Kepp a Prescott?

So I bought a Pentium 4 3.2E (Prescott core) yesterday. I noticed it was running hotter than my old 2.26 P4, and after looking around the net I'm now aware that it would have probably been a better choice to go with a Northwood core CPU.

Is is worth the hassle of exchanging the Prescott for a Northwood? Or should I just keep the Prescott.

Some more information:

I'm not having bad heat issues. My case is not TAC, or whatever, but I'm getting CPU temps that hover around the high-40's idle. I ran 95Prime with the "high heat" test for an hour, and topped out at 61c.

Then to really push it, since 95Prime only uses 50% or the Hyper-Threading stuff, I ran the following all at the same time for 15 minutes:

1. 95Prime (high heat test)
2. CPU Burn-in 1.4 (high heat test)
3. Lord of the Rings: The Battle for middle earth (minimized)
4. 3DMark 03 (ran multiple times)

I pegged the CPU at 100% for the duration of the test. I know 3DMark won't really stress the CPU, but I figured it would heat up the video card and maybe raise the case temp.

Under this heavy load I was averaging mid-60's on the CPU. I think the highest temp as 66c.

My "System Zone 1" is high 30's idle, mid 40's under load.

My "System Zone 2" is high 40's idle, mid 50's under load.

So my questions are:

1. Should I be worried about the heat? When do the Prescotts start to throttle?

2. Are the performance disadvantages that the Prescott has bad enough to warrant a return? Or will they age better than a 3.2 Northwood?

I use this PC for games and some audio/video stuff. The motherboard is an Intel 865PERL, and I have 2x512MB PC3200RAM.

Thanks in advance.

 

hi, i have the same cpu.. at first i was a little worried for the same reason as u are now but i bought a new cpu cooler which keeps my cpu temp at around min 42 and max 55C when idle and when on full load at about 55 to 65C.. i only get the lower temps when my heatsink is dust free (so i have to clean that bloody thing bout every 2 weeks, its really annoying)... anyway i dont think u should worry to much cause ive hadnt had any heat related problems so far (in 5 months) and dont expect to have any, to be on the safe side u might want to buy a new cpu cooler....