Need advice on best P4 and settings for my board

[opensky]

Hello out there.

I am putting together a PC for the first time, and have run into some difficulty, probably owing to my lack of knowledge in a few areas. Maybe you can help?

I bought a Foxconn 661mxPlus Mobo, which states that it is compatible with "FSB 800(overclock)/533/400MHz". I bought a P4 3.2Ghz Prescott with an 800Mhz FSB, and put in two sticks of PC3200 400MHz RAM. The CPU came with a decent looking HSF combo, with a copper core, which I put on using Arctic Silver 5. I also bought an Antec 550 watt PSU.

Here's where the problem comes in. My CPU is running extremely hot, 50-60 C at idle. I tried resetting the heatsink after cleaning everything very well and being extremely careful applying the thermal grease, so I do not think my problem is with that.

I am ignorant as to if and how I need to change any settings in the BIOS to get this to run optimally. I know Prescotts are supposed to run hotter, but this is way out of hand. BTW, this is all with the side of the case open, so its not an issue of ventilation. I tried putting the side of the case on to see what would happen, and it got up near 70 C in a few minutes.

Are there settings in the BIOS that would correct this, such as frequency or something?

I am willing to downgrade my CPU a little bit if it will get this to run cooler. I found a Northwood 3.2 GHz that is also 800MHz FSB, and also a 3.06 GHz Northwood with a 533MHz FSB. I am just not sure which spec could be causing the overheating, so I don't know what steps to take. Then the thought occurred to me, What about the RAM? Could this be contributing to my problems?

Could anyone offer me advice on this?

Optimally, I would like to run the 3.2 Prescott that I already have, but am willing to change it out to get better temps.

So heres my options:

Keep the Prescott 3.2 800MHz FSB, but change some settings in the BIOS

Get a Northwood 3.2 800MHz FSB

Get a Northwood 3.06 533MHZ FSB, but with only 512 cache.

Or, something else that I'm not taking into consideration.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[gamerk316]

P4's are obsolete now, you'd be far better off with a Core-2, if not a cheap (Q6600) Quad instead.

 

[Reynod]

Its a socket 478 mobo so there is little you can do in terms of upgrading.

I suggest looking at the case cooling for a start - if you hace a decent cooler and you can't get fresh air in and the hot air out then your in a pickle ... so you will have to address that for a start.

You could try reducing your FSB a little (from 200 down to ??) and lowering the core voltage for the cpu in the bios (1.25v... less voltage (providing the cpu is stable) does mean less heat produced.


I am a but rusty on the P4's so if someone else can help the op that would be great.

http://processorfinder.intel.com/

Start there and ID the cpu and it's normal core voltage and stepping.

http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ParentRadio=All&ProcFam=483&SearchKey=

These all seem - 1.25v - 1.4v.

16 X 200 (quad pumped to 800FSB) = 3.2HGhz



They are pretty hot.

Get a decent AGP card for them still tho ...

Might be a cheap rig to play with but badly outpaced by any of the core2 systems - even an E2000 series will beat it.

Hope this helps ... I think the 90nm chip is the Prescott ...

 

[jimmysmitty]

Rey is right. 90nm was Prescott. But to be honest Foxconns website sucks. Could barely find the mobo but couldn't find the CPU support list.

Either way that is very out dated. Its almost not worth it since it doesn't even use dual channel DDR and only single channel.

 

[opensky]

Thanks for the input. I am aware that this is very outdated. I had an old Dell Dimension 2400 sitting around, and thought that I could just beef it up a little bit, and use it as a media server, and for playing around with some Linux Distros. Of course I got carried away, and wound up replacing every single component, revolving around a socket 478 board. I realize that for the same price I could have built a dual core system, but honestly, I don't really need it. Sure, if I had to do it over again, i would do it totally different. But, I didn't, and this is what I got. I can't recover very much of my money, so I would like to follow through with it, and play with the result for awhile. next one will be different! This is just a learning project, as all my working computers are Macs. They are great, but I miss out on all this fun upgrading stuff.

 

[Reynod]

I will ignore the Mac comment and continue to help a clearly tortured soul.

So check out your bios and see if you can drop the fsb and the cpu core voltage (usually in about 0.05 steps from memory).

If you were to drop the fsb from 800 (which is actually 200) to 664 (which is actually166) this will drop the speed to 2.66 Ghz ... should be plenty for a media server.

You should be able to drop the cpu core voltage below 1.25 ... maybe a little.

I never undervolted one of these ...

The ram won't be an issue.

Then shop around for a graphics card - check the AGP charts ... you can get a good one cheap now.

Alternatively get a water cooler kit for it and overclock it !!!

 

[opensky]

This sucky MoBo doesn't allow you to tweak any of the settings that specifically, at least not that I can find. I am just going to downgrade the processor to a Northwood 3.06 GHz 533Mhz FSB 512 cache P4. I think part of my problem is that the board is supposed to run a 533/400MHz FSB, or 800MHz overclocked. The Prescott that I got in there is a 800MHz FSB. Anyway, even if the FSB isnt part of the problem, going to a Northwood should help immensely. I'm guessing it'll actually perform better because of the cooler temps, and I won't have to add any fans and increase the noise factor.

I already put in an NVIDIA Geforce FX5500, way more power than I'll need in this thing.

Maybe later, I'll try OC ing the 3.06, and see if I can get better than 3.2 while maintaining a lower temp than the "Preshott".

Anyway, thanks for the tips. I'll report back after after I switch the CPUs out, and will hopefully have good news on the temperature issue.

 

[opensky]

Here's an update:

I bought a P4 Northwood 3.06 GHz 512k cache 533Mhz FSB. I got it on eBay for $26. I installed it, and ran HWMonitor with Prime95 running, for an hour. The temp started out at 35C, and climbed up into the low 50s in about 15 minutes. I put the side of the case on, and the temp went up to 55C and stabilized. The fan however, went from 2300 to 3500 rpm at which point it started to make a loud noise. (The same noise happened with the 3.2 GHz CPU when I put the side of the case on and it started overheating.) I guess the fan just can't handle the RPMs. The temp was stable though. I took the side back off, and the noise pretty quickly died down, and the temp started dropping, leveling out at about 46C. Prime95 was only pushing the CPU usage up to about 52%, so I opened up Photoshop, and moved some really big images around to keep the CPU usage right around 100% for the next half hour. The temp was still hanging at 46. After the hour was up, I quit Prime95, and 20 minutes later the CPU temp has stabilized at 36C at idle. This is more than acceptable for what I need. I will get a different fan that won't freak out under load, and either add a case fan, or just splurge and get a nicer case.

I did find where to tweak the settings in the BIOS for overclocking, so maybe in the future when I get a better case and more/better fans, I'll pump it up a little bit. Then I'll probably get bored, and build a Nehalim system, once they are reasonably priced.

Anyway, thanks for trying to help, Reynoud. I'm really impressed that you could find the time to help in between system crashes, updater updates, and all that anti-virus software configuring that you have to do!

 

[cjl]

Hmm...

Last time I messed with my antivirus: June
Last time I updated software: Not sure - it isn't often or annoying enough to keep track
Last time I had a BSOD: I honestly can't remember. It was longer ago than 6 months.
Last time I wanted to throw the computer out the window: Today (It was a mac I was using for class.)