Just got a P5WD2 with a 3.2 ghz pentium-d 840 and was wondering what
others were getting temperature wise. At idle with normal room temps I
get about 46 c, under full load I'm going way up to about 68/70 c. This
seems like a huge swing. This is my first dual core model so I'm not
sure if this is normal. Anyone running dual cores and what temps are you
getting?
The Intel processors have a throttling feature, and that is
the reason the processor is not going higher in temperature than
70C. When throttling, not every clock cycle is used for computing.
which helps to cool the processor down. It means you need better
cooling for the processor - either the case cooling is not sufficient
(air is too hot around the CPU heatsink/fan), or the CPU cooler needs
to be better (zalman 7700 or thermalright xp-120 plus lga775rm adapter
kit plus a fan).
You could try using two exhaust fans on the back of the case - that
is what it looks like they are doing in the picture at the top of
this page:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2388&p=3
or you could consider running a duct from the side of your computer
case, down to the top of the Intel fan. That would allow ambient room
air to be used for cooling.
Using equipment like this, requires special care in designing the
cooling solution. While the boxed Intel cooler will likely just
barely bring the CPU temp below the throttle level, you need a
cooling solution that can do much better than that. And just
dumping all the heat into the case, means you'll be torturing
your disk drives (which are the most heat/humidity sensitive
components in the case). If you use a large computer case,
for example, that will give you room to work, give you a place
to put in some exhaust fans, and allow more room for vent space
on the case (something I noticed was sadly lacking on one
of my computer cases).
This box, for example, has lots of room for fans. Have a look
at the product release sheet and the installation guide. There
is an option to have a fan in front of a group of drives, which
is exactly what you want, to give the drives the best cooling,
while moving a great volume of air through the case.
http://www.coolermaster.com/index.p...erial=STC-T01&other_title=+STC-T01+CM Stacker
If using a box like this, you'll also want a rheobus with enough
channels to control all the fans. Then you can adjust the fan
speeds for best cooling versus noise tradeoff. You could also
solve the problem with a handful of Fanmate II fan speed controllers
from Zalman, but a drive bay mounted rheobus with four knobs on
the front would be more convenient.
When doing the fans, it is best to balance the inlet CFMs with
the exhaust CFMs. Having some inlet fans down low in the front
of the computer, may help keep dust from settling inside the case.
Paul
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