Rain (etc) ... do these programs really work?

trueimage

Senior member
Nov 14, 2000
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I tried using these programs a while bakc but then reformatted and never thought of them again until i saw a couple posts on here about huge temp drops while using Rain. So, I am wondering, do these programs really work or are they garbage? do they harm your cpu in any way? or degrade system performance? would their effect be nullified because of the use of a distributed computing app (because i thought they turned off certain things in the cpu when not in use) ??

thanks
 

PliotronX

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 1999
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They really do work. I love Rain! It made the back of the PCB on my Celery 300A go from warm to the touch to cold as if I had a peltier running :)

However I've read it's not good to run a software cooling prog whilst running distributed apps, they some how conflict and heat up the processor more than it should be.. but it's all good, have at it :)
 

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
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Doh double post :eek: ,anyway

I use Rain & run SETI ,the 2 together do not 'add' extra heat to your cpu! ,what happens is that SETI takes all the spare cpu time with Rain effectively sitting there doing nothing.The only reason I keep it is incase SETI should somehow be shut off then Rain can kick in to cool the cpu whilst its idle.
When I turn SETI off cpu temps drop by about 13C ,bringing the cpu temp down to about case temps.
Rain doesn't harm or degrade your systems performance
 

trueimage

Senior member
Nov 14, 2000
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thanks, too bad i do distributed computing :eek:) maybe i'll leave it there for when its sending/receiving info, not crunching :)
 

Regalk

Golden Member
Feb 7, 2000
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Do not waste your time with Socket A CPUs (duron/T'birds) - Rain, CPUidle, Waterfall do NOT WORK as they do with P3s and celerons. The only one I've heard that works is CPUCool BUT even that does not work for me. ACPI is the only thing that works for me.
 

Zoson

Senior member
Aug 2, 2000
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Regalk, you are wrong. Rain, etc simply run a system idle process so your processor is effectively doing nothing with the time it SHOULD be doing nothing, thus no transistors are switching, and no heat is generated. Any and all of these programs DO work, and can result in even ~10C drop in extreme cases.
-Zoson
 

HeavyThunder

Junior Member
Dec 22, 2000
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I was having heat problems with the paste on my globle win 38..

funny funny thing was when i ran seti- NO lockups... I ran it all the time..

when i shut it off.. lock up in less then 1 min...

Since then I fried my cpu... getting artic silver so problem won't happen again...

interesting to know that a processor can run hotter with NO load?
is that correct???
 

MacrossPlus

Member
Nov 24, 2000
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I've been using Rain 1.0 and 2.0 for a couple of days now on both my 700E at 933 and my 800E (not overclocked). It does drop your temps slightly... but an interesting thing I noticed was that it made both my CPU's run at 100% load whenever it was on. I don't really think it's worth dropping a few C by trading it with high load... I stopped using it today and my CPU load is never that high on idle anymore. Personally... I'd suggest you don't use it.
 

Qzruh

Member
Sep 19, 2000
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I think the 100% load read isnt truly the 100% load on the processor.... ah... i forgot, i've read somewhere what makes the cpuload reach 100% when Rain is running.

So, is there anyone knows any Rain similar program that works for TBird ?
 

PlunX

Golden Member
May 26, 2000
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MacrossPlus, Rain doesn't make your CPU run at 100%.. That's a bug in the programs. In actuality, Rain takes -very- little of the CPU to run.
 

Asha'man

Senior member
Oct 15, 1999
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On my duron 650@1030 I idle around 54C without Rain 2.0, but with, I idle around 34 - 36C. Why, I dunno. It just does.

/Asha'man
 

BiteMe

Junior Member
Dec 13, 2000
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ok people, a little more info: all rain or other CPU idle programs do is issue the HLT instruction when the CPU is not in use, putting part of the processor into suspend. Therefore, if running a distributed computing app, it's useless since the processor is always in use. Also Linux, WinNT (including Win2k), and WinME do this themselves, therefore, it's useless on those OSes. Hope that clears a few things up.
 

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
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Heavy thunder
What cpu was that on?

MacrossPlus
I have a PIII 650 @ 820 ,I can asure you that rain does significantly drop cpu temps when SETI is not running (eg near 0 load).My m/brd uses the thermal diode inside the cpu to measure cpu temps & it sees an near immediate temp drop of about 9C when SETI is turned off with Rain on.
BTW that 100% your quoting isn't cpu load as such ,Rain may get most of the cpu time but it is not loading your cpu like eg SETI does.

minus 1972
You can get Rain ........ darn I can't find the site link:(.

[update]Got a link ,thanks to Mucman for this :)

Rain v2.0
 

Zoinks

Senior member
Oct 11, 1999
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I have a celeron 566. What CPU should I choose in Rain 2.0? Isn't a Celeron II different from the regular Celeron? I guess this program is getting a little outdated.
 

Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
24,149
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Try for a coppermine cpu 1st ,then try a Celeron & compare the temps :)
And yes its getting old:(