P4 1.6a expectations

This is my first post, so sorry for any errors. I was hoping that some of the experts here would mind giving some advice.

Upgraded from an Athlon XP 1500+ to a P4 1.6a (Costa Rica) at the weekend. The main hope was to get the P4 running at 133 x 16.

Well put it together, clocked it to 133fsb with stock cooler and default 1.50v. Everything booted up without a hitch but once into windows the PC became unstable. Rebooted with Vcore at 1.55 but still locked up in windows. Again at 1.6v. Now running at 1.65v and much more stable. Ran Jedi Knight II for two hours solid without a hitch. But PC locked up just after.
Its running at 55c at idle and 64c under load. Case internal temp 28c. Do you think an after market cooler like a Thermaltake Volcano 7+ will help.
Not keen on upping the Vcore without changing the HSF. Will upping the Vcore help or have I bagged a duff CPU.

Hope this all makes sense

Regards

P4 1.6a, 512Mb DDR 266, MSI 845 Max2 ARU, Geforce 4 Ti200

Yes, you have to lower your temps.

An after sales HSF will much improve your temps.
The Volcano 7+ is one of the options.
There are others,like ALPHA,Swiftech,Thermalright,Zalman....ech.

Also make sure there is good contact between the HS and the cpu...and also apply some AS-II or AS-III between them.

Rustie said:

This is my first post, so sorry for any errors. I was hoping that some of the experts here would mind giving some advice.

Upgraded from an Athlon XP 1500+ to a P4 1.6a (Costa Rica) at the weekend. The main hope was to get the P4 running at 133 x 16.

Well put it together, clocked it to 133fsb with stock cooler and default 1.50v. Everything booted up without a hitch but once into windows the PC became unstable. Rebooted with Vcore at 1.55 but still locked up in windows. Again at 1.6v. Now running at 1.65v and much more stable. Ran Jedi Knight II for two hours solid without a hitch. But PC locked up just after.
Its running at 55c at idle and 64c under load. Case internal temp 28c. Do you think an after market cooler like a Thermaltake Volcano 7+ will help.
Not keen on upping the Vcore without changing the HSF. Will upping the Vcore help or have I bagged a duff CPU.

Hope this all makes sense

Regards

P4 1.6a, 512Mb DDR 266, MSI 845 Max2 ARU, Geforce 4 Ti200

Click to expand...

yea man, u gotta get those temps down. a p4 even overvolted should never get hotter than 40-45c, of course depending on how your taking the temps.

i figure your using the mobo's onboard sensors, they are never very accurate. but anything over 45c period is too hot IMO

whats your pack date? sounds like you got a bummer chip. sorry about that. mine does 140 fsb with default voltage. you do need to get the temps down a bit.

Setting the machine at stock specs and stripping the thermal pad off the stock heatsink and using some good thermal grease until you get a better heatsink is recommended too. Heatsink wise, the Thermalright AX-478 and the Alpha with a lower PRM fan are 2 good recommendations.

Better heatsink for sure. My system is set to shutdown at 65C.

WOW! 35C above mobo temp?!! u definity NEED to get better cooling then!! my 1.8a, 1.8v, @ 2.59G, using AX-478 w/ a slow & quite fan is running mobo 35C, cpu 53C loaded w/ SETI.

Thanks for all the replies. I have already taken steps to cool it down. However, I think the motherboard sensor is a bit off. I stuck the PC in an air-con room at an ambient temp of 18C, with all the sides to the case off. Yet the motherboard reckoned the case temp was 28C on boot up and the CPU 45C. That was 15secs after boot up, at default 1.6Ghz and with the strip replaced by Artic Silver II. Also made sure there was good contact between CPU and HSF. Once into windows the CPU temp was back up to 55C.
The Volcano 7+ arrives tomorrow but in the mean time I have written a note to MSI.
What do you think! The motherboard or the CPU?

Things don't look good though!

go see if there's any new BIOS from MSI. it "might" be the BIOS......