Maximum PC

I looking at picking up an ASUS P5AD2-E Premium mobo and an Intel 540J 3.2 GHz proc. I had heard that there were some issues using 3rd party fan/heatsinks with earlier versions of the 550 (3.4GHz) proc. I read for a while that using a 3rd party cooler or a even stock cooler with Arctic Silver 5 compound was causing the CPU to run hotter than using the stock cooler with the pre-applied T.I.M. pad. The extra heat was causing the proc to throttle down to lower speeds. Does anyone know if my proc will exhibit this behavior with a thrid party cooler (like the Termaltake Jungle 512 for instance)? I only ask b/c I had read that removing a stock heatsink attached by the TIM pad can be a pain and I'm afraid that a later upgrade may damage my precious 775 pins if I have to force it. I think the Arctic Silver may be easier to remove if needed. Ideas, suggestions? Thanks in advance.

If you want a 925XE motherboard, avoid ASUS like the plague. Get an ABIT, GIGABYTE or FOXCONN in that order. ASUS got the features but their product s don't live up to the features.
So, for the heat-sink/fan the way to go is with a Zalman pure copper and Artic Silver 5 (properly installed), why? because I've red many testimonials where the heat-sink/fan and AS5 shaves off between 15 to 20 degrees. I never thought that copper would good for heat-dissapation but after owning two Northwood core processors Socket 478, I see my 3.2GHZ running at 28C idle using a combination of aluminum fins and copper base heat-sink and my 3.0GHZ runs at 34C with an all-aluminum heat-sink. Both RETAIL version Processors.
ZALMAN Copper CPU Cooler for Socket 775 Model "CNPS7700-CU"

This right here is a great choice for an LGA 775 MoBo: ABIT "AG8-3rd Eye" 915P Chipset Motherboard for Intel LGA775 CPU - Retail, it takes the less expensive DDR and same features as the 925XE (except no DDR2). I'm not too impressed with the performance of DDR2, so 915P Express it is my next build. Crap, it was on Stock 5 min. ago. well Autonotify it is or buy somewhere else.
But remember, avoid ASUS like the plague at all cost.

you would want to goto asus, because therre the highest rated 925XE mobo, but thats alot of money, also lconsiter looking into the Abit 3rd eye 925xe mobo, (dont got a link right now) but its only 170 dolars and it has some good overclocking features, the 3.6 has some overheating problems at stock speeds, you dont want to get a thermaltake jungle 512 because its just basicly an Intel heatsink design with a larger fan, go and get a zalman 7000b CU heatsink (or the 7700 if u acualy have the room on your mobo for it) they work good on the p4 prescot, and artic silver isnt worse than the thermal pad it just wasnt applyed right,

if you're going to buy a 3.4GHz or faster proc, and you're into overclocking, then get the abit 925XE board. this way you can take advantage of the "cpu throttle." how?

get yourself a good cpu cooler like the coolermaster hyper 48, zalman cnps7700-cu, arctic cooling freezer 7, thermaltake big typhoon, or whatever floats your boat...

go into the bios and LOWER the multiplier, then set the FSB to 266. if you did it right, you'll have a 1066 FSB with a minimal change in actual CPU frequency. since you'll be running the CPU at "stock" speeds with a better CPU cooler, you won't be as likely to experience CPU throttle.

with the crazy CPU cooler, you can continue to bump up the FSB and tweak the multiplier to get even better overclocks.

on a side note, i haven't experienced any CPU throttling with a 3.2E processor on either asus or abit 925XE boards, so i think it'd be safe to get either one. one's a performance junkie's dream (for tweaking), and the other's got all the bells and whistles.

if i were in your shoes, i'd buy the abit, and put the money saved on the board towards a 3.4GHz processor and better CPU cooler. you'll get better "bang" for your buck.

just as a side-note, you'll need to "reverse" the northbridge cooler on the abit board to accomodate the zalman cooler. the "flower" is too big to accomodate the NB fan. just make sure you re-orient the fan on the heatsink to blow air towards the video card, and you'll be fine.

the only way u can change the multiplyer up or down is if his chip is an engenerring sample (ES) chip, and im willing to bet his isnt

I'm running a P4 550 (3.4GHz) on an Intel mobo and having heat problems... I ordered an XP-120 because either my Zalman ALCU wasn't cutting it, needs to be reinstalled, or I needed the fully copper version instead of the copper/aluminum... I'm going to try to reinstall the cooler this week and see what happens, and then switch to the new cooler when it comes on Monday... Here a few threads I started to try and figure my problem out. Might be helpful to you...


http://www.maximumpc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12581

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19940

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview ... erthread=y

http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=6&t=11529

Are there any new thermal considerations for the 'J' series of chips different than the non-'J' series?

multipliers on the newer, 3.4GHz and above processors are able to be adjusted DOWN only. this is to prevent them from burning up when they get too hot. abit's motherboards have a technology called "CPU Accelerator" which allows you to manually adjust the multiplier.

http://www.abit-usa.com/news/2004/20041112.php

and yes, to clarify, being able to change the multiplier freely (up and down) is only available on engineering samples from Intel.

I don't know what dob1224 is talking about. I'm a loyal Asus supporter and I've never had a problem with any of their boards. As for their cases... that's another story.

You might want to consider a 6xx series CPU you'd get 64 bit computing that way.

If you're not going with one of them I'd actually go with a Northwood they overclock like nobody's business. As for cooling go with AS5 and pick up a Zalman or Thermaltake cooler there's plenty over at newegg.