P4 3ghz Overheating
 

Well, not quite. The system is within specs, but just barely. It idles at about 50 - 53 deg C, and under load will clear about 60 deg C. The specs for the system are as follows:
P4 3 GHz, 800 Mhz FSB
MSI Neo-2 865 chipset MB
1GB Corsair TwinX PC3200 (DDR400) RAM
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
Maxtor 100GB 5400RPM IDE HD
SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum
Thermaltake XaserIII Case with 7 fans running at full bore

The machine is newly assembled and has been running hot from Day 1. I installed a Thermaltake Spark 7 CPU Cooler, and the overall effect was about nil. I've rewired the case to ensure better airflow, and the exhaust fans are working like champs. The inside of the case feels very cool to my hand, but the temp sensor keeps reporting really high temps. It hasn't crashed on me or had a heat shutdown yet, but I KNOW I'm missing something here to get it to proper operating temps. Any assistance that anyone here can provide would be gratefully appreciated.

Just make sure your using thermal grease (preferably the expensive Artic stuff) and have it tightly on the CPU. The P4 does have the ability to clock down when under too much heat, so I don't think you'll have any problems. My P4 2.2 runs fine, and AMD's actually run hotter than P4's :)

I'm using good thermal grease, and it helped bring it down a little. You think it will continue to operate fine while running this hot? Its not the first time I've put a P4 together, and my last one (P4 2.53) ran at about 30 deg C cooler, so you can understand my concern. Thanks for the information!

Veritas en Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

I was under the impression that you werent supposed to use Thremal grease if you are using the stock heatsink that comes with the p4, they have some weird stuff on the base of the heatsink so you dont have to use thermal grease. I am probably wrong though.

Have u thought about using water coolers?

whats your ambient air temperature?

is the heatsink attached properly and tightly...

You know, temp. sensors can be off. If nothing seems to be wrong except for really high measurements, try replacing the temperature sensor.

To give yourself an ide of whether or not the sensors are working, touch the heatsink and see if it feels painfully hot to the touch.

As for cooling, if you dont' have money for water cooling, you can do what I did last summer and run a piece of vent tube for a clothes dryer from an air conditioner vent to the intake fan on the power supply. It dropped my case temperature by about 40°F

MrSelfDestruct is right about touching it. If the heatsink is hot enough to burn you, then the sensor is correct. If it's lukewarm or slightly hotter, then chances are it's not. I believe 60 degrees celsius is enough to hurt if you touch it.

Just for another look at it, the C core Pentium 4's that run at 3.06 GHz are known for being hotter than even Athlon XP CPU's. That front side bus is causing a shitlode of heat. I don't think it should run THAT hot, however. I ordered a Gigabyte KT-600 motherboard from NewEgg and it said my Barton was running at 65 degrees celsius idle. I put my brother's CPU thermometer on it; guess what: 35 degrees celsius. I sent it back ASAP. In other words, it could very well be a false reading from your mobo sensor. Anything above 60 celsius will make games and programs freeze up if they are processor intensive. Whatever you do, you need to get the problem fixed. Good luck!

-Lasereth

I'm thinking about hooking it up to a portable AC unit. Unfortunately, the house I'm in has no central, or I'd use it. That's the problem with living in a place with mild summers. No one believes in AC...

I haven't touched the heatsink yet, but the air in the immediate vicinity seems cool. That could just be a bad impression on my part, but you never know. Thanks for the help!

Veritas en Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

I've tried stress testing it, with games like JKII (with everything running full bore) and the machine hasn't collapsed on me yet. I'm beginning to think that the mobo sensor may be off, but I've taken it to a friend of mine who specializes in such things just in case. I appreciate the advice and will keep you all posted as to how it goes! Thanks again , everyone!

Veritas en Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

Update: The problem is fixed. And you will all love how it got fixed.

I flashed the BIOS. That's it. That's all. For some reason that knocked about 10 to 15 deg C off of the temp. I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. Anyway, I figured I would let y'all know that the situation has worked out quite satisfactorily. Thanks again for everyone's help!

Veritas en Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

that makes no sense none at all.

any way id recoment a biger heat sink.

but thats just me

i have the Swiftech MCX4000-B

and i run at a full tilt at 50C and i can idle around 38C, the fan is on low as well 3500RPM

My P4 2.6 (800 Mhz) is running at 53 degrees right now, under about 100% stress (encoding mpeg files). It can run as high as 70 or 80 before problems emerge, though. At idle, it runs at about 35 degrees.

And <b>YaWhateva</b>, you're right. All retail processors (AMD and Intel) come with a heatsink with pre-attached thermal pad. This is basically a small pad of sticky thermal grease, which is enough for the cooler. The coolers supplied are adequate for the needs of the processor they come with, and are usually some of the best options around. Sure you can get a Coolermaster Aero 7+ vacuum cleaner, but why would you?

wow i came in on this thread too late.. but yeah i was gonna say.. number one reason for temperature anoloies is default bios drivers.

for some reason there was a string of bios revisions with abnormally high temps.

my 1700+ (oc'd to 2ghz) sits at about 35C peak at 40c under extreme load.

I havent touched the bios on this board (epox 8rda+) because I havent had any compatability problems with my parts or temperatures so if it aint broke, I see no need to update it *shrug* thats my logic though.