I just upgraded my 2.4 northwood (p4) to a 3.4 prescott,its over clocked to 3.65 im getting temps into 67-68 during games, i have a relatively good cooling system, same system kept my northwood cool, At what temps is a prescott too hot, also how high have you guys seen this thing oc'ed? Thanks

prescott cores @4ghz are common but water cooling or higher is required and that temps fine is your cooling the bog standard intel cooler or an aftermarket cooler. Also you should be able to push the cpu alot more e.g. 3.7-3.8 ghz safely
good luck
Damian

Pentium4 3.20ghz@ 3.7ghz
1Gb Crucial XMS PC3200CL2
1 X 80GB HDD OS
2 x 250gb
NVDIA GeForce4 MX4000 Pro
ASUS P4-U800-X
600w PSU 12v 1-14amp
2-15amp
WinXp

Its an aftermarket, ThermalTake Copper Heatsink +fan, No water cooling yet, I pushed so far to 3.83 GHZ and am idling mid 50's and gaming at 68 and peaks at 72

I have a 4Ghz prescott air cooled, idles at 50C and load at 65C a 1700RPM vantec stealth 92mm fan (room temp = 72F).. Before I had a 3500RPM 92mm fan on this heatsink and it idles at 47C and load at 55C but the bzzzzz noise bugs me like crazy, so I just return this turbo fan and switch to the quieter model vantec stealth 92mm...

Things you can do the decrease CPU temperatures...

1. Replace standard thermal pad/paste to Arctic Silver 5.
2. Make sure all cables are wrapped such that nothing is blocking the fan...
3. Make sure you have a good air flow setup... i.e One back exhaust fan below power supply and one front intake fan below the hard drive.

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4009Mhz 1.3625v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 1700RPM 92MM AS5
2GB OCZ 2-3-2-5 DDR400 PAT
120GB/300GB 7200RPM HD
Leadtek 7600GT AGP 590/1600 VF700 ALCU AS5

One more thing to mention is that Prescott with E0 revision tends to overheat more than G1 revision...

i.e Pentium 4 506 (room temp = 72F)

Step code/Production Place/Revision

SL8J8 Costa Rica E0 @ 4ghz 1.3625v 50/65
------------------- @ 4ghz 1.5v 58/80
------------------- @ 4ghz 1.6v 65/90 (crashed & shutdown)

SL8PL Costa Rica G1 @ 4ghz 1.5125v 50/65
------------------- @ 4ghz 1.6v 55/70

So if you do have the E0 stepping, I highly recommand stay below 1.4v CPU voltage, else air cooling will not be sufficent to cool down the beast...

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4009Mhz 1.3625v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 1700RPM 92MM AS5
2GB OCZ 2-3-2-5 DDR400 PAT
120GB/300GB 7200RPM HD
Leadtek 7600GT AGP 590/1600 VF700 ALCU AS5