P4 3.4Ghz operating temps

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 1, 2006, 11:45 am

Is it normal for a P4 3.4Ghz CPU to be running at 150-160F while under no load. Thats the temps I see when just in BIOS.
I have loaded on there just about the biggest damn heat sink that would fit in my case with 2 fans doing the push/pull thing through the fins.

I dont normally have problems and can run all my games fine, except for when I load up 2 toons. Even then 99% of the time it works ok right up until about 4PM (heat of the day) when its around 80-85F in my dorm room. (No A/C yay).

Is this normal or is my CPU fucked?

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » June 1, 2006, 11:53 am

Not normal, did you put too much thermal paste on? if you put too much on the cpu, it can act as an insulator instead of a conductor of heat.

I think fairly normal temps for the P4 is 40 celsius to 65 celsius (100F - 150F). Mine idles at 35 celsius and under the most demanding load it is 53 celsius (95F - 130F). Air cooled, after market fan with speed adjustment.

Depending on what socket type you have, and what revision, the numbers can be different. I think the spec on the Pentium 4 Prescott is about 68 degrees celsius for the operating top end....but I know people run them hotter.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » June 1, 2006, 12:13 pm

I have a 3.0 and it runs about 130 F doing nothing. Hotter if I actually close the side panel on my case (Sonata) for some reason.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 1, 2006, 12:47 pm

AMD Dual Core chips run coooool.

What's the room temperature? If your room is hot, it's going to make your chip run hotter if air cooled.

Some MB's have faulty temp readers (Abit boards in particular)

Too much thremal paste

Too little thermal paste

Bad fan

Bad Case Airflow

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 1, 2006, 6:15 pm

Well my ambient temp in the room is between 70 to 85F. 85F is the hottest part of the day of course. I guess they have to pay for the war somehow so we dont have the A/C turned on.

I bet I put on too much thermal paste.
How much should I have on there?

All my case fines are working great and I'm using a Raid Max full tower Scorpion case. 8 Total fans not including the dual fans push/pull on the processor.

I cant even think about gaming with the side of the case on it. I actually have to have a small 10inch house fan blowing in there (of course I'm having to clean the damn thing out weekly right now) to run any games at high rez.

Thanks guys.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 1, 2006, 7:01 pm

Thermal paste should be applied as thinley as possible.

Here's some good instructions for Artic Silver which should apply for most other types of thermal paste:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silv ... ctions.htm

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » June 1, 2006, 10:38 pm

I spread the paste with my finger, then use a credit card to smooth it (Scrape across the top). This insures a thin, even layer. It doesn't need that much.

The directions in that link do it the old fashioned way of turning/twisting the heat sink ontop the CPU to spread the paste. That was the original method back in the day, and everyone said that's bad, but apparantly that's back in style again now.

Remember, you are just trying to put enough on to fill any voids that naked eye cannot see in the metals of the two surfaces...plus a little more

If you screw up, use a cotton ball with alcohol or something, or just a dry papertowel to wipe, and reapply.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 1, 2006, 11:17 pm

Kluden wrote: The directions in that link do it the old fashioned way of turning/twisting the heat sink ontop the CPU to spread the paste. That was the original method back in the day, and everyone said that's bad, but apparantly that's back in style again now.

With the already cooler AMD X2 chips that don't have the HUGE heatspreader on top of the CPU chip, you just need to put a dot of arctic silver in the middle of the CPU chip and then put the heatsink/fan on top (no twisting needed) and the heat/preassure will spread the paste evenly.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » June 2, 2006, 9:57 am

Its funny though, because considering those huge, thick, pads of heat conductor tape that Intel puts on the out of box HSF, you would think that you can't put too much thermal paste on these things.

Sendarie, the other thing to consider is another new CPU fan, one made of copper, and made by zalman...the big ridiculous fins on that thing are a proven winner by everyone whom has ever used one. My case has a 10cm fan in front pulling air in, one in back pushing air out, and the CPU fan is a very slim design, maybe 3" in total height, all copper, and it works very well.

If you have too many fans on your case, that could be part of the problem. You need to make the air flow predictable. Basicly, have everything pulling air into the case, and then the two on the back pushing the air out. Think Front to Back air flow. If you have too many fans, you will cause turbulance in the case, and the air in the middle (above your CPU) will just basicly sit there and get hot. If your heatsink has two fans that are perpendicular to the mother board, make sure they are pulling from the front of the case and pushing toward the rear of the case....just to help the air flow of the whole case. Just something to check...those fans may be blowing the wrong way or something.

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 2, 2006, 11:27 am

Thanks for the replies.

Winnow, your damn right I'm done with Pentium's I just switched back from AMD to P4 one last time and am not happy with the performance. Now of course if it turns out that the lack of performance is b/c my dumbass put on too much paste then I'll retract that.

Kluden thats exactly how my case is set up now. 120 fan in front pulling air in, 120 fan in rear pulling out, one 120 fan in the top blowing hot air up and out. One 80mm fan on the side of the case pulling air away from vid card. A HUGE heatsink, barely clears the case side, solid copper. 3 copper tubes on each side going to open fins. 2 fans, 1 mounted on each side of the fins. One pulling and one pushing so they work together.

Gonna work on it this weekend.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » June 2, 2006, 2:12 pm

The fan on the side of the case should be blowing IN. That fan was the case fan added for the pentium 4's when they needed that tube attached that blew directly on them. I think you have too much exhaust. Remember, your power supply is also exhausting....so if you apply so much negative pressure to the case, the air will be coming thru the small cracks, in areas that it will NOT pass over your vid card or CPU...

I would start by turning that 80mm fan around and blow in. Essentially, by removing the side cover with this fan on it, you are making it an inlet for air, instead of an exhaust, and that's why it works better without the side on. Switch that fan, it will be a difference.

Also, to drive home the point, make sure those two CPU HSF fans are blowing towards the back exhaust.

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 2, 2006, 3:11 pm

I'll try that with the side case fan. I made damned sure I had both CPU fans working together and blowing the right way. Just to make it idiot proof I used a light strip of paper to make sure I knew which way the fan was blowing and marked each of them with a paint marker on the side.

The case fan thing confuses me though. A lot of the P4 heatsink/fans have a single fan on top blowing the heat towards that case fan. Wouldnt that just cause turbulance with the CPU blowing towards the case fan and the case fan blowing towards the CPU fan?

In any case I'll try switching that one around (its the was it came from factory but I'll try anything) and most important I'm going to break out the wriststrap and rubber gloves and clean off the CPU and reapply a proper amount of thermal paste.

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 2, 2006, 3:59 pm

Ok so I've been reading a lot of forums about the P4 3.4ghz having a lot of overheating problems.
So far from what I've seen this http://www.techgage.com/review.php?id=3823&page=3 does wonders for cooling it and helping the problem.

What do you guys think?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 2, 2006, 4:29 pm

Zalman makes great heatsink/fans. I've used several variations of them on CPUs and Graphics cards.

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 2, 2006, 4:50 pm

Was hoping it had some more good reviews.

I just got my order confirmation for it.

Kluden · Post by **Kluden** » June 2, 2006, 5:39 pm

I must be behind the times...every processor fan I've ever owned blows the air from above the CPU, down, over the heat sink.

If you have one that is grabbing the hot air off of the motherboard, and taking that thru the heat sink, I would say that right there is the problem...but you already stated you have an aftermarket heatsink.

Trust me when I say that side fan is to blow directly cooler air into the CPU/GPU area of the case. But I live without that fan now, based on other dynamics of the case I use. 2 fans and the power supply fan is all my system needs anymore.

Turning that fan around will probably fix everything. But, you already ordered the Zalman, so do both. I'm sure it will be an improvement to your liking.

Its also all about your cable management. Make sure the cables of all your drives and shit are nicely bundled together where they can be, and towards one side or the other, not just scattered about. They block air movement.

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 2, 2006, 6:02 pm

I basically dont have any cables that amount to anything. SATA HDD is super thing and my DVD IDE cable is aftermarket and the same size (thickness) as SATA.
Nothing else in there.

Currently I can only run stable declocked to 2.8ghz. Thats obviously unacceptable so we'll see how the new fan/heatsink works and I'll try turning that one fan around.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 2, 2006, 6:25 pm

Don't expect miracles from a new HSF. It should help a little. Not being able to run at the rated clock speed should throw all sorts of flags up. The number one reason that would be happening is too much/little paste or an uneven mounting of the heatsink on top of the CPU so the heat isn't efficiently being transferred.

In another plus for AMD, their Athlon X2's and Opteron stock heatsink/fans are so good that you don't really need to get a new one even to OC. I used my stock air cooled X2 HSF to take my 3800+ to 4800+ speeds (2.0GZ --> 2.5GHz OC)

Take note Aslanna and anyone else with open cases trying to keep things cool!

Also, make the Antec P180 your next case for quiet & cool operation.

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 3, 2006, 10:15 am

I can do that. Once my claim goes through for all the damage to my PC I'll be able to get a new case also so I'll go that way since you guys on here know a helluva lot more than I do about current gaming setups.