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I have an overclocked i7-2600K (~33.3%, 4.5 Ghz). The system was purchased early last year (2013).

it has always run a bit hot in overclock (Core#0-#3) around 80c, but just this past week I have noticed it now (Core#1-#3) goes all the way to 100c and then starts dynamically reducing the overclock to reduce temperatures.

The processor is dynamic, so in normal browser mode it is under-clocked -50% (1.6 Ghz). At that speed it runs (Core#1-#3) temps around 40c. It now takes about 15-20 minutes of game playing for it to go from 40c to 100c.

I have checked the case, cleaned all the dust. Checked the CPU cooler (a Corsair Hydro H50), it has 2 fans (push-pull) and they are working. The cpu cools very fast once I stop playing a game and it goes back to underclock ((Core#1-#4) go from 98c to 70c almost instantly, then back down to 40c over 30 minutes).

Nothing else in the room has changed over the past week, ambient temp is around 20c (68f).

EDIT: Forgot to mention that Core#0 temp is lower than Core#1-3, by about 5-10c. Would this be an indicator of an unseated heat sink?

Question:
1. Should I go in and reduce the max overclock rating (will it going to 100c destroy my CPU)?
2. Is it a sign I have burned out my processor and should replace it?

Thanks.

You might want to back off the OC but if you burned it out I'd think it'd just quit. I'm more concerned about why the temperature is so much higher now. Have you cleaned it out recently? Does the heat sink itself get warm (and if it's not all that warm, that might indicate bad contact and a lack of transfer)? Maybe remove the heat sink and re-apply a fresh coat of thermal paste. Make sure fans are spinning. Stuff like that.

Everything derFunkenstein said. But if a radiator cleaning + new TIM and mounting doesn't improve things then I'd start to suspect the cooler as starting to go bad, they typically only last three years anyway before they need water or the pump goes out. If the H50 is serviceable you might top off the fluid inside with distilled water.

Ya didn't make any recent UEFI changes or update the UEFI? If ya did then make sure the voltage settings are all the same and that the board isn't auto-increasing voltages on you.

100C won't kill it, but over time it will theoretically degrade a bit more (this process takes years to decades though). Voltage is more harmful for dopant mobility (which leads to increased resistance). Modern silicon processes are pretty resilient. Ex: I have a GTX 260M that has several hundred hours operating between 103C and 108C, and has been to 118C several times (accidentally I promise). Still works fine, no artifacts.

It sounds like your heatsinks are still making contact, so I'm not sure what else to recommend other than checking ambient airflow or maybe upgrading a cooler. Short of that, you could try taking the voltage down one notch, and then find a stable frequency from there. Voltage and heat are exponentially correlated (P=V^2/R), and lowering voltage a tiny bit would work twofold to prolong the life of the processor. But again, most of these things shouldn't typically be a problem, and are usually more theoretical than practical (except if you have an old P4).

Kougar wrote:

Everything derFunkenstein said. But if a radiator cleaning + new TIM and mounting doesn't improve things then I'd start to suspect the cooler as starting to go bad, they typically only last three years anyway before they need water or the pump goes out. If the H50 is serviceable you might top off the fluid inside with distilled water.

Ya didn't make any recent UEFI changes or update the UEFI? If ya did then make sure the voltage settings are all the same and that the board isn't auto-increasing voltages on you.

It was overclocked by the company I bought it, and it does up the voltage dynamically when it overclocks (At least that is what my OCCT program tells me).

The main voltage I see is around 1.1v when it is underclocked to 1.6 GHZ, but when it boosts to 4.5 GHZ it can go to 1.39v. (but this has happened even since I purchased it).

I am not practiced in OCing myself, so I really don't know what I should change in the BIOS.

if one core is a higher temp i suspect the TIM *UNDER* the heat spreader has separated. nothing you can do besides take appart the water block to ensure that one section has not corroded as my corsair did.

I have a 3.5 year old 2600k with a h50 also and my temps have risen also.

I was running at 4700mhz but have since dropped it to 4300mhz because my temps have risen. But I do not allow my temps to break 65c, but with summer coming I am going to have to get a new AIO soon so i am pinching my pennies.

I believe it is corrosion on the copper micro fins on the cold plate and on the inside of the aluminum radiator. Copper and aluminum make for a great corrosion reaction internally in the cooler.

I bet 100$ if you put another AIO cooler on it like say a coolermaster seidon 120mm setup on it for 49$ your temps will drop a good bit. For $49 you cannot go wrong and since sandy bridge CPUs are so easy to keep cool you should be back to 4.5ghz or even higher.
I do not have a pot to pee in right now or I would have bought the $49 AIO by now.
I am looking forward to replacing it so I can dismantle my h50 and take some pictures of the corrosion in the microfins etc.

Also since I have added 2 770 classified cards in SLI I have had to change my airflow inside my case using the side panel fans to exhaust hot air from the video cards. Also EVGA's precision software allows me to set my target frame rate to whatever I want so I set it to 60fps to match my displays refresh rate making the cards run at 50% power on average instead of 111% power usage. For example my 770s would run at 1200mhz + and hit the thermal threshold of 80c in BF3. But now they run at 500-800mhz and barely break 45c.

Mightyflapjack wrote:

It was overclocked by the company I bought it, and it does up the voltage dynamically when it overclocks (At least that is what my OCCT program tells me).

The main voltage I see is around 1.1v when it is underclocked to 1.6 GHZ, but when it boosts to 4.5 GHZ it can go to 1.39v. (but this has happened even since I purchased it).

I am not practiced in OCing myself, so I really don't know what I should change in the BIOS.

1.4v is crazy high for a 4.5Ghz overclock... you'd do far better overclocking the chip yourself to see what the chip really needs. That high a voltage isn't going to do the CPU any favors, and 100c temps combined with 1.4 vcore is a recipe for fast chip degradation. Neither one is good, but combining the two is an especially bad idea.

Vergis, are you talking about a little bit of rust on the fin joints on the outside of the radiator? That's not unusual and wouldn't appreciably impact temps. It's common where humidity is high enough to allow it. But if there is corrosion inside your loop then yes, that's a problem.

1.4v is a bit high for a 4.5ghz oc. Me running right now at42x103 4326mhz @ 1.3v idling and 1.280v fully loaded from a little vdroop with intelburn since I have my Load line calibration set to a mild level 3 on my Gigabyte P67-UD4-B3 on the F8 bios.

For my 46 x 103 or 4738 mhz overclock I run 1.355 volts with level 4 LLC that makes it run at 1.380v under full load .

I am getting a new CPU cooler in the next few weeks in the order of a Corsair H80i or my top choice a Cooler Master Glacer 240L"EDIT too many pump failures!!!!!" so the glacer is out and I will be getting the H80i. But since my CPU is tucked away in the closet I am getting at least 2 to 4 Scythe DFS123812H-3000 RPM 134CFM Ultra Kaze 120mm x 38mm super fans for either a push pull on a 120mm rad or pulling or pushing on a 240mm radiator. Noise is not a issue but delta fans will make way too much noise compared to the ultra kaze fans. for a example a delta fan is a jet engine and a ultra kaze is a hair dryer

Heck if a h50 kept my temps down below 65c a newer designed AIO with that much airflow should allow me to run at 5ghz easy @ around 1.41-1.45v

In fact AMAZON has the H80i on sale for $74.99 the cheapest i have ever seen it besides a refurbished one.

1.39 is way too high for 4.5.

I've got the i7 3820, quad core sandy bridge-e at 4.4 and 1.28 on AUTO.

I think you just need to adjust your vcore.

I think you go about checking the cooler. Start with the radiator. There's probably a lot of dust sandwiched in there now that you're not seeing because it's hidden in between those two fans. If that doesn't help much then next step is re-mounting the waterblock so you can get fresh TIM in between it and the CPU.

I agree 1.4V is a bit high, but it your machine has always worked at that voltage before so I wouldn't worry too much about it now. Focus on what things that might have changed to cause temps to rise.

I had a similar experience like yours about 6 years ago but it was with two of our Athlon 64 X2 chips. I bought my first K8-based CPU back in September of 2007 (X2 4800+) and just less than a year thereafter, around April or May 2008, the CPU temps just started to skyrocket all of a sudden. IIRC these chips normally ran at around 40C to 50C but then my 4800+ started to reach up to around 90C and the system would just shut down. Checked the HSF, which was even hotter than usual, which means there's no problem with heat transfer, fan seemed to be spinning fast enough based on the air blown, no voltage changes and they were all running at stock, no overclock, no voltage tweaks whatsoever. I cleaned the HSF, tried another HSF, re-applied TIM, checked case fans, nothing worked. Now, I should mention that after buying my Athlon 64 X2 4800+ I gradually bought more K8-based, 65nm Athlon 64 X2 chips/systems (I think there was one 5000+, another two 4800+ chips, a 5200+, and a single-core Sempron... 6 K8/65nm chips in all). I then took one of the other 4800+ chips from another system and used that in mine, which worked just fine and which temps were normal. So, it was the CPU. A few months thereafter another machine, this time using the 5200+ (or was it the 5000+?) started exhibiting the exact same problem too. This machine had different surrounding components (different mobo, video card, everything was different). Swapping the chip out for another one fixed the problem as well. So, conclusion, there seems to have been overheating issues with my 4800+ and the other 5200+. Contacted AMD for an RMA and they immediately acknowledged the problem. Sent the bad chips and less than a week later I had two brand new 5200+ chips straight from AMD Singapore. Guess AMD was aware that somehow their 65nm chips had this sort of problem. Never had a problem with my 45nm Phemom II X3 after 3 years of use and my current 32nm FX-8350 is just fine after 16 months of ownership.

My point is, I have the feeling that for some reason the dies themselves were getting hotter. Perhaps their electrical conductivity degraded over time such that they became hotter? The HSFs were getting really hot themselves and swapping the chips out fixed the problems for good. I can't think of any other reason why the chip temps shot all the way up on two different machines. Come to think about it, I think a third machine also had this exact same problem but then it was already on its way out for an upgrade (I think it was one of the replacement chips from AMD) so I kinda just shrugged and shelved it.