Newbie to P4 system and need some insight!

[gearfish]

CASE
ANTEC Performance PLUS Model PLUS1080AMG

Antec TRUE 430W P4 Power Supply ATX12V

CPU
INTEL 2.4GHZ ?533MHZ FSB, Socket 478?

CPU FAN
ZALMAN CNPS6500B-CU

MEMORY
(2) RDRAM PC-1066 256MB MR16R1628DF0-CT9

DVD-ROM
Lite-On 16x DVD Model LTD-166 Black

CDR-RW
Lite On 48x24x48 CDRW Model LTR-48246S Black OEM

HARD DRIVE
IBM 40GB 7200RPM Hard Drive Model # IC35L040AVVN07-0 120GXP ?OEM?

FLOPPY DRIVE
SAMSUNG 1.44MB BLACK FLOPPY DRIVE

MOTHERBOARD
ASUS P4T533-C

VIDEO CARD
PNY NVIDIA® GEFORCE4 TI 4600 128MR DDR

This is my new system and I?m new to the PC building game so I am looking for some information. Here are my questions.

1. What should my CPU temp be at idle? Stressed with prime 95?
2. Is running prime 95 and Memtest86 for 24hours a good way to test stability?
3. I have arctic silver 2 is that alright or should I get arctic silver 3?
4. Any tips or insight you might throw my way before I begin to assemble this?

thanks
Gearfish

 

[mechBgon]

That system will never work, you forgot a neon light!

Just kidding, sounds good. Memtest86 is a boot-from-floppy program so I don't think you can run it concurrently with Prime95. Are you planning to overclock? If not, no need to worry about advanced stability testing unless you encounter problems in day-to-day usage. If so, a DDR platform and some Corsair XMS3500 would probably give you more joy (if you haven't placed your order yet).

 

[gearfish]

No I dont plan to overclock at this time. Just want to make sure that its stable as a rule. How about that temp?

I see what I typed wrong. I dont plan to run those at the same time.. just assumed one was for cpu and other was for memory. So as to cover my bases.

thanks
Gearfish

 

[mechBgon]

I did a full-text search for P4T533-C and none of the threads seem to have any mention of what temperature the user is seeing. The CPU should be able to fend for itself if it has to, by throttling back.

You should consider joining the AnandTech SETI team, those P4/PC1066 setups really jam on SETI One user, sean2002, was reporting quite a few sub-2-hour work units with his (overclocked) P4/PC1066 setup. Systems which are clocked to the bleeding edge sometimes begin turning in strings of error-outs, where the work-unit times are around 1 to 10 minutes.

There are some other projects worth a look too. I'll be trying to generate some fresh FAQ's for AndyHui in the near future with info on some of the new projects that are going on.