Did I destroy my CPU?

[No_NaMe]

Hello everyone,
I could not for the life of me find my password for my last account and the email for that account no longer exists so I am posting through my new account. I have been a member of this forum for over 4 years and I again find myself coming to the experts for help .

My system specs(In case it matters):
PSU: Corsair 850TX 850W
HSF: Stock Cooler
CPU: I7-930
RAM: G.Skill F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
SSD: Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2R5 2.5" 80GB
Case: Haf922
GPU: XFX HD-587A-ZND9 Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB XXX Edition
Mobo: Asus p6x58d premium

To make a long story short. I found out recently that I have been apparently "cooking" my CPU with temps exceeding well over 90-95C on all four cores for quite some time. I gather that maybe for at least a few months.

I neglected to check my cpu temp for awhile and noticed weird graphic glitches while gaming. This went on for at least a couple of weeks and I kept checking my GPU temp thinking this was the cause of the problem and I was convinced that I might have to eventually RMA my card. (The card's temps where usually in the 60's-80'sC while gaming. I found this kind of high so I would manually ramp up my gpu fan to help cool it. I blamed the excess heat on the ambient temperature since the room that the pc is in can get rather warm to say the least.

Anyway I kept on going about my business gaming and would just manually raise my gpu fan to compensate for the heat. Weird thing was that the graphic glitches were intermittent and even when my gpu temps were in the 30-50C I would still get these graphic glitches ( for the lack of a better term/hard to describe).

It wasnt until a round of Guild Wars 2 that I just decided for the hell of it to check my CPU temp and was shocked to find 95+C on all four cores with a couple showing 100C. I quickly panicked closed out the game and my temps slowly lowered back down to ~70C and stood there. This i found high obviously and decided to just call it quits and just shut down the pc and opened it up.

The stock cooler was apparently caked with dust. Everything else isnt bad per se (I keep my tower at about ~5-6 inches up above to ground to help avoid dust build up). I decided not to bother with the stock cooler, tbh I do not like the design and find it prone to build up dust quickly (I am no engineer just a noob thought I guess you can say) I have retired this PC for now until I can get a replacement cooler ordered but I cant help but worry.

I am sure I most likely shortened the lifespan of my CPU but how can I tell if I permanently damaged it? Should I just purchase the cooler install it and hope for the best?

Also, please let me know what you guys think of the Noctua NH-D14 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
I plan on purchasing this soon, I read that it is huge however, through my research I should be ok. Yes, I am away this might be overkill. To be honest I am perfectly fine with overkill right now and I want the best air cooler I can get to help compensate for crappy ambient temps.

I apologize for the wall of text and appreciate any feedback!

 

[oddmanout]

A couple of ideas:

1) Do a thorough cleaning on your PC. If the stock cooler was caked with dust, then odds are the entire machine could use a good cleaning.

2)Optimize Airflow: If there is anyway to tidy up the cable management, remove unused drive bays, add an extra intake fan on the bottom or side.

3)New cooler: If you are not OCing, you shouldn't jump to a $80 heatsink to solve temperature issues. A CM Hyper 212 would be more than enough, provided you clean the old thermal paste off and apply quality thermal paste (such as Arctic Silver).

If there is anyway to lower the ambient temps in your room that would go a long way. Thermal curtains, a small boxfan, leaving the door open.

Just a a few ideas, im sure someone else is more qualified to speak about the Noctua NH-D14.

 

[Stoly]

Intel CPUs have great overheating protection, the chances of burning a CPU are quite low. They will throttle or even shut down to prevent damage.

90+ temps are not unheard off on nehalem Core i7 when overclocking and I think it can take more than 100° before it throttles.

So if you didn't overclock your cpu nor overvolt it, its probably OK.

 

[Tsumi]

It will throttle itself at 100C and slow down the processor to reduce the heat, so chances of damage are extremely low.

High volts kill CPUs a lot more than high heat. If you weren't overclocking, then your processor should be good to last you another 5 years.

If you're at stock, or maybe ~3.5 ghz, a $20 Hyper 212+ will be more than sufficient.

 

[PSU GURU]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015

And if that dosent suit you, get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

 

[No_NaMe]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835608018 Here it is again. Sorry about the bad link.
I appreciate all the feedback. I do plan on over clocking in the near future. My plans are to keep this thing going for as long as possible, so over clocking will be a possibility. I already own the Cooler master hyper 212. I purchased it with my build a couple of years ago. I did not like the model I purchased, the actual part that makes contact with the CPU is not a flat surface, http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2923 please view the link for reference. From what I can tell of the newer ones up for sale however, this has been improved and or changed to now be a flat contact surface with the cpu. Getting proper thermal paste application on the older model was a pain...

I take it I shouldn't have any issues with my mobo/RAM and the Noctua though? Again through my research it seemed to be ok just want to make sure I am not missing anything. (RAM clearance etc.)

Thank again for the replies, feels good to know that my CPU should be fine.

 

[tangoseal]

U can literally fry an egg on a CPU before it will die. But you can kill it with a few hundreths of a volt too high. Funny right. Optimize your cooling, replace that shit ass factory heat keeper with a new one and you will be good to go. Take more pride in dusting your expensive computer out more regularly. Past that you will be fine.

I appreciate all the feedback. I do plan on over clocking in the near future

In myt opinion and I mean nothing mean by this, but until you find better discipline with cleaning your computer overclocking is NOT in your best interest. So hopefully this was an eye opener, and if so, you will be great!

 

[extide]

I am sure the CPU is fine. Clean it out and don't let something like that happen again. You should be embarrassed.

 

[No_NaMe]

U can literally fry an egg on a CPU before it will die. But you can kill it with a few hundreths of a volt too high. Funny right. Optimize your cooling, replace that shit ass factory heat keeper with a new one and you will be good to go. Take more pride in dusting your expensive computer out more regularly. Past that you will be fine.



In myt opinion and I mean nothing mean by this, but until you find better discipline with cleaning your computer overclocking is NOT in your best interest. So hopefully this was an eye opener, and if so, you will be great!

No offense taken. Thanks for the advice. And yes, definite eye opener.

 

[No_NaMe]

I am sure the CPU is fine. Clean it out and don't let something like that happen again. You should be embarrassed.

Oh, I am embarrassed. Odd thing is that the rest of my pc, gpu included wasn't as bad as the cooler was. Cooler seemed out of place when compared to the rest of the pc (case fans included) Very thin layer of dust...but yeah no excuses here. I just dropped the ball =/