does a p4 1.8A need undervolting to cool silently ?

amol · Post by **amol** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:47 am

I admit I haven't tested this out deeply. I just got the CPU and board and did a quick check to see if my abit v17 would let me undervolt ( I know, it's not on the list, but that hasn't been updated in a while).

Of course, the board doesn't undervolt. or underclock even really.

But I was surprised that the stock CPU fan was pretty quiet. Admittedly the really loud power supply might have masked the fan noise from the CPU fan.

before I return the board and try to find one that does undervolt, I thought I'd ask:

1. Is it possible to keep the 1.8A reasonably cool with the stock heat sink and maybe a good nidec blower or 2 ? I probably will not be able to put a giant fancy CPU cooler in the case I have in mind. it's tight.

2. Would I really need to undervolt to do the above ? This is going to be purely a PVR device, with a SATA hard drive and no CD/DVD. no games for the most part (except perhaps someday low-graphics ones that run on a GeForce 2 or TNT. remember those ?)

thanks.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:03 am

I had a 1.8A with stock HSF once. Without load, it stayed nice and quiet. When the CPU heats up (MBM5 reported > 45C on my Asus P4B533-VM after a few minutes of gaming) it got to be pretty noisy. The fan is pretty whiny.

If you plan on encoding, you're going to hit 100% CPU (unless you have a video capture card with hardware MPEG encoding).

Couldn't tell you much about undervolting. Asus boards don't support that.

I've since swapped out the HSF for a Zalman 7000, then swapped the CPU for a 2.66 GHz.

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:12 am

Really depends on what your goals are. Sounds like you have a stock, fairly loud setup, judging from your comment that the stock Intel HSF is quiet.

To me it is buzzy & nasty sounding, but if it is drowned out by other noises... It measures ~28 dBA @ 1 meter in 20C temp; it does ramp up with higher temp, it's thermally controlled, with a fairly high ramp up temp.

1) You don't need anything more than the stock cooler to keep it cool enough. A P4-1.8A only generates max 50W.

2) No undervolting needed.

amol · Post by **amol** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:26 am

Thanks for the replies.

I have a wintv pvr 250 to do the encoding.

As far as the noise level, I haven't had the load on the system to see the fan speed ramp up.
My initial feeling that it was quiet on boot was influenced heavily by my experience with an off-the-shelf cheap cooler for an AMD 1.2GHz which was noisier than the PS !

From what y'all are saying, if I can put together a quieter cooling setup, I should not need to undervolt or underclock the CPU to lower the heat/noise.

thanks again.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 11:40 am

amol wrote:From what y'all are saying, if I can put together a quieter cooling setup, I should not need to undervolt or underclock the CPU to lower the heat/noise.

thanks again.

Yes, and you might want to take a look at the Swiftech MCX478-V heatsink. It fits within the perimeter of the stock Intel heatsink retention bracket so size shouldn't be an issue. I'd bet you could easily cool a 1.8A with a 92mm L1A running at 6V or so.

ariman · Post by **ariman** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 12:07 pm

How about Mobile Celeron?

Just got mine working, Mobile Celeron 2,4G (256Kb L2) running 1,225v is more powerfull than 1,8A. Idle temp 27C, at game round 35C with default P4 heatsink fan running 1500rpm. Cool and quiet

Justin_R · Post by **Justin_R** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:05 am

ariman wrote:How about Mobile Celeron?

No kidding? Are Mobile Celerons drop-in compatible with Socket 478? I guess that would make sense, since P4-Ms are. What a great alternative they might be for certain low-power uses. I don't want to threadjack this question to ask about Mobile Celerons; could you post a new thread with full specs and details of your system? This seems like something that people here may want to know about. Please include info on the CPU (especially stock voltage), what mobo you used, how compatible it was, etc. Thanks!

tomcat · Post by **tomcat** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 2:00 pm

i have the same P4 1.8A too. Even with the normal voltage, is stays fairly cool (30C idle and about 42C under load). In my new Shuttle ZEN, i can undervolt it to 1.2V and now it runs 34C under load

TomCat

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:58 pm

If you're interesting in seeing how I passively cooled my system (which uses a P4 2.0A o/c'd to 2.28, idles at 29C and peaks at 49C after several hours of Prime95 high heat torture), take a look right here.

Stock voltage, too; P4B533-VM doesn't allow changing anything except FSB and memory timings.

-Ed

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:48 am

Intel HSF is reasonably quiet at 5v and performs pretty well at this voltage. Check the old HS review and see how it compares.

It is still a little whiny but I doubt you notice this noise in your system. Attach a Zalman fanmate to it and turn it down all the way down. It's thermally controlled but if you are feeding it 5v, it will stay there because of the higher temps.

I use to run it at 5v on P4 1.8A and it stays reasonably cool, well within it limits. I think it maxed out at ~60C and idle temps were around ~45C. Also I would remove their thermal pads and apply the latest offerings from Artic Silver. I don't think its worth buying a new mobo just to undervolt P4 1.8A unless you are planning to run it fanless or try to get it close to silence.

amix · Post by **amix** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:15 am

As for your question in the title:

ABSOLUTELY NOT !!!

However, you must do one thing: Get a silent-cooler, that is overspecced for your system. I believe, your main regards are price. Read on

I use a P4 "Northwood" 1.8GHz (same as you I guess) in my HTPC server.
I cool it with an ArcticCooling SuperSilent TC4. This is a fan, that is temp-controlled and when I power-on, it does not spin at all. Later it goes around 800-850 rpm when idle/normal load and never goes higher than 1250 at full load, even if maxed for over an hour. Sure, case-cooling is also a good friend on this path.

I tested this last summer, which was the hottest summer in EU for 100 years.

Good news sometimes get even better: The cooler I am talking about is available for less than 10 Euro here, so I guess it should be way below 10USD.

amol · Post by **amol** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:10 pm

actually, one of my biggest restrictions is space. I'm putting this thing in a cramped case. so there's not much room on top of the CPU.

I think I will be fine with the stock fan. or I do have a nidec gamma 30 that should do nicely undervolted. which brings up another question:

since I don't have much room on top of the CPU, I bought a cheap cooler with the idea that I would take the fan out, and then direct airflow to the heat sink from across the motherboard.
Is that crazy ? I figure if I create some sort of duct to force flow over the CPU, I might get away with it.

Is a tool like motherboard monitor , or the utility that came with my abit board accurate enough ?

thanks for all the replies.

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:14 pm

That's pretty much exactly how I did it; the case I'm using came with a duct, but I don't see why you could not fashion yourself a similar duct if you're handy enough and have the right tools. Just check my link above for pictures.

-Ed

does a p4 1.8A need undervolting to cool silently ?

does a p4 1.8A need undervolting to cool silently ?

Re: does a p4 1.8A need undervolting to cool silently ?