Intel don't seem to know what an ideal temp ought to be

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longinthetooth
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Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:34 pm

Intel don't seem to know what an ideal temp ought to be

Post by longinthetooth » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:15 pm

I have recently re-built my system and looked up the intel site for advice about setting up cpu monitoring.

The whole premise of their articles are 'coolness', and that alone.

Although they provide a temperature performance range for each CPU, they provide no information either in articles or by their support team, on ideal running temperature, target temp, etc.

If noise reduction was your sole objective we would say, run the cpu as hot as possible, and thus use fans at their slowest and hence quietest. But we aren't that daft.

Intel are in fact worse than that as they actually say that PC's case temperature should be set up to run at a temperature that is significantly lower than the average daily summer temperature of most of the populated parts of the globe. Only Canadians, Eskimos, Russians, Northern Europe and Kiwis can meet their requirements all year round!

Intel don't seem to consider optimums just 'coolness'.

My Asus P5GD2 motherboard has BIOS set up features for case and CPU temp and Fan speed monitoring. But likewise no advice for what to to set it at? Although the implication is once again 'coolness'.

Humans run best at a very specific temperature, 37C.

I don't believe Intel CPUs run optimumly throughout their relatively wide operating range, eg, +5 to 65C, and even then you can go up another 20-30C before damage 'may' occur. How vague is that?

Help!

Ralf Hutter
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Post by Ralf Hutter » Mon Jun 06, 2005 4:39 pm

WELCOME TO SPCR!!!

StarfishChris
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Post by StarfishChris » Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:17 pm

You might find this interesting:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/p4-throttling/

Generally, acceptable load temperatures are 40-65°C, the lower end for Athlon 64, P4 Northwood inbetween, and the higher end for P4 Prescott and Athlon XP.

For P4, as long as they're not throttling themselves it's okay. A lower temperature would help you achive higher clock speeds, but you're not changing that, so it will work just as 'optimumly' in that range. Longevity may change, but you are unlikely to see it fail within its useful working life. As long as it's stable - and you can check it by running Prime95 for up to 24 hours continuously - what do you have to worry about?

longinthetooth
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:34 pm

Optimum or Target temp

Post by longinthetooth » Tue Jun 07, 2005 2:35 am

Thank you StarfishChris for your comments and link. You ask what I have to worry about.

Knowing how to go about getting a Silent PC, while still getting optimum performance from the hardware being cooled. Its a trade off. It is the cooling requirement that leads to the noise. Hence, the first requirement seems to me to only cool as much as you need and no further. This implies running your equipment as hot as you can, within manufacturers performance constraints. Both require manufacturers to supply information about optimum running temp, not just potential operating range. Without such, the tendency would be for SPCR users to run their CPU at the top of the operational temp range, as that leads to the quietest PC. Secondly there is what SPCR focuses upon, ie, using the best techniques and devices to achieve the required cooling and no more.

It isn't a matter of worry, so much as needing the best information to design and run your system, so that you have both a quiet PC and one that performs well, with the least amount of equipment and acceptable risk of damage.

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