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What's the maximum safe operating temperature of a Northwood-128 Celeron?

Not got a specific answer to hand, but I'd expect somewhere in the 60-70 degrees range before it starts to suffer damage.

That's not very specific, plus it's rather uncomfortably close to the 50-55C it gets during Quake...

The maximum safe tempreature is not based on processor design, but on the behaviour (particularly things like thermal fatigue, creep and diffusion) of the silicon semiconductors and aluminum conductors.

The nominal maximum is usually 75-90C, but generally anything over 50-60 can measurably degrade the processor life.

Well it stabilizes at 55C during long sessions of RtCW, so I think I'll be ok.

Is there a CPU temp program that doesnt eat much CPU power and has configurable redline settings?

The Dude wrote:The maximum safe tempreature is not based on processor design, but on the behaviour (particularly things like thermal fatigue, creep and diffusion) of the silicon semiconductors and aluminum conductors.

The nominal maximum is usually 75-90C, but generally anything over 50-60 can measurably degrade the processor life.

Do you have a source for this?

I'm just curious because of the apparently hard use that I and several others put to some computers at school this year.

How do you find the CPU's temp?

55C is perfectly safe.

phongn wrote:55C is perfectly safe.

Thank fuck, because that's what my computer runs at when it's idle. I'm afraid to play games on it...

Luke Starkiller wrote: Do you have a source for this?

You can find specs for P4s here

They quote maximum numbers in the 65-70C range, which is a bit higher than I had remembered.

Why the hell did you get a Celeron?

Yeah, 55 is wha tI see at the typical peak for most systems. Mine idles at like...40, though. How many cooling fans do you have in your system, Dalton, and when's the last time you cleaned the dust out? If the answer is 'more than one' and 'recently' and you're getting those temps, see about upgrading your CPU fan and heat sink, as that's an abnormally high idle. Not dangerously so, but wide margins are a good thing.

The Cleric wrote:Why the hell did you get a Celeron?

It's what the guy had, plus it has a B4D4$$ Radeon 9200.

It's probly a simple matter of getting any old 3.0GHz Socket-478 P4 for around $200 and upgrading the BIOS (I already have the BIOS upgrade filez on the hard drive; FYI Mobo is an Intel "Blue Mountain" D845PEBT2 with the QDR FSB) to boost the performance anyway. I need to do a CPU upgrade to get my Hardware Jedi Knight 'certification' one of these days anyway...

BTW how does one set the FSB to, say, 133MHz real-clock? I want to do a mild OC of the entire system...

Dalton wrote:

phongn wrote:55C is perfectly safe.

Thank fuck, because that's what my computer runs at when it's idle. I'm afraid to play games on it...

WTF~D00D?!!?!~ That's a bit high! You might wanmt to consider upgrading that heatsink, redoing your wiring harness for better airflow, and adding a couple case fans. If you really want to get extreme, try a watercooling rig.

P.S. Idle temp here is 38-40C and CPU fan RPM is 1144...

The Dude wrote:

Luke Starkiller wrote: Do you have a source for this?

You can find specs for P4s here

They quote maximum numbers in the 65-70C range, which is a bit higher than I had remembered.

Thanks.

It looks like we may have actually done some real damage, >77C for hours at a time.

Pentium 4 Prescotts in the 500 and the new 600 series idle in the mid 50 degrees Celcius range and at full usage they get up to 70+ degrees celcius range on their stock provided heatsink coolers.

I put a Thermaltake copper heatpipe cooler on my new P4 640 3.2Ghz and the highest temperature ive reached since then is only 60 degrees celcius using sisoft sandra and lots of intensive gaming.

White Haven wrote:Yeah, 55 is wha tI see at the typical peak for most systems. Mine idles at like...40, though. How many cooling fans do you have in your system, Dalton, and when's the last time you cleaned the dust out? If the answer is 'more than one' and 'recently' and you're getting those temps, see about upgrading your CPU fan and heat sink, as that's an abnormally high idle. Not dangerously so, but wide margins are a good thing.

2 intakes, 4 exhausts (plus the PSU fan). It's got a stock heatsink, but I haven't dusted it out lately. I put in a couple of rounded IDE cables too to try to improve airflow, but I have a Zalman CNPS7700 AlCu waiting for installation - I haven't the confidence in myself yet to install it.

EDIT: Another problem is that the computer is in my bedroom, which tends to not get very good air circulation.

And how does one find out the CPU temp?? Stick a thermometer in the floppy drive?

Enigma wrote:And how does one find out the CPU temp?? Stick a thermometer in the floppy drive?

There are programs that read off the CPU's internal temperature readings.

Enigma wrote:

How do you find the CPU's temp?

Er, never thought to check, but apprently you can get the info off the Basic Input Output System, which you can access on startup by hitting <delete> or one of the Function keys, depending on your computer. Read the manual. I have no idea what I'd do there, and only been a couple of times trying to untangle a blue screen of death. Not having disaster time set aside, I haven't tried looking.

These two sites have software that let you read temperature off the computer's own sensor system, if it has one set up. Unless your computer is giving you problems, I would hesitate to just start tweaking and poking away. I mean, if you are not sure what can go wrong, maybe a little more research is necessary.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/readtemp.html

Professionals probably make a decent living cleaning up after the casual do-it-yourselfer with more curiousity than knowledge and smarts.

The Wookiee wrote:2 intakes, 4 exhausts (plus the PSU fan). It's got a stock heatsink, but I haven't dusted it out lately. I put in a couple of rounded IDE cables too to try to improve airflow, but I have a Zalman CNPS7700 AlCu waiting for installation - I haven't the confidence in myself yet to install it.

EDIT: Another problem is that the computer is in my bedroom, which tends to not get very good air circulation.

The dust is likely costing you several degrees of cooling. Just make sure you don't blow dust into the fan bearings or you'll kill the fan.

General Brock wrote:<snip>

Thanks! I've downloaded and installed MBM 5 and my current core temp is 49C and that is close to idle. Plus the case temp is 29C.

Crayz9000 wrote:The dust is likely costing you several degrees of cooling. Just make sure you don't blow dust into the fan bearings or you'll kill the fan.

Heh, try 9. I just gave the insides a good dusting, rearranged the wires a bit and I'm running at like 120F/48C at the moment.

Dalton wrote:

Crayz9000 wrote:The dust is likely costing you several degrees of cooling. Just make sure you don't blow dust into the fan bearings or you'll kill the fan.

Heh, try 9. I just gave the insides a good dusting, rearranged the wires a bit and I'm running at like 120F/48C at the moment.

Excellent!

I think I might have to see if I can redo my wiring harness a bit as well. See if I can shave a couple degrees off the top...

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:Excellent!

I think I might have to see if I can redo my wiring harness a bit as well. See if I can shave a couple degrees off the top...

The problem with me is that I have three hard drives and six fans, so there's a bunch of wires jammed in there. I think I may have to get a larger case at some point (and at that point I'll put on the new heatsink).