P4C temp and voltage

[boead]

Heat has always plagued AMD processors. I learned early on that there were only a few heatsink solutions that actually worked. The Alpha PAL6035 was great, the Alpha PEP66 was awesome. I used the Swiftech MC360, MC462 for some time. And of recently, I have used fancied the Thermalrights – SLK700, 800 and now the SLK900u. They have proved to be amazing. I tried a Volcano and another more commercial brand and found that were adequate but less so then the above mentioned.

So back to Intel. I was very impressed with the reviews of the newest i875p chipset and P4-C processors. I had already invested in two amazing sticks of Corsair XMS3500 memory that runs fast and stable. My last NF2/Athlon machine produced 3100+ MB/sec bandwidth at 200Mhz dual-channel in sync. I was anxious to see it perform in this new i875 board.

I chose the Abit IC7. I didn’t want the additional SATA and I read that the onboard Intel LAN sucked. Other brands either had issues with the ATI Radeon 9700pro (R300) or was not a solid overclocker. I have had less then good luck with Abit boards in the past but decided to try it out.

I also chose the Pentium 4 2.6c chip for its 13x multiplier.

Out of the box the machine was doing 13x X 250Mhz with stock voltage. Temp under load was hardly hitting 45ºc. Prime 95 was not stable at stock voltage. My chip was a 1.52v default variety but on the Abit IC7 the voltage is consistently .2-.3 v below what was set in BIOS. At default voltage the board is only putting out 1.50v. At 1.625v the board is putting out 1.60v according to Hardware Dr., Sandra and CPUZ.
At this voltage (also Vdimm at 2.8v and AGP at 1.6v) I am running 13x X 255Mhz for 3320MHz clock.

Temp is a bit higher then I was expecting but then again its from an internal diode rather then the less-then-accurate below the chip sensor I was used to reading.
My last AMD CPU at 2400Mhz needed 2.0v to run and temp would read between 42ºc and 50ºc (Prime-95 load). (note: I have seen the board to shut down at 70ºc from the diode so I can assume at Prime-95 load, the diode temp would exceed that temp).
This new P4 at 3320Mhz is reading between 38ºc and 61ºc – I have read people comment that they are using Volcano type coolers and not reaching more then 45ºc under load but I find that really hard to believe. Again, I have used these type coolers and found them less capable then the SLK-800 and 900 coolers buy a large margin.

In the past (as I have said) I have not had the best luck with Abit boards. One of the things I always found disturbing was the horribly inaccurate temp readings from them. Is this still the case?

What do you guys think about the temp readings and different type of coolers?

Also and most importantly, how much is ‘too much’ in regards to voltage and temp on a P4C??

Last words; this system isn’t benching much higher then my last AMD machine at 2400Mhz but it’s a whole lot smoother, faster and more stable then any AMD computer I have built. I’m happy I’m back with Intel.

Pentium4 2.6c - ABit IC7 (i875p)
3320 MHz - 255mhz FSB (1020mhz Effective)
1.60v Vcore, 2.77v Vdim
XMS3500 at 204mhz - 6-2-2-2.0

Sandra 2003:
mem- 5569MB/s | 5567MB/s
cpu- 10153 / (2864/6307)
mmb- 15314 / 23848

Radeon 9700p (371mhz/688mhz) artifact clean, will go higher!
ATI Cat. 3.4 - WinXP pro
18,858
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6633277

[Fire&Ice]

You summed it up in your opening statement AMD + heat

and where theres heat, theres fire, and where theres fire theres
action baby ---get real COOL your baby
AMD rules