Gaming How hot is too hot?

[DiscostewSM]

I'm currently having my computer do some re-encoding of a bunch of videos to lessen the file size while maintaining just about equal visual quality (mainly for archiving onto DVDs). When doing something like this, the CPU tends to work at max load, and so it'll heat up. I'm running a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, OC'ed from 2.4Ghz to 3.0Ghz, and with 100% load on each core, I get the following temps...

59C, 58C, 54C, 57C

I've never ran the CPU up to 100% on all cores before (no, I've never used Prime95), so I don't know if the CPU was meant to be able to handle such temperatures. Over the past hour of this, the cores have increased by 1C. It would be one thing if it wasn't going to stay at that load for long, but based on how much re-encoding I've done vs what I have left, I'm expecting a good 13 hours more before my first batch of 26 videos are finished.

I have thought about finishing up the current videos being processed, and restarting my computer to set back the CPU to 2.4Ghz for this one time. Sure, it would take longer, but at least with that, I know the CPU cores won't be as hot throughout it.

Edit:

Decided before I go and stop the process for downclocking back to 2.4Ghz, I'd open up my case to see how much of an effect it would have. It seemed to help a bit.

56C, 55C, 49C, 54C

3-5C less with the case open than with it closed. Still unsure about how wise it is to leave it on peak load for ~13 hours, though something like Prime95 is meant to be such a test. One other thing. With my CPU being OC'ed, the VID is set at 1.2625v, just in case such information is needed to give an answer.

 

[Majorami]

I don't know for other motherboards, but I know that HP motherboaards force-shut themselves off when reaching critical temperatures. I believe the hottest I've seen the motherboard BIOS told me that the temperature was over 95 C

Though I don't know just how acurate that is, as its close to boiling temps. Anyways did a conversion from Cels to Fen and thas only like in the 140-150 F range...

You're in the safe zone. Just make sure theres no large dust build up around the heat sink or fan and you can keep going for many hours.

I should also point out that I don't know the safe zones for quad intel processors... the whole 210 F temperature thing was on an older PC with an Intel 4, and the fans were clogged with dust. I blame my mother for not understanding the importance of clear ventilation. Though I wouldn't advocate forcing a 13+ hour heavy workload on your machine unless I/you knew that it was buit for that kind of endurance/marathon.

 

[Originality]

The safe zone is under 75C. Personally I never want to see my CPU over 65C. Motherboards tend to throttle between 80-95C and auto shutdown above that. It depends on the motherboard, and many motherboards actually let you set your own limits.

 

[Themanhunt]

My Noctua NH-D14 (arguably the best air CPU cooler in the world) hits higher temps on my i5 2500k. No worries.

 

[CrimzonEyed]

I re-installed my brother's girlfriends laptop, after it was done I was about to lift it up, but I burned my finger when I touched it, with a mouse I installed speccy, and checked the temperature (don't remember if it was cpu, motherboard or HDD) but it was 101 degree's.... I turned it off and told his GF to throw it before it started a fire xD

 

[Originality]

With a laptop, it will either be the CPU or the GPU. My old media laptop (E7500 + 8600GS) often hit 85-90C (on the GPU), so I started using a cooling pad to keep it under control (65-70C, after some additional software tweaks too and putting some thermal paste on the damn thing).

Lesson I learned - PB don't use thermal paste in their laptops, so I gotta put it there myself.

 

[DinohScene]

My laptop occasionally reaches 65~ for CPU.

Have had it for years and it didn't break on me.

 

[pas7680]

Anything under 60c is perfectly fine, i used to run my q6600 at 100% load for years @75c running folding @ home. never had issues with it even at the peak of summer.

 

[Berthenk]

@[member='CrimzonEyed']: software often misinterprets temps so I'd take the 101 degrees Celsius with a grain of salt.

@[member='DiscostewSM']: nothing to worry about. You should only shit bricks if it gets above 80 degrees.

 

[CrimzonEyed]

@[member='CrimzonEyed']: software often misinterprets temps so I'd take the 101 degrees Celsius with a grain of salt.

@[member='DiscostewSM']: nothing to worry about. You should only shit bricks if it gets above 80 degrees.

Maybe but the instant I touched the computer I burned my fingers, the fan was going crazy, the computer was slow as hell and so on.

A week later the girl called my brother and told him it didn't work any more. I opened it up and the inside wasn't pretty. Parts of the motherboard had melted.

 

[MasterPenguin]

Some hardware is designed to go to higher temperatures. While one piece a safezone would be at 80, anothers would be 90. Tough call to put a certain number for all hardware.

 

[Berthenk]

Maybe but the instant I touched the computer I burned my fingers, the fan was going crazy, the computer was slow as hell and so on.

A week later the girl called my brother and told him it didn't work any more. I opened it up and the inside wasn't pretty. Parts of the motherboard had melted.

Oi... well... really don't know what to say at that.

 

[Originality]

Some hardware is designed to go to higher temperatures. While one piece a safezone would be at 80, anothers would be 90. Tough call to put a certain number for all hardware.

It's not that tough, I said 75 because I've never seen any CPU set any lower (meaning under 75C is definitely safe). Besides, I would never call 80-90C "safe" even if it was rated up to 115C (and some are).

@[member='CrimzonEyed'], I'm not surprised to hear it had melted - I've seen it a couple times before. Also being "slow as hell" means the CPU was being throttled to cut the temperatures, and it clearly wasn't enough (it doesn't stop other parts from generating heat, like the RAM). You were right the first time:

I turned it off and told his GF to throw it before it started a fire xD

 

[berlinka]

Damn! I was expecting a plethora of very sexy babes pics...

 

[Originality]

Damn! I was expecting a plethora of very sexy babes pics...

Try the EoF. The computing section is too preoccupied with broken parts, system build requests and nerdgasms at anything new and shiny to think about fleshy females in bikinis (what's the point of boobs and ass when you can have a 12-core CPU at 5Ghz and a 4-way SLI setup on liquid cooling?)

And yes, I do realise some of the aforementioned nerds are women too.

 

[Majorami]

Computers > Sexy Babes

 

[sputnix]

under 60C on 100% load is very good, my laptop is under 60C on idle [which is normal for my beast of a laptop]

 

[Toa235]

what about i7 2720qm in a toshiba laptop ?
its idle temperatures are between 35°C and 45°C, playing HD videos, video conversions and most games don't really heat it up over 65°C
but after a 30-min playtime of HL2 - Episode 1 temperature climbed up to 85°C
measured with the newest coretemp

 

[DiscostewSM]

Thx for the comments. I decided to leave my computer on all night doing the re-encoding. For fear of possible problems, I woke up in the middle of the night to check up the status. Turned out with opening my case and the coldness of the night (since I closed the air vent in my room to prevent the heater from blowing air in), my temps were all 50C or lower. I slept well last night knowing I wouldn't have a problem.

 

[emmanu888]

50C is good temp i have between 50 to 65C on my cpu with an overclock

nvm i deleted my avatar to upload my new one