My OC'ed Core i7 920 runs too cool to be true?

Well thoses are some really good temps! As long as there 70c or below you'll have nothing to worry about.



now the reason why the temps haven't change much from 2.6 ghz to 3.75ghz , probabably you haven't change the voltage much.

Changing the Mhz on the cpu wont change temps much but if you have to increase the voltage to have the cpu stable at a higher GHZ, that will change the temps.

You need to run Prime95 to utilize all of your cores, and test the stability of your overclocking:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/
Note: You do not need to register to download Prime95 or use it. Its free.

If your overclocking is unstable, you will have to increase the voltage which in turn will increase your temperatures but should stablize your system. Good luck.

Please read the op post.  

the OP has prime 95 and used it already.

Those are similar to my ScytheMugen2 temps.  
You have to thank your cold temps and great cooler.

The Mugen2 and CM V8 have around the same cooling potential, and my Mugen2 was getting around 34'C idle and 53'C load @ Prime95 and stock settings. Ambient around 65'F.

After I downgraded my cooler, I'm now getting 39'C and 58'C load @ Prime95 and stock settings. Ambient around 65'F.

Now my chip must be poorly binned or something since it runs unusually hot in idle.

I see.

Someone please correct my understanding of things (I am a noob at this stuff).

I always had the understanding that an aftermarket cooler is critical to compensate when overclocking to keep temperature below 75C. If we are all approaching 4GHz overclock and keeping a pretty low temperature on load at 60C or below, why not just use the stock Intel cooler that comes with the CPU and have load temp at 63-68C?

What is the benefit of keeping temperature as low as possible in the 60C range with load? It'll be stable either way and will work fine with either a Cooler Master V8, a Scythe Mugen or the dinky Intel stock cooler.

The o/c as mentioned is right around the max for stock vcore, which helps with the temps. I have the corsair h50 in Boston (same temps) , same numbers. Hopefully its as good, with the ac on in the Summer. Try intel burn test 2.4. I can stay right around 59-61 with just prime95 with burn test at same time , it goes up to 67 in some cores.

edit: Concerning stock cooler, you would probably be at or near 87 in some cores at 3.8ghz

With the stock intel cooler, your CPU will go into the upper 80s 'C when running Prime95.


Keeping it in the low 70's is good for non-overclocked use. Keeping it under 80'C is good for 24/7 overclocked use. You can take it into the 80s 'C for benchmarking. 90s 'C is bad and will cause massive degradation, and the CPU will throttle and shut itself down at near 100'C

There really isn't any difference between 60'C or 70'C in terms of lifespan for your processor. However, lower temps mean you can overclock it more. You have bragging rights on how awesome your heatsink is or how lucky you were to get a good chip  

Personally, I keep the voltage low and the temperature low so the rest of my components (ie. video card) don't heat up.