GTX 660 Temps, Fan Speed and OC

[sadrobot]

Hi all,
I recently built my first computer and I could not be happier with it.
I am running an ASUS GTX 660 DirectCU II and I have some quick questions that I would love some help with. My card performs beautifully with high end games (BF3, Planetside 2) and I believe it runs as well as my friends EVGA GTX 580, but I realise this performance will not last with higher requirements for new games all the time so with time I will begin to overclock (I am aware that my chip isn't able to OC very much).

What would one recommend a good maximum temperature is for a NVIDIA card under full load to run at to maximize the cards life/ performance over time? It currently runs at 65 degrees celsius under full load.

What would one recommend is a good maximum fan speed, in percentage, for me to run my DCU2 fans at to maximise the life/ performance over time of the fans?

Any reply is welcome. Thank you in advance.

Tim

Specs:
CPU: Intel i5-4670 @3.4GHz
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo
GPU: Asus GTX 660 DirectCU II
MB: ASRock Fatal1ty H87 Performance
PSU:Corsair VS550
RAM: Kingston 8GB 1600Mhz
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200rpm 64MB Cache

 

[IInuyasha74]

For temps you are probably good if you stay at or below 80. Not that 82 will kill it, they can take a good bit more heat, but thats a point I would feel safe at, though lower temps are better.

For fan speed, most cards I get seem to run at 35% and I tend to like to leave them at it. I don't want to make too much noise, and I worry about the fan burning out at an early age. Still, going up to 50% probably won't harm it really and it will still be good for years.

If you card doesn't overclock well though, you may not need to worry about either though. Just slowly step up the clock speed. If you have control of voltage and it becomes unstable give it a small bit more voltage. Go slow though, and only bother changing the fan speed if you start to get to the upper 70's.