To the resident experts:
After reading from forum to forum, I haven't been able to find a comfortable answer to the following question: How hot is too hot?
Here's the lead-in:
Phenom II X4 955 BE w/ multiplier set to x18 in BIOS (bringing it up to ~3.6 GHz)
Artic Freezer Pro Aftermarket Heatsink mounted on CPU
ASRock M3A770DE
16 GB Patriot Xtreme RAM (4 x 4 GB sticks)
Seasonic X750 (80 plus gold certified, modular, just got it, baller PSU compared to my $50 Rosewill)
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 (due for an upgrade)
Antec 300 case (all case fans installed - 3x 120mm fans blowing in, 1x 120 mm & 1x 140 mm fans blowing out near the top.
To say I'm cautious about overclocking would be an overstatement. I recently purchased the Seasonic PSU and three more fans to ventilate and I reseated the heatsink a few months ago (which didn't make a discernable difference).
Here's my thought process, please feel free to correct my errors:
1.) CPU Voltage is set to 'Auto' on my board, which seems to be a no-no on some forums. Should I do this manually? If so, any suggestions?
2.) Idle sits at around 42-44° C, hits about 53-55° C with iTunes streaming, Vuze downloading, and Borderlands running simultaneously. The nerve-wracking part is running Prime95, which seems like a good "stress test" for a full load. From idle, the temp just from 44-52° C in a heartbeat, and 60° C within a couple minutes. I'm unsure what the max temp reading should be, does this sound too hot?
I imagine the airflow is good, the heatsink is good...maybe my nerves just aren't.
Please advise, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
-Waydidddy
After reading from forum to forum, I haven't been able to find a comfortable answer to the following question: How hot is too hot?
Here's the lead-in:
Phenom II X4 955 BE w/ multiplier set to x18 in BIOS (bringing it up to ~3.6 GHz)
Artic Freezer Pro Aftermarket Heatsink mounted on CPU
ASRock M3A770DE
16 GB Patriot Xtreme RAM (4 x 4 GB sticks)
Seasonic X750 (80 plus gold certified, modular, just got it, baller PSU compared to my $50 Rosewill)
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 (due for an upgrade)
Antec 300 case (all case fans installed - 3x 120mm fans blowing in, 1x 120 mm & 1x 140 mm fans blowing out near the top.
To say I'm cautious about overclocking would be an overstatement. I recently purchased the Seasonic PSU and three more fans to ventilate and I reseated the heatsink a few months ago (which didn't make a discernable difference).
Here's my thought process, please feel free to correct my errors:
1.) CPU Voltage is set to 'Auto' on my board, which seems to be a no-no on some forums. Should I do this manually? If so, any suggestions?
2.) Idle sits at around 42-44° C, hits about 53-55° C with iTunes streaming, Vuze downloading, and Borderlands running simultaneously. The nerve-wracking part is running Prime95, which seems like a good "stress test" for a full load. From idle, the temp just from 44-52° C in a heartbeat, and 60° C within a couple minutes. I'm unsure what the max temp reading should be, does this sound too hot?
I imagine the airflow is good, the heatsink is good...maybe my nerves just aren't.
Please advise, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
-Waydidddy