Should I give up cooling my P4 Prescott?

[j1b5c]

Hey guys, I post here every now and then. I've been trying to lower the temps of my Pentium 4 for a while now and have had no luck. Here are my specs:

Intel Pentium 4E, 3400 MHz
Intel Battle Lake D915PBL
1gb RAM
Antec Sonata Case with 380 Watt Antec Power supply and the stock 120 mm fan in the back blowing air out
XP-90 heat sink using Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste
ATI Radeon X800XT

Temps while typing this:
Motherboard: 39 °C (102 °F)
CPU: 60 °C (140 °F)
Aux: 38 °C (100 °F)
GPU: 48 °C (118 °F)
GPU Ambient: 43 °C (109 °F)
Temps for cpu under load are usually in the low 70's.
These are temps while my tower is laying on its side, with the side off.

When I first put my computer together, the stock fan sucked my balls, idling at like 60 degrees Celcius. I quickly bought an XP-90 with a Vantec Stealth fan to go on top. This worked really well when I first got it (I was idling at 45 C and under load I was at 57 C). I forgot about the heat problem for a long time until I got to college. My dorm is constantly hot as hell (my room mate is a retard and won't let me open up the window), and after about a month of being here, Counter-Strike would start freezing and I realized my temps were the culprit. I bought some Arctic Silver 5, applied it, reapplied it, and reapplied like a million times (using the instructions at the Artic Silver website), trying out different size amounts. My temps were always the same!!! I'm using the Arctic Silver cleaning stuff to purge the old paste off of it before putting the new stuff on. Should I just give up playing the occasional game or buy another heat sink or water cool it or what?

Any tips would be great. I'm already buying a better 120 mm fan, but I don't think that will help much.

 

[suszterpatt]

You could try switching to an XP-120 or SI-120...

 

[crispy2010]

I have found that putting a thin coat of thermal compound just doesnt cut it with the s775. I find that if I usse a thin coat and the remove the hsf later there are dry spots on the cpu, this is where no contact is being made. A nice thick coat and let the hsf flatten it out works best for me. Also run at full load for a while after installing hsf, this will help the thermal compound settle faster!

 

[crispy2010]

Also check this out!

 

[anandtechrocks]

I built a Pentium 4 541 (3.2 GHz with EMT64) computer for a friend a few weeks ago and I put an XP-90 with a 1600 RPM Panaflo. The first time I mounted the XP-90 temperatures were really high (similar to yours). I removed the motherboard and noticed the AS5 was not spread evenly over the IHS. Furthermore, I noticed that the clips were not fully down on the retention brackets. If I were you I'd check that.

So, I carefully remounted the heatsink (this time with the board out side the case) and then proceeded to put the motherboard back in the case. Temps idle arount 38C-40C and with S&M running they have not broken 55C yet.

 

[j1b5c]

I tried putting on a ton of Arctic Silver 5. Here's a pic of the CPU before putting it in the MB: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jbc3j/IMG_0260.JPG.
The temp difference is a lot better then before but what do you think about the amount of AS I'm putting on?
Current temps:
Motherboard: 44 °C (111 °F)
CPU: 52 °C (126 °F)
Aux: 43 °C (109 °F)
GPU: 52 °C (126 °F)
GPU Ambient: 46 °C (115 °F)

 

[crispy2010]

Amount looks fine, now if you run cpu at full load over night , with prime or something like it, temps should drop a bit more !

I usally spread it out evenly over the cpu, but temps do look better. Temps will get better with time!

 

[j1b5c]

Cool, thanks a lot. I'll give that a try.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

I have two Intel P4 CPUs.
The 2.8 is .0015" convex. The high spot is dead center. It is out of warrenty, so when I freshen up this rig w/new fans, HS, and air filter set-up. This chip will be lapped just for fun. This is not reccomended but I will do it anyway. It does void all warrenty to do this, but it's an old chip, 3+years.

The newer chip is a 3.4e and it is .0005" concave. It will never be lapped.

Check you CPU with a known stright edge. Like a machinest rule. Place the stright edge across the chip and try to see light passing between the chip and rule. Doing this will atleast give you an idea of what your working with. If you have to add alot of TIM your working with a very concave chip. This*might*be the reason Intel uses those thick thermal pads on their retail heatsinks, to fill a hole or compensate for a proud center.

If your chip is concave and adding more TIM(AS5) does not seem to improve the situation you might consider a new thermal pad. www.sidewindercomputers.com sells AMD approved pads made by Shin Etsu, they are highly rated, they are not expensive.

If the rule teeter-toters you know the center is proud.


The AMD 3200 I used for my sister's build was dead flat.


...Galvanized

 

[TekGmr]

I've got a P4 running at 3.2Ghz (prescott). When I built my compy I used some Artic Silver 5 thermal compound after cleaning the thermal tape off of the stock heatsink with alchohol and a cotton swab. My cpu runs at about 34"C idle and mabye 44"C under max load. I've also got an Aspire X-Navigator aluminum chassis with 5 80mm case fans. Be somewhat generous with the thermal compound, but make sure not to put to much as that can make the cpu overheat too.

 

[Ping to the Pong]

Im pretty sure reapplying compound over and over will not solve your problem. Although it will be nosier, looks like you will have to get a more powerful fan. The XP90 is a great cooler but i've known guys with prescotts that couldnt get them to run cool too.

There's always the choice of upgrading to a Scythe Ninja or a Big Typhoon from Thermaltake. These coolers are huge but should be the best ones on the market along with some Zalman coolers.

 

[zest]

Is a 350w psu enough for the suff you have there?

 

[j1b5c]

Yeah, so I ran Prime95 for about 10 hours straight or so and now my temps are as follows:
Motherboard: 52 °C (126 °F)
CPU: 60 °C (140 °F)
Aux: 50 °C (122 °F)
GPU: 61 °C (142 °F)
GPU Ambient: 54 °C (129 °F)

It's more of the same. I think I'm going to do some research and buy an even more powerful heat sink and fan.

 

[crispy2010]

Is that 60c at full load?

Your mobo temp is high also, might need a case fan!

 

[zagood]

Dood, with a Prescott, 60°C at full load is nothing to sneeze at, especially if your room temp is high. First thing you should do though is get an intake fan for your case and install it in the bottom front...if you're having problems with CS it's because your video card is overheating, not your CPU. Adding an intake fan will help a TON with all your temps.

Also check out aftermarket coolers for you x800.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga1.php
http://www.zalman.co.kr/usa/product/view.asp?idx=149&code=013

-z

 

[Wentelteefje]

I'd also try some case fans... that mobo temp is much more alarming than your CPU in fact...

Your VGA isn't stressed by Prime95... Use RTHDRIBL to show its load temps...

Because you've run 10 hours of Prime95, the overall temp in your case will probably have risen so much, that even your VGA and mobo temps are some degrees higher now...

It is more likely that your VGA may be overheating, and you wouldn't see it by artifacts alone... it can make your comp freeze as well during gaming... Try the AC ATI Silencer 5 Rev. 2... They are among the best coolers for your graphics card, and eject the warm case air outside the case...

If you'd have sufficient air flow in your case, you could also buy a Zalman VF700-CU, this one cools very good too, is slightly cheaper and can be used on any graphics card, but recycles the hot air in your case...

Decide for yourself...

 

[j1b5c]

Nice suggestions, I'm going to get some sort of fan(s) for Christmas, I just have to decide on which. All those previous temps were at idle.

Thanks again, and I'll be sure to post my results when I get my new shtuff.

 

[Wentelteefje]

What case do you have? What size of fans fit in it?

 

[j1b5c]

I have the first Antec Sonata case. The only fan it allows is one 120 mm fan in the rear. I don't know about the front.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Those are solid cases... Didn't you get a 120mm fan with it?

EDIT: it can fit a 120mm fan in the front too... Look here

Too bad that a 120mm fan in the front won't really help its cooling performance... It has rotated drive bays that obstruct the airflow coming from that fan...

You could always try one of these to suck out the hot air from your system...

 

[stevty2889]

As long as your load temps are staying below 70c I wouldn't worry too much. Throttling kicks in at about 72c, so if you start getting up around 70, then I would get worried, otherwise it's not going to hurt anything. I gave up trying to keep my Prescotts from running below 60c on air. My pentium-d 830 was hitting 70c at load, but now it's water cooled and runs at about 44c.

EDIT: one other thing I've noticed with my prescotts is that the Thermaltake Jungle 512 seems to work a lot better than XP-90's or XP-120's. My 3.4 was throttling with an XP-120 with a 93cfm fan,no matter what I did, but with the jungle 512, load temps dropped to about 62c. My 3.2ES @3.45ghz runs at about 58c with the jungle 512, and ran in the mid 60's with the XP-120.

 

[Gatecrusher]

Hey get some ventilation fans in your case (and intake) cause your cpu fan cant work well if you have hot air in your case...
Aso this may be nothing but it helps if you clean your heatsink of dust that may have settled between the fins of the heatsink, Unscrew the fan so you have just the heatsink and scrub it down under water..
Worked for me with my AC Coppersilent 2m.

 

[Kaeishiwaza]

Wow your mobo temperatures are HOT. I have a P4 3.4 OCed to 4.08 on air using a Thermalright S12. My mobo temperature never gets over 32 degrees on load. CPU temperatures are about 40 idle and 55 loaded. My temperatures are about the same as yours, but I'm running at a higher speed. Stock idle was 34 and load was 45. My big question is: What direction is you heatsink fan oriented? You want that sucker pointed down at the mobo to cool it! That could be a few degrees right there.

 

[j1b5c]

Right now, the heatsink fan is oriented to shoot the air away from the mobo. I tried the other way for like 5 minutes once, but the temps were the same. I'll try it again.

 

[j1b5c]

Scratch that previous post. It is shooting air towards the motherboard. Here's what I've decided to do. I'm going to get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118117, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835106046, and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835180087.

That's the Zalman VGA cooler, the Thermaltake Jungle512 hsf, and the Panasonic Panaflo 120 mm to mount on the front of my case. Hopefully this will do the trick. I'll get it all for Christmas. Tell me what you think. I'll send the list to my mom probably Sunday.