What temp should my i7 920 idle at?

dubcat

dubcat

dubcat

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I would like to turn down the speed of my case fans but I know this will result in higher idle and load temps.

I have a i7 920 2.66ghz CPU. What is the healthy temperature range for idle and load conditions?
 
Best thing would be to try it and find out. Are you overclocking? Generally you want to aim to keep the CPU below 70 under load. If you're running at stock this should never be an issue, even on the stock cooler.

Mine idles at mid - high 30s depending on the ambient temp, it's fairly hot today and it's at 36 degrees. I'm running at stock on a Corsair H50, if you're running at stock, the CPU cooler should be able to handle it on its own without the case fans... depending on what else is in the system generating heat. If you have a hot running GPU then you'll probably need the case fans higher than if you have a cooler running one.
 
I should clarify that the fan controller seems to slows down the CPU fan too (I think). So, effectively I am impacting the CPU temp pretty directly.

I'm currently im sitting at around 45-50c with Spotify, some web browsing and a remote desktop (VMware View) session running. Also I have the usual suspects running in the background such as mail, twitter and facebook.
 
I can live with the extra fan noise. I really just want to know what max temp is safe to have the system idling or running non intensive stuff like spotify or RDP at.
 
well that's a relative question, if you hit under 70 under load then the Idle doesn't matter as it's within the acceptable temp bracket.
so you could theoretically Idle at 65 and reach 67 full load and that'd be fine 24/7
 
My motorbike redlines around 16000 RPM. Going there now and then is absolutely fine. Living at 15000 RPM for most of my bikes life is not going to be so good. I figured the same applies to CPU temps - i.e. you don't want to live close to the limit all the time. I just dont know how far from it you can happily exist.
 
dubcat said:
I should clarify that the fan controller seems to slows down the CPU fan too (I think). So, effectively I am impacting the CPU temp pretty directly.

I'm currently im sitting at around 45-50c with Spotify, some web browsing and a remote desktop (VMware View) session running. Also I have the usual suspects running in the background such as mail, twitter and facebook.
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That does sound a little hot if you're not doing anything CPU intensive. (I'd consider desktop + a few apps idle temps really). What heatsink do you have?

How much does the idle temp change if you do unplug the case fans and leave the cpu fan on? Also, I wouldn't plug the CPU fan into a fan controller, I'd plug that directly into the motherboard so the motherboard can speed it up when the CPU does get hot.
 
how long have you been running it ? might be time to refresh the thermal paste on there. Also if your fans are replaceable on your heatsink consider corsair sp ( static pressure ) as they are great at supplying airflow at a constant pressure when placed right agasint a heatsink
 
Make sure there aren't buggy/rogue programs using much more cpu than they should; i have noticed desktop skype using 15% cpu constant for hours just sitting there doing nothing...i have now disabled the autorun and only use it as needed.
 
dubcat said:
I'm currently im sitting at around 45-50c with Spotify, some web browsing and a remote desktop (VMware View) session running. Also I have the usual suspects running in the background such as mail, twitter and facebook.
Click to expand...

Mine idles around the same, however it's at 4.2Ghz (albeit with a lapped and washer modded TRUE) so I wouldn't worry about that. Load temps are the important one, generally I like to stay below 80c, if yours is around that then you have no worries :)
 
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