Rig always ran in upper 40's before i attempted to water cool with Aquastar 3000 water cooling kit. Temps were fine at idle but the poor heat exchange and low volume pump caused overheat multiple times during games. I removed everything and went back to stock, now my cpu runs 4-5 degrees C hotter and over heats at any stress. Is this a sign of damage or have I just done something stupid. I have checked my stock fan/aircooler 3 times for proper seating. I have removed heat compound twice. As far as i can tell everthing is as it was, just higher temps. Thoughts?

I don't know how many times this has to be said, but the P4 has thermal protection circuitry built into the CPU...you can NOT overheat a P4 to the point of failure. Initially, it will throttleback when a certain "trigger temp" is reached...if it continues to heat up, it will simply shutdown. Personally, I don't think water cooling is necessary...although it's getting cheaper, it's still somewhat expensive, it requires maintenance, & it's not much better than a good air cooling configuration (if at all). If you have a Prescott "hot potato", it's not unusual for temps to go into the high 60s/low 70s under load. Check that you reinstalled the stock HSF correctly & applied the thermal compound properly ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP2

Water cooling is for people with too much cash. What did all of this cost you BTW? You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users

Thanks for the replies. The Aquastar was $129. Too much. It comes with a GPU block but don't use it unless you have a very low heat output from the overall system. I bought just to replace noisy fans. Well it did. I have had quailty probs with it too. Most could not have fixed a massive leak in the pump/radiator box, or else may have chosen not to. After spending way too much time on my rig, I finally have the CPU watercooled, no GPU block and Idle temps are 43C, load temps are 52C. OK by me and a lot more quiet than stock fan. Still don't understand why the temps were way high after putting everything back to stock. Looks like I am water cooling or else with this rig despite 4 case fans.

GX1 Man "Water cooling is for people with too much cash." No, that is too much of a sweeping statement. I use water cooling and in the long run it has worked out cheaper than the "what HSF?" merry go round that is often asked on the forums. It is a case of looking at the long-term results v cost. Here is a section of what I wrote some time ago on that very subject: "But ... my comment was based on my system and what it achieved for me. It seems to boil down to cost. Yes it was pricey, but, purely on results I am very satified. If I look in my parts cupboard I can dig you out a total of 5 different hsinks and fans I have tried in the past couple of years on differnt rigs I have had, two of them are Zalmans, 1 Thermaltake the other 2 are stocks bought new. A quick add up comes to around £150.00 ( only an average of £30 each ) Not one of them gave me the results I have now, so, in financial terms, what I have now works out cheaper in the long run than trying several. The forums are full of advice on " buy/try" this fan/heatsink or this one, they all cost and that cost adds up in the long term as it has for me. And as a bonus, I can use it with most of the high end cpu's. So many times I have read that someone has built or upgraded a comp and want to know the best cooling system for it, more cash to spend. I would rather use one water-cooling system that can be used with many other CPU's than buy a new fan/hs everytime I upgrade. AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 WinXP Pro. WinXP Pro x64 Nvidia:6800GT Dane Electronic Pro. Dual 1024MB 400MHz RAM Tagan 480Watt PSU: 28Amps on +12volt rail. Asus A8V Deluxe "WiFi" M/Board - Aqua

I use an Evercool WC-300...another low dollar wc solution on my 2400+ "wannabe" htpc. It's worth about 5°C temp reduction over any low buck hsf solution I've used. Bottom line is that for less than a hundred bucks, it is a good cooling solution and is dead quiet. Would I spend 80 bucks for this? Probably not...I'd do my homework and go toward an aircooling solution. But, for those in a hurry to get good cooling...the wc-300 is outstanding. This machine is on 24/7 and runs at 100% cpu load running F@H in addition to doing duty as a bedroom tv, dvd player, internet, and playing simple games sort of machine. While this sort of solution might be appropriate for a Tbred B, I don't believe a Prescott is a good choice...I'd stick with the stock hsf or spend serious money on wc for the Prescott. Skip