How hot is too hot exactly?

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LoneReaction

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I live in Asia (Singapore) and normal room temps can go anywhere from 25c on a good day and 33c on a hot day. Most of the time it's around 30c though.

My 1+ year old E7200 2.5ghz runs 3Xc idle and 5Xc on load.
I've been using 3.6ghz for a year @ 1.3v, it's 40c idle, 60c on load.

Tried pushing it to 4ghz stable a week ago, and was able to do it only at 1.48v after trying lower voltages for a day. Temps are high at 44c idle and 78-82c load. Been using it 24/7 now.

I often see people post temps like 40c on load or something (not on this forum, new here). And when people see temps in the 50s or 60s they start to freak out. Is this more psychological or based on fact? :confused:
 
There are temperature limits built into each chip, which are best to avoid reaching, or getting close to. The E7200 chip has a fairly standard max CPU case temperature of 74c. Most temp monitoring programs will read the core temperature, which is usually 10c-15c hotter than the CPU case temperature (depending on which program you are using, and how accurately it's TJMax has been set)

Make sure you have the CPUs thermal management enabled in your BIOS (should be 'CPU Thermal Monitor TM#'). It's a good defense against frying your chip. It also allows you to see, if you have CPU-Z open while doing stress testing, if you reach your processor's max temperature if you suddenly see your processor's speed drop drastically.

Personally, I think hitting 82c is a little hot, and I'd aim for 10c cooler. As for voltages, 1.36 is the specified limit for the E7200, just an fyi.
 
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Thanks for the simple explanation. I'll check out the CPU thermal monitor thing soon.
I've seen people saying that you don't wanna go above 1.4v for the E7200. If I continue to run it at this sky high 1.48v, how does it effect the life of the cpu? I've read (a few years ago) that cpus are built to last a decade or so. Will running it like that make it last only 2-3 years?

I'm gonna upgrade to i7 in a year or so, or until the chip dies, that's why I dare to go that high. :)
 
Running a high voltage generally isn't too dangerous, as long as the temps remain relatively low. When you start exceeding the processor's rated max voltage and get close to exceeding it's temperature limit, is when you start asking for trouble :)

While I've dabbled a bit in overclocking, I haven't had much experience in overclocking past max rated voltages so never looked heavily into the long term effects of it.
 
MisterSparkle said:
Make sure you have the CPUs thermal management enabled in your BIOS (should be 'CPU Thermal Monitor TM#'). It's a good defense against frying your chip.
Click to expand...
The motherboard's thermal shutdown feature is useless and has nothing to do with the CPU's built-in thermal protection which cannot be disabled. The motherboard bases its readings on a sensor built into the board itself, so it won't react to the actual CPU core temperature. That makes it essentially pointless.
MisterSparkle said:
As for voltages, 1.36 is the specified limit for the E7200, just an fyi.
Click to expand...
That's actually not true. The absolute maximum specified voltage for 45nm Core 2 CPUs is 1.45V, and taking into account the allowed 50mV overshoot voltage, that means that the highest you can safely set the voltage to while remaining in specification is 1.4V.
LoneReaction said:
I've seen people saying that you don't wanna go above 1.4v for the E7200. If I continue to run it at this sky high 1.48v, how does it effect the life of the cpu? I've read (a few years ago) that cpus are built to last a decade or so. Will running it like that make it last only 2-3 years?
Click to expand...
It depends on the chip, but in general, running high voltages will do more than just kill the CPU eventually. It will cause the chip to degrade slowly, so you'll start having to raise the voltage to maintain a stable overclock at the same frequencies or just lower your overclock altogether. Eventually, you might have trouble running at high speeds, and over time the CPU will just die. The timeframe for that varies, but it isn't a risk worth taking IMO.
MisterSparkle said:
Running a high voltage generally isn't too dangerous, as long as the temps remain relatively low. When you start exceeding the processor's rated max voltage and get close to exceeding it's temperature limit, is when you start asking for trouble :)
Click to expand...
Temperature does play into it to a certain extent, but unless you're running sub-ambient cooling, exceeding the specification will likely cause degradation.
 
The motherboard's thermal shutdown feature is useless and has nothing to do with the CPU's built-in thermal protection which cannot be disabled. The motherboard bases its readings on a sensor built into the board itself, so it won't react to the actual CPU core temperature. That makes it essentially pointless
Click to expand...

Hmm, thought TM was built in to the processor, along with PROCHOT# and THERMTRIP#
 
MisterSparkle said:
Hmm, thought TM was built in to the processor, along with PROCHOT# and THERMTRIP#
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I'm not 100% sure on that, but I believe that the BIOS doesn't have a controllable link to the CPU's thermal management. I do know for a fact that you can't disable the CPU's thermal throttling or thermal shutdown features.
 
yea, you should be fine wiht 60c on load, anything higher will start causing problems with performance
 
a3n1ma said:
yea, you should be fine wiht 60c on load, anything higher will start causing problems with performance
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Wrong. High temperatures do not affect performance unless the CPU approaches 100C and the thermal throttling is activated.
 
Hello everyone, sorry for butting in here but ..

For clarification, when you say you should be fine with 60C load or whatever load temp, are you refering to a Prime 95 load or IBT load?

I know a 60C load temp for me under Prime 64 yields around 72C under IBT.

Just curious what the standard measurement of load temp is here at HardForum.
 
Wishmaster said:
Hello everyone, sorry for butting in here but ..

For clarification, when you say you should be fine with 60C load or whatever load temp, are you refering to a Prime 95 load or IBT load?

I know a 60C load temp for me under Prime 64 yields around 72C under IBT.

Just curious what the standard measurement of load temp is here at HardForum.
Click to expand...

I consider the load temperature to be the highest temperature that you can get a CPU running at when stressing it. That usually means IBT.
 
Zero82z said:
Wrong. High temperatures do not affect performance unless the CPU approaches 100C and the thermal throttling is activated.
Click to expand...

i always thought anything over 60c was bad, i guess i learned something new today :D
 
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