Did I destroy my CPU?

[No_NaMe]

(I am not sure where to post this so I posted in the cooling section but noticed that General Hardware deals with troubleshooting so this could be related. I apologize if I am mistaken.)
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/Produc...D=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!

 

[GigabyteZ]

You're worrying too much. The CPU was right on the thermal limits there at 95c+. Just make sure next time you operate it under a good cooler and it will run for years to come.

 

[bigted]

Bad Request

your newegg link goes to a page that just says "bad request", this is kind of funny with all the drama going on with them, but it looks like you didn't copy the part number or something. it's the same price on amazon, order from there: http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-Heatpi...ie=UTF8&qid=1358135184&sr=8-1&keywords=NH-D14

also, people seem to like the cooler, but if you are not overclocking (seems like you wouldn't be if you have stock intel cooler) then just go for the cooler master hyper 212+ seen here: http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master...&sr=1-1&keywords=cooler+master+hyper+212+plus

provides excellent cooling at stock speeds. if you plan to start overclocking, get the noctua.

your HAF should accommodate either cooler

edit; oh yeah, you probably didn't do any damage, CPUs are pretty damn resilient and you should be good to go with a new cooler. make sure to open up your case every few weeks and dust it out

 

[No_NaMe]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018 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.)
Thanks for the replies/advice.