P4 Problem

[Cube3601]

I've got an Intel P4 3.0 GHz 800 FSB that doesn't seem to like to stay cool. I've had this thing together for about a week now with a Spark 7 fan and thermal grease. It's on a P4P800 Asus board and has 2 exhaust fans on the case with a power supply fan.
I need help because the temp is 44C idle and nearly 70C under stress. The 70C is my problem. I've got the fan set to manual and wide open, it still rises to 65 and 70C. Is there anything else I can do to keep the temp down? Any help here would be good.

 

[ImmortalZ]

You sure you installed the HSF correctly? 70C is very bad for your chip's life expectancy.

 

[Cube3601]

Yeah! Put a fire under it and it'll dance!

Really though, unless apply grease to clean hsf, spread evenly, attach hsf to processor securely is wrong I'm out of ideas. I just turned a fan from exhaust to intake which brought the idle temp down 3C degrees. Thanks for the reply.

 

[ImmortalZ]

Hmm...

I dunno how this may help. But here goes.

I have 3 AthlonXP based systems and when I attach the HSF, I usually apply the thermal compount on the CPU and a little (very very little) on the HF and attach it. Try that... (since you're outta options...)

Oh one more thing, Make sure that HSF's contact surface is flat. If its curved, you may need to lap it a bit.

Also, check the BIOS to make sure you didnt overvolt your CPU by accident. I have also seen some mobo's with jumpers to manually set overvolt and it wont show up in the BIOS. For eg ASUS A7V333 has a jumper that sets CPU overvolt. When you close that and set 1.65V in the BIOS, the CPU gets nearly 2.1V.

The proggy which you use to get your readings may be giving you wrong readings. Try MBM 5.

Lol, so many things that could go wrong.

But I have never put together a P4, so I dunno how exaclty the HSF is fixed on the monster.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by ImmortalZ on 12/26/03 00:29 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Cube3601]

Ironically what you said to do was exactly what I did a little later yesterday before you posted. I reseated the hsf w/ thermal grease on both the CPU and the hsf. Dropped the temp by 2/3 degrees C idleing, but still gets up to 68 under load.
I haven't overclocked the CPU yet, but I'll check the voltage anyway. I never thought of that. Now to find the recommended voltages... Thanks again

 

[ytoledano]

If you're really out of options, try putting a lot more thermal compound on your CPU. That's usualy wrong to do because the compound doesn't conduct heat anything like the HS, but if there isn't good contact between the two then adding more compound should help.
Also, check to see on the heat spreader if there are areas that don't change when you put the heat sink and lift it, that means that they don't come in contact with the HS.

<b><A HREF="http://www.multiplaycity.com/diy1/005/intelhsf.jpg" target="_new">I'm an Intel fan</A></b>

 

[Cube3601]

I'm thinking about switching to water cooling. The Ahanix Iceberg or Thermaltake Aquarius II are about the only kits in my pricerange. Any suggestions as to better kits at around $100 or $120 would help. I've never messed with water cooling before so advise is welcome.

 

[ytoledano]

If a noisless operation is not so important for you, you can couple a SP94 with a good fan and achieve great cooling performance, probably close to some water cooling systems.

<b><A HREF="http://www.multiplaycity.com/diy1/005/intelhsf.jpg" target="_new">I'm an Intel fan</A></b>

 

[Ed_Phoon]

I hope my experience will help you:
When I bulit a P4 2.4B system for friend months ago, I use after market heatsink instead of box intel heatsink, thinking that will cool cpu better, but that little 2.4b heatup to 65C under load.

Later I replace the heatsink with box intel heatsink, and result was 58C max.

After examined carefully, I found out that the IHS on the 2.4b is far from level, edges of the IHS is rose above, higher than the surface of IHS.

You know that intel box heatsink comes with a piece of soft metal intead of heat sink grease, that soft metal can overcome the IHS problem.

Check you cpu, you may have the same problem.
Hope this help.

 

[Cube3601]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I guess I'll go back to the stock hsf because I noticed that it was cooler too. And it doesn't waste $100. Heh. Thanks a lot again guys.