Anyone know how hot the Cedar Mill core runs?

pantsaregood

Senior member
Feb 13, 2011
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So, my grandmother just asked me to work on her computer. It was being sluggish, apparently. It is running a 3.46 GHz Celeron D - Cedar Mill variant.

I'm thinking, "hey, this thing is a die-shrunk Prescott. It should overclock pretty well," as well as "512KB L2 - shouldn't be too far behind a Northwood B in per-clock performanace."

I go into the motherboard temperature monitoring utility, and the thing idles between 40C and 45C, which seems pretty hot. I know Prescotts ran hot, but that even seemed high for a Prescott.

It is using the default Intel cooler that I've modified to use screws instead of push pins, as one of the pins broke. It is mounted with Arctic Silver 5, which I've reapplied no less than five times. Case airflow isn't great, but it isn't horrible either. I can't seem to get it to run cooler.

The heatsink doesn't really seem to heat up, though. Even after running OCCT for five minutes, it still feels fairly cool.

Anyone have any information on this core?
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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It's a Pentium 4...not exactly going to run cool, especially on the stock heatsink.

I'd say if you can keep it at under 60C load it's fine.
 

pantsaregood

Senior member
Feb 13, 2011
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That provides Tcase, but nothing else useful really. It runs awfully hot for a 65w CPU. I know Netburst was hot, but this is ridiculous.

Are Intel's stock heatsinks that terrible?

Edit: I very seriously doubt it is under 60 at load. I can't get the thing to idle under 40C, and I can't check load temperatures in Windows for some reason. The motherboard only allows the system temperature to be accessed, but not the CPU temperature. It is on an Asus P5B.
 

Vesku

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2005
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Are Intel's stock heatsinks that terrible?

Yes, especially when they were trying to cool the P4 line. They tried to get the BTX form factor adopted just to shift the cooling costs off to other companies. You can see how that went. Doesn't seem like overclocking is very viable in your situation unless you get an aftermarket cooler. Perhaps it's time to get a new low budget cpu+mobo+ram?

Is it bogging down on flash sites or something?
 

pantsaregood

Senior member
Feb 13, 2011
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No, just at random times. It is probably some background process. I'm goingto format it at the very least. Something doesn't seem right; the heatsink doesn't even get hot.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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For heaven's sake, don't keep wasting your grandmother's time with a P4. Grab a Core i3-2100, an H61 mobo, and and 2x4GB kit of DDR3, and maybe a SATA HD and DVD burner, and build her a nice new rig. She deserves at least a dual-core in this day and age.

Alternatively, get a SATA-to-IDE/IDE-to-SATA converter, and a 64GB SSD for her, to speed up the P4.

(I'm assuming her mobo is IDE currently.)

Edit: I looked up that CPU, it is 775. What mobo do you have? Will it take a 65nm C2D CPU? I have a spare E2140 (slightly abused, but still runs great), I'll let it go for cheap. At least then she would have a dual-core.
 
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Vesku

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Aug 25, 2005
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I hope you did the default anti-spyware and anti-virus scans as a first step. I usually go with malwarebytes and MSE, and add in an online ESET scan if I'm extra paranoid.
 

pantsaregood

Senior member
Feb 13, 2011
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There's plenty of malware on this thing.

The CPU is getting hot enough to throttle itself. I've moved the fans into every imaginable position, tried various amounts of thermal paste, and it just won't run cooler. Intel's stock coolers are seriously garbage.

Edit: the other oddity here is that the heatsink doesn't even get warm to the touch. If I Linpacked the old Phenom X4 I had, the heatsink would be incredibly hot when the CPU hit ~50C.
 
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Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
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3.46 GHz Celeron D - Cedar Mill variant.

Wasn't 90nm and 65nm Netburst architecture really leaky power-wise?

Edit: the other oddity here is that the heatsink doesn't even get warm to the touch.

Are you using a bolt-thru kit with springs? If you don't get the heatsink perfectly level, it won't make good contact.

Also, temperatures don't seem that bad. Are you sure it is throttling? I've had 90nm Netburst CPUs running at quite a bit hotter without problems.
 

pantsaregood

Senior member
Feb 13, 2011
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No, it is just mounted with some regular machine screws with rubber washers used to avoid shorting the board. It is definitely sitting flat on the CPU, though.

It isn't going to run any cooler with this heatsink. The CPU overclocks to 4.32GHz at (roughly) stock voltage, which definitely isn't bad. The sensors on the board may be screwy; the heatsink just isn't getting hot. The CPU, even overclocked, only hits 57C at most under load.

Edit: More unusual behavior. The CPU won't Linpack for more than a few minutes without causing a BSOD and instant shutdown. The reported temperatures remain very stable. Even with a huge voltage boost at stock settings, it BSODs after a few minutes. Has some 430w Thermaltake PSU in it. I know TT PSUs are mediocre at best.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
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I don't think your overclock is stable, if it crashes during Linpack. Either that, or your PSU is going out.

Like I said, if you want an E2140 cheap, if the mobo will take it, PM me. It's just sitting around and I don't have any plans for it. It was overclocked to 3.2Ghz at around 1.4v (1.36v actual under load according to CPU-Z) for like 2-3 years.
 

pantsaregood

Senior member
Feb 13, 2011
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The PSU is garbage. At stock speed, it crashes while linpacking, even with a 0.05v boost. I plugged my Antec PSU in and Linpacked at stock for 40 minutes. Running it at 4.32GHz now.
 

Vesku

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2005
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Yeah, Thermaltake PSUs are mediocre teetering on the edge of avoid. If the power supply is as old as the whole system I bet it's degraded to be barely within specs. The good news is there have been a lot of power supply deals in the last month or so. As of now I see this Xigmatek http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817815007 .
Reviews seem to indicate Xigmatek Power Supplies have decent innards.