The fan runs at full speed all the time. The chip is about 51C at
idle. I used to have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz in there, and the fan would
idle at a much slower, and quieter, speed. I have the BIOS set to
drop the fan speed when possible, but clearly it thinks 51C is too
warm, so it runs full speed.
If I underclock the CPU, this might make it run cooler and quieter.
The computer is a DVR, and if I can play HD video with a slightly
slower CPU, that's all I need it to do.
Never played with this stuff before, but I'd be curious what people
here have to say. Thanks.
"EdwardATeller" <sorry_no_email@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:813789d4-2fdd-4a18-b4bb-c41a68e72fb3@e60g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> I dropped this P4 3.0E chip:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116027
>
> into my socket 478 Asus P4R800-VM motherboard:
>
> http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/..._p4r800-vm.pdf
>
> As advertised, the chip runs hot. I have this Zalman fan/heat sink on
> it:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118114
>
> The fan runs at full speed all the time. The chip is about 51C at
> idle. I used to have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz in there, and the fan would
> idle at a much slower, and quieter, speed. I have the BIOS set to
> drop the fan speed when possible, but clearly it thinks 51C is too
> warm, so it runs full speed.
>
> If I underclock the CPU, this might make it run cooler and quieter.
> The computer is a DVR, and if I can play HD video with a slightly
> slower CPU, that's all I need it to do.
>
> Never played with this stuff before, but I'd be curious what people
> here have to say. Thanks.
Sure, try under clocking it.
You would not want it to get as hot as one of your H. bombs
EdwardATeller wrote:
> I dropped this P4 3.0E chip:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116027
>
> into my socket 478 Asus P4R800-VM motherboard:
>
> http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/..._p4r800-vm.pdf
>
> As advertised, the chip runs hot. I have this Zalman fan/heat sink on
> it:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118114
>
> The fan runs at full speed all the time. The chip is about 51C at
> idle. I used to have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz in there, and the fan would
> idle at a much slower, and quieter, speed. I have the BIOS set to
> drop the fan speed when possible, but clearly it thinks 51C is too
> warm, so it runs full speed.
>
> If I underclock the CPU, this might make it run cooler and quieter.
> The computer is a DVR, and if I can play HD video with a slightly
> slower CPU, that's all I need it to do.
>
> Never played with this stuff before, but I'd be curious what people
> here have to say. Thanks.
I'd be more curious as to why your CPU is running so hot at idle with
that heatsink and fan combination on it. I have the same CPU in my
Shuttle compact system (SB65G2) with the stock "ICE" cooler, not known
for its great cooling capacity, and I can run my 80mm fan at the slowest
speed and the CPU runs at around 42-45C at idle. It is not silent but it
makes no more noise than the Galaxy 8800GT video card which I have in
the new HTPC system I built.
Are you sure that you installed the cooler correctly? Peeled off any
coverings on the bottom if required? Applied the proper amount of
heatsink compound if required? Got the plate locked down properly? Is
the CPU fan truly compatible with the motherboard's control system? Is
it plugged into the correct header? Sorry if all of these seem obvious
but sometimes things get overlooked...
But, that said, you should be able to underclock the CPU by some amount
although I don't know if you will be able to reduce the voltage which
would also reduce the power dissipation even more.
EdwardATeller wrote:
> I dropped this P4 3.0E chip:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116027
>
> into my socket 478 Asus P4R800-VM motherboard:
>
> http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/..._p4r800-vm.pdf
>
> As advertised, the chip runs hot. I have this Zalman fan/heat sink on
> it:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118114
>
> The fan runs at full speed all the time. The chip is about 51C at
> idle. I used to have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz in there, and the fan would
> idle at a much slower, and quieter, speed. I have the BIOS set to
> drop the fan speed when possible, but clearly it thinks 51C is too
> warm, so it runs full speed.
>
> If I underclock the CPU, this might make it run cooler and quieter.
> The computer is a DVR, and if I can play HD video with a slightly
> slower CPU, that's all I need it to do.
>
> Never played with this stuff before, but I'd be curious what people
> here have to say. Thanks.
On a Prescott, at least some of the power dissipation is leakage
current. Back when CMOS had really large feature size (3 micron),
power would be close to perfectly proportional to FCV**2. With
the Prescott, I might not have the right figure, but I thought
leakage was somewhere around 25%. When you underclock,
don't expect a linear improvement from F alone, as the
leakage is a constant factor added to the FCV**2. So
even at DC (clock stopped - if that was possible), the
thing would still consume 25% of TDP.
I'd run it full speed, and throw a better cooler at it.
The Tuniq Tower would be an example, if it'll fit in
the computer case :-) . This is a BIG cooler.
Also, make sure your case ventilation is adequate. I have a
CNPS7000 on my current computer, and noticed a "warm cloud"
all around the CPU area. I increased the capacity of my
rear case fan, to improve the movement of air past the
CPU area. That might convince your CPU fan speed to drop a
bit.
The rear fan on a computer case, cannot work unless there is
sufficient intake vent area on the front of the case. By removing
the lower plastic bezel on my Antec Sonata, I achieved that objective,
without having to cut more holes in it.
On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:47:51 -0800 (PST), EdwardATeller
<sorry_no_email@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I dropped this P4 3.0E chip:
>
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116027
>
>into my socket 478 Asus P4R800-VM motherboard:
>
>http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/..._p4r800-vm.pdf
>
>As advertised, the chip runs hot. I have this Zalman fan/heat sink on
>it:
>
>http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118114
>
>The fan runs at full speed all the time. The chip is about 51C at
>idle. I used to have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz in there, and the fan would
>idle at a much slower, and quieter, speed. I have the BIOS set to
>drop the fan speed when possible, but clearly it thinks 51C is too
>warm, so it runs full speed.
>
>If I underclock the CPU, this might make it run cooler and quieter.
>The computer is a DVR, and if I can play HD video with a slightly
>slower CPU, that's all I need it to do.
>
>Never played with this stuff before, but I'd be curious what people
>here have to say. Thanks.
The most effective way to reduce CPU heat is to reduce CPU
voltage, plus underclocking it enough to retain stability at
the lower voltage (runs Prime95 stabily for at least an hour
with no errors). Whether your board has suitable features I
don't know but it probably does being an Asus. That will
definitely reduce the temps, though I can't say how far you
can underclock that chip before it struggles with HD video.
Today modern video card GPUs have hardware HD decoding
support so one way to offload some of the processing is use
of such a video card. Personally I would have bought a new
video card towards this end before buying a new processor,
but you may need both since DVR entails recording as well as
playback. However it seems your board has AGP slot not PCIe
and I'm not familiar with what the best option is on a
current-gen AGP card for your purpose, nor if you were
already using a separate video card instead of the
integrated video.
EdwardATeller wrote:
> I dropped this P4 3.0E chip:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116027
>
> into my socket 478 Asus P4R800-VM motherboard:
>
> http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/..._p4r800-vm.pdf
>
> As advertised, the chip runs hot. I have this Zalman fan/heat sink on
> it:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118114
>
> The fan runs at full speed all the time. The chip is about 51C at
> idle. I used to have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz in there, and the fan would
> idle at a much slower, and quieter, speed. I have the BIOS set to
> drop the fan speed when possible, but clearly it thinks 51C is too
> warm, so it runs full speed.
>
> If I underclock the CPU, this might make it run cooler and quieter.
> The computer is a DVR, and if I can play HD video with a slightly
> slower CPU, that's all I need it to do.
>
> Never played with this stuff before, but I'd be curious what people
> here have to say. Thanks.
I would recommend to try lapping the bottom of the Zalman heat sink
plate by carefully rubbing it flat against 600 sandpaper masking taped
down to a flat table. Follow this with a sheet of 1000 sandpaper and it
may make a big improvement for you. If your case is well ventilated you
should be getting a temperature of 35-38C with your cooling fan.
You only need about a half a drop of silicone heat transfer grease on
the top of your CPU and the Zalman heat sink. I have a Abit 478 socket
P4 3.2 Pentium with 800FSB and my CPU at idle is 34C using a NinjaPlus
revision B heat sink. I am using a well ventilated Antec Sonata case
with extra air able to come into the front lower bezel by cutting away a
lot of the bottom of it and also both sides about 1/2 inch. My exhaust
fan is 120mm running at about 700rpm. My Radeon HIS X1950Pro video card
exhausts through the rear of the case. My power supply runs very low
fan speed, it is a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750.
On Feb 27, 6:02 pm, John McGaw <nob...@nowh.ere> wrote:
> EdwardATeller wrote:
> > I dropped this P4 3.0E chip:
>
> >http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116027
>
> > into my socket 478 Asus P4R800-VM motherboard:
>
> >http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...1662_p4r800-vm...
>
> > As advertised, the chip runs hot. I have this Zalman fan/heat sink on
> > it:
>
> >http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118114
>
> > The fan runs at full speed all the time. The chip is about 51C at
> > idle. I used to have a Celeron 2.4 Ghz in there, and the fan would
> > idle at a much slower, and quieter, speed. I have the BIOS set to
> > drop the fan speed when possible, but clearly it thinks 51C is too
> > warm, so it runs full speed.
>
> > If I underclock the CPU, this might make it run cooler and quieter.
> > The computer is a DVR, and if I can play HD video with a slightly
> > slower CPU, that's all I need it to do.
>
> > Never played with this stuff before, but I'd be curious what people
> > here have to say. Thanks.
>
> I'd be more curious as to why your CPU is running so hot at idle with
> that heatsink and fan combination on it. I have the same CPU in my
> Shuttle compact system (SB65G2) with the stock "ICE" cooler, not known
> for its great cooling capacity, and I can run my 80mm fan at the slowest
> speed and the CPU runs at around 42-45C at idle. It is not silent but it
> makes no more noise than the Galaxy 8800GT video card which I have in
> the new HTPC system I built.
>
> Are you sure that you installed the cooler correctly? Peeled off any
> coverings on the bottom if required? Applied the proper amount of
> heatsink compound if required? Got the plate locked down properly? Is
> the CPU fan truly compatible with the motherboard's control system? Is
> it plugged into the correct header? Sorry if all of these seem obvious
> but sometimes things get overlooked...
>
> But, that said, you should be able to underclock the CPU by some amount
> although I don't know if you will be able to reduce the voltage which
> would also reduce the power dissipation even more.
>
> --
> John McGaw
> [Knoxville, TN, USA]http://johnmcgaw.com
Thanks for all the good replies. Turns out I can't change the
multiplier on my board. I guess that means I can't underclock, but
all the info here leads me to think that I must not have installed the
heat sink properly. Maybe it's not seated flat, so I'll take a look
at that first.
I tried buying a new graphics card first, but that didn't seem to do
the trick. I finally got my system to play HD with a new processor
and the new graphics card, but today the new card's fan started
buzzing, so I tried my old card, and guess what, it worked fine. That
means the 7600 GS is going back to Circuit City. I did change my
memory configuration today to have the DDR RAM in the proper slots
(1+3, instead of 1+2). Not sure if that made a difference, but it's
working fine now, just a little noisy.
On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:10:28 -0800 (PST), EdwardATeller
<sorry_no_email@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Thanks for all the good replies. Turns out I can't change the
>multiplier on my board. I guess that means I can't underclock, but
>all the info here leads me to think that I must not have installed the
>heat sink properly. Maybe it's not seated flat, so I'll take a look
>at that first.
>
>I tried buying a new graphics card first, but that didn't seem to do
>the trick. I finally got my system to play HD with a new processor
>and the new graphics card, but today the new card's fan started
>buzzing, so I tried my old card, and guess what, it worked fine. That
>means the 7600 GS is going back to Circuit City. I did change my
>memory configuration today to have the DDR RAM in the proper slots
>(1+3, instead of 1+2). Not sure if that made a difference, but it's
>working fine now, just a little noisy.
>
>Thanks again.
On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:50:29 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.com>
wrote:
>When you underclock,
>don't expect a linear improvement from F alone, as the
>leakage is a constant factor added to the FCV**2. So
>even at DC (clock stopped - if that was possible), the
>thing would still consume 25% of TDP.
.... but isn't that a great reason to underclock, in that it
allows decreasing V?
kony wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:50:29 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.com>
> wrote:
>
>> When you underclock,
>> don't expect a linear improvement from F alone, as the
>> leakage is a constant factor added to the FCV**2. So
>> even at DC (clock stopped - if that was possible), the
>> thing would still consume 25% of TDP.
>
> ... but isn't that a great reason to underclock, in that it
> allows decreasing V?
>
My point is, for the Prescott, that the improvement might not
be as good as you might expect. Yes, I agree, that dialing
down Vcore helps, as long as the thing is still stable. But
there will always be that leakage term in the power equation,
preventing the kind of improvements that the basic frequency
related term predicts. As far as I know, Prescott is the
worst for this kind of thing.
When F is zero here, the Prescott will still have the leakage power,
whatever the right number happens to be.
Power = FCV**2 + I_leakage*V
The leakage term on CMOS, used to be so small, that it was
used as a diagnostic. The IDDQ test used to be used at wafer
sort, to detect defective CMOS. Back in those days, even a
little leakage at DC, indicated a defective chip. But when
the chip burns 25% power at DC, such tests are no longer
meaningful.
Underclocking P4 3.0E Prescott 
Linear Mode
