What is the coolest P4 I can buy for a Canterwood mobo?

[petreza]

Hi,

As I explained in another thread HERE (http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2171530) I want to build a file server based on Intel's i875 chipset because the gigabit ethernet is not dependent on the PCI bus which will leave me all the PCI bus for my HD RAID array.

As you can imagine this computer does not need much processing power - it will just read a a file from the HDs and send it over the network. That is why I want to buy the coolest CPU that will fit in a Canterwood mobo and try to cool it passively with one of THESE (http://www.siliconacoustics.com/heatlanezencpuradiatorncu-1000.html). I want to cool it passively because I want the least amount of noise.

So again, which is the coolest P4 CPU, how much heat will it produce, and how does it compare to other - faster P4s?

Thanks!

PS If the heat is still too much for passive cooling, is it possible to UNDERCLOCK it in order the reduce the heat output? Thanks!

[emericanchaos]

if you don't need much processing power then go AMD and external gigabit eth0 card. that would be alot cheaper and honestly i don't think the NIC on the PCI would be a great drain on the system.

otherwise i think you'd be better off asking in the P4 CPU's area of this site. this area is more for helping cool your system using air cooling.

i don't know much about P4's because i don't use them but i would guess that you would want the lowest micron P4 you can get. i know temps went down tremendously for AMD with the .13 micron Tbred B cores. maybe it's the same for Intel. since you don't need much power i'd stick with like a lower Mhz CPU though. maybe the lowest C core chip available.

[deathman20]

Well if you really want a cool P4 you could pick up a 2.4C and underclock it, at least that way you won't be loosing major memory preformance. Or get a 1.6a if you can still find it, those ran under 50 watts if not mistaken, a 2.4B is around 59 watts stock, and a 2.4C is around 60 if not mistaken. Lets say you take a 2.4B that has a 59.8 watt heat at stock (got one myself so I know). Lets crank it from the 533 FSB to 400 FSB or 1800mhz. Now lets say that you can lower the voltage on your CPU to 1.4 (i know some use to go as low as 1.2 if not mistaken) and it runs at 1800 @ 1.35 volts which has about 35 Watts of heat, not bad at all. Even then you can still use a ram divider and crank it up to a resonable speed and you'll still have good ram preformance.

I know my 1.6a that I had back 8 months ago could run at stock with 1.275 volts. If not mistaken the watts was 46 something it would run around 33 Watts.

So picking a B chip probley be the best for tempature wise, because with the C chips you get an extra 10 Watts because of the hyperthreading and higher FSB.

I'd expect that the C chip would preform better for your buck because of the higher FSB and also the hyperthreading.

For a case if you don't have one I've seen a case that had heatpipes built in the case to cool the CPU and would take the heat and transfer it to the actual case frame. Forgot where I saw it but it looked like a good solution for quiet computing.

[cherryp00t]

generally the slower the cpu the less heat it outputs.. pick your choice =p

but underclocking a 2.4C is a good idea

[Ralf Hutter]

I've been playing around with this same thing lately. I'm a silent PC nut and have been running a PIII-S undervolted to 1.25V. It runs super cool but I wanted to see how good I could do with a P4C and some fast dual-channel DDR.

One problem is that there's not too many quality 865/875 MoBos that will undervolt or underclock so you're limited right there. There's some AOpen boards, a couple of Gigabyte boards and an Albatron board. The G-B and Albatron boards that undervolt both have actively cooled NB heatsinks (with those noisy little 40mm fans) so that sort of negates any benefit of trying to passively or quietly cool your CPU.

I decided to see how quiet I could get a 2.4C running at default speed and Vcore so I bought an Intel 875PBZ along with an SLK900 heatsink + 92mm Panaflo L1A. I could get this to stay under 55°C under Prime95 load with the L1A running at about 8 volts. That's pretty darn quiet but not completely silent so I decided to get another board so i could undervolt it instead.

I passed on the boards with active NB cooling and found an inexpensive Albatron 845PE board that undervolts, has passive NB cooling, supports 800FSB and Hyperthreading (but no dual-channel RAM) so I went with it. First I set it up at default Vcore and ran Prime95 to see where my temps ended up. I was at 54°C under full load. Then I started reducing the Vcore and testing for stability with Prime95 (kind of reverse overclocking :) ). I ended up at 1.25V, 100% stable under 24hrs of Prime95. Max temps are 40-41°C. That's where I'm at now with cooling provided by a 7V 92mm L1A on the SLK900. Now I'll start lowering the fan voltage (I'm using a Zalman Fanmate on it) and watch the temps. I'm pretty sure I can get this down to 5 volts and still have acceptable temps. That should be almost silent.

I'm fairly happy with this setup but I sure wish I could run a real 865 or 875 board. That Albatron 865PE Pro II looks schweet but it has active NB cooling and is $170+. Kind of pricy for a board that I'm going to have to try and retrofit with passive NB cooling, but at least it undervolts and has all the 865 chipset features. Someone on these forums ('ol man, old fart, old geezer, something like that) is running the Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000Pro with a 2.4C at 1.1V or so. It has active NB cooling though.

Hope this helped....

[Ravsitar]

The Celrons based on the p4 are susposed to be pretty low heat output.

[Supertrucker]

well, i would look into an 875 based board with a zeon in it if money was not tight. zeons are supposed to be downward multiplier unlocked so you could reduce the mhz without killing the fsb of the p4, which imho it needs to perform well.

[RCtruckguy]

ravistar...celerons are williamate cores and they used 1.75v stock and do less work and run hotter then northwood p4s on average.

but the one in my sig runs at 38deg celcius F@H 100% load at 1.775 volts with the stock heatsink, and good case airflow. ill sell it if you want it. it only has 2 months of useage on it.

but id go for a 2.4c or 1.8a (NW) (i dont care if you by mine) those should have the lowest heat output.

~RCTG

[Ffats]

Whats wrong with a Zalman CNPS7000Cu running ontop of a stock speed P4? You really can't hear it when the case is closed, and its barely there with the case panel off.

That big radiator cooler makes me nervous for you... just TOO big. The 7000 is the limit!

[Caffinehog]

Try getting a P4m. They are the mobile P4's, based on the northwood core, work in socket478 boards, can be heavily undervolted, and default to a multiplier of 12 in desktop boards.
There's one in the classifieds here (http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=233562)


Just one word of note: Choose your board carefully! Many of these boards have gigabit ethernet attached through the PCI bus!!!!!
The Abit IC7-max3 and IC7-G have CSA gigabit.
The Albatron PX865PE PRO II has CSA gigabit.
The DFI LAN Party Model PRO875 has CSA gigabit.
The Asus P4C800-E DELUXE has CSA gigabit.
The Gigabyte GA-8PENXP has CSA gigabit.

Almost all of the others use proprietary gigabit chips attached through the PCI bus!!!! You have been warned!!!!!

P.S. If the board has a noisy NB fan, just replace it with a passive cooler. Zalman sells them.