Is overclocking with stock Intel cooler a useful strategy?

[xValyriaNx]

Hi all. I just ordered all the parts for a new Haswell build but I'm still not sure what CPU cooler I should get. I'm considering waiting till the Swiftech H320 and H240 come out because overclocking my i5 4670K is not necessarily an immediate priority.

Anyway, my question is whether or not it is possible to determine how lucky I got with the silicon lottery by seeing how high I can overclock with the stock cooler while having a stable system at idle. Obviously the temps would be ridiculous and would not pass a stress test, and I wouldn't actually use the system like this. Essentially I just don't want to waste a bunch of money on a good AIO water cooler, fans and a fan controller, only to find out I have a crappy chip which doesn't OC well and doesn't use my cooling to its full potential.

 

[Dicehunter]

Hi all. I just ordered all the parts for a new Haswell build but I'm still not sure what CPU cooler I should get. I'm considering waiting till the Swiftech H320 and H240 come out because overclocking my i5 4670K is not necessarily an immediate priority.

Anyway, my question is whether or not it is possible to determine how lucky I got with the silicon lottery by seeing how high I can overclock with the stock cooler while having a stable system at idle. Obviously the temps would be ridiculous and would not pass a stress test, and I wouldn't actually use the system like this. Essentially I just don't want to waste a bunch of money on a good AIO water cooler, fans and a fan controller, only to find out I have a crappy chip which doesn't OC well and doesn't use my cooling to its full potential.

As you are on Haswell I would highly suggest against overclocking on the stock heatsink, Invest in a really good air cooler or all in one solution like a Corsair H80 etc...

 

[xValyriaNx]

As you are on Haswell I would highly suggest against overclocking on the stock heatsink, Invest in a really good air cooler or all in one solution like a Corsair H80 etc...

Like I said though, I wouldn't actually use the system like this. I would only want to test it briefly, to try to determine if my chip is a good overclocker, and thus worth investing into an expensive cooling solution for it.

For example, I would be willing to spend $150 or so on cooling to reach close to 5GHz if possible, but if my chip can't go over 4.5GHz without stupid amounts of voltage, i probably wouldn't bother spending over $100 on cooling.

 

[Dicehunter]

Like I said though, I wouldn't actually use the system like this. I would only want to test it briefly, to try to determine if my chip is a good overclocker, and thus worth investing into an expensive cooling solution for it.

For example, I would be willing to spend $150 or so on cooling to reach close to 5GHz if possible, but if my chip can't go over 4.5GHz without stupid amounts of voltage, i probably wouldn't bother spending over $100 on cooling.

You really can't stress test to see if your system is stable with a stock cooler, I just wouldn't do it.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Mate if your cooler isnt up to the job youll get NO where near those clocks anyways because it will throttle the speeds back.

 

[xValyriaNx]

Alright thanks for the clarification guys. I guess I'll just save up and buy a really good cooler in hopes I have won the silicon lottery.

Do you happen to have any idea when Swiftech might release their H240 cooler? Unfortunately I don't think I could find a way to fit an H320 into my Arc Midi R2 case.

 

[Netroxen]

Overclocking on a stock Intel cooler...

Oh, hell NO dawg!

That thing is designed to stop your CPU from burning your house down, it's not designed for overclocking. It may work for a few Mhz, but as soon as you start increasing the voltages, the cooler will hit it's thermal TDP limit very quickly...
All coolers have a TDP limit which indicates the rate of heat dissipation, if it goes over this design limit the chipset starts heating up exponentially. So if a cooler is designed for a 200w TDP, anything over won't guarantee cooling efficiency.