View Full Version : Am I killing my old 3.06 northwood?
I have an older 3.06 northwood i got in late 02' i think (or near whenever they first came out, 533mhz version). It wasnt until recently I bought a Zalman CNPS7700 copper fan for it, which i bought primarily to help make my case very low noise. My mb is Asus p4p800
I recently thought i'd try dabbling around with some overclocking so i first tried "5% overclock" which puts me at 3.22ghz. It runs this fine at stock vcore, and can run Prime95 24/7. I next tried 3.4ghz, but prime 95 would blue screen me within a couple min, even with the voltage bumped up to 1.575.
What concerned me was when i checked asusprobe. My cpu at stock (while running prime95) runs 68C with it on low fan speed, and over 70C with it at 3.22. If i max the fan speed on the zalman, its still 58C at stock, and 61C at 3.22. I was methodical when i put on the fan, made sure i spread out a little paste and everything. I also have a nice aluminum case, circuit citys case, with one active 80mm on the front, and 2, 80mm on the back for airflow. The temp is about 41C at idle or thereabouts.
Are those temps insane, or should i just not worry about it?
Azanon
fAlCoNNiAn
04-06-05, 09:00 AM
first off, let me start out with saying, there is no "nice" circuit city case. unless its a name brand like antec, cm, lian li, etc, then its some generic case. have you checked the temps inside the case? i think that either:
A) bad air flow inside the case, might want to think about getting a new case or modding current one for better air flow.
or
B) the mobo is reporting wrong temps, sometimes mobo's sensors are about 10~C off.
Those temps are VERY high for that CPU, I used an Asus P4C800E with a 3.06 for almost two years, and my stock idle temps never exceeded 31c and load temps were 41c with a Thermalright SP-94 and 2400rpm 92mm Panaflo fan, temps were taken using Asus Probe. Even when I OC'd my 3.06 to 3.35GHz using 1.675v in the BIOS, idle temps were only 33c and load temps were 47c.
I just built an Asus P4P800 using the same CPU, not OC'd, for a friend of mine using a stock Intel HSF, idle temps were 33c and load temps were 48c.
"first off, let me start out with saying, there is no "nice" circuit city case."
It costs 150 bucks, without a power supply so I guess I was partially going on that. I dont know who actually makes them for CC, i'll check into that. Its Nice looking aluminum with plexi-glass see through on the sides and the top. Its attractive. I'll admit though I got lazy and didn't really shop around for an alternative. CC is about 1 mile from my house and i wanted a case that day.
I loosely think of aluminun cases as nice, and plastic ones as cheap. (even some alienware cases are plastic).
... So i cant just say, well its running prime95 24/7 without crashing (and my other 3d games) so i can forget about it?
... So i cant just say, well its running prime95 24/7 without crashing (and my other 3d games) so i can forget about it?
You can, but those temps are definately high and heat kills over time. Something certainly doesn't seem right with the thermal paste or the heatsink/fan.
Well, i'll just take the fan off tonight and try reseating it with new thermal paste. If i'm still getting the same results, i'll try my stock intel fan for comparisons.
Well, i'll just take the fan off tonight and try reseating it with new thermal paste. If i'm still getting the same results, i'll try my stock intel fan for comparisons.
That would be a good idea, I know its a bit of a pain in the a$$, but it could mean saving the life of your processor over time.
hUMANbEATbOX
04-06-05, 01:14 PM
lol, some ppl are so "leet", they would never consider buying something from circuit city. if YOU like how it looks, and it provides decent airflow, then its a nice case.
also, after you've reseated your cpu/heatsink, try updating your bios, as it may be reporting temps wrong. you may find with a diff bios you magically drop 5-10 degrees.
Bios is pretty up-to-date: I have version 1018 (for Asus P4P800). Last i checked they had out 1019, but mine's pretty new :-/.
You can do a few mods to improve air flow in any case... whether it's cheap/crappy or expensive/nice. Look at the link in my signature for some ideas. You mentioned 1 fan in front and 2 in back. Make sure the front fan is an intake (sucking in) and the rear fans are exhaust (blowing out). If you also include your PS fan, you will have 3 exhaust and only 1 intake. You need to balance that out a little more. Add another intake... like maybe in the side panel blowing in towards the CPU area. If you want to keep noise down, use a 120mm fan in the side blowhole.
Bios is pretty up-to-date: I have version 1018 (for Asus P4P800). Last i checked they had out 1019, but mine's pretty new :-/.
They are up to 1021 now, but it shouldn't make a difference in temps, I went from 1014 to 1018 to 1021 and nothing changed.
SolidxSnake
04-06-05, 04:09 PM
they are up to 1021?? im at 1019!!
i wouldn't go over 1.65 on any northwood if you want it to last...
they are up to 1021?? im at 1019!!
i wouldn't go over 1.65 on any northwood if you want it to last...
I've heard this before, but I ran my 3.06GHz OC'd to 3.35GHz at 1.675v in the BIOS, no droop mod so it wasn't quite that high under load but since the board was an Asus P4C800E it did overvolt some at idle which put it at 1.71v or so. I ran this CPU like this for almost 2 years with no problems, it still works fine but I just sold the CPU 2 weeks ago to go with a Prescott. I'm sure all CPU's have some thermal and voltage limit, but I never had problems with mine at that voltage.
Few misc comments/updates
1. I actually also have 2, 80mm fans in the front (intake) so I'm ok there. I string tied some wires out of the way best i could.
2. The current bios for P4P800 (the original one) is still 1019. Maybe you were looking at another similar board or the second edition one?
3. When i took the cpu fan off, looks like there wasnt enough paste, cause it was pretty much a completely dry, very thin podwerey layer. I put on quite a bit more till it slid very good when I placed the heatsink back on.
4. Now my full load temperatures are running about 8C less, give or take a C for all settings, which I realize is still hotter than those really "cool" setups some of you have, but its definite improvement here. At default clock, on "low fan" speed under full load, i'm doing 60C even. With the fan maxed, its about 52C under full prime 95 load.
> My idle speed is about 4-5C less as well. (mid 30s).
That might just have to do.....I dont know what else to do. That's a fancy CPU fan I have.
Yea, the current BIOS for the P4C800 is 1021, I don't know why I thought that was what you were using. Apologies.
Stratcat
04-07-05, 10:20 AM
With the fan maxed, its about 52C under full prime 95 load.
> My idle speed is about 4-5C less as well. (mid 30s).
FWIW -
For a P4P800, running an HT P4, inside a case with moderate non-hi-po case cooling, this still a little high, IMO, but not too far off off from what I'd expect when dual Priming using a Zalman7700cu (as read via AsusProbe), particuliarly if the 'outside the case' ambient temps are fair-to-warm. Plug the Zalman directly into the mobo, or use a +12 PSU Molex/mobo plug '2 way' adapter (thereby completely skipping the Zalman 'Fanmate' controller, either way), should give you a slight (~100 - 150 RPM) fan speed increase. Also I'd personally use AS5 TIM (applied using the 'rice-grain dollop method', as per the AS site); I found it works excellently with Zalmancu/P4 combos. These two changes might net you a few (and I do mean ONLY a few, at most) *C.
IMO, a Zalman really needs to run wide-open for doing 'serious loading' work, like Priming or Distributed Computing.
BTW - Did you ever dual Prime w/the stock HSF to establish a baseline??? At any given stock or OC clock, a Zalman 7700cu running wide-open, w/AS5, should definitely give you a solid, 10 - 12 *C hi-load temp improvement, over the stock HSF. This also applies to the 7000cu series, but w/maybe ~2 - 3 degrees, or so, less performance.
From my experiences...
Strat
BTW - Did you ever dual Prime w/the stock HSF to establish a baseline??? At any given stock or OC clock, a Zalman 7700cu running wide-open, w/AS5, should definitely give you a solid, 10 - 12 *C hi-load temp improvement, over the stock HSF. This also applies to the 7000cu series, but w/maybe ~2 - 3 degrees, or so, less performance.
If i did, i forgot what the results were, so I guess i'd have to say no. But even if there were little/no improvement temperature wise, i'd still prefer the zalman cause it is clearly quieter than a stock 3.06 northwood fan, at max speed. I dunno if something was wrong with my stock 3.06 northwood fan (big ass one with copper heatsink), but that was one loud mofo.
LabRat23
04-08-05, 06:00 PM
Zalmns benefit more from a duct than any other heatsink IMO. Back when I ran on air, a duct took 10C of my temps, and that was with better airflow in my case than what those three fans are giving you. Also you may notice that a lot of the air is escaping out the gaps over the mounting screws. Tape them over so all the air is forced through the fins. That should give you a few more degrees.
Stratcat
04-08-05, 07:46 PM
Zalmns benefit more from a duct than any other heatsink IMO. Back when I ran on air, a duct took 10C of my temps, and that was with better airflow in my case than what those three fans are giving you. Also you may notice that a lot of the air is escaping out the gaps over the mounting screws. Tape them over so all the air is forced through the fins. That should give you a few more degrees.While on the subject of 7700cu Zalmans -
There's one thing I REALLY like 'bout 'em : Theyr'e so freakin' Large & open, they cool just about everything on the dayemmm mobo! The MOSFETS, PWR Capicitors, PLL, NB, DIMM's, backside of the gfx card; Basically all the good stuff - The "free" Zalman auxilliary mobo cooling is one of the things that sometimes gets overlooked when deciding on a HSF. And no heatpipes to orient, or risk losing coolant over time, either. I just wish they had a higher powered fan, so they could be used for more hardcore OCing, w/o having to mod it. They include the controller, so the "quiet computing" crowd could just turn it down. It seems like such an easy way to make a good product even greater, and increase its use over a wider range of applications and users.
Oh, well...I guess they have thier product placement philosophy, and are sticking w/it. :rolleyes:
Strat
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