General Computer Help, OC and Temps
 

Hi, I made a thread near the end of march about buying a computer, got some good input. I decided I wanted to go local so I couldn't get any of the lower end stuff, not enough demand to keep it in stock, but they gave me a good deal on the stuff I did get.

i5 2500k w/ stock cooler
4gb ddr3 1600 HyperX RAM
MSI 560 Ti OC
Asus P8Z68-V LX Motherboard
Running Win7 Pro

I have some questions...the bios is pretty straight forward if I get around to overclocking, what's the best way to maximize my system if I wanted to? It's only fan cooled (4 plus a large side one) so I'm concerned about temp. Might invest in liquid cooling or something else if it's affordable.

The GPU idles around 30 degrees Celsius, and the CPU around 30-31 according to the included software. What is the maximum temp that I shouldn't pass?

I've had a few issues, mostly dealing with the GPU.

My wife plays The Sims 3 (usually overheats her iMac so she plays on my PC now) and after some research it seems that game doesn't really have limits in place, 1000-4000fps on idle screens, so I mostly fixed that with forcing v-sync. My concern was when the game was pushing the card the fans were maxed out and making a squeaking noise and heating up quickly. It's brand new so I don't think it's dust build up, and I've only heard it when that game alone was pushing it that hard. Should I lubricate them, or something else?

Another problem, did some research on this too, the display kernel occasionally stops running for whatever reason and 99% of the time recovers. Seems to be most common in Win7 and the latest nvidia drivers. Never happens when playing a game, but I really haven't found a fix for it besides some shot in the dark answers, maybe someone here has some idea?

I think that's everything, any help/insight on any of my questions/concerns would be appreciated.

I'm pretty sure that Sandy Bridge will throttle itself if it gets to a certain temp.

Anyways, I would say that your CPU overclock shouldn't exceed 80C under stress test conditions (ex Prime95).

As for the display kernel crashing, have you tried reinstalling the display driver?

885+ page thread "Guides, Voltages, Temps & BIOS Templates" for sandy bridge OC. you should find any information related to sandy bridge overclocking in that thread and any problems you encountered. people also posted their UEFI overclocking settings if you want to copy them and see if it works for you (make sure it is the same motherboard).

gpu load temp for gtx 560 ti should be 75c at most. if it's 80+ most of the time then you should be concerned. 2500k's are fine up to the 70+ range. if it reaches 80+ then look into why it is unless you are feeding it too much vcore.