Is my CPU ready to be overclocked?

[Jennings]

I have a H100i installed on an i7 4770K currently at stock 3.5GHz.

 

I left the PC Idle with no programs open for around 10 minutes at room temperature 28/30C

 

Are these temperatures alright and I am ready to overclock?

 

MAX temp playing Minecraft - 37C

 

Mobo temp - 19C

 

[Jade]

The temperatures are fine and totally normal. It's definitely safe to overclock if you want to, yeah. You've got ~50-60C headroom.

[Glenwing]

It's hard to tell at idle, and your temperatures are also relative to your specific room temperature.  You should be good to go though.

[Faceman]

Yes.  What you should do now is run some baseline tests to get a feel for how your processor performs at stock.  Then if you havent already, do lots of research into overclocking Haswell.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Load temps are much more important, but you should be fine to overclock. 

[DavidTheWin]

You've got ~50-60C headroom.

 

This is wrong. What matters is his load temperatures, these are his idle temperatures.

[CosmosusMagnus]

Go for it

[Jade]

This is wrong. What matters is his load temperatures, these are his idle temperatures.

Indeed, however if you're idling as low as 28C, you generally only gain 15C (or less) when under load with a decent cooler.

[Jennings]

This is wrong. What matters is his load temperatures, these are his idle temperatures.

 

 

Load temps are much more important, but you should be fine to overclock. 

 

 

Yes.  What you should do now is run some baseline tests to get a feel for how your processor performs at stock.  Then if you havent already, do lots of research into overclocking Haswell.

 

 

It's hard to tell at idle, and your temperatures are also relative to your specific room temperature.  You should be good to go though.

 

How would I go about putting my CPU under load?

[Glenwing]

How would I go about putting my CPU under load?

 

Use programs like Prime95 or another stress test.  Intel Burn Test, etc.

[DIV1D3]

How would I go about putting my CPU under load?

A benchmark of sorts, something like Prime95. 

[Jennings]

A benchmark of sorts, something like Prime95. 

 

 

Use programs like Prime95 or another stress test.  Intel Burn Test, etc.

I read that you're not supposed to run Prime95 on Haswell chips?

[Oshino Shinobu]

I read that you're not supposed to run Prime95 on Haswell chips?

Prime95 has had some issues with increasing the voltage on Haswell chips. 

 

You can use Aida64 instead. 

[Faceman]

I read that you're not supposed to run Prime95 on Haswell chips?

Prime95 is perfectly fine to use, you just have to be smart and set your voltage to manual/override/static/constant.  Failure to do so will result in overvolting, which does have the potential to harm your processor, even death.

 

If you want to avoid Prime95, there are other good stress testing applications like AIDA, Intel Burn Test, Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, and Cinebench.  Some games to test out your OC with are BF4 and Crysis3.

[DIV1D3]

I read that you're not supposed to run Prime95 on Haswell chips?

Yeh, I was just saying something like Prime95, because I have also heard that it has an unwanted effect on the voltage.