Need a Great Cooler

[saeapu]

Hello,

I am having trouble keeping my cpu temp down. I have a total of 4 case fans. I have a Prescott P4 3.0 processor and my cpu temp is about 65 degrees.

Does anyone know a good cpu cooler system to help me keep my cpu cool heatsink/fan or should I invest in water cooler system.

I would like get my temp down to the 40's during high cpu usage time.

Your help would be greatfull.

Thanks,
Saeapu

 

[CheesePoofs]

first off, any temp read by the motherboard (as in not measured by a sensor you actually placed on the cpu) will be inacurate. As long as its stable, temps as read by the mobo don't matter except to compare what temp you are getting under load to your idle temp etc.

Second, you won't be able to drop your cpu temp 25 C with an air cooler, you'd need water or better to do that.

But, if you do want a good air cooler, the xp-90 and xp-120 are the two best coolers. I don't know much about water cooling, so i can't recomend anything there.

However, i wouldn't recomend you change anything. Temps are always misread, my friend just got a prescott and it says its running at 33 C, which is impossible. As long as your computer works, it should continue to work, so its not really worth putting money into a new cooler IMO.

 

[alien42]

cant go wrong with a thermalright

not sure which socket that p4 is though

 

[akira34]

Look at Thermalright for a quality unit. The XP-120 is a good one, paired up with the 120mm fan of your choice (more CFM the better). You will need to check motherboard compatibility for the XP-120 (it IS a monster). If it isn't listed as 'okay' then look to the XP-90 cooler or one of the other thermalpipe coolers from Thermalright (such as the SP-94)...

 

[Corporate Thug]

xp-120?

 

[akira34]

XP-120

 

[BonzaiDuck]

You can cross-validate your CPU/motherboard thermal sensors with tape-on thermal sensors and a front-panel thermal monitoring device. Some of these only provide one sensor wire and a simple backlit LCD temperature display, but they're less than $10.

By comparing several computers and independent thermal sensor readings, I'm pretty confident that my mobo sensors are reasonably accurate. Try upgrading your BIOS and SMBus / chipset drivers before spending more money.

Even so -- personally, I never, ever stick with the stock heatsink fan. When I'm building a system, I order a new third-party heatsink and fan at the time I order the processor, memory, motherboard etc. after settling on a heatsink choice based on mobo and processor compatibility. I usually cannibalize the INtel CPU fan and turn it into a hard-disk cooler, and the heatsink eventually finds its way to my friend's computer shop, from which he does a burgeoning business in salvaging "rare-and-not-so-rare-metals" from circuit-boards, discarded cases, hard-disks and other cyber-junk.

Also -- take a look at a Tom's Hardware Guide article (Tom's Hardware Guide ) that was posted sometime in the last three months about the adequacy of the stock heatsink-fan that accompanies LGA775 Prescott CPUs. Your need for either an XP-120, XP-90 or something similar is practically a "done deal" if what THG says is true.

 

[saeapu]

Thanks All for the info...

I will look in to the XP-120...


Any other sugestions ?

 

[drpootums]

The Zalman 7000a AlCu is pretty good, and for around $30 it's quite cheap.