Okay..
1.) I had to bend it because the actual flat prob part was say about an inch long. That center of the bottom of the P4 chip between the pins isn't that long, so I had to bend the probe in half so it would fit. I know that at the end the two probe wires come together and that is where it gets the reading from. That part is touching the bottom of the cpu chip.. I just didn't know if by bending it, that could break the probe or cause the readings to be off. I don't think it did because I get very good solid readings and the readings are always about 8-10c below what MBM 5 reports to me..
2.) Yes I know the p4 chip has a built in sensor, so that is what I see in MBM 5.. BUT.. if you go over to the Abit forums you will see that Abit Motherboards are using a different calculation to figure out the correct cpu temp, thus making all of the Abit boards (well Is6, Ic7) read higher temps than the rest of the boards out there. So by using this temp probe of the Xaser III case, I am pretty confident that the CPU temps are actually lower than what MBM 5 is reporting to me from the CPU core off the Abit board.. I understand that the actual core is on the top of the chip, and that by reading the probe from the bottom it might be a little lower, but I don't think it would be 8-10c lower!
3.) I asked if you guys think it is a problem that by putting the probe under the cpu chip, the wires have to get fed through the pins and out the side, well the side where the wires come out, the chip is sitting a little higher there in the socket. So in effect, the cpu chip doesn't sit perfectly flat in the socket and I had to push down with some force before locking the socket level to try and get it as level as possible, but it still isn't as level as it would be if all the sides of the chip sit perfectly flat on the socket... so I was wondering, is this a problem for either the chip or for the slk-900u that's sitting on top of it? I am not sure if the slk-900u is making a level even contact with the chip, it feels like it is, but by knowing the chip isn't perfectly flat in the socket makes me wonder.. should I be worried? My temps see fine.. MBM 5 is reporting 36C CPU, 29C Case, 27C PWM while I am writing this post.. so my computer isn't under stress right now, but even when under stress from Prime95 my CPU only goes up to about 50c in MBM 5 and up to about 42C on the Xaser III's thermal probe that sits under the CPU... so do I have anything to worry about?
NEW SYSTEM:
P4 2.8c (800fsb), Abit IS7, Kingston HyperX PC3500 (2 x 512mb), IBM Deskstar (60 gig @ 7200rpm)
OLDER SYSTEM:
P3 850mhz (100fsb), Asus CUV4X, 620mb Micron PC133, WD 40gig 7200rpm