CPUs: How hot is too hot?

[Adam]

Here's one for the computer guys... since BA probably doesn't know jack about Pentium chips...

I recently bought a CoolerMaster Aerogate II for my PC. It's a pretty cool little device, which really suits my PC case.



I currently run a P4-3.06g (533fsb) with 1gb RAM and a 256mb GeForce FX5600 Ultra. Needless to say, it runs most games pretty well, which is what I use it for 95% of the time. I already run 3 sleeve bearing LED-lighted (bling!) 80mm fans for extra cooling, which I've now plugged into the Aerogate.



After I installed the Aerogate, I started to watch my CPU temps and was surprised to see them as high as 55-58ºC (131-138ºF) during high usage (hi-po network gaming). When it's idle, the system hovers at around 33ºC (91ºF).

Apparently the Aerogate has a built in warning beeper when any of the fans it controls stop, or if temps reach 60ºC.

How sensitive are P4 chips to this sort of heat? I know they'll shut down if they get too hot, but not having checked my BIOS (the PC is at home, I'm at work) for the temp override/shutdown setting, what's the general limit?

Thanks!

[Saintly]

Hi,
I also run an aerogate II on my P4-3.2Ghz, 128 ATI 9800 Ultra, 1024mb ram, 2 x sata 160Gb hdd, dvd, cd burner.
I never see temps that high and would be concerned if i did.
Did you mount your temp probe ontop of your cpu? What heat sink do you have. I think that the choice of heat sink is a big factor. I run a full copper Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu heat sink
(Zalman cooler ) and consider it the best without getting fancy with water cooling etc..
I also have a little plastic hood in the case to help duct the heat out one of the rear fans.
With this setup i would peak temp at about 35C
Fans in my case are, 2 x 80mm up front, 2 x 120mm out back, 1 x 80mm up top.

[Saintly]

To give you an idea of the size of this cooler the fan is 92mm

[Adam]

Hmm. That looks pretty nice. I've often thought of upgrading the CPU fan with a Thermaltake or something similar that I saw recently, but the idea of ducting the fan sounds pretty good. I've been browsing the Zalman website just now, but I looked at CoolerMaster again and saw this!



I currently have the probe under the heatsink, ontop of the CPU.

[jyl]

I suppose as an air-cooled Porsche driver you wouldn't consider a water-cooled CPU?

[RallyJon]

I recently upgraded to a P4 3.2 and Radeon 9800 Pro. I confess... it was to run Doom 3.

I'm seeing CPU temps around 60-65°C when surfing the net and 80°C when running Doom or playing with Photoshop filters, etc. I also added the Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu, which didn't lower the temps much, but was MUCH quieter. The stock Intel CPU fan sounded like a jet engine. I've read that the newer P4s run much hotter than the older CPUs.

What's more troubling is the Radeon 9800. It has shut down on a couple of occasions from the heat. I've actually underclocked it a bit to get rid of some snow in Doom 3. I added a VGA Silencer cooler but it doesn't seem to help.

I'm thinking I just need some more case cooling. These newer systems pump out so much more heat than older ones. The problem is--who wants to sit next to all that noise?

[DanTheCat]

Obvious question: Was the probe designed to go between the CPU and heatsink? If your heatsink is not making good contact with the CPU that could be causing the high temps.

Dan

[Saintly]

Hi,
Yes, the probe is ment to go between the cpu and cooler. it's paper thin and you use a little thermal grease to make a good connection.
60 to 65C ! i'm surprised that your motherboard isn't doing a thermal shutdown!
The 3 key things is to
a) have an effective cooler to radiate the heat from the cpu
b) have sufficiant air flow over the cooler to extract the heat from it.
c) have that now hot air pumped out of the case.

copper is a supurb heat mover and a little ducting will help guide the air flow. if you just have the cooler fan running and no case fans then the heat will just keep circulating in the case and will get hotter and hotter untill something fails.
Make sure that if you have fans in the front and the back of your case that they are all running in the same direction. i.e. the front sucks air in and the rear blows it out OR the rear sucks it in and the front blows it out.
Another thing to consider is that there is sufficiant space front and back of the case for the air to flow. i.e. if the case is pushed up to a wall at the back then the fans cannot move the air out and the case will get hotter.
Putting your case in a cubbord is the worst thing you can do.

Hope this helps

[BlueSkyJaunte]

The Intel chips are supposedly designed to shut down rather than combust in a hi-temp situation.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20010917/index.html

[Adam]

I actually looked at Cooler Master's Aquagate water-cooling system for CPUs, too.



I have really noticed an increase in noise, since I upgraded to P4 around 12 months ago. I even changed my fans to sleeve bearing units, as the ballers were just so loud! The one thing that worries me about the Aquagate is that if one of the hoses pops off a fitting, my entire PC will be trashed from the coolant going everywhere inside the case.

It's a very cool system, though. It has a radiator and coolant reservior and everything. I haven't decided what to get, but I want to improve conditions in there and quieten everything down.

[kmhemi]

I have a 3 ghz Intel P4 .it's watercooled. . aluminum radiator and twin water pumps.

[Adam]

Oh, I also noticed that the stats on the JET4 (pictured in my earlier response) say that it weighs 700g. We're talking roughly 1.5lbs, is that too much to sit ontop of (or hang off the side of) the CPU?

[Aurel]

Go nitrous (liquid nitrogen, -273 C baby !). I have a 55 THz N2 cooled P15. It rocks when it enters into supraconductive regime. But it causes brain overload, due to the triple harmonic resonnance with my neural frequency. This can get bad. I had to replace all my windows recently (including the winshield of the 911).

Aurel

[Aurel]

Or, you could get one of those:

http://www.apple.com/powermac/design.html

Aurel