Help!! High temps with 2.2 Northwood and Abit TH7II

Hey guys,

Right now I am using my Northwood 2.2 at 2.5 ghz. I have volt modded the board -- but until I get my watercooling setup -- I am not running higher than 1.6 Vcore (that is what I am running now).

OK, here is my problem. I am not experienced with Intel (I have been an AMD user for last year or so) -- so I am not sure what temps should be.

Right now I am getting 45c under load (Prime 95) on System 1 sensor and 55c under load on CPU sensor. These temps come from Hardware Doctor (progrom packages with my Abit TH7II). Ambient is about 26c.

These seem really high. For cooling I am using a Coolermaster HSF for now -- my case has 3 intake fans and 2 exhaust (not including PSU) -- one exhaust is a 85 CFM 120mm blowhole -- in otherwords venilation is not a problem.

I have a TH7II-RAID. I can't say I did a really good job of putting on the ASII on the HSF since I figure this setup would be only temporary (just waiting on my new waterblock holdown). However, I did carefully remove the stock HS on the Intel 850 NB chip and took off all the crappy thermal compound they use and then reattached the HS using ASII and the stock holddown.

I am fairly worried about the CPU temp (but I am putting on a watercooling setup soon and am using 1.6 Vcore) -- but very worried about the System 1 temp. Is that temp taken from the i850 NB?? -- if so it seem very high to me. Maybe my plan of putting on the ASII under that sink has backfired.

Let me know your thoughts.

I'm getting that motherboard this week and a 1.8ghz Northwood Intel processor.

I wouldn't overclock the cpu too much without any good cooling. Put your cpu on full load (using Sandra for instance) and check if it stays stable, if it does then you'll be alright.

Its stable right now. I have been running Prime 95 torture test for about 10 hours now.

It very stable and very usable even when fully loaded.

TC is one of the guys to ask about temps, but my understanding is that 50 degrees load CPU temp is not uncommon. Those P-4 CPUs have thermal throttling, meaning if they get too hot, they start automatically slowing down the cycles to cool them down. Benchmarks will fall flat, but usually there will be no permanent damage from overheating. Maybe try reapplying the thermal paste better. Those Coolermaster heatsinks are not the best, although they should be a little better than the Intel retail setup. I wanna know more about the voltage mod on your TH7-II. I have those two links you gave me. Is that how you did it? How is it working out otherwise?

I did the mod using the "pomona grabbers" shown in this thread. I got the grabbers from Fry's ($3.50 for two).

Link

I rigged up 1 grabber to Pin 7 of the HIP 6301 and took to a 47k Ohm adjustable pot -- I purchased it at Radio Shack for $.80.

I hook up to the ground lead on the pot and wire that to a mobo mounting screw (but you can use any ground).

Slowly turn the pot to lower the resistance -- and volts will go up.

The volt mods are exactly the same for the TH7II as they are for the Abit KR7A. Link

I am going to the Vmem mod later this week.

I have a feeling I'll probably be doing that mod. How secure are those grabbers. Can you move the case around without them coming loose? Keep us advised of your progress. Good luck.

Was that temp report using your retail HS ?

Yes -- using a normal Coolermaster Aluminum HSF.