That is a hot teacher , thought I ' d just point that out . <| sep |> I feel you , it ' s like a feeling of being stuck . I ' ve put too much time and effort into my sub I mean my comods and I to abandon it , but too many times it crosses my mind . <| sep |> From what I ' ve seen , the maximum operating temperature for that CPU is around 72 degrees , but what I ' ve heard is that it doesn ' t actually start throttling until about 90 degrees , and that real thermal issues system errors , computer shutdowns , etc . occur at temperatures exceeding 100 degrees . The general consensus seems to be that keeping it under 85 degrees under load is pretty safe in most situations albeit , it makes some overclockers get a little jittery and makes them consider alternative cooling solutions . Maybe you could try running a stress test using Intel ' s Extreme Tuning Utility and report the temps there ? I think that ' s a pretty good measure for temps vs utilization in a lot of overoptimal situations you ' ll actually encounter Oh , and as usomecallmelurch suggested , it never hurts to consider checkingreapplying your thermal paste and cooler seating anyway .