P4 cooling recommendations???

[bgowland]

Can anyone recommend from experience a good P4 cooler? I'm finding that even with comskip set to playnice, depending on what else is running, the CPu usage is going 80-90% and more. This heats the CPU to over 60 degC and the surrounding mobo area to over 50 degC causing the Intel Active Monitoring to beep at me every so ofyen as it's thresholds are being crossed.

My case is a 19inch rackmount with one front 120mm intake fan and two rear 80mm expelling fans. The room it's in gets reasonably warm this time of year (west-facing with a large window) and like an oven in the summer.

I don't want anything too over the top (urrm, liquid cooling for example) just something more efficient than the standard retail-box P4 heatsink/fan. Some people I know have mentioned CoolerMaster fans (but not a specific model) and I've also seen the Arctic Cooling Freezer 4 which one reviewer claimed dropped his average CPU temp. from over 50 degC to around 25 degC and the surrounding mobo area down by 10 degC.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received otherwise I'm going to have to relocate my mediaserver when the summer comes.

Cheers,
Brian

[Ron22]

I use a Zalman CNPS7000A-CU on my P4 3Ghz no overclocking. My brother uses a Zalman CNPS7700A-CU on his P4 3.4Ghz overclocked I think 10% .
Here is there web page.
Zalman Home Page
Here is a reveiw on it.
Toms Hardware
Warning this is a BIG fan make sure you check there web page for compatible mother boards.

[Tulex]

I can't recommend the heatsink/fan, but I can tell you this. My 3.4 came with stock hs/f with a thermal contact pad. My fan was ramping up and down big time. Had to remove fan to trouble shoot, and applied arctic silver with reinstall, and what a difference. Now, fan is very quiet and constant. So, I have learned that the thermal compound is JUST as important as the hs/f.

[bgowland]

I use a Zalman CNPS7000A-CU on my P4 3Ghz no overclocking. My brother uses a Zalman CNPS7700A-CU on his P4 3.4Ghz overclocked I think 10% .

Thanks for the reply. Coincidentally - I just saw your post after returning from the Zalman page which I found with a Google search. Their stuff certainly looks interesting - efficient and pretty quiet.

A few questions...What sort of average CPU temp. do you see? What about if the CPU usage runs 90% or more? What sort of ambient temp. does the room where your PC is have? (Sorry - didn't mean to sound like an interrogation but it would be useful to know).

I've a feeling the 7000 series may be too big (PSU too close) but I'm going to have to get a ruler into the case to confirm that. The 6000 series with the 92mm fans should, I think, fit though. My P4 is 2.4GHz and I don't intend overclocking as it's fast enough for what I need so I think the 6000 might be efficient enough.

Cheers,
Brian

[bgowland]

So, I have learned that the thermal compound is JUST as important as the hs/f.

Thanks - I was wondering about that too. At the moment it just has the thermal pad which came with the heatsink - it didn't look very impressive when I first looked at it and I've changed mobo since first installing so perhaps it isn't making as good contact as it originally did. We've got some Arctic Silver at work so I'll "borrow" a smearing of that.

[reven]

anyone got the ncu2005 or anything else on that page? i got a celeron d 330, and my cpu is always at 50C when idle and around 63C when doing stuff. i want a quiet fan (since thats the only thing in my machine making any noise) but also want something that will be quiet. that page is about the only place in new zealand that sell good quiet cpu coolers (well that i know of), so if anyone can recommend something of that page, it would be appreciated.

[capone]

Be careful of SW coolers, esp anything that throttles. I just spent a week pulling my hair out on an issue of flickering display. It turned out the oscellating of the CPU to cool it was creating the wave effect in my display output.

No harm in trying, but keep this in mind when watching post-performance.

[capone]

If you're not already haevily invested in one, a good case can really help. The silverstone case I have keeps the CPU and MB temps at < 90F idle and < 105F while in use. The HDs get up around 115f, but they are in front of case, and I may get something to help them.

It's only a 1.5 AMD, but it uses just 2 80mm fans (and one in power supply), and nothing more than the default fan/heatsink to keep it running just 10 deg above room temp idle.

Not saying this case is your answer, but a case w/ great airflow and positioned fans will do way more than a standard shell and industrial blowers.

[bgowland]

I decided to go with a Zalman CNPS7000B-CU Super Flower - it's the all copper one with the 92mm fan. I currently have the FanMate which comes with it set so it runs around 2300rpm - it's audible but not intrusive. I have 3 Antec Tri-cool fans (2x80mm, 1x120mm). The two 80mm are rear expelling and the 120mm is front intake. One of the 80mm fans is powered direct from PSU and switched to medium speed (~2000rpm) the two other fans are connected to mobo headers and controlled with Intel Active Monitor.

Anyway, in short, the temp. where my media server is located is around 28-30 degC (my thermometer isn't very accurate) and with various recordings going on this afternoon, comskip processes have kept my CPU at 95-100% for the past two hours. The CPU is sitting at 57degC and the zone around the CPU at 47degC. A similar situation a week ago in cooler weather, had the CPU around 65degC and the area around it at 52degC so things are looking good so far.

Cheers,
Brian