Ideal CPU temps?

[ambam]

What are the "ideal" temperatures for an overclocked processor? What is the ceiling temperature where the CPU starts taking damage from heat?

I used MSI's "overclock genie" and my CPU went up to 3.4 GHz but idled at 45-50 *C. A bit too hot, so I set my clock speeds back to default. I have a ZALMAN CNPS9900 CPU cooler. It isn't exactly the best, but it's certainly a heck of a lot better than the paperweight Intel stock cooler.

I heard the Corsair H50 and H70 (water cooling) can reach 4.0 GHz with ease.

 

[jprahman]

What processor? Different CPUs have different limits. LGA1366 Bloomfield CPUs can go up to around 80-90C MAX underload, while Quad-core LGA1156 Lynnfield CPUs should stay below 65-70C at load and there are different limits for AMD processors.

40-50C at idle seems quite high. What are your voltages? What thermal paste did you use and how much did you apply and how did you apply it?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The H50 and other "faux water coolers" as I call them are not great performers. Benchmarkreviews keeps a database of cooler performance and at least every other quarter they pick or dozen or so new coolers to test and add to the database. The roundup here puts the H50 against the Prolimatech Megahalems, Scythe Mugen 2 Thermalright Ultra and others where it had a rather poor showing coming in a full 5 degrees C below the top performer.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=371&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=11

As to your question, I'd be a lot more comfy answering if I knew what CPU you were overclocking. With an Intel 9xx series for example, I try and keep full load temps up to 72C for special BIOS profiles .... for 24/7/365 profiles I usually aim a bit lower. My son's everyday profile for example has core temps of 55-58C under full P95 loads at 3.78 Ghz (vCore = 1.1125)

 

[ambam]

The H50 and other "faux water coolers" as I call them are not great performers. Benchmarkreviews keeps a database of cooler performance and at least every other quarter they pick or dozen or so new coolers to test and add to the database. The roundup here puts the H50 against the Prolimatech Megahalems, Scythe Mugen 2 Thermalright Ultra and others where it had a rather poor showing coming in a full 5 degrees C below the top performer.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=371&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=11

As to your question, I'd be a lot more comfy answering if I knew what CPU you were overclocking. With an Intel 9xx series for example, I try and keep full load temps up to 72C for special BIOS profiles .... for 24/7/365 profiles I usually aim a bit lower. My son's everyday profile for example has core temps of 55-58C under full P95 loads at 3.78 Ghz (vCore = 1.1125)

Core i7 930 with the ZALMAN CNPS9900 heatsink, and the coolermaster HAF 932 full tower case.