Hello,

I just quieted down a 3 or 4 year old Pentium 4 2.8gHz, with an Thermalright XP-90 and a Nexus in place of the stock cooler, and I'm seeing 100% load (F@H) temps of 60C -69C, depending on the room temp. My Athlon 64 X2 4200+ in the same room is 48C - 52C.

Is this normal, or should I check the thermal paste, etc.?

The other things I did were to dump the 30mm (x 20mm?) fan/jet turbine in the CoolMaster drive cooler, bend all the intake slots on the generic (InWin) PS sideways (which opens them up from 67% to 95% open). I swapped out the rear exhaust (Top Motor) with an Enermax Enlobal, and added an 1800RPM NMB in the front intake.

There are three HD's in the system: two in a RAID1 array, and one as the boot drive. The boot drive is the one in the CM enclosure, and it is typically 33-39C, so not too bad for "passive" cooling...it's in a mATX InWin case

It is MUCH quieter now: it used to be audible/loud from across the room to pretty much blending in at 18" from me here on the tabletop.

Two things to check: case temperature and thermal paste.

Your case temp should ideally be within a few degrees of the room temperature. Buy the best thermal paste you can, no question.

Neil,

My 3.0C P4 with an XP-120 and Papst fan runs at 47-50C under sustained 100% load in a 20-22C ambient room. The fan runs at about 1200 rpm under those load conditions. The MB VRM and northbridge all top out at that same temp with the fan in suck mode.

The CPU temp wasn't much higher with a Nexus fan, but the MB temps got higher then I liked (65-71C), and the northbridge was getting close to 60C, also.

Neil....I've got a bunch of P-4s running with a variety of HSF combos. I have one P4-2.8 with an XP-120 and a Globe 120mm fan. It never reaches 50C no matter what, with the fan at about 1250rpms. (that's the only fan in the case). Most of the other setups have similar temperatures.....My SFF MEGA runs a P4-2.66 using an Alpha heatsink with an 80mm fan.....never goes over 52C @ 1800rpms.

I'd say you have a problem. Maybe the heatsink isn't seating properly or it has a non-functioning heatpipe. Perhaps the temp sensor is way off. In any case, that CPU temp is too high, much higher than normal.

The other thing to consider is which core your P4 has. If it's 3-4 years old it's a Northwood, which shouldn't run that hot. However, if you've got a Prescott core CPU that you're trying to cool the SPCR way, it could get toasty in there. Check it out with CPU-Z and see what core you got.

Hello guys,

It is a Prescott! 1MB L2, F3, C0 with the Thermalright XP-90/Nexus.

I used a small bit of the stock Thermalright goop -- I suppose I could try Arctic Silver 5? Right now, it is at 64C, while my Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (with a Ninja) is 53C -- the latter machine is on the floor, and the P4 is on the desk; so probably 1-2C is due to higher ambient temperature?

A 9-11C difference to to a much hotter CPU with a HSF that is at least 2 steps less efficient, doesn't seem too bad to me? [Edit: the case fan must have kicked on in the Athlon, because the temp dropped to 43C, now... ]

Hello,

Okay, I've moved the P4 system down on the floor next to the A64 X2 system:

62C vs 46C -- oh well, the P4 is much quieter than it was before anyway. I just wish I had checked the temps before the changes. The HD temp in the P4 system is just 37C, so the 30mm whiner was a total waste.

I have a Prescott Celeron 2.8ghz that idles at 35-39 and at load maximum about 50 degrees Celsius with a Scythe Katana.

I know P4s are hotter, but it's hard to imagine they would be that much hotter.

Hello,

The other thing it could be, is a poorly calibrated temperature sensor, I suppose.

P4 Prescotts are a different beast. I had a 2.8 for a while, and I used an Alpha 8952 (later design, taller than an 8942). With good airflow and an 80mm fan on it, it usually idled about 46C, with the fan about 7V. If you ran the fan up to 12v the temp only dropped slightly. (about 24c ambient)

What was unusual for that setup was the relatively low CPU temp when 100% stressed out. The fan ramped up to 12v, but the CPU temp maxed out about 53-55C. Only about a 10C spread between idle and max. I tried a variety of setups before settling on the Alpha. (This was before the big heatpipe coolers came out). That system is still running fine in a doctor's office in the city.

Later I built the same system for the same guy with a NW 3.0. The idle temp dropped to about 34C and maxed about 50C.

Greetings,

Well, this morning before the house heat has come on, the P4 is 54C and the A64 is 42C; both at 100% load running Folding@Home. (Of course, the A64 is running two instances of F@H.) So, the 12C difference seems to be the "real" difference between the two systems.

I can live with that.