Benchmarks: Temperature
The chip in our review sample appears to be making particularly good contact with the Hydro Series H60 cold plate. It's practically cold when idle.
But again, is 4.4GHz a touch too far for a fourth-generation Haswell CPU? Depends how you look at things. Our review sample showed no signs of instability, but it gets close to 90ºC under extreme load and some users may prefer a rig that runs a little cooler.
With that in mind, it's worth noting that Scan offers the 3XS Z87 Performance GTX with a choice of CPU overclocks at no extra cost. There's a 4.2GHz optimised option and a 4.4GHz extreme option; personally, we'd choose the former and sacrifice top-end performance in favour of less heat, less power consumption and less noise.
The GPU overclock, meanwhile, doesn't come at the detriment of core temperature. MSI's twin-fan GTX 770 is able to keep the GPU running at 83ºC with fan speed hovering at around 50 per cent.
