Drizzid

I have been tinkering with my bios trying to increase my system performance. My specs are: p4 2.4c 800 mhz fb, 1gig 400mhz mem, msi neo2 mobo v1.7 on bios, radeon sapphire atlantis 9600 256mb vid card. This motherboard has built in levels for performance. Before I increased the levels I got a 8940 3d mark score. After I bumped the levels up I am now running 9073 3d mark score and running about 50c. My question is about how hot should a p4 2.4c run safely and which temp is more important to monitor processor or case? I've googled my question but haven't really found a definitive answer. Would appreciate any advice

Spyder

Processor temperature is the only number that matters. The good thing is that you have an intel CPU, and they throttle their CPU speeds way down when they start running too hot. The bad news is that the temp they throttle at is tricky to define.

You will be able to tell if your CPU throttles if you increase your overclock and your 3dmark score suddenly tanks.

I do not like running my processor at higher than 50C idle temp (just sitting in windows watching the temp monitor constitutes idle temp) If you have a program that can log your CPU temps, use that and run a game for about 10 minutes to see what it's load temps are. 60-65C is about the top of what most people consider "safe" CPU temps, temperatures that you can run the CPU at regularily without undue risk to the CPU. I personally don't like running that hot, and sit at around 40C idle.

__________________
a.k.a. NinjaPirateAssassin
Celibacy is not Hereditary.
Everybody should believe in something - I believe I'll have another drink.
Happiness is like wetting your pants, everyone can see it but only you can feel the warmth.
Flying is easy, Just throw yourself at the ground and miss!

Drizzid

I have motherboard monitor 5.0 and I idle at about 35c. Under load its about 50-55c. I only have 2 fans pusher and a puller. I also updated my radeon sapphire atlantis 9600 to the newest catalyst drivers that took my 3d mark score to 9603. Do you think I should leave it there or should I try and bump it up to next level and see what happens? Thanks for the help Spyder

phaze

Do you know what P4 processor u have? Northwood or Prescott as the Prescott's run much hotter in general. If you have a Northy you could probably push it a little more, either cpu should hit 2.8 - 3.0 with a good push. Also do you have the stock cooler still? If so you may want to look at an alternative - the Arctic Cooling Freezer 4's are pretty good, there pretty cheap now and do a wonderful Job, id advise an upgrade if your gonna attempt any OC. Im running a 3.0 Northy @ 3.6 with temps no higher than 50c with 1.

Anyway a score of 9603 is very nice indeed...Have you OC'd the FX Card???

Drizzid

I do not know which processor I have, is there a way to tell? I haven't OC'd the card just tweaked the mobo settings 1 level. The settings on these MSI k8n neo2's are kinda weird and I'm not exactly knowledgable in this area as you can tell. I don't want to go crazy but to be honest it's kinda fun tinkering with these settings trying to up the performance. Thanks for the help fellas

Root

Yup. Download a program called everest. It's free and gives you all sorts of useful info about your system.

To find what processor you have, start the program and on the left hand side click on motherboard > cpu to get your cpu type and alias.

__________________

Spyder

It will also display all of the useful temperatures on your system, including your Video card if it has a probe on it. Great stuff.

__________________
a.k.a. NinjaPirateAssassin
Celibacy is not Hereditary.
Everybody should believe in something - I believe I'll have another drink.
Happiness is like wetting your pants, everyone can see it but only you can feel the warmth.
Flying is easy, Just throw yourself at the ground and miss!