I'm trying to build an ultra quiet PC for a multimedia image display. Of
course the cooling fans are a problem. Just wondering what kinda temps are
acceptable as a ceiling on a P3 800/133 flip chip as I experiment with
different fans/speeds/coolers etc.?
Intel lists the maximum core temperature for the FC-PGA PIII running
at 800MHz as 80C. Of course, you don't want to run the chip at 80C,
probably best to keep it bellow 70C at an absolute max, and ideally
down around 60C max. Given that these temp monitors usually aren't
super-accurate, it's always best to least a bit of room.
Do they have throttling like the P4's
to keep from roasting themselves? TIA
No. Like AMD's AthlonXP chips though, they do have a thermal shutdown
circuit which should be sufficient to kill power to the system before
they fry though. These chips *shouldn't* get fried under any normal
circumstance (ie any situation other than opening up your case and
ripping the heatsink off while the system is running). That being
said, all chips (including the P4s) can be damaged by running them for
prolonged periods in a system without sufficient cooling.
Fortunately the chip you've got doesn't consume very much power and
should be fairly easy to cool. It's TDP is rated at 20.8W, less than
even Intel's Pentium-M and MUCH less than current Athlon or P4
systems. A nice big heatsink with either a slow-spinning 80mm fan
sitting on top or even a passive heatsink with a case fan blowing over
it should do the trick. If you can afford the loss in performance you
can even underclock these chips down to 600/100MHz and undervolt them
by a bit. At default voltage they would have a TDP of about 15W at
600MHz, and if you undervolt them even a bit you should be able to
drop that down to about 10V.