Software Cooling & CPU Usage & Distributed Computing

[spudston]

A while back I tried CPUCool and VCool software cooling on my Atholon XP2000+ running WinXP. They did cool my processor especially at idle but I wasn't happy with either and uninstalled them. To my surprise, the cooling effect remained, evidently due to leftover driver files, and I left it as is. I'd always heard that these programs were useless when the CPU was under full load but mine ran cooler by several degrees C even when running distributed.net which I always used as a stress test. Recently, I decided to take up distributed computing full time, running Folding@Home, but I found that my Athlon would not even keep up with my son's Duron 950. I then realized that F@H was getting only 50% CPU usage with the system process getting the rest. It wasn't until I hunted down and eliminated the residual drivers from VCool and CPUCool (I'm not sure which was responsible) that I was able to run F@H full speed. My CPU temp went up also, from 47C to 56C.

Just goes to show you that there is no free lunch when it comes to cooling your computer quietly.

[iom_dave]

i thought maybe the software would slow my pc down so i bench marked before and after install - 3dmark 2001 and cpumark2002 have remained the same (within +-2%) so it isnt VCool

[iom_dave]

maybe co both cancer curing software (stuff that runs in the background) and VCool will both have lowest priority CPU settings they compete with each other hence the slowdown - I'm guessing the author didn't think someone running VCool would want not to run a background task like ud due to the huge amount of extra heat these programs create.

[spudston]

maybe co both cancer curing software (stuff that runs in the background) and VCool will both have lowest priority CPU settings they compete with each other hence the slowdown.

Actually, Folding@Home had low priority and the System process had normal priority, but I was not allowed to change the setting in Task Manager.

I'm guessing the author didn't think someone running VCool would want not to run a background task like ud due to the huge amount of extra heat these programs create.

Yes the cooling programs should be useless with a distributed computing client or 3D game running which is why I thought it was a good thing when I ran Folding@Home and my CPU temp stayed lower than when playing Quake. But it was just the cooling software stealing half of the CPU cycles form Folding@Home. It didn't happen when playing Quake though.

I think that the cooling software is best avoided anyway. I think if the CPU heats up under load and then cools way down at idle this just thermally stresses the hardware. Also, when this would happen (when not running Folding@Home), I would notice a change in the pitch of my system's fans which I found annoying.