
Core Temps = 68, 73, 74, 74 C

 

[king_maliken]

Generally as soon as you start OC'ing or even thinking about it, you should have proper cooling. In no case is stock cooling proper. Your temps seem a bit high, but around average for stock cooling. I recommend the Xigmatek’s $30 Gaia SD1283, that is a well spent penny. An alternative is Cooler Master’s $40 Hyper 212+ cooler, which yields about the same result.

Just remember Jim, the solution to keeping your system in good shape (long life and so on), you must have proper cooling.

 

[audiojim]

Well that settles that. Any thoughts on moving a case fan to the mobo for control?

 

[AdrianPerry]

The 2500k is supposidly overclockable to 4.8GHz+ on just air. Getting 4GHz out of a stock cooler shouldnt be too "over-demanding" of it. Just try to stay as far under the 80 degrees mark as possible

 

[k1114]

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52210 Intel states the tcase as 72 so you'd want to stay below that. No matter how many fans or how fast they are, the stock hsf is not going to keep the cpu cool enough when overclocked. As maliken suggested, get the gaia or hyper 212+, both go for $30 on newegg and amazon respectively.

 

[granno21]

I'm having the same issue with my i5 2500k at 4.3ghz with temps around 83. Anyone know a good low profile heat-sink for overclocking the i5? I have a small case with only 80mm of clearance.

 

[audiojim]

Well, I saw the Tom's review of the all the budget HSF's (including the Gaia) and that sealed the deal. I've ordered one, some Arctic Silver 5, and their cleaning kit to get everything nice and ready for this re-do. I'll report back when I get it all together.

 

[apache_lives]

I'm having the same issue with my i5 2500k at 4.3ghz with temps around 83. Anyone know a good low profile heat-sink for overclocking the i5? I have a small case with only 80mm of clearance.

forget about it

 

[cadder]

A good cpu cooler will keep the cpu cooler at overclock speeds cooler than the stock cooler will at stock speeds. The temps you reported in the 80's are scary. Of course during use it might not get that high, prime95 stresses all 4 cores to 100%. Very few real world apps will do that. You could watch the temps while you are doing your normal work on the machine and see how it goes.

 

[king_maliken]

Good luck Jim, you'll see I have not steered you wrong.

~granno21, you wont find a suitable option for that low of clearance, never skimp out on cooling!

 

[audiojim]

Well...I got Xigmatek Gaia in and installed tonight. Under the same Prime95 blend testing, this time @ 4.3 GHz (before I setup the voltages manually hoping to get to 4.5), she's holding steady at around 60-62 degrees after things warm up. And under load the new HSF is @ about 1300 RPM. So much quieter at idle AND load. Gotta love that.

Is this about the average performance to be expected from my setup? Thanks!

 

[audiojim]

Well, it survived an overnight run of Prime95 @ 4.3 GHz and the RAM OC'd to 1866 MHz. This morning I took it with me to work where it's a bit cooler in my office and it's staying around 58-59 C under heavy load.

4.5 GHz next stop!

 

[audiojim]

Best answer selected by audiojim.

 

[AdrianPerry]

On my ASUS Board i used the Auto Tuning Feature and switched to "XMP" which gave my processor a nice overclock of 4.4GHz which is incredibly stable and runs really nice along with the 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance I did try pushing the Auto Tuning further and it Blue screened @ 4.6GHz. (thats all at stock voltage though).

 

[aqe040466]

I'm having the same issue with my i5 2500k at 4.3ghz with temps around 83. Anyone know a good low profile heat-sink for overclocking the i5? I have a small case with only 80mm of clearance.

I am also using i5 2500K CPU and bought an aftermarket cooler Cooler Master hyper 212 plus. I overclocked it at 4.7 GHZ and very stable run prime95 for 12 hrs and the temp would not not even go over 63 degress celsius. For a low profile heatsink, there are a lot of them for you to choose in the market like Tigerdirect, Amazon, Newegg and Micro Center.