Cooling Advice please

[Jonmal123]

My pcspecialist pc has a "Stylish Black/Silver Trident Case, Intel i5-2500k, and an Asus P8Z77-M motherboard. The processor cooling is the standard Intel Socket LGA1155.
I have overclocked it with the Asus AI Suite Turbo utility to x42 (4327MHz) core voltage around 1v and as I expected the temperatures went up a bit on idle.
However when I ran Flight Sim X with photoscenery the temperature went to 70c and about 10 minutes later I had a blue screen crash.

I didn't think this was an over ambitious overclock but I would like to know if 1) This is OK and 2) Should I upgrade the CPU Fan. Ambient in the room is 18 - 20C.

Thanks for any help/advice

John

 

[Rakk]

I'm no expert on overclocking (in fact I don't know a lot about it), but I'd really want a better CPU cooler than the standard one you have - you may also find that the case you have isn't helping (though obviously this isnt as easy to change) - it's perfectly fine for home/office work, but for overclocking it's liable to get very toasty indeed.

 

[steaky360]

I'd agree with Rakk's comments, you really need a better cooler to overclock and ideally a larger case (more case fans etc.). Neither the case nor the standard cooler were built with overclocking in mind I wouldn't say.

Although 70 degrees under load isn't too bad especially under the standard CPU cooler. Ideally though you'd want a better one to keep the temps down as much as possible!

You can upgrade the cooler through PCS if you wish and they'll send you the new one out in the post (I imagine with some thermal paste) if you were happy to change it yourself, or you could send the PC back in and they'll do it for you!

 

[Jonmal123]

Thanks Guys that's very good advice. I only use the o/c for Flight Sim and it's quite easy to switch back to the normal settings. If I ask for a better cooler is there a type I should specify or would I be advised?
J

 

[tom_gr7]

i wouldnt even suggest over clocking in your case. If you choose to build an overclocked PC with PCS, you cant even choose that case.

So if you really want to overclock, I'd suggest getting a better case, extra case fans and probably a h80 or h100 for the best temps.

 

[mishra]

70C for Intel i5-2500k seem to be fine especially on stock cooler.
Did you ran Prime95 for few hours to check if all is fine? Just because you can overclock and windows seem stable it can be far from stable really!

If it can survive Prime95 it usually is good to go. However, in my case the ultimate test is not Prime95 but Battlefield 3 session. I can make my CPU to 4.2GHz easily and Prime95, Windows and most of things are fine. Yet it will not survive Battlefield 3 session (?!). I suspect it may be combined load of CPU and GPU, which is maxing out my PSU... but hey that's another story.

Guys above me are correct, if you plan to overclock then either swap components for it to keep the temps down or just don't do it all. In many cases Turbo Software managing software is full of fail, and is not really recommended for any overclock. You want to do it right, do it in BIOS Always keep an eye on your temps and make sure you do lots of reading before you start doing it.

Also to answer your second question: Ambient temps are always different! You maybe have 20C now, but summer will come (well hopefully) and that can raise your temps by 5-15C easily. Temps in your case will also change. You can have your PC switched on (web browsing) for 24 hours and your inside temps will not raise as much as few hours of intensive gaming session. Keep that in mind.

 

[Jonmal123]

Thanks a bunch - almost, but not quite put off.