Will a kind soul evaluate these specs and tell me if they're worth it?

[micerau]

I don't think you even need an after market cooler for 4 Ghz with the i5 2500k, considering you have decent air flow in your case. Intel burn test always makes your processor go like +15c of what any game/application would ever make it so I don't think that matters

Yeah I know, the burn test stresses more than anything... but when I was seeing 90C+ I was freaking out, so I put it back to stock for now just to be safe. I plan on getting an after market cooler in about 6 months time and getting a really decent OC of 4.5-4.7ghz.

[Jickler]

There's no reason not get an aftermarket cooler though. If you can afford a nice processor there's no reason not to shell out the extra 30 bucks for some decent cooling to make it last a little longer. But agree with everything else, my OC to 4ghz took almost no time. Needed a bump to the NB frequency to keep it stable, but that was all.

[Rezard]

Yeah I know, the burn test stresses more than anything... but when I was seeing 90C+ I was freaking out, so I put it back to stock for now just to be safe. I plan on getting an after market cooler in about 6 months time and getting a really decent OC of 4.5-4.7ghz.

Are you just letting the Vcore run up as you OC...?
What is it at during stress?
I found I could under-volt mine down when @ 4.5Ghz.

One thing's for sure;
It'll run @ it's max Turbo frequency across all core without a problem,
even on stock cooling.

4.0Ghz hardly would seem far off at that point.