Intel Core i7-4790K Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) BX80646I74790K

Have been looking forward to upgrading my i5 to an i7 and finally got the money together to do it. I had checked out possible upgrades including a better i5 but decided that I wanted an i7 and chose this one based on reviews and product information. I have a Dell Inspiron 3847 that came with a i5 4460 running at 3.2 gigs. I don't overclock so I wanted something that would run faster without having to overclock it. This seemed the best bet for me. I made up my mind when I brought a i3 system running at 3.7 gigs. This little system had a bit of zip to it and it, so far, has run most anything I could throw at it along with it's GTX-750 Ti SC graphics card. So I ordered the i7 and it came in right on time and I opened the shipping box to see what I had. The first thing I noted was the included heat sink fan combo that came with it. It was OK, but plastic push pins have failed me before as mounts on the case fans so that I didn't like. Also it was about half an inch thick and the heat sink fan combo on the existing i5 CPU was about an inch or over tall and had much larger fins. I did note that the heat sink combo that came with the i7 had a copper surfaced contact area where the heat sink seated on the CPU but the pins and size made me decide to stay with my i5's old heat sink cooler that came with the system. (I also noted that the i5 combo mounted to the MB with already mounted screws so if I needed to I could still switch combos a bit easier. (This didn't turn out to be the case, however.) So I got the Inspiron and brought it to the kitchen table where I do any inside-the-case computer work and removed the side panel and got busy. Laying it flat and grounding myself well, I proceeded to remove the heat sink fan combo with the only problem being it took a bit of force to get the screws holding down the heat sink to come loose as they were tightened down really well. After getting the screws loose, I checked out the mounting for the fan heat sink combo to see how it had been mounted so I could make sure and replace it properly. I like the way the heat sink was held down with four springs which push the heat sink down onto the top surface of the processor and provide a very firm fit after you've got the heat sink compound on. (I used Artic Silver which works for me.) The one thing that surprised me a bit was the amount of force that was needed to re-latch the hold down clip. It was a bit more than I felt it should be, but after checking how the i5 felt it wasn't all that much force to latch it. (Made sure to get the new chip in right too.) After I got the heat sink compound on and replaced the heat sink combo, and got it tightened down firmly. it was time to see what it would do. I normally leave the side panel off till I check out any new installation I do. In that way you can find any problems and correct them. The last thing I did was re-plug the heat sink fan back into the MB and then took the system to the Computer Room and hooked everything up. I turned the power on and went to the BIOS as a check to see if the CPU was seen correctly and it was with all functions showing OK. I then got the only glitch of the hold morning when I exited the BIOS and instead of booting to Windows10 Pro, it just shut down. Ops, I said to myself and pressed the power button again. This time the system started up with no problems and booted right into Windows. I noted it felt sort of like my i3 in that it seemed to zip into Windows instead of sort of "walking" in. I had been reading that these i7s were noted for running a bit hot, so I ran Speccy and checked the temps. At idle it ran at 35 to 36c and under load it topped out at 65c and that was lower than what I expected it to be. A very pleasant surprise indeed. I got another one when I checked the actual speed the i7 was running at. It settled in at 4.2 gigs. and I hadn't done anything but install it. I sat there and watched the temps for a bit and noted that they didn't get above 40c when idling and when I loaded it down it just stayed around 65c with only one time peaking out at 68c. It seems I might have done a fair job with the sink heat fan combo too. I then loaded up one of my favorite games (Remember Me) and got killed off right away as I failed to respond quickly enough as I was expecting the AI to be a bit slower. Nice! Overall the system "feels" solid and runs that way. I note it has the "zippy" feel the i3 has but more so. In my games, I'm finding myself having to react a bit sooner than I used to and that's really a pleasure. So far, the only thing that popped up was the shut down at the first boot up after installing the CPU. It's not given me any other problems at all and it's nice to have things actually load up when clicked on without any little pauses and have the game scene transition loads go by so fast that you can't even read the hints anymore. Very Nice! One other thing that I was happy to see was when I checked the activation status of Windows 10 Pro and found it was still activated! Another very good thing to see! Overall I think I got a real winner here! Update: 4/17/16: One thing I did notice with this CPU was that, at first, it was a bit unstable and ran a bit warm. I noted the first time it booted up a slight freeze then reboot and then Windows came up. The first set up was this way and then I started having freezes, lockups, and unannounced reboots running at 4.3 gigs. It seemed my first impressions were a bit high. I did a reset of the heat sink compound and tried again. Same thing at 4.3 gig. After placing my old i5 3.2 gig back in for a check and it running just fine, I decided to try once again. I removed the i5 and put in the i7. This time I cleared the BIOS as I had run into having old BIOS values mess me up at times. I also added a 120mm fan to the case's left side to set up a bit more air flow thru the case. I reseated my sound card and graphics card, and I made sure all cables were tight. This time when I booted up, the system did not hang but booted to the screen informing me a BIOS clear at been done. It was smooth and there wasn't a hang to it. I went into the BIOS and disabled the on board sound and that's it, I left everything else like it was and booted into Windows 10 Pro. Windows booted up without a problem and loaded fine. I cranked up the Intel Extreme Tuning Ulit, and checked things out. Turned out I was again running at 4.2 gig. The system seemed OK, but was some of the readings looked a bit off to me, so I decided to try a test and sure enough the system seemed to be a little shaky to me. I decided on another test before I ran any stress tests. I set the system at 4 gigs solid and observed the readings. Things seemed to setting down and the temps seemed to stabilize around 35 to 40c. Not as low as hoped but in range. Since I hadn't planned on an overclock anyway, this would be OK IF they didn't get much higher. I then ran 10 minutes worth of CPU stress and memory tests after a 5 minute benchmarking in Intel's uitil., and then a 10 minute stress test under OCCP and the system sailed thru them all with the temps never getting above 83c but just spiking to it and no locking up, freezing or reboots. I've noted it seems to run around 35-40c when idling and around 70-76c under load. The main thing now is it seems very stable at 4 gigs for me and that's what I wanted even if it took me a little while to get there. Update: 7/18/16: OK, so here's the finally setup I had to run with. First, turned Turbo-boost OFF in BIOS. Second, ran Intel Extreme Tuning Tool and set CPU core voltage on this system at 1.1005 volts, with Manual static setting only as that was the setting that got me the most stable running. (No Adaptive as, on my system, this causes lock ups and reboots when sudden voltage spikes up or down hit the CPU.) In this set up, the system is very stable, runs cool (Around 35-40c idle and 50-60c under load) and allows me to run my games and any thing else without any problems at all. The only problem that I run into every once in awhile is when somehow the static setting gets switched back to the adaptive set up and I don't spot it in time, I'll get the total system lock up and need to reboot by the power button on the system, otherwise no problems and system runs very solid without problems. (I've play one game 12 to 24 hours without a problem with the static setup.) (Think that Intel should allow the user to "set" the most stable profile ae the "default" profile for their system but they don't.) I maybe should have got the "locked" 4790 but I wanted the 4 gigs running speed and not 3.6. Still think it's a really good buy.

System was purchased almost entirely on Amazon. My previous i7-860 build was done the same way. Amazon is a great way to make a computer. I really like the Amazon site tips where they tell you what other parts people are buying along with your processor or motherboard etc.. Very helpful and dead on. I picked away at buying parts for this over the last 6-7 months almost like a layaway program. I popped in the win 10 disc and voila I was up and running in literally minutes, scary fast. Negative Windows 10 reviews on the site are all from non-verified free upgrades from non-purchases. Don't read them!! Worthless. Buy the disc and get a real operating system. 01. i7-4790k LGA1150 02. Gigabuyte Z97X-UD3H motherboard 03. Gigabyte Nvidia GTX960 Windforce 3fan 4gb vidcard 04. Kingston 4x8gb HyperX Fury 1866mhz PnP(non xmp) 05. Samsung EVO 500gb SSD 06. D-Link Extreme dual band DWA-556 wireless pcie card 07. Windows 10pro 64bit 08. Antec High Current Gamer 850psu 09. Coolermaster Hyper EVO212 cpu fan(20-40c) 10. Coolermaster Scout 2 ATX case 11. Pioneer BD-rw BluRay/DVD/CD writer 12. (next) Hauppauge 2255 HDTV pcie tuner I don't know what else you can say about a processor that I read where people have overclocked the cpu into the 5ghz range. On the day I loaded win10, I gave it the first big test with the mobo Intel Graphics. I dialed up Steam and put Tomb Raider on the HDTV to see how the new processor and Gigabyte motherboard ran without a real GPU. WOW, was I shocked. TR ran on normal level where my i7-860 runs TR. i7-860 system won't run TR on ultimate settings at all. Once I got the Gigabyte GTX960, TR ran on ultimate without even breaking a sweat. The entire system ran me about $1500 and the only other software I purchased was Adobe Lightroom and Nero 2015. If you match the pieces of this system you will have a nice ready to run anything PC. Windows 10 so far is impressive, but was very upset to lose my favorite MCE from win7 that ran everything perfectly. Gotta start reinventing the HDTV portion. UPDATE:2016-01-15, The Amazon purchased computer parts above have proved to be ROCK SOLID one year later. I did recently buy the new Tomb Raider, Rise of, which has the ability to run on DirectX 12 or not. Also the game is one of the first to utilize all cores of the i7-4790k processor. I haven't verified this other than what I heard once. The game runs Rise of TR on ULTIMATE settings, but I think the DirectX 12 needs some work. I can't say enough about this processor and computer build. With so many other computer builds or rebuilds, there is tweaking and hunting for patches or fixes(win98,winXP,Vista,win7), and this win10 i7-4790k, it is simply awesome. You turn it on, and you are ready to be computing or dialing up Steam in seconds! My win7, you can go refill your coffee and anything that coffee induces during start up. The $300+ for the processor was a great buy. I really think some of the games and programs may be able to start utilizing some extra lanes of power they give us. The video processing is really fast, and I really like the USB3.0 for double write speeds versus USB2.0. I have switched many of my HDs to 2-3TB WD Passport drives with their smaller sized increase speed, and have dumped several larger hotter running HDs that are more affixed to the computer. If considering a new build, I would definitely stay with the LGA1150 genre. The parts for slightly older hi-tech items is dropping, while the newer parts for the i7-6700's seemed quite bit higher when I made this computer. RAM, video cards, motherboards, are all cheaper with this LGA1150 processor. I haven't compared specs, but the ones I see, are not big enough to warrant a higher payout for parts.

This is my review of the 4790k after 3 days of owning it. During the course of these 3 days, I have not had a boat load of time to play with it. But I did get a chance to OC it. And I definitely have felt its power. So, a lot has yet to be learned about this CPU, but for what its worth, heres my review. Notes: For this record, this is a osx build. Not gonna list all the specs. El Capitan. See the OC section of this review to learn more about OCing hackintosh with this chip. Performance OOB: My computing tasks are 85% raw image editing (photography),12% web browsing, and 3 % video editing anymore. But I needed a CPU that could crush raw HDR photography blending in Lightroom 6. Just for comparison, this 4790k is probably 4 times faster at creating raw HDR files from 5-7 exposures than my previously owned i5 4430 3.0Ghz. It exports edited images more than twice as fast... This thing is definitely fast. Truly, the fastest you are going to get for gaming, everyday computing, basic photo editing, etc. You can't get a faster chip. I know, I know, the 6700k is out. But its hardly any better than this chip. DDR4 does absolutely nothing for performance at this early stage... Most people will tell you to stick with the 4790k. The only chip i really contemplated having over this one is the x99 6-core 5820k. My Cooling: Using a Hyper212 Evo. Stock fan... 4 case fans (2 corsair SP120s, 2 NZXT 120mm). Stock CPU temps with my build are about 32-34C. I was going to go water cooling for this but when you TRULY research it, AIO water coolers are practically a joke when it comes to reliability. But I might make the jump to H2O just to reach better OC freq. Overclock: Ok, so I never overclocked before. I knew I wanted to OC this chip. This was my first chance... So, I decided to read up on it to prevent any idiotic impulse decisions... Little did I know there is basically no "beginner" info for getting into overclocking that is relatively simple to understand. In short: I went to the BIOS and set Vcore at 1.25V, Ram at 1333mhz (1866mhz rated), multiplier at 45x ... Monitored temps with Intel Power Gadget and stress tested with Prime95 (mac). Nothing too in-depth. OC Results: So, i think I have a decent chip for OC. Either that, or im doing something wrong that I dont know of haha. Hyper212 Evo - stock fan. 4.6GHz @ 1.265V ~83C Max (P95 for 5 minutes) PASS 4.6GHz @ 1.250V ~82C MAX (P95 for 5 minutes) FAIL 4.6GHz @ 1.260V ~83C MAX (P95 for 10 minutes) PASS The last OC, I sit "stable" at. For now. I know its only 10 minutes and 5+ hour tests are "the accepted standard" but P95 at 10 minutes stresses my CPU harder than I will ever use it. Heck, its so fast that even exporting a heavily edited 5 minute movie project will take less than that.. Im certain its stable. But will be testing more at this OC. Conclusion: I'll update this as needed. A few points... buy it. Its good. Its all you need. Crush the stock heatsink with a hydraulic press if you plan on stepping outside 4.0ghz base clock. If you're heavily gaming (i dont game), get a good cooler like the Cryorig H7 (i want that) or the Noctua big coolers. Hyper 212 is decent. Cryorig H7 is a better product... But anyway, if you're gaming, you wanna keep your CPU cooler as much as possible, not only for performance, but simply to keep the wear and tear down on it. ------------- UPDATE 6/19/16 ----------------------- So i've owned this chip for about 2 weeks now. Since then, I have decided to upgrade my cooling solution. I went with an h100i GTX. Stock thermal paste. Just slapped it on there (cleaned the old paste off first). Using stock fans and added 2 more nzxt case fans on the other side of the rad to keep it cooler. Temps with the h100i are better. Not as good as I expected, but they are good. I can now keep temps stable clear up to probably 4.8GHz. I only stress test with p95 for a few minutes. Anything past that is just unecessary. I don't push my CPU as hard as p95 ever, so theres no sense it wasting time (im sorry if you disagree). Now, I was able to OC to 4.6 GHZ with no issues on temps. About ~80C with my h100i and everything running. and 1.247V I am trying to get to 4.7 but this chip is causing me to crank the voltage at 4.7 to nearly 1.30V which i dont like because my Vcore spikes during P95 past the Vcore set value. Im not a great overclocker, so im curious to see if someone else could do better on this chip. But honestly, I think my chip is decent for OC, but its definitely not a golden chip like some seem to get.

Update Jan 2021: Years later I am still using this i7-4790k with an Asus Maximus VII Hero. Zero problems. I have upgraded to 32GB RAM @ 2,400Hz. I upgraded from a SATA 256GB SSD to a 2TB m.2 SSD. I have a GTX 1080 Ti 11GB. I am playing Cyberpunk 2077 and other new games. The processor has not become a bottleneck on any games, only the graphics card surprisingly. Depending on the game, I usually can play 1440p or 4k on highest settings and still get 55+ FPS. But not Cyberpunk - it runs at 1080p, and only if I turn screen space reflections halfway down. Original: Flawless. Incredible performance for the price. The proper way to select a processor is to go a CPU benchmark list and decide on your performance per price number. Google CPU benchmark list. I ought to mention a couple of things about processors and overclocking. Many similar chips in a processor family are the exact same thing. They are tested at the factory, and the resulting stable setting is then reduced, and locked at a certain frequency and then labeled as a 4770, 4790, etc. The K at the end indicates the frequency is set but unlocked, so you can overclock it via BIOS. For this particular processor (4790K) you will still have variances. Many many of them can be stably overclocked to 4.4 GHz and then go up or down and see what your limit is. It seems that 4.8GHz is the golden goose for this processor, even on water cooling. The way to overclock is to set the frequency and manually set the vcore voltage to a recommended level, then slowly reduce the voltage until it crashes under test, then slowly go up a little and stress for at least 8 hours. Paired this processor with an Asus Maximus VII Hero, 16GB Adata 2400MHz RAM, an Arctic Freezer 13 cooler, 256GB SSD, and an Asus GTX 970. From the formatting of the hard drive, I started the Windows 7 Pro installation and was up and running on my desktop in 12 minutes!! 12! Stock at 4.0GHz, I was able to get mine stable during stress testing at 4.8GHz on air, but the temps were upper 80s C, pushing the thermal shutdown limits. However, I would get random shutdowns at other times. I backed it down to 4.6GHz and got it very stable, but under stress it would still be low 80s C. Very seldom random shutdowns at other times. Due to some problems during 4K gaming I cross-checked and stressed each and every component in my computer and found my aging power supply to be the culprit. I attribute this to noisy voltage which may have caused those shutdowns during overclocking testing. Regardless, 4.6 and 4.8GHz were running too hot on air, and I want my processor to last a long time, so I went back to stock 4.0GHz with turbo at 4.4. It now runs 59C max, and there is almost no change in framerates when overclocked. So really it was just an exercise in overclocking. If you have a great water cooler, more power to ya. I have been completely pleased with my Arctic Freezer 13 cooler (rated at 200W cooling) by the way. It met the power requirements and size to fit in my nMediaPC case.

This processor will run hotter than the older Core processors. You should also check your BIOS voltages, most OC websites recommend 1.2V for 4.4GHz to see about 6°C tem. drop without loss. This Processor will test 25°C bellow Maximum operating reported by Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool 64-bit, running at 86°C using Corsair Link to verify processor temperature. So I am assuming the maximum specified temperature, before forced shutdown, is at or about 110°C (I am a sensor error of +/-5°C). There are also articles Benchmarking the i7 4790K with all fans set to low and the processor runs at a constant 100°C with only none, or negligible loss. meaning, to burn this processor you would have to do something wrong, or it has to be defective in the first place. It was tested at factory, so defects should be minimal, only thing you have to worry about is shipping competency of the warehouse. Mine was shipped... OK, it works for now... though I can't get used to the high temperatures. I am using a H80i Corsair ... still seeing 80's on stress tests. Gaming, with good GPU, you won't see above 70's with stock cooler, with a 560 Ti I am seeing 77°C running Mass Effect 3, FireFall (72), Tom Clacy's Splinter Cell Black Ops(75°C)... it really depends on how efficiently they made their engines and how dependent they are on the processor, most FPS games are focused on using the monkey-house GPU rather than the brain-trust CPU. The only drawback is the heat. It will provide you with seamless performance across video compiling to HD gaming, and Autodesk/Solid Works project renderings. It can't be slowed down, let alone stopped. Just invest in cooling to improve product life. Lower temp = longer life. Please Do NOT try to build a system with this in the smaller cases, this is a high performance processor, not suited for internet browsing machines. This is not your casual PC user processor, though if you can spare the dough, why not? Also don't be thrifty on the motherboard, it will gimp your performance. I recommend at least 16GB of DDR3 1600 to complement the processing power. For the OC users, I don't see the need, but if you want to go nuts, be my guest. Just remember it runs hot with factory settings. It OC its self to 4.4GHz at about 1.36V. Used: 38 hours continuously, one interruption for 3 hours to install H80i liquid cooler, ran 12 more hours as of review post time.

I got this to replace my old chip, as this was the latest gen chip I could slot in my motherboard. It seriously handles the job of playing most games really well, im happy with my purchase!

I bought the i7 4790k to support a minimal build that needed to support a non-gaming 4k screen (Ultra High Definition actually - see notes below). My intent was to utilize the on chip video graphics to do this. 4k/UHD display standards are still emerging right now, so if you are planning to do the same do some research in advance. I also wanted to use a 40 inch TV as my monitor to save a few bucks and get up to the size I wanted to use (40"). I don't need 40" of monitor, but with 4k/UHD pixel density and a screen that large, I can place my work windows in a position that does not induce fatigue after a long days work and have additional windows open around it with less used tools open and ready to go. If you are pursuing the same, I will make some notes you can use to get boot strapped into this little conquest. First, UHD and 4k are actually not the same resolution. This is lost on some TV related web sites and advertising. 4k resolution is 4096 x 2160. UHD is 3840 x 2160. UHD is what TVs and UHD content will support. UHD has 4x the pixels resolution of 1080i. So to put some of this in perspective, a 40" UHD TV has the equivalent of 4 20" HD (1080i) screens in pixels. And the pixel density of a 20" HD monitor will be the same as 40" UHD monitor. The only interfaces that support full 4k/USD resolutions right now are Displayport and HDMI. The UHD TV's available right now don't support Displayport. I purposely bought a mother board that supports Displayport to keep my options open going forward. You are going to need to find a TV capable of rendering the pixels without trying to enhance them for TV and Movie viewing. The Samsung I purchased supports "just render"/gaming mode if you learn about its odd setting requirements. LG has a few that support this mode and there are a couple of Chinese manufacturers that do as well (Seiki and TLS). All of them overwhelmingly have HDMI 1.4 ports on them. They don't include this spec on spec sheets unless they actually support 2.0. Then they will brag about it as a feature. The notable difference between these two specs is the frame refresh rate. 1.4 supports UHD up to 30 fps, 2.0 supports UHD up to 60 fps. Motherboard manufacturers are the same on this front and I cannot find any that claim to support HDMI 2.0. They are at least more transparent about the resolutions and fps rates they support with onboard interfaces for HDMI so a little less hunting to confirm they are unable to support 2.0. The Displayport option supports @60 fps at 3840 x 2160 (UHD). So that is an option going forward whenever converters for HDMI are released that support HDMI 2.0. To do that I will still need to upgrade the TV. I use this computer for work related tasks so I don't have to have 60 fps. I settled for a Samsung TV with hdmi 1.4 ports knowing I would be limited. This particular model uses a proprietary Samsung port that allows for upgrades after purchase to latest features and capabilities in an external box. Thats fine, and whenever Samsung offers this option with HDMI 2.0 I will purchase it if I think I really need it. The on chip display is doing a very good job @30 fps. I am actually surprised by that given that it is still considered inferior to most reasonable pci video cards. I left room for a pci video card if I need to use one at some point. Right now I don't. If you are using Linux with Xserver/Xwindows like I am, the Xserver will auto select the first resolution the chipset driver lists that is compatible with the resolutions the hdmi port reports. On my TV the hdmi does not list options to the OS. So Xserver picks the very first resolution the driver for the on chip graphics lists and that is 3840 x 2160 @24 fps. The TV refreshes @30 fps. This will cause the two to be out of sync on refresh rate. It won't be too obvious that something isn't right until you start to use your mouse or do something motion oriented like dragging something across the screen. It will have a lot of lag. Too much. With tweaks to your Xserver configuration you can over ride this in favor of using the 30 fps options it also supports. Since making this adjustment I find the lag problem isn't there anymore. Last notes go to video performance. I can see sheering on some videos. Video is not awesome with this rig but tolerable when using 1080i resolution. I test this in a 1/4 size window on you tube and set the video resolution to 1080i. The video is reasonable but not good. I have watched portions of 1080i movies and they were occasionally marred by sheering in the video window. Occasionally a little frame lag. That takes the onboard processor out of contention for a 4k/UHD home theater pc. If I set the resolution on both the graphics card and the TV to 1080i its a lot better (no longer UHD at all.) So still a contender in that resolution. Overall the the graphics on the 4790k are doing a great job for my office/work applications and that makes this chip a dead on hit for my requirements. The video testing was for curiosity sake and given the frequency with which I would ever watch a video on this PC the performance on that front is acceptable. I just wouldn't use it for a htpc build for UHD without also using a high performance pci graphics card.

Very fast CPU. Doesn't hesitate to open anything at all. Unzipped files using WinRAR and it extracts files at blazing speed. This thing at idle runs nice and cool. I have a Cooler Master Seidon 120M liquid cooler installed and it runs around 34-37 Celsius during idle. Liquid cooling only shines when you're overclocking. But in terms of speed and processing power, this thing will not lag on you. This will rip through any conversion and extraction of files. Buy It. If you're on a tight budget, then maybe an i5-4690K will suffice. But if you have the money, this thing is very future-proof and will be reliable for many years to come. Overclocking: I overclocked it using an Asus Z97-A motherboard. It was able to achieve 4.7ghz at 1.245 volts. Runs steady and fast. Temperature was running at the high 70's to low 80's. I have a poor mid-ATX case, so a good case with lots of fans will definitely be able to achieve a greater overclock. I used AIDA64 to run the stress test for a good 10-15 minutes. Temperatures ran around high 70's to low 80's all 4 cores. That was hot, and it was my limit. Temperatures in my room were in the 80's. To get to 4.8ghz, i had to increase the voltage to 1.30. That's a big jump in voltage for just 100 mhz extra. And my CPU was running too hot, so i didn't want to risk it. Anything below 1.30 volts didn't even get me to the desktop. It'll just blue screen and restart on me. Definitely needs a lot of juice power if you're overclocking to 4.8ghz. And as a personal preference, having fans blow directly on the CPU cools a lot better than a fan that blows hot air out. Fresh, cold air blowing directly at the CPU is always a plus. Downside is it'll build up dust a lot faster. A fabric softener installed in front of the fan to catch the dust will suffice. Side note: UPGRADE YOUR COOLING SYSTEM!!! Liquid cooling is preferred. Air coolers are good. But you will always get better speed with liquid coolers. Without overclocking, this CPU runs at 4.0ghz and temperatures reach around mid 60's to low 70's. And that's only at 4.0ghz. So definitely buy a cooling system.