Really curious what temps people are getting running an Intel P4 3.0 Prescott cpu. By all I've seen online, it's supposed to just be a hot running processor. I'm running it with a beast of a fan on top - a copper monster called a Zalman CNPS7700, glued down with Arctic Silver 5 and I've got five 80mm case fans on the box. The best I've gotten down to is about 110°F at idle. I want to overclock it but would really like to get my temps down a bit before I take 'er up. Short of watercooling (No money for such luxuries), I'm hoping someone who's actually dealt with this particular processor will be able to lead me to cooler pastures here... Oh - and I've already tried reseating it with no change in temps. Thanks in advance for any imput on this. I love Humanity - It's the people I can't stand

We usually refer to temps in Celsius around here. 110F = approx 43C, that's pretty good for a Prescott. 5 case fans is probably overkill...how are they arranged?

Three in front, drawing air in and across six hard drives, two in the rear for exhaust. I never looked. Is this a Brit forum? I'm an American, and even though I guess it'll just reinforce the rest of the world's opinion about all us Yanks, what with our alleged arrogance and all that, I guess I'm too old to think in metric terms. They tried to get us on board with the rest of y'all back in the 70's just after the great gas crunch by putting liters on the wheels... Ouch! That would also make summer less fun to complain about - "Gee, it's 39 degrees out!" is way less dramatic than "Damn, it's 100 outside!"

I recently clean out my fans and heatsinks and turns out my idle temperature is 50C and 63C full load with thermaltake cl-p0024 + 92mm vantec stealth fan + Arctic Silver 5 and a 120mm vante stealth exhaust back... My CPU is running at 4ghz @ 1.3625v... At 4.2Ghz @ 1.45v gives me 55C idle and 65C full load... Im my opinion, 2 case case is sufficient. One 120mm back exhaust fan below the power supply and one 80mm front intake fan below the power button is enough to create a good air flow with cables wrapped. Adding additional fans will just create more noise... TMP-Man Asus P5P800-SE PAT P4 506 @ 4009Mhz 1.3625v Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 1700RPM 92MM + AS5 2GB OCZ 2-3-2-5 DDR400 120GB/300GB 7200RPM HD MSI 6600GT AGP 550/1100

TMP-Man I like your specs - impressive. But are you really comfortable with the temps? I guess my real concern is the life expectancy of the cpu. Okay - Intel says it just runs hot. But for how long? I usually had my 2.6 Pentium running at 3+ and it outlasted the motherboard it was on. That's why this new build. Oh - and as far as the noise goes, I guess the age factor must come into play again - the ears probably aren't what they used to be either. I tried running with less fans but the motherboard temps climbed dramatically, probably due to the stack o' drives in the case. Didn't want to mod the case to fit 120mm fans, so I just went with the 80mm holes that were already there.

Most software that monitors various system sensores report the temperature in Celsius degrees, that why we usually refer to temps in Celsius around here. Your temps are substantially lower then 85% of the general public who own prescott a processor. The average temp of a Prescott running at the frenqency 3.0Ghz is 47C at idle, with the ambient room temp being 72F. In my case, My 3.6Ghz cpu runs at 49c~51c idle all day long, but my Prescott is overclocked by an increase of 800Mhz (2.8Ghz + 800Mhz = 3.6Ghz). As For my full load temperatures go, I recieve readings of 65c~68c, depending on the application im running. I, like you, have an after-market heatsink which as you can see, keeps my Prescott at these exceptional temps. Intel specifies the thermal rating at 70c for its Prescott line of CPU's. You have to remember though, All of intel's processors (PIII and up) have thremal protection technology. A diode in the CPU scenes if its getting to hot, any temp at or above 76c (for more the a consistent three minutes) then will start throttling back the processors performance to save it from damage. At 80c the the CPU will turn itself off completely, again to insure it wont sustain any damage. Your tempature are excellent, and have absolutly nothing to worry about. You have alot of overclocking potential in that CPU if your motherboard permits options to do so. Prescott 2.8Ghz Oc'ed @ 3.6Ghz; 5:4 ratio Abit Is7-E Motherboard, i865-PE Chipset Muskin pc3200 Enhanced, 412Mhz; 2.5-3-3-6 Pny 6800nu; 430Mhz 820Mhz; 16p,5vp Two 36Gb Raptors in raid0 a

Mr. Noobie That's most reassuring and I thank you guys for the input. So... I guess it's time to crank 'er up a bit! Thanks again for your thoughts, folks.