Have I damaged my CPU?

[Drv30]

My Corsair H80 cooler controller is not working and I was overclocking and my CPU reached 70 degrees Celsius. My motherboard warned me and I immediately stopped the video conversion process. Then I was playing BF3 and the CPU temp reached 67 degrees Celsius. So I stopped the game. Is this really bad? Am I killing my CPU slowly when this happens or is it fine as long as it did not reach temperatures above 70 degrees Celsius?

 

[payturr]

No xD I mean, its not good, but those temps aren't enough to kill the chip. I mean, I wouldn't run the chip daily with those temps, but if it was just this one time, I think you're good. Go underclock your CPU, get that H80 RMA'd, replace the paste & put the stock cooler back on.

 

[lunyone]

Well if the H80 cooler isn't working, pull it off the CPU and install the stock CPU HSF. Get a new cooler or RMA the H80 and stick to stock speeds on the CPU until you have upgraded your cooling of the CPU. What CPU are you OC'ing?

 

[Drv30]

It is a 2600K

I will RMA it as soon as my RMA request gets approved. Hopefully I can get the H80i while in the process...

I need help with something else though (for when I get the new cooler):

I moved my H80 from the rear panel to the top of the case and I have it blowing air out of the case. Is this bad because now it is making use of warm from the ram and video cards? Should I blow the air in and down towards the ram instead?


The benefit of blowing up and out of the case is that it moves warm air in the direction it wants to move. The draw back is that inside the case, air at the top half is significantly warmer so then the fans will have to work harder to dissipate heat from the radiator.


Blowing air down and in would cause the dissipation of heat to be better, less work of fans will be required = cooler and more silent.

At the same time, I am fighting against the tendency of warm air to go up so perhaps I will be trapping warm air inside the case to some extent. This method may also ventilate the ram since the fans are directly above it. My exhaust would have to be a 120mm fan at the rear panel of the case.

Also what do you guys think of fans at the bottom of the case blowing really cold air upward? It sounds great, but I fear it will create an extremely messy dust accumulation in my case and hardware.

 

[Pinhedd]

Your processor is fine

Processors are designed to take heat. Part of the fabrication process involves baking them at several hundred degrees for several hours in order to activate the doped semiconductors.

60 to 70 degrees centigrade may seem quite hot to us, but to integrated circuits that's basically a nice afternoon breeze.

 

[lunyone]

I believe the upper end of the temperature range for Ivy Bridge CPU's is at about 105 C, so you should be fine, if you have a similar CPU.

 

[spong50]

No xD I mean, its not good, but those temps aren't enough to kill the chip. I mean, I wouldn't run the chip daily with those temps, but if it was just this one time, I think you're good. Go underclock your CPU, get that H80 RMA'd, replace the paste & put the stock cooler back on.

solid advise also it depends what your threshold is at, mines at 80 degrees and im sure alot of people are similar. Ease back on you O.C will solve the problem

 

[Drv30]

thanks all, its good to know my processor is ok. Can anybody help me with the fan airflow layout i described in my previous post? or state why you chose your layout if you also have a closed-loop cpu liquid cooler at the top of your case

 

[ChilledGrease]

Sandy Bridge chips don't throttle until the 90C range, so you are fine. Those temps are definitely too high for a cooler of that caliber however.

 

[payturr]

With your fan on the radiator its fine - it's acting as an exhaust, so it's pulling all the hot air out of the case. Now if you said it was bringing air into the case, that could be problematic. As for the fan pulling air in, don't worry about it - just get some compressed air, blow it out every other month, dust build up won't be that bad - most likely would build up around the fan than on the bottom of the case