Hey there GOG community, I just recently built a new PC for gaming and video editing related purposes and this is my first time experience with a modern PC rig so I am a bit foreign to some concepts. My main question is related to heat, what is the average temperature a computer should run at while idle and while gaming? Based on my experience so far, I get an average of 26-30 degrees Celsius while idle/web browsing/very low end gaming (emulators and REALLY old games) and I checked while playing some more demanding games, and some of the temps with the games I have installed are as follows:

Saints Row 2 - 40-50 degrees Celsius
Super Monday Night Combat - 40-50 degrees Celsius
Crysis - 60-80 degrees Celsius (Stays at an average of 70 Degrees Celsius and I can hear my GPU fan while playing the game.

The Crysis one concerns me since it is a 2007 PC game, and it is the only game that makes my PC have some form of sound to it. I am running it at max and it runs at a very solid 60+ FPS with only very minor slowdown on rare occasions (I understand the game is not well optimized, so rendering glitches are to be expected). So, are these temps normal or will I have to invest in better cooling solutions to make it run much cooler? Here are the PC specs for a better idea of what kind of machine I am equipped with:

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k clocked at 4.5 GHz
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek Loki SD963
GPU: EVGA NVIDIA Geforce GTX 770 with 4GB of DDR5 VRAM
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Series
PSU: Seasonic M12II Bronze ATX12V 850W
Tower: NZXT Source 530

Definitely will try Metro once I get the interest in nabbing a copy... and after finishing Metro 2033, and of course Crysis 3 since I am in the middle of the first game and have the second game in the backlog. I am also looking into a liquid cooling system but that will wait for a while since I used a large chunk of the budget I had for a PC on something with my given specs.

Yeah, I was just checking a list of highly demanding games on www.maximumpc.com and it showed that Battlefield 4 currently is the most demanding game yet followed by Metro: Last Light. They have compiled a list of top 10 and the original Crysis is still at number 10 even after 6 years so I wouldn't be worried about your GPU fan running because of this old game. Also Crysis 3 is at number 5 on the list, I'd say its ok to just test things out for now with different games and no need to immediately invest in a liquid cooling system. Just make sure you keep your rig in an air conditioned room with proper ventilation from all sides and you should be alright. The temperatures will reach around 80 degrees and above for really demanding games and you should only be really worried when its consistently stays above 90-95 degrees. :)

EDIT: Also how much did this rig based on your desired specs cost you, if you don't mind my asking?

No, no, and no. There's no need to go for liquid cooling unless you want to do some serious overclocking/overvolting and you don't need to overclock anything with that PC. Don't waste your money. Air cooling is enough if you don't plan on overclocking your components too high.

Your temperatures are normal.

I have a 4770k and it runs pretty hot in stock even. You have overclocked it pretty much so those are normal temps but in stock not many games for me run over 70.

And if you ask my opinion Crysis 1 looks better than Far Cry 3 which is pretty hard on my and everybody elses machine.

I had an amd cpu before so I am too looking my temps and I'm sometimes worried but who cares. I just try to play games and i have a warranty. =P

Edit: but it is funny when my cpu runs hotter than my asus 760 gtx. =) Mostly just ubisoft games.


Usually in games it is 65. Those games what actually looks nice.

Yes, that is what I meant when I said a serious gamer as in into overclocking/overvolting etc. to get the most out of the system. If not than these temperatures are not unusually high and are quite normal.

Not planning on overclocking, the system is smooth enough, plus I would rather not risk blowing up my machine since I haven never overclocked before. :P

Indeed, it is always wiser not to mess around if you want your machine to have a longer life. Also I think based on the specs your stock clocks for the CPU and GPU are more then capable of handling the games at maximum settings. :)

Also seeing how I am trying to baby it by not playing system demanding games for too long, overclocking is out of the question.

Intel decided to trick overclockers in this Haswell generation of it's cpus.
Intel placed simple thermal paste between heatspreader and silicon, instead of soldering heatspreader to silicon.
Some enthusiasts are using a procedure known as "delidding" (careful removal of ihs, removing intel's thermal paste, applying "Liquid metal" to ihs, then carefully assembling it). This procedure will void your warranty.

In June, 2014, Intel will release "Haswell Refresh" cpus. Thermals will be better with those (paste will be replaced with something better; maybe even ihs will be soldered to silicon, maybe not).

Intel's Socket 2011 and AMD FX platform cpus are all soldered.
If you want to OC your 4770k, you must delid it. Google and Youtube will help.