Northwood acceptable temps?

Hi, i'm a newbee...with a question:

Just bought a P4 1.6a (Costa Rica) and got 'er to run at 2.4g 150fsb at 1.5v on stock cooling.

AsusProbe cpu temp reports 40c at idle. Last night i put it to a 12 minute or so stress test and the temp rose to 53c towards the end (acted like it might go higher) (wife was running for the fire extinguisher). Room temp. about 76f. Went back down to 40c after terminating within 5 - 7 minutes or so. Memory temp maxed at 39c.

So far it's run like a champ- rock stable, hasn't burped once.

Ordered an Alpha PAL8942 w/ Panaflo and some Arctic Silver last night from Heatsinkfactory. Almost went with the Delta 68, but a little tired of noise.

Have read that some seem to tolerate 55-60c, others don't want it to go above low 40's. Was just wondering any other opinions, assuming 2-3 years lifespan and moderate usage at full load.

Thanks very much...

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Intel P4 1.6a @ 2400mhz
Asus P4S533
Samsung 512mb DDR PC2700 333mhz
2 Maxtors, 2 WD's
Netgear Network card (in addition to built-in LAN)
PCI-2-Firewire card
ADS external firewire box for HD/CDROM
NVidia GeForce3
Full tower with Antec 350w ps dual fan, additional fan out at back

Those temps are fairly typical for a P-4 using the retail cooler. Trouble is, the higher you overclock and the more voltage you use, the more critical it becames to run it cooler. A system running a default speed and voltage can tolerate slightly higher temps and still be stable than an overclocked system. My rule of thumb for the Northwoods is to keep load CPU temp below 50 degrees when overclocking. This of course means getting better cooling. As for what is the ideal temp for long term longevity... who knows exactly for sure? However, it's a known fact that a cool running CPU will generally last longer than a warm one. I think maybe the thermal throttling kicks in at 60 degrees, if so, then Intel must think that is too hot.

Just a side note, update to the most current version of PC Probe or use MBM5, the version you have has a bug were it won't read temps under 40C, your processor is probably idling cooler then 40.

Thanks, Matt. Had a little trouble figuring out what version AsusProbe i had (not readily evident), but just downloaded the most recent version i could find on the Asus site and voila! the temp dropped to 37c at idle...

Thanx again...

hey man where did you get your chip at thats a nice oc with at the voltage it took me 1.6 volts go get mine up there.

None other than googlegear.com

HOWEVER, a year and a half ago or so i bought a P3-700/100 from them, and it was a DUD! Could not get that hummer up to 933 for the life of me. Ended up biting the bullett on a 15 percent restocking fee.

So that's one out of two, hope this helps...

what week was the chip and what part of VA your from?

Let's see, sorry, don't know how to track that down. Looking at the box, it has a batch# 3208A512, pack date 3/27/02, and noticed before installing the cpu it was Costa Rica. does that help any... If i have to get more info off the cpu, you'll have to wait till i get my AlphaPal in a couple days.
Falls Church

Removed & replaced intel fan with Alpha 8942 + panaflo 12H +Arctic Silver. Looks to be between an 11 and 12 degree celcius DROP under load, without any fan noise increase that i can tell.

Previously, during load test with intel fan, temp rose to 53c after 10 minutes. This morning with Alpha after 20 min under load, highest temp was 41c.

BTW, the fan mount screws that come with the Alpha i think are only long enough to accommodate up to a 25mm thick fan. (2 sets of screws, the longest for 25mm fan).

Anybody mounted a delta80 or Vantec84 or anything that's 38mm thick to the 8942 and if so where'd you get the longer screws...

One other thing--guess the panaflo's don't have rpm monitoring?

Thanks
-------------------------------
Intel P4 1.6a @ 2400mhz
Asus P4S533
Samsung 512mb DDR PC2700 333mhz
2 Maxtors, 2 WD's
Netgear Network card (in addition to built-in LAN)
PCI-2-Firewire card
ADS external firewire box for HD/CDROM
NVidia GeForce3
Full tower with Antec 350w ps dual fan, additional fan out at back

Wonderful thread and a great testimony to the cooling difference of a good cooler compared to a crappy Intel retail heatsink. I have this bookmarked now in order to link all those newbies that argue with me that they don't need to upgrade their retail CPU cooler.

I suspect if you take one of those shorter screws to a good hardware store and tell them you need 4 of the same except longer (measure how long they need to be with a thicker fan), that they should be able to fix you up.

The trouble with the more powerful fans is that the pull too many amps to connect into the mobo header, so you do often lose your RPM monitoring capability. The high speed 80mm Deltas get around that by having two connectors. The four hole Molex connector for power and then just the single RPM wire going to a second three pin mobo header connector.