[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: OT: New Hardware Question -- heat and scalability by core

[Tom Adelstein]

On Wed, 2004-12-22 at 09:47, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-12-22 at 07:38, Tom Adelstein wrote:
> > I prefer AMD processors for many reasons - the heat is a side effect of
> > performance. But you can control it.
> 
> If you compare to the P4, Athlon series are _cooler_.  Most people are
> still thinking Athlon v. P3.  It all has to do with the generations.
> 
> The PPro (P3) core was never designed to scale more than 1GHz.
> The Athlon (it's the same 32/64) core was designed to scale 0.5-3GHz.
> The P4 core was designed to scale 1.5+GHz (currently 3.8GHz and holding)
> 
I don't know what the specs say, I can only go by what I test under working conditions.

My P4 2.4 Ghz processor runs 38C with a Zalman cooling fan and no case fans. My 2.6 Athlon runs at 48C with a larger Zalman cooling fan and two case fans - one directly over the CPU and one in the front bringing in air from a vent. I also use Antec power supplies with bottom ventilation and a fan.

That's something like 118F versus 100F.

Before I cooled the Athlon, it ran 70C or 158F. That was after swapping the OEM AMD fan for an all copper one.

I use the Zalman cooling fan for noise prevention in the P4, it doesn't do much to add extra cooling maybe 5 F.

Go figure.