i7 920 with GTX 590 questions. And CPU upgrade questions.

Hello everyone, I have a few questions that I would love if someone could answer for me. My current setup is this;

SYSTEM - Alienware Aurora
BOARD- Dell Alienware Aurora Motherboard 0H869M
GPU - GTX 590
RAM - 6GB
CPU - i7 920 Quad 130w 2.67GHz Bloomfield.

What I'm wondering is if my CPU would be hindering my GPU, I play at 1920 x 1080 which is my native res. I thinking about upgrading my CPU, but my motherboard seems to have little options.
I use my Desktop for gaming and a little 3D modeling here and there. Would it be worth it for me to upgrade my CPU? Or should I upgrade my cooling setup (which is just the default that came with the computer). I don't mind rendering and such taking awhile, but it would nice to have the time decreased. My main concern is that I don't want my CPU to overheat during these renders. I don't know how common/hard it is to overheat the CPU, but I feel the need to constantly check the temp during renders. Especially during animations. Any advice on my quarries? Sorry for any grammar mistakes or rambling, I'm exhausted right now. I'll fix it tomorrow.

Thanks for your time! If you need more info, let me know.

Buy a decent cooler and overclock that i7 of yours.

^I question if he can on that motherboard..

Don't upgrade the CPU. You won't notice a difference from a i7 920 to a i7 970 say. Short of changing your whole system..

If you can; see if your BIOS allows you to change blck/vcore and what not values.

If it can; and you're running the stock cooler; get a new cooler. If it already has a fancy cooler in place; what are your temperatures like rendering? Or at max load?

If it cannot OC.. You're stuck unless you change the motherboard..

My general temps are around 27-30 idle, and ~35 rendering. I haven't done any extensive render in awhile, so I can't answer how hot it gets when rendering an animation. What would you consider "high" temp for this cpu? Like it if was to reach ~45 would that risk the cpu? Or is that normal?

DoubleElite said:

My general temps are around 27-30 idle, and ~35 rendering. I haven't done any extensive render in awhile, so I can't answer how hot it gets when rendering an animation. What would you consider "high" temp for this cpu? Like it if was to reach ~45 would that risk the cpu? Or is that normal?

Click to expand...

Try and keep it below 75°C if you can, and don't let it get above 80°C.

Your temps are fine; but again; you need you find out if you can actually overclock on that board...

An i7 920 chip should be good up to 80-85 degrees under a full stress load in say; Intel Burn Test (which runs a good 5 degrees higher than Prime95 usually). During summer If I leave my OC on; I can hit 85 degrees.. But there's nothing I currently do that gets my temps anywhere near that high.. Gaming gets me in the 70's on the hottest days; simply because my GPUs heat is being pushed up through the case into the CPU area then out the back.

Though I saved some temps by swapping one of my top 2 exhaust to an intake.. Works wonders.