Is Stock Heatsink/Fan OK With Overclocked i7 2600k ?

Bint Box · 20 Jan 2012 at 10:05

Hi,

Could anyone please advise me if the stock heatsink and fan that would come with an i7 2600k CPU as part of a retail package is good enough to keep things cool if the CPU is overclocked to around 4GHz or slightly more?

Or, would I be better advised to purchase the i7 2600k CPU and heatsink/fan separately in order to have more choice with the heatsink/fan.

If separates are better, could anyone please advise me on a suitable heatsink/fan for an i7 2600k overclocked to 4GHz in an ASUS P8Z68-V (Gen3 or Pro) board or a Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 board.

If the stock heatsink/fan will be OK then I can probably save some money by purchasing a full bundled kit including the board & RAM.

Thx for any advice to a total nooby potential overclocker.

Binty

pgi947 · 20 Jan 2012 at 10:09

You should manage 4ghz on the stock cooler, just keep an eye on temps and voltages.

Bint Box · 20 Jan 2012 at 10:48

pgi947 said:
You should manage 4ghz on the stock cooler, just keep an eye on temps and voltages.

OK, thx for the reply and the feedback

Would I be well within temperature safety limits at 4GHz with the stock cooler or am I getting to the borderline where I need a better heatsink/fan.

Out of interest, if I did get an aftermarket heatsink/fan would I be able to push the CPU up to 4.2GHz if the machine was on 16 hours a day or possibly more?

Binty

FiXiT · 20 Jan 2012 at 12:15

Bint Box said:
OK, thx for the reply and the feedback

Would I be well within temperature safety limits at 4GHz with the stock cooler or am I getting to the borderline where I need a better heatsink/fan.

Out of interest, if I did get an aftermarket heatsink/fan would I be able to push the CPU up to 4.2GHz if the machine was on 16 hours a day or possibly more?

Binty

I would say 4Ghz on the stock cooler is borderline, keep an eye on the temps, if possible don't really want to be going above 70c. If you are thinking of clocking above 4Ghz I would definitely look into buying an aftermarket heatsink, the overclocking sweet spot for these cpu's seem to be 4.5ghz which a lot of people will run 24/7, bare in mind everyone's equipment is different and will achieve different overclocking results, but I would say you should hit 4.2 with ease. At the moment I'm running mine @ 4.3 and cannot seem to get it above this but I think it may be down to board settings, my son on the other hand as got a similar setup apart from the motherboard model and he clocked his to 4.5 from day one.