I recently had the idea that my hard drives may be getting a bit too much wear from torrents and occasional reformats. I asked on the forums here for some decent HD test utilities and gave them a spin. I decided to check out a few utilities; Ashampoo HDD Control, SpeedFan, etc.

All tests came back that my hard drives are healthy enough, but getting past that and on to the problem:


In SpeedFan I noticed a core CPU temp of 64C, I knew immediately that this was bad. Normally chassis is at around 31C and CPU core at 42-50C. So I decided to check with Intel Desktop Utilities as well. Again, way too hot. I even spiked up to 75C while running mp3/chat/browser! I opened by PC and cleaned out as much dust as I could with no compressed air. Now, I'm idling at 55-62C. I don't use stock heatsink/fans EVER - Thermaltek Typhoon here. Oh and it would help if I mentioned what type of CPU: dinosaur Pentium 4 550. I had it clocked from 3.4 to 3.56 but I downclocked it for now to 3.3. PLEASE DON'T LAUGH AT ME. ;_;

So, I'm obviously going to change the paste tomorrow or next, but until then do you think it is okay to use my PC? Even more so, do you agree that it is a paste issue (I believe my build is around 3 yrs old)? Thoughts and opinions please!

75C while running mild apps is pretty bad so if you computer comes under heavy use during operation (for whatever reason) it could really be a mess. I wouldn't run it until you are able to change the thermal paste again and make sure the heatsink is seated properly. Inspect the heatsink closely and give it a very thorough cleaning.

I added arctic silver5, cleaned the dust bunnies out and now i'm averaging 55C

Play with your voltages until you figure out a better solution. Back in the day, when I had a P4, I was able to undervolt it and run it stable with no problems. Put the fsb/multi to stock, lower voltage slowly, test, rinse and repeat. Temps should be going down slowly.

I have reason to believe I just need to add more case fans again. Slowly my cheap case fans have died, I never thought they really did much to cool the case considering the fact my heatsink is a monster(Thermaltek Typhoon) and my GPU has a beastly built-on fan as well. I suppose they actually did cool more than I thought. I did average 40ish C° before, this P4 runs hot as it is. I will first try to add three most case fans before I learn towards down-volting it. Besides 55° isn't that hot considering, right?

Its not THAT bad. Personally i would undervolt it first, cuase then there might be a chance i dont need to add more fans/noise. But its your call...

How much of a performance hit do you think I would take? I'm personally using an Intel motherboard and I'm not quite sure it allows me to change the voltages anyway...




I had "most" instead of more and "learn" instead of lean, might have been difficult to read. I apologize.

I totally agree with you about case fans, if they are not working then by all means replace them! My system case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146047) has 5 case fans and my CPU (Phenom II OC'd to 3.5) is running 46C at idle!