I5-2500K temperatures

VJTB

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i5-2500K(stock cooler, stock speed, Artic Silver)
ASUS P67 Sabertooth Rev 3.0
2x 4gb GSKILL DDR3

Antec P183 V3
2x Scythe 120mm fans(front intake)
Stock Antec fans(rear/top exhaust)
Corsair 650w

I have owned the system for about five months and it has performed well in everything so far. Never felt the need to overclock as yet, but it was only $5 more for the 2500K at the time compared to the 2500. The intel stock heatsink was used and has worked with no trouble, however the temperatures have concerned me.

The biggest load the computer has to handle is probably Starcraft II, and the temps are getting into the low 60s during gameplay. I ran prime95 to see how it would handle a torture test and after a few minutes it was up in the upper 60s, scratching 70c with a max one time of 73c. Three seconds after closing Prime 95, the temperatures are in the low 50s and still dropping. Ambient room temperature is around 22c generally and my case is about 8 inches from the wall. Idle is around 32-35c and typical load is high 40s or maybe 50 for anything non-gaming.


Now on to the questions.
The max temperature listed for the processor is 72.6 I believe. Should I be concerned if Prime 95 gets it there after only about 10 minutes, but did hold there for another 10, not letting it get over 70 hardly at all.

I had good results with a Zalman cooler back when my GPU fan died on my old system, it was all copper and looked something like this, but was only $10 when I bought it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118036
Would you recommend that or something else? The $10 version dropped my GPU about 10c from its original stock fan(47c idle originally had gone up to 51c idle before it died, Zalman was 36c out of the box on silent mode)

The vast majority of high rated coolers available on newegg are a newer style in the form of "rifle", "tower", or other named coolers that are the size of a skyscraper and probably weigh a ton. The antec p183 does have a cutout in the back so a backplate should not be terribly hard to install, however the size and weight worry me. I am not sure if it will fit in a P183 with a P67 sabertooth motherboard.

And last, the compound.
I have some Artic silver in a bag, but I was thinking of picking up something else since its a few years old. I have heard Artic Cooling MX-2 is fairly good.

Bonus: The stock intel push pin design is very annoying/difficult to work with :) Other mounting systems seem easier.
 
Solution
Hi VJTB, I just built two 2500k systems for work. One used the stock cooler as it will rarely have a full four core load, while the other has a Hyper 212+ as it will see high loads. The stock cooler one gets temps around what you are seeing (high 60's C I think). The Hyper 212+ one maxes at upper 40's/low 50's C (at half of full fan RPM). The Hyper also uses a bolt on mounting system (no pushpins) and only costs (in the USA, not sure where you are) $26. ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065 )

Though the stock cooler is fine, but if you don't like the temps, the Hyper is a great low price choice. Let me know if you have any other questions, as I (literally) built two 2500k systems last week.

The fan on...

etk

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You should be able to drop your voltages a tad and stay at stock settings. That would have a significant impact on temps.

Otherwise, though, if the only issue is running benchmarks, and your usage isn't a problem, I wouldn't worry about it, or just under clock it. In my case, I'm running my 2500k on two cores at 3GHz. In a couple of years I'll up it to stock and in a couple more I'll overclock it till it fails.
 

Pilk

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Those temps are fine they are the round about temps with the stock cooler personally i wouldn't worry i would recommend a new cooler however as stock Intel coolers are CR@#! If i where to recommend a cooler i would recommend the Corsair H hydro series coolers. Look at the H60 its very affordable and dropped my temps by 20 degrees on my core i5 760 wonderful cooler much better then your standard air cooling heat-sinks and also very price competitive. (easy to install as well =)
 

VJTB

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$70 seems a tad high when the stock cooler is doing the job, albeit barely. Also looks like it would be difficult to mount a water cooling system, although the case does have 2 holes in the back for water cooling.

I will probably grab the Hyper 212 and hope it fits. RAM is in the outer slots (1 and 3 or 2 and 4 depending on which way you look at it I guess), so the last slot nearest the CPU is not taken.
 
Hi VJTB, I just built two 2500k systems for work. One used the stock cooler as it will rarely have a full four core load, while the other has a Hyper 212+ as it will see high loads. The stock cooler one gets temps around what you are seeing (high 60's C I think). The Hyper 212+ one maxes at upper 40's/low 50's C (at half of full fan RPM). The Hyper also uses a bolt on mounting system (no pushpins) and only costs (in the USA, not sure where you are) $26. ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065 )

Though the stock cooler is fine, but if you don't like the temps, the Hyper is a great low price choice. Let me know if you have any other questions, as I (literally) built two 2500k systems last week.

The fan on the hyper can be moved up a little to allow the closest memory slot to be used. On most boards, I believe only the first memory slot conflicts (though even that can be fixed by moving the Hyper's fan up). Both of the systems I just built had 4x4GB memory.
 
Solution

Pilk

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VJTB heres a link at the Hydro series they are not big lug-some water cooling kits and never need to be refilled do some research as they are extremely efficient they will not come in cheaper then the 212+ but for the technology and drop in temps very well priced. Here is a linked picture of the model i have.

http://www.corsair.com/hydro-series-h60-cpu-cooler.html

THis cooler also uses a bolt on screw mechanism not the push pin rubbish =) take a look at it before you make you decision.
 

VJTB

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The p183 is only 8.10 inches wide, where the 212 is 6.3 inches tall. Do you think it would actually fit in the case? Obviously theres 1.8 inches left, but the 183 has room behind the motherboard for spaghetti routing and theres the size of the motherboard itself.

As for the Hydro, is there any chance of it leaking or otherwise having issues? I have heard water cooling has trouble being moved, however this looks smaller than most others. I try to clean the computer every 2 months.
 

Pilk

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No so far since launch they have no issues you must understand that those water pipes are heavy insulted rubber its very robust i doubt they will ever have issues, as for maintenance there is non except blowing out the radiator ever so often is all. One of the best hardware components have ever invested in after my Corsair SSD.
 

VJTB

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"Thought it might stick out the side of my Antec P183 case, but it just barely made it by a cm (read: tall), so measure first, as another reviewer suggested."

From what I measured, its 6.125 inches to the thermal armor on the board, and the PCB is slightly below that. 8 reviewers on newegg claim they got it into the case, so it will be an option.

I like the hydro, but that still seems like quite a bit of money.
 

Wampbit

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It's fine on stock speeds, your CPU isn't going to die just by sitting in the mid 60s, however if you want to OC I'd suggest you go and get an aftermarket, even something simple like a Hyper 212+ normally allows OCing up to 4.5-4.7.