Cooling question from an amateur.

[Den]

Recently I bought a GeForce 6800GTOC video card along with a couple of small case fans because I heard (and now know for sure) that that particular card runs very hot. Anyways, after installing the card, and the 2 small fans at the rear of my case(only slots they will fit in), I noticed that when playing a game, for example the original Half-Life, that after about 20mins of playing, if I Alt-Tab out and use AsusProbe to find out my CPU temp, it's usually as high as 61C(between 47-51C idle). It drops down very very fast to 57-58C(usually in about 2-3 seconds after launching the software, even if the game is still running).

My question is, isn't this still a little hot for an Intel P4 chip? Below are my specs.

P4 2.8Ghz
Asus P4P800S Motherboard
450W Power Supply
1G DDR PC3200 Ram
GeForce 6800GTOC
Sound Blaster Live sound card

I would've thought that my 2 new case fans(StarTech fans by the way, not even 2 inches wide..quite small) would cool everything down a little more than it did, but it really only made a 2-4C degree difference than before I had them. The only thing I can think of now, is to replace the CPU fan. I am so fed up with trying and trying to cool my system down. It doesn't lock up on me or anything like that, but still, I hear constantly how some people's CPU temps never go over 45C even after hours of gaming.

Any help or feedback would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Den

 

[Elbatrop1]

The first thing I have to ask is is this CPU a Prescott Cored Chip? If you dont know how to find out, go to www.cpuid.com and download CPU-Z. This will tell you what core the chip is.

Prscotts run really hot. But, even temps like those are a little too hight for a Prescott chip. If your chip is a Northwood, then something is definitely wrong, because Northwoods run quite cool.

What it will most likely come down to is you pulliing off the heatsink and fan (after ensuring that the fan is functioning) and wiping off all thermal paste, and reapplying some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

AS5 is really good thermal paste and, when applied properly, will usually lower the temp about 3 or 4 C from regular stock thermal paste. By this, I mean if the original thermal paste was working properly.

 

[H4x3r]

ya my P43.0 is a prescott and it runs at 41c idle....even with the zalman 7700 hsf...and AS5. the hottest i've gotten it was 55c and that was with BF2 ...yes my OC isnt as big as my sig says at the moment...but when i do run it at 3.9 then i idle at about 45/46c and load about 55c

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Prscotts run really hot. But, even temps like those are a little too hight for a Prescott chip. If your chip is a Northwood, then something is definitely wrong, because Northwoods run quite cool.

Even my northwood runs at 57 degrees celcius, but I agree that both our temps are too hot. Yours is most likely fixable.

 

[Den]

Ok, I downloaded CPU-Z and here is what is displayed on every tab. The screenshot is below.

http://www.angelfire.com/pro/907thkentz/cpu_z.jpg

Thanks for replying.

 

[vaderpro]

My Prescott runs at 46 right now but varies with ambient temps......highest i've seen: 53 degrees. I put some antec paste on it last week, and i'm going to get a Zalman heatsink as well.


Oh, with no OCing.

 

[H4x3r]

Ok, I downloaded CPU-Z and here is what is displayed on every tab. The screenshot is below.

http://www.angelfire.com/pro/907thkentz/cpu_z.jpg

Thanks for replying.

yes you have a prescott...but those temps are still way to high!... check this out....it might help a lil.

http://techist.com/showthread.php?threadid=64692

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Nothing that alarming for a preschott.

Anyways check out his loose ram, wow

 

[vaderpro]

Nothing that alarming for a preschott.

Anyways check out his loose ram, wow

I assume you mean cause he's in single channel?

 

[H4x3r]

beats me...