Hi
I currently have a i7 2600k overclocked to 5ghz. I have a Corsair H70 cooler and 3 case fans and use a P67 Sabertooth Motherboard with TUF thermal covering. I decided to download some monitoring software to see what the CPU temps are like and am confused.
I downloaded RealTemp and CoreTemp which both state (at idle, around 5 minutes after i ran Heaven 2.5 bench) and get average around:
Core 0 -37deg
Core 1 -37deg
Core 2 -39deg
Core 3 -40deg
Not one hundred percent sure but from what i have read, these temps are ok??? I then downloaded Speedfan software which has a picture of a Flame next to the CPU reading which states 129 degrees!

Im really confused, is my CPU ok or not? for reference, i have 2x HD 6950's and 8gb Vengeance RAM with heatshields

Any help, greatly appreciated.

It's a little hard to say just from reading your post what those numbers are, but they don't look true.

If those temperatures are positive numbers, you're fine. Anything 40C and down is OK. Under load, anything 60C and down is OK. You need to observe temperatures while running the load, not afterward, because the cores will cool very quickly.

If those temperatures are negative numbers, your software doesn't know how to read temperatures from Sandy Bridge CPUs, or your computer is running in a meat locker.

If that temperature from Speedfan is Fahrenheit, it is too high: 129F = 54C. If it is Celsius, then it is bogus; the CPU would have shut down already.

That limit is for each core; if any core exceeds that temp, the CPU may be damaged.

The maximum operating temp, though, is quite a bit lower. 72C, measured at center top of the case, is the maximum operating temperature. The maximum operating core temperatures would be just a few degrees higher, but Intel doesn't specify them.

Running a windowed load is a good way to monitor temperatures at the same time. I usually use ORTHOS Prime for that purpose, though there are better tools for quad cores. (You don't need to sign up for an account to use prime95 just for torture testing. The accounts are just for participants in the Great Mersenne Prime Search.)

Thanks. I just ran Heaven 2.5 on DX11 with all settings on high for a good load and temps went to 55-59 degrees. I will look into prime 95 later when home from work.