P4 Prescott @ 3.2Ghz Cooling advice!

I need advice from expert only please! I have recently build a new P4 Prescott @ 3.2Ghz on a new Intel 875PBZ board with an Antec 350watt power supply single fan.

The CPU has the OEM Intel fan supplied with the CPU retail box and the thermal tape to reduce heat. Since it's been a long time when I used to build PCs for a living (P2s and P3s) I am not very familiar with the P4 prescott specs and temperatures. I have notice that the PC on idle runs at 47C and under load (dvd encoding, games, etc) goes up to 68 where the fans start speeding up to balance the temerature. The temperature when is at full load seems to me a bit high (even though the PC is stable and does not crash) so

I would like any feedback on how normal or ubnormal the temperatures I noted above are. I have searched on various tech forums only to find out that soe say it's normal yet some other peple say it's a bit high and that I should get rid of the intel fan and get an alternative together with some silver 3 or 5 heat spread paste. I do not use a TAC case as Intel suggests but I have placed 2 x internal 70mm fans one bringing air in from the front of the case and one at the back taking air out. Any ideas on the subject? Thanks!

 

Along with Zeus
I have built a system with the following specs-

Intel D865perl motherboard 800fsb
Intel Pent 4, 3.0 Ghz
2 sticks of DDR400 512mb ram with heat sinks
Nvidia FX 5200 VC
Ultra 500 watt power supply
2 120mm case fans, one in front one in rear
1 80mm case fan mounted to side of case, in line with cpu

Normal temp are in the range of 104f at cpu, 95f at memory area
Under full load the temps are 130f to 135f, 118f at memory area

I have read lots of post and such forth, read Intels docs, and have heard that as long at the CPU doesnt reach 158f, I will be fine.
However I am wondering what else I can that will cool the processor and memory area.
I have made a make shift funnel, using a plastic peter pan peanut butter jar, and attached it to the side case fan, pointing directly at the cpu, well, there was no change at all.
I was wondering what you guys may think about using a hardrive fan system, installing it in one of the cd bays, inline with the memory and cpu. The harddrive cooler system I am looking at, has 2 or 3 40mm fans and pulls in air from the outside.

 

Hi Zeus,

I have quite a similar configuration:

* Intel Desktop Board D865GBF
* Intel Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz Prescott
* Antec Performance Plus case
* 2x 512Mb DDR400

In addition, i have the following components that build heat:

* Gigabyte 6800GT with heatpipe and dual heatsink design
* WD Raptor 10K RPM 36Gb

Now, first thing i learned is that Prescotts run at higher temps (idle and heavy load) thus you need a modified case for this (internal case temp needs to be 38degrees C or less).

So, either you buy a TAC case or you DIY.

DIY - Method:

1. Upgrade the stock cooler to a better quality one
2. Use Artic Silver, which is a much better heat conductor than all others
3. Create a CPU Duct, but make sure it works properly
4. Think about the airflows in your system and make sure you create an equal flow throughout.. maybe use 120mm fans instead of 80 which give more CFM at lower speeds....

I have installed a temp monitor unit, and also use intel Active monitor.

My temps are as following:

Idle
* CPU: 57
* Zone 1: 39
* Zone 2: 42
* HD: 40
* Video: 50

Heavy Load:
* CPU: 68
* Zone 1: 55
* Zone 2: 58
* HD: 50
* Video: 68

hope this helps

What Antec Case do you have exactly?

have you installed the 2nd fan at the front, aligned with the HD?

 

The comp I built for the wife has a 2.8 Prescott, using the stock cooling and (I believe) OCZ paste. The case (Compucase A168) came with a telescoping duct that allows air to be drawn from outside the case by the CPU fan, as well as a 120 fan front and rear and dual fan PSU. The CPU runs around 46 at idle and only a few degrees warmer at full load. There are 3 HDDs and 2 optical drives in the case. One hot day , while checking the temps (Asus probe) the CPU temp was lower than the case temp. That is not a normal case, but I attribute that to the air being drawn directly to the CPU, rather than using preheated air to cool the CPU. I have bought a duct for my comp ($3.00 Cdn), but have yet to install it to see if it improves temps on my comp. The fan speed does increase as necesary to maintain temps, but rarely hits 3,000 rpm. My personal opinion, is to have bigger fans (move more air, quieter) and cool the CPU with out side air, if possible. I also believe that putting in too many fans doesn't necessarily improve cooling, as the ensuing turbulence could disrupt clean air flow through the case. I remove the prestamped grills in most cases as they seriously retrict the air flow, and replace with wire grills if the fans are exposed. One other consideration, is that when you boost the air flow you also need to shorten the intervals between cleanings as the increased air flow results in increased dust in the case. Hope my ramblings prove of some value to someone.

 

Hey BiLLD,

your CPU temp is about the same as your case temp, and that with a Prescott??

My Prescot 3.0 runs about 57 Idle and 65 High Load, up to 69 under extreme stress.

What do you exactly mean with pre-stamped fans?

 

I had all the same problems with my case temps and CPU temps.

I went and got AS paste and a zalman cpu cooler and set two fans for intake at side and front of case and two for exsaust in the back.

Before Temps:

ambient: 40+c
cpu 60-63c (idle)
cpu 70-76c (load) yeah...REALLY high.

After Temps:

ambient: 24-28c depending on time of day.
cpu: 32c (idle)
cpu: 45 tops (load)

drastic changes as you can see....

also I have appled AS to my GPU and north and southbridge. gpu idles at 28c and load at 34c....

All this cost me like.....70 bucks....easy

 

AS Does the job indeed!!!

my cpu temps dropped 5-7 degrees (both idle and heavy load).

 

I have a prescott 3.4 with a 6600gt prescott.

my idle temps for cpu = 41-44 (zalman cooled)
stressed temp for cpu = 55-60

graphic = idle 40 (zalman cooled)
stressed = 50

+ three fans (antec 12mm)

I managed to overclock my pc to 3915 Mhz with sometimes a hassle
and 3845 Mhz without any issues.

cheers

 

Yo Optimizer - ur temps are way cool!!

What Antec Case have you got? Is it the server case, and where is your 3rd 120mm fan installed then?

do you have any cpu duct installed?

what thermal compound do you use on your cpu?

 

ok, my case is the antec bmq3700 (quiet edition with 350W psu, very nice psu on my system, very quite due to two 12mm antec fans)

I have 2 in front (1*12mm Antec running at 1300 and 1*40mm papst at 800)
I have 1 in back (1*12mm Antec running at 1900)

+ 1 Zalman Alcu (12mm at 1300) on my chipset
+ 1 Zalman (heatsink passive) on my vga 6600gt (45-50C passive) and when playing game I have a 80mm Zalman cooler installed in front of the two heatsinks.

my puter is very very silent with a nice result.

if I put my fans at full load my temps drop with 5C in idle to 40C and in load 50-55


I an highly recommend this setup, two days ago I overclocked my system to 3845 mhz and my idle was 49 and full load benching was 60

but I changed it back to default, just good to know for future though.
no cpu duct, arctic silver 5 on everything I could do it

cheers

 

Optimizer, can you provide me with a link to either www.Antec.com or other site, for your casing please?

how have you connected your 3 fans?

(e.g. to PSU fan-only connectors or to Mobo Asic connectors?)

also, do you use any speed control perhaps?

My "Stuff" is on http://www.auij64.dsl.pipex.com/

 

http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=00363

for my antec

hi, you got yourself a good system allready, nice and my compliments!!!

all you need to do now is to tighten your cables (you won't see any cables in my case) and good airflow.

I have a Coolermaster Aerogate 2 fan controller (this controller has a built in fan - 40mm (the one I was talking about) and I changed this retail fan with a very very quiet topnotch "papst" fan - you gotta have some papst )

cheers

 

http://www.coolermaster-europe.com/

 

http://www.coolermaster-europe.com/

p.s. your case is waaayyy better then mine, also your graphics are way better.

if you can set it up good (take your time for your cables) this could be easily done

your temps will drop considerabily cause your cpu isn't hotter then mine retailed.

mine was 55-60 idle retailed

 

Yeah, Optimizer, I do agree that all this upgrading and fans has resulted in loadsa cables going around - i have tried tying them up a bit, moving unneeded to side areas where they can't interfere with the airflow.

the big difference in our cases is that you have 2 120mm fans for intake and exhaust, where i have 2 80mm fans. Also, you have installed a cooler device with 40mm fan, but what i've done is in the space of 2 51/4 drive bays, i created a "filter" after which another 80mm fans sits, blowing air into the duct, that goest straight to the CPU. But really, i don't think it is working that good, my CPU fan is going up to 4400 when heavy load, however CPU temps are not going over 61 with Artic Silver now (before up to 69 !!!)

Temps:

Case temps are 39 and 41 idle, which is not too bad.

CPU temps are now 52 idle, 61 Max under heavy load

Videocard goes up to 65-70 degrees.

I think having 120mm fans will really help, also put the noise down a lot, but not sure how to do this as my case is not designed for this.

Also wondering how i can make this duct work. I left about 3cm space in between the duct and CPU fan, so it doesnt' connect immediately. The Duct intake fan spins at around 1100-1300 rpm. Intake and exhaust fans are connected to fan-only on PSU, spinning around 1200-1400.

So do you control your fans manually?

are you using a stock fan on your cpu? can you tell me at what speed it runs, idle and say playing doom 3 or so...

nice talking, again.

p.s. what does this coolermaster device exactly do, is it a cpu cooler or drive bay cooler?

p.s. 2 - wtf is a papst fan? (i must be missing something here..)

 

naahh, fan ducts are something I find a bit useless cause you will never get your case cooler then the temps it resides in, if the room is 35C you will never get cooler (that said: a prescott getting 35C ...hmmm gotta have one )

anyway: the aerogate fancontroller is fully adjustable and you can have like bookmarks...you can set preconfigured rpms, or you can adjust manual, the only thing you need to watch out for are the voltages. it is a fan controller hardware. retails at 40$ - fans adjustable for hdd, cpu , gpu and case.

your idle temps are still too high if you ask me. I wonder what you did, but I do think and I am sure it is because of your 80mm fans, they don't blow quite hard and make way to much noise.

your case is designed for having at least 2 fans of 12mm, cause I know your case. trust me it is possible.

like I said I don't use a stock fan on my cpu. I use a zalman alcu for prescott with a 12mm fan on top (very silent at 1300rpm)
idle now at the moment 45 (steam is in the background, together with ewido, nod32, firewall, boclean, and outlook )
full load it gets 55 tops
overclocked at 3845 mhz 60C and after one hour it gets 65 (but all fans on max)


PAPST FANS MY FRIEND ARE THE BEST FANS YOU CAN GET!!! BELIEVE ME.they are a bit expensive but they have a special method with ballbearings they DON't make noice and they have the best 'blow' there is.

papst 12mm you will only find in hightech stores in high tech pc's.

have a nice eve

Opt.

 

Hey Opt,

i did some further testing: i installed another cpu-fan 60mm on the other side of the duct, and i do have a fan controller but it only controls 1 fan and measures 3 temps.

I found that the cpu temp is 1-2 degrees cooler in overall, but mainly the cpu fan is rotating about 500 rpm less than without the duct, making it less noisy.
But the 10 degrees drop in temp, like the duct guru's and sellers say, doesnt work for me!

Antec - how do i fit the 120mm fans in, do i have to drill extra holes??? The plastic holders allow you to "click" in 80mm fans (front and back), so how do i get 120mm fans in then?

PAPST - is that the brand name of the fans you're talking about?

I might want to go for the Gigabyte Rocket 3D Cooler at a later stage maybe...

 

Well I have a not TAC case from antec (630II) and the normal OEM Intel fan. I have one fan for the HHD drives (2 sata) and one fron bay sucking air in, one 70mm fan pulling air out the back and also a true power supply from antec that has the bottom fan sucking air out the top of cpu.

My idle system temnps are cpu 48, zone 1 and 2 at about 37 on full load tested with full load cpu, 3d, 2d, and ram it goes up to 71 cpu, zone 1 and 2 at about 42

Intel has emailed me to say that the cpu normal temp is up to 73c

At the moment I haven't made any alterations as get

 

off course they would say 73C is ok, I sure hope they would say that

 

Well, I've been messing around with cooling for quite some time lately, and I've found that doing one thing can affect something else. Example......using a good heat sink and a fan running on constant high speed on the CPU (rather than temp controlled), will cool the CPU better, yet increase the inside case temp, due to more heat being dispersed off the CPU. So it DOES take a lot of experimentation, and varies from case to case. When it comes to cooling, I like to start in a specific "order". First I start with cooling down the CPU. Outside air ducted in right to the area of the CPU. I prefer to keep that airflow constant, instead of temp controlled.So I run the CPU fan on constant full high. Then I see how the case temp seems. A lot depends on stuff like the arrangement of the heat sink fins, and which way they are throwing out the air. The air could be coming off the sink in such a way, that the P.S. exaust fan is not able suck it out of the case efficiently. Then if you add a hard drive fan, that too can affect the air flow in the case. The wind could be causing the case air to tunnel away from the P.S exaust fan. So you really have to experiment a lot. Then there's the issue of getting accurate temp readings. Is like a hard drive fan you installed, could be blowing hot air onto a temp sensor now, and giving a false reading? It can all set your head spinning, and I don't think there's any one answer to cooling. It's trial and error, and differers from case to case. But like I said, I've found the easiest way to go about cooling, is to start with getting the CPU temp down first, then working on the HD temp, then finally the case temp. But that's just my way of going about it.

 

Since my system died last summer, i have started paying more attention to cooling...

a P4 running at 73 degrees regularly will reduce the lifetime i think...

i'm quite happy, as i have now reduced my CPU temp nearly 10 degrees in overall, still using the stock fan and heatsink... (from 71 heavy load to 61 C, and from 56 Idle to 48 )

I recommend to do the following:

* install additional fans in your case
* the larger the fans the better
* get the fans temp controlled (either connect to var. speed motherboard connecters, powersupply connectors or get an additional fan controller)
* plan your airflow properly (1 side blowing in, another side blowing out, also make sure volume of air blowing in = volume of air sucked out)
* use an airduct to reduce your cpu temp and lower cpu fan speed
* use Artic Silver 5 between your CPU and heatsink

Monitor your temperatures and see what happens each step in the process. Try change a few things (revert fan, change temp controller, try different duct input, etc..) to see how it affects your temps..

And when you're happy.... leave it alone and get on with your life ;-)

(thanks to all people helping me getting my case temps right b.t.w.!!! (esp. Optimizer))

 

dr evil,

i pretty much have the same setup as you have, antec case, stock fans (antec) 2-front; intake, 2 back, exhaust, 1 side- intake and same cpu (stock heatsink). at first i wasnt aware of the prescott having higher idle temps, so i was a little concerned.

then i came across the zalman copper heatsink http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-118-119&depa=0

combined with artic silver 5, i lowered my cpu temps to

IDLE
38-40c

LOAD
41-43c (dvd decrypting)
43-48c (3d rendering and games)

this heatsink just did wonders for me, maybe it will do the same to you too. good luck!

 

that is basically the same heatsing like mine except mine is with aluminium and copper (in the middle)

And I see practically the same idle temps but load is a little higher like 48C (but with p4 550)

cheers.

ps at dr evil: you're welcome, no prbs.

 

im not sure on my heatsink its an antec i blieve but I idle at 34 peak at 44 on a 3.0GHz P4. Im running 8 fans in a full size tower. 1 window in, 2 front in 4 back out.

 

This is what I have but my temps are LOWER!!

32c at idle and 49c under full load (HL2 or DOOM 3 3d bench for 15 min.)

My case is smaller but VERY clean inside.

2 intakes (1 x side 1 x front)
2 exsaust (2 x rear panel) + power module fan

Check the pics...

 

one more....last night I gheto modded the side fan and added the Custom Popeye's Chicken Air Funnel.

CPU idle is lowered to 28c and Load no higher that 42c....

Still not "just above freezing" yet but I'm getting closer....

one more pic....

 

I have a 3.2 EE which ran fine on the standard Intel OEM sink at 30/50 (idle/load). Its now overclocked to 3.6 and running at 21/42 under an Akasa 810XT King copper sink, I have never reached 60C with it even when rendering 1000 frames on animation in 3DS Max (14 hours at full load). This is with only 2 80mm side panel vent fans (one on CPU, one on GFX)

 

enigmamdw,

nice temps! is there by any chance youre oc'ing it? im running my 3.2 with 10% oc to 2.63. because im pretty much have the same idle temps as you have on stock. 32-33c, i forgot my load temps though

convax,

i have tried that same stress test in mine (we have same cpu specs) but only about 10+hours of rendering time and checking my temp log, it peaked at 53c. so IMHO, it may prolong the life span of the cpu.

 

oops. make that 3.63

 

Well, you guys have really nice temps, i have better temps than before, maybe in the summer i buy another cpu cooler device (I like the GIgabyte Rocket 3D cooler) but for now i think i've spend enough time and money on this pc of mine....

the temp ofcourse reduces the number of hours your CPU will "live" but i dont' think a difference of a couple of degrees will really reduce the lifetime that much. As long as it's not in the "red" or "orange" areas all the time, it should be ok, as it's Intel right? (quality cpu's so should be able to handle some heat)

I think the main thing is to try keep the overall case temp low, say under 40 degrees or something (intel recommends 38 i believe). If that's under control, then i don't think you need to worry much.

I'm now on:

Idle:
CPU: 49
Zone1: 39
Zone2: 41


Very Heavy Load:

CPU: 63
Zone1: 48
Zone2: 53

that's quite normal right guys, for a Prescott?

anyways, nice postings in this thread, keep up the research folks!

 

I am oc'ing it...Totally forgot about that.

I have 2.4 running ay 3.194 so basicaly 3.2. this is about 30% overclocked...

I've been running this speed for two months with no crashes or hangs.

 

Sorry, i forgot to mention my 120mm intake fan which is ducted out my window with 100mm air con piping cuz my house has a 28 degree ambient. In the winter my PC is colder inside than my room temp. I put all my temp reductions down to the new heatsink, its a solid copper job with ball bearing fan assembly, Those load temps are with my fan at 3000rpm, with the fan at its slowest speed (1200)rpm its more like 45, but i never ever seen 50 degrees plus in the logs and it runs 24/7 doing net renders from 3DSMax. Also has anyone else wound the 3.2 above 3.6 and kept it stable, i think i may need to tweak the voltage but i wonder if its worth it ( might just buy a 600 series instead, i love lvl 2 cache)

 

off course you will have lowered temps if your cpu is less then 3.2 PRESCOTT.

off course you will have lowered temps if the room your puter is in, is colder/or not heated enough.

without ducting properly, watercooling or deepfreezing stuff this is the best I can do.

retailed with original cpu cooler : I had 60C idle and 70 loaded
now when everything is on max rpms I have 40 and 50 when playing games and stuff.

It is good enough and when the winter is gone and the heating is off these temps will drop again...

I still wonder how Intel can manage to have a 3.2 Extreme Edition (which is faster then the 3.4 prescott) to have lower cpu temps then my 3.4 prescott.

even with the zalman cooler on it...strange...

but it is a good thing, you should consider yourself a happy man.

when I play half life 2 with clock settings of 3845Mhz my temps will raise to 58C so...good enough

If you want a cold cpu take a new amd64 3500 I have seen it under very high load 29C and faster then ours...that is nice architecture btw

Opt.

 

that's cuz they test their hardware in a lab, which probably has the "perfect conditions" for an environment this cpu should run in. But real-life isn't perfect, so specs are always less than a retailed claims to have.