I was wondering if it is bad for my Pentium 4 processor to be running at a temperature range of about high 50's to about 65 degrees celsius while playing games on my computer? My normal idle temperature is usually around 39 - 42. Thanks for the input.

i suggest you get a better cooling, that's too hot for intel processors. But you don't have to worry becaues you will never burn it out, its got a thermal protection built in and it will automatically slow the clock rate down did you apply thermal compound when you install the cpu on the core?

Here are a few ideas. - play games with the case open and see how much difference it makes. If its at least 5C better than with the case shut, you've got a case circulation problem. You can't blow hot air on a cpu and expect to cool it. I've got a foot long 4 inch diameter plastic clothes dryer duct running between a case vent and the hsf fan so that the air that hits the cpu originates outside the case. Makes a big difference. - if you have the stock intel hsf then I wonder if the fan is failing - if its some other hsf then it is probably not installed properly.

When I play with the case side off it stays a couple degrees cooler, I dont think I have that great of an air circulation in my case. I need to work on that. I am using the stock hsf. Think it would be worth buying a better hsf? HOw hot should a P4 run at its max load?

what speed is your CPU? actually...no matter what it is, buy a Thermaright SLK-900U, worth the money, pure copper, will keep any previous P4s and new P4s cool

If you're at 40C idle I would say max load is 48C-50. The amd xp machine I'm on right now idles at 40C and goes to 48c after 20 minutes running toast.exe which cooks your cpu. Never gets over 44C otherwise. Since cpus all run off of the local ambient there isn't really a normal temp, but given your idle temp I'm surprised you ever get over 50C. On hsf tests I've done, a large difference between idle and max load happens when using very low speed fans. If your mobo has the four holes you need, the slk900U is the best you can get. That way you won't need a loud fan. That said, if you turn off your temp monitoring and forget about it its not going to hurt your cpu or shorten its life or anything.

Thanks for the help. Do you happen to know if that heatsink would fit on the Abit BH-7 mobo?