What're highest "safe" temps? (Q6600, 4870)

[mark $]

Well bought a new system a couple months back, played around with it and going to get two new fans to fill the empty slots in my 1200. Wondering what a good temp range is for the Q6600(xiggy cooler) and the ATI 4870(asus). Right now I'm idle 29 cpu, 45 vga. Load is 42-45 cpu, 52 vga(fan speed increases when temp exceeds 52). Will probably switch to a new dvd drive (ide atm, hate those huge cords) and fill the rest of my fans.

Also what vga cooler would you recommend for the 4870, and 1 80mm case fan, and 2 120mm case fan (heard Scythe were good, but which one?).

 

[balloonshark]

When you say load for the Q6600, what were you using? Prime95 short FFT's are good for loading the CPU. What temp application are you using? Also, what is your room temp?

My Q6600 GO (VID 1.35) OC'd to 3.0GHz with stock voltage has idle temps close to yours and Prime95 short FFT's around 50C with a room temp around 72F. CoreTemp reads the highest temps of 54C on 2 cores when priming. I have a Xiggy S1283.

 

[mark $]

used prime95 over a 15 hour period of testing. Seems like my Q6660 has a bit higher temp than it should, what board and case do you have? I used as5 btw.

 

[gigosaga]

Scythe S-FLEX series of fans are the good ones. Comes in 3 speeds.

As for your temps, they are well inside "safe" temps - things can always be cooler but you have nothing to worry about. If you're asking because you intend to overclock and want to know what to stay under - 45' C idle is the highest generally recommended "safe" temp for 24x7 operation.

Your 4870 runs a lot cooler than what I've seen on stock coolers, I assume it is one of the custom cooler models from Asus. Stock cooler (ATI generic) these run at about 70'C idle and 80'C load so you're in good shape running at 45'C / 52'C. I wouldn't consider getting an aftermarket cooler unless the Asus one makes excessive noise you do not like.

 

[balloonshark]

If your Q6600 while running Prime95 short FFT's is loading at 42-45C, then your in really good shape. My stock voltage OC to 3.0GHz, didn't make much of a difference in my temps from 2.4GHz. Come to think of it, neither did lapping my CPU and running 2 Antec Tri-Cools at medium speed on the Xiggy.

I have an Antec P182 full of Antec Tri-cool fans on med. speed with the exception of an Zalman ZM-F3 in the top "blow hole" position running at 75% or 1452rpms according to speedfan. My MB is an MSI P35 Neo2-FR and I also used AS5.

 

[mark $]

Correct on the Asus model. Got it for $200 off newegg a few months ago, couldn't be happier. So cpu stay under 45 idle, what about on load? Gpu is fine under 70c then of course. I will definately OC it with this much head room temp wise.

Edit: Awesome, getting blue screens now... I just had to start talking about OCing didn't I (haven't changed anything yet...)

 

[JDocs]

@mark Which Prime95 test did you use? The Small FFT intends to stress the cache alot more which means it also runs much hotter than Large FFT.

 

[mark $]

The one that tests the ram. I believe either large or blend.