safe temps for my PIII 700E

[Sunny129]

my PIII 700E is running @ 933MHz right now, and holds steady at about 40*C with a Golden Orb. when i crunch numbers non-stop, like when running SETI@home or playing Unreal Tournament, my temps rise to just over 50*C. now i've been told that i'm running a little warm at 40*C, so i'm guessing that 50*C for a PIII is way too hot, even though i play UT for long periods of time and have no problems with my system hanging. i know AMD CPUs run a bit hotter than intels, but i think mine's a bit hot while playing games or crunching numbers for any kind of DC...even if my system never gets errors or hangs b/c of it. i'm mainly concerned with the probability of dramatically shortening the life of my CPU, even though i've had it clocked between 933MHz-1000MHz for 1.5 years now, and i still have no problems with the system. one of the reasons i don't keep it cooler is b/c my g_d-damn roommate keeps the thermostat on 78*F, and circulation to my room sucks, so my ambient temp case is roughly 31-32*C. even when i put it on 75*F, he changes it. i'm used to having it on 72*F or so, but there's no hope of that in this apartment. another reason my CPU isn't cooler is b/c i hate noise. i hate it with a passion. just about any other hsf out there (w/ the exception of stock hsf) is better than a Golden Orb...and also louder. i think the Orb is loud enough. i have to turn off my computer whne i go to bed. its beyond white noise. i guess the whole point in this is to figure out what's too hot and what's acceptable, despite the fact that my system runs fine at what i fear are unacceptable temps. i even clocked the CPU back down to its default 700MHz, and i still get temps just over 50*C while crunching any numbers...if anyone has any brilliant ideas of how to cool my system better without increasing the noise drastically, if at all, i would appreciate it.

thanks...eric

PS - i posted this in the cases and cooling forum, but i got no responses, so i'm hoping someone has some helpful information here, since the issue sort of concerns the DC. CPU temp will ultimately determine whether or not i continue to do any DC.

 

[Engineer]

I'm not really sure how safe that temp is for a PIII, but I would guess that it is very much ok, but does seem a tad high. My Celeron 1000 system with only one case fan runs around 42C full load...with a Volcano 5 HSF (60 mm fan - not overly powerful).....

Unless you see a dramatic rise over what you already have or start to see instability, I don't think I would worry too much!

Oh, and the Golden Orb usually doesn't work as well as other HS/Fans....from what I have read....but your temp still seems OK.

Good Luck...

 

[Joe O]

Sunny129,
If i read this temperature chart correctly, you still have some leeway. What packaging is your CPU?

 

[Sunny129]

i just don't get it. i'm still going over 50*C at full load, with my golden orb spinning @ nearly 6000rpm. now i know its advertised @ 4500rpm, and it has no speed adjustment switch, but mine still spins @ 5720rpm for some odd reason. either way, its spinning even faster than its rated, and i can't get my temp down to at least 45*C? just something seems wrong about that. now i've heard a number of times in the past that ambient case temp effects CPU temp much more than people would assume. my ambient case temp ranges from 30-32*C throughout the day. does anybody know if that seems a bit high for ambient case temp? like i said b4, my fvcking roomie turns the thermostat up all the time, so i'm sure that has something to do with it, but i can only turn it down everytime he turns it up...so its an ongoing thing...

 

[Engineer]

Are you running Artic Silver between your Orb and the processor? If not, that could help...but not nearly as much as switching from the Orb to something else?

Other than that, your system doesn't seem all that bad (heat wise)!

 

[Sunny129]

Joe O,

thanks for the link to the temp charts, but the temps just don't seem to make much sense to me. i see many cover temps (i'm assuming these are the CPU temps) ranging from 70-100*C. that seems too hot for even any AMD CPUS. now i know the are maximum temps, but a majority or people posting temps for their intel CPUs seem to be in the mid to low 40s, which leads one to believe that 55*C is really pushing temperature limits regardless of what intel or any other credible specification sheet cites as a maximum temp...especially when it says i'm safe up to 85*C...i dont know what to think...

PS - yes i have arctic silver under the orb. by the way, how much is too much AS? i spread it pretty thin, but i've heard people say that they can't exaggerate enough how thin the layer needs to be. also, i'm sure a better cooler would make a significant difference, but everything out there is either louder than the golden orb, or doesn't spin fast enough to move as much air...i hate noise...

 

[Joe O]

Please note that the 'Max. Case Temp.' is the maximum temperature allowable as measured on the exterior of the processor package in the middle directly above the chip die (under the heatsink). It is not the maximum internal ambient temperature of the system enclosure. The term 'case' refers to the processor's package, not the system case

Don't forget that your reported temperature will be lower than the hottest temperature in the chip. The tables give some value for this but you need to allow for at leat 10C.

Max ambient temperature for the processor is specified at 45°C (air entering the fan on the chip must be below this temperature). This typically means that the air entering the enclosure( what we often call the case or chasis) must be 35C or lower.

Having said all that, your milage may vary. You alone must decide what you think is too hot. If you cook your processor, you alone are responsible.

By the way, how are you measuring your temperatures?

 

[Sunny129]

i have an ASUS CUSL2 mobo with three diodes: one right under the CPU in the middle of the socket, one for the northbridge of the chipset, and i'm not exactly sure where the third is, but it is supposed to measure case temp. now i know case temp is usually a bit higher than room temp. if our rooms were as warm as our cases, we'd be sweating all the time. the software is motherboard monitor 5. i dont know much of a quality product this is, or how well the diodes on an ASUS mobo work, but it beats the hell out of the ASUS PC Probe software that came with the mobo. not only did it have bugs, but the software updates for PC Probe weren't bug free either. anyways, MBM5 came recommended by some people here on the boards, but that was over a year ago...is there a better way for me to measure temperature more accurately?

 

[Baldy18]

I also have a CUSL2-C. Mine is running a PIII 933@1000 with a golden orb. It has been doing DC projects non stop now for about a year and a half and the temp is normally between 50-60C. I haven't had any troubles with it.

I think you should be fine as long as you keep the air in the room cool. Today the air in my house reached about 30-35C and the warning alarm went off on an Athlon 700 of mine. I turned on the airconditioner and the alarm stopped with no problems. Make sure your settings for the alarm and automatic shutoff are set at safe levels and you should be fine even when you aren't around. I'd do with 70C and 80C for those values but set whatever you think will keep your equipment safe.

 

[CraigRT]

the Golden Orb is crap. I took a cooler from my Athlon 1333 and put it on my PIII 700@933, temps went down to around 33C from over 45.

I just got a new cooler for the Athlon and used it's old one on the PIII.

 

[Sunny129]

Originally posted by: Yield
the Golden Orb is crap. I took a cooler from my Athlon 1333 and put it on my PIII 700@933, temps went down to around 33C from over 45.

I just got a new cooler for the Athlon and used it's old one on the PIII.

yes i know the golden orb is crap, but i didn't get it b/c i was too cheap. i got it b/c it made less noise than every other cooler out there. anyways, what kind of cooler did you put on your PIII? is it loud? is it louder than a golden orb? it must sould like a 747 if your temps went from over 45*C down to about 33*C. did it come off of the Athlon and fit right onto the PIII, or did you need an adapter clip?

 

[BGod]

I've got dual P3 600E setup running in a 4U chassis at 800MHz with Golden Orbs. One runs at 43 and the other at 48 C doing RC5-64 non-stop.

Rounded cables do help with air flow through a case. You could always add thermostatically controlled fans to the case.

 

[CraigRT]

It is the stock cooler from a retail T-Bird 900 actually. the one for my Athlon 1333 had the 5500 RPM fan, but the 900 version has a 4500 RPM fan and no, its not at all loud. it uses a stock clip which will fit onto socket A or Socket 370. works like a charm
the model # I am not sure. it's like a $10 cooler.

 

[Sunny129]

by the way, do all retail CPUs come with some sort of stock hsf? and if so, are there any online stores or even a local computer shop where i can find such a stock cooler sold separately from the CPU?

 

[Assimilator1]

Sunny129

Your confusion about CPU temps stems from several things , for 1 thing many m/brds measured CPU temps using a thermister in the CPU socket under the CPU ,others (better boards) ,inlcuding yours I believe ,use the thermal diode inside the cpu ,this shows much higher temps than the former & is more accurate.Many people quoting CPU temps do not distinguish between external & internal temps ,typically CPU temps of low 40's & lower are from external CPU temps ,you can see why you get a wide range
This same confusion has been about for around 3yrs since thermal diodes were 1st used by PIII boards ,I can see the same thing happening with Ath XP's!

,I don't expect it will dissappear soon
The temps quoted by Intel will be more closely related to the temps measured by your CPU's thermal diode.Just over 50c for internal CPU temps is fine
Btw ,a note about the Orbs ,like someone mentioned they are not great coolers ,& if the fan spins at 6k RPM I wouldn't say thay are particularly quiet either!.For better quiet cooling choose a larger more conventionally shaped HS with a fan that spins at less than 5k RPM preferable 4500

Not all CPU's come with a HSF ,look for OEM CPU's
Btw if you are worried about your CPU temps when overclocked then compare it to stock MHz ,if its only 5C higher (under load) or less don't worry ,as long as your cooling is OK in the 1st place

What case fans has your PC got?

 

[Sunny129]

wow. the difference between thermistors in the middle of the socket and thermal diodes inside the CPU clears up alot. no wonder my temps seem roughly 10*C higer than alot of others. anyways, i OCed to 933MHz and have been running SETI all day. the temp has been at 57-58*C the whole time. as far as my case fans go, i can't remember if they're deltas or something else. they are both 90mm fans...one spins at 2700rpm and the other at 3000rpm. neither is very loud, but at the same time i didn't go out and get the quietest fans i could find...mainly b/c i didn't get very good feedback in the forums on what the quietest, most efficient fans were...

 

[Assimilator1]

At those modest speeds they'll be fairly quiet
As long as you have 2 fans your case cooling will be fine ,I take it you have 1 at the lower front drawing in air& 1 at the upper rear exhausting air? ,PSU exhausting too?

 

[Sunny129]

exactly...one in front pulling in air, and one in back exhausting hot air...and of course one in the ps too.

 

[ShotgunSi]

I have the same setup as you with the P3 700 running @ 933 at 1.85 volts.
I'm not sure where my motherboard reports temps from, but my CPU rarely gets above 45C on full load during games.
I'm running a Alpha cooler that has 2 large fans on it. With a front case fan and a case cooler made by www.2coolpc.com

 

[Sunny129]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSi
I have the same setup as you with the P3 700 running @ 933 at 1.85 volts.
I'm not sure where my motherboard reports temps from, but my CPU rarely gets above 45C on full load during games.
I'm running a Alpha cooler that has 2 large fans on it. With a front case fan and a case cooler made by www.2coolpc.com

i can OC mine as high as 1050MHz without having to raise Vcore above the default 1.7v. right now its @ 933MHz Vcore 1.7v. i'm crunching numbers for SETI right now, and my CPU temp is at 58*C. now thats way above your CPU at full load. if i raise my Vcore, will that help bring my CPU temp down, or will it raise it even more...or will it do nothing at all? the reason its at the default 1.7v is b/c i have no stability problems and see no point in raising it (until now if it will help my CPU temp, but i doubt it will). if you've kept up with the thread, you know what kind of cooling i have...

 

[Sunny129]

an exciting thing happened to me tonight...i got bored, so i opened up a retail boxed PIII 800EB i had sitting in my closet. knowing they aren't worth much today, and even worth less than that if i tried selling it, i figure why not mess around with it. well i didnt actually get around to playing w/ the CPU, but since it was retail, a stock hsf came in the box too. i opened up my case, removed the golden orb hsf, cleaned off my CPU, put a thinner coat of arctic silver on it, and plugged in the stock hsf to see how loud it was. it ran silent, and i mean SILENT! turning the fan on and off, there was no difference in the dB level audible to the human ear whatsoever. so i figured why not try it out? so i installed it on the PIII 700E already in my system. low and behold, not only is the stock hsf 10 times quieter than the golden orb, but it cools much better! while the temp differences aren't drastic, they certainly are significant (i might even call them dramatic ) while i was running about 57-59*C @933MHz under load from SETI@home, i am now running 50-52*C @ 1015MHz under the same load! anyways, i'm thrilled to say the least . well i'm off to bed now, and for the first time in over a year i can sleep with my system running now that i removed that high pitched POS golden orb. sleep well all...night, eric...

 

[Assimilator1]

Jez I didn't know the G'orbs were that bad!:Q ,& 1015MHz out of a PIII 700 is awesome!:Q ,especially at default voltage!.
Don't increase the vcore if your cpu is stable at def ,vcore is only increased to stabilise a flaky o/ced CPU ,it will increase temps a bit according to how much extra voltage.

Glad to hear you've got it running cooler & quieter
Btw I'll buy that PIII 800 off you ,if its going for a good price (is it S370?).Do you know what it'll overclock to?
Only trouble might be is that I'm in the UK ,dunno where you are.

 

[Sunny129]

well being that its an 800EB, it will only run @ 800MHz when the fsb is at 133MHz. i don't know how far you can push your fsb past 133MHz. if you can get it to 166MHz, the CPU would only be @ 1GHz, but i guess thats ok. its brand new, so i have never tested it, and therefore have no idea how far you can push it. as you might already know, the xxxEB CPUs aren't the best OCers in the PIII family b/c you are starting with an fsb of 133MHz, as opposed to the PIII xxxE CPUs, which start with an fsb of 100MHz, and therefore have more room to raise the fsb and thus OC the chip.

anyways, i'm not sure how to do business overseas, and i've never sold anything online b4. just out of curiosity, what's the going rate for one of these?

 

[Sunny129]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Jez I didn't know the G'orbs were that bad!:Q ,& 1015MHz out of a PIII 700 is awesome!:Q ,especially at default voltage!.
Don't increase the vcore if your cpu is stable at def ,vcore is only increased to stabilise a flaky o/ced CPU ,it will increase temps a bit according to how much extra voltage.

Glad to hear you've got it running cooler & quieter
Btw I'll buy that PIII 800 off you ,if its going for a good price (is it S370?).Do you know what it'll overclock to?
Only trouble might be is that I'm in the UK ,dunno where you are.

maybe the G'orbs aren't that bad...i really didn't give it a 2nd chance after taking it off, cleaning the CPU and putting on a new coat of arctic silver. i went right ahead and put that stock hsf on. either way, i'm very satisfied with the stock hsf as far as cooling and noise goes. maybe the Gorb sucked b/c i forgot to take the white stuff off the bottom b4 using arctic silver when i first installed it, or maybe i just used too thick of a coat of arctic silver. i hear those things can make a very significant difference in the performance of a cooler. anyways, i noticed this one made no noise and didn't care to see what temps i would get w/ the Gorb the 2nd time around.

as far as OCing my PIII 700, it sure doesn't OC like it used to. i dont know if you remember all the hype about the 700E w/ the cC0 stepping, but they were rare and hard to find. most people could only get the 700E w/ the cB0 stepping, whose OC limit was right around 933MHz. well i got lucky and found one w/ the cC0 stepping. when i first got it, i could take it right up to 1050MHz @ Vcore 1.7v, no stability problems. the highest i took it was 1092MHz @ 1.95v due to stability problems at lower Vcore's, but i only did it for the OC and clocked it back down again right away for fear of frying my chip @ 1.95v. it ran at 1085MHz @1.85v stable. all of this was done with the Gorb. kinda makes me wonder if i could have gone higher if my cooling was working as well back then as it is now...this is actually the highest i've been able to OC it since i did all that testing over a year ago. but i'm happy with 1015MHz and the lower temps i'm getting now...

 

[Assimilator1]

No idea for the states ,but here in the UK about £40 would be about right for a PIII 800

I need the high FSB for SETI ,on the rig I'm thinking about it'll run at 145MHz FSB @ CAS2 ,mind you that would only give 870MHz ,not much over what it is now but if it were going for a bargain price I'd be interested