Ideal Temperature

[granite_2010]

Just curious, what is the ideal temperature for a 2.8GHz P4? Or is that like asking how long is a piece of string?

I'm not sure if it's Northwood or Prescott sorry (nor do I understand the diff...)

It's currently running at a steady 49C, and I thought that might actually be a bit low. Also, does the performance increase with rising temperature, to a limit, and then come down again?

Thanks for your help
Andrew

[Yuanji]

well do you work better when you are comfortable or when you have an oven baking you? you need to get it checked. if it is a prescott, you could overclock it a bit since the temps are pretty low. might be kinda shaky for a northwood though.

[Cricket]

49C isn't that hot...it's only 120 F. That's nothing to most electronic devices as they're usually designed to handle temps higher than that.

How is your computer running? If nice and stable, then don't worry about the temp.

Where are you getting that temp reading from? The BIOS or a Windows based utility? Most Windows based temp utilities aren't that accurate...always double check it to the BIOS temp readings.

How's your case cooling? Does your case have any case fans installed?

What size case is it? And is the wiring around the CPU just a big mess or did you carefully route the wires to the side away from the CPU heatsink fan?

One way to determine if you have a Northwood or a Prescott is by the amount of L2 cache the processor has. Northwood P4s have 512K. Prescott P4s have 1MB.

Northwood P4s generally have idle temps below 40C and Prescotts have idle temps above 40C.

Cricket

[sigmaseven]

Originally Posted by Yuanji well do you work better when you are comfortable or when you have an oven baking you? you need to get it checked. if it is a prescott, you could overclock it a bit since the temps are pretty low. might be kinda shaky for a northwood though.

Prescotts run at a faster temp than Northwoods.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by sigmaseven Prescotts run at a faster temp than Northwoods.

"Faster" temp? Do you mean "higher" temp?

Cricket

[granite_2010]

It has the PSU fan, 2 rear, and one side fan, and it runs fine, hasn't really caused any dramas yet. It's a reasonable big ATX case, and the wiring is actually quite neat (by the shop where I bought it). I got that temp reading from the BIOS, but where do I look to find how much L2 cache it's got?

So, sounds like it's pretty comfortable as is huh? I just think it's rather noisy, and I was wondering that if it was running pretty cool, if I could switch off one of the fans and see if it got any quieter... But I don't think I'll bother.


Thanks for your help guys!!!

Andrew

[Yuanji]

if your fans let you, you might try running them at a lower RPM. also, you might try looking to buy the Panflo fans. i have heard they are very quiet.

[Cricket]

You could try the 7 Volt Trick to slow down the fans and make them run a little more quietly.

Cricket