So anybody got any experience with Intel Celerons?

I'm wondering if 35-36 Celsius (idle, meaning, running a few daemons like apache, mysql, samba, proftpd, etc) is a comfortable temperature for Celeron 1.20 ghz running a slackware server. It is a home server meaning it doesn't get raped with hundreds of mysql queries a day. I've ran it without the case fans running 100% for 6 hours and the temps haven't really changed.

I'm kinda worried if I should actually run the fans (which mind you, are extremely loud due to it being a prioprietary Sony Vaio machine (CPU fan running 100% constantly which is quite useless) (which is now retired as a home server) so I turned them down (or almost off) using lm-sensors and fancontrol) and due to me only having much temp experience only with recent processors' temps(P4s, Core 2 Duos, Quad Cores). I'm not exactly sure if I should even bother thinking about it. Running the fans at 2000RPM (the cpu fan and case fan) would create a lot of noise (and trust me, this machine sounds like a vacuum) so I keep them down or off. The temp difference isn't really that much, at 3000RPM I'm running contently at about 32-34 Celsius. One of the fans is running at almost 2700RPM and the machine contently chugs around at 34-36 C.


Post your thoughts, etc.

Thanks.


FYI: I remember running Windows on it, Speedfan (as well as the Sony fan utility) would keep the fans at 0%-40% too and the machine has long survived intense gaming fragfests. For some odd reason fancontrol won't let me run at 1000 or 1500 RPM which would be unnoticable like on Windows.

That temp is just fine. It is only about 10-12 degrees above a typical room temperature, so you aren't showing much temp rise at all.

Intel Celeron Thermal Specifications for Celeron D processors are:

Minimum 5 degrees Celcius
Maximum 67 degrees Celcius.

I would imagine that the motherboard has safeguards that will shut down if the BIOS encoded thermal specification is exceeded. Sometimes Linux Programmers do not look into the latest technology and use antiquated thresholds; this is the case with the built in Linux thermal monitor that warns if your temp gets too hot.

Laptop processors such as the Celeron M can go up to 80 degrees Celcius with no problems.

Also I have noticed a lot of people asking about their processor temperatures.

This is known as the Thermal Specification. You can get this information from the maker of your processor. Both AMD and Intel have very good documentation about their processors.

By going to the Vendor, you will also get more valuable information about a processor such as its nominal voltage ratings, L1, L2, L3 cache performance etc, etc


Please don't take this post as a gripe, I just want to let people know that the best place to get this type of information is from the hardware vendor.

Good Luck.

If you're worried about cooling, fans & fan noise remember that a larger fan running slowly will move the same air as a smaller fan running faster but make much less noise. With a bit of thought and ingenuity it's possible to mount an 80cm or 120cm fan in the case with ducting to guide the air over the processor and indeed disks and other things that need cooling. Often noise comes as much from the vibration the fan sets off in the case as from the fan's bearings so the mounting is very important. I recently discovered the most noisy single part in my computer was a 4cm fan on the mainboard, which after a bit of thought became redundant.

LOL. This is generally true, but not absolutely so.

I have 12 fans running in my box, and 6 of them are 120mm fans, all with speed controls. My box makes noise, but it isn't fan noise for the most part, it is hard drive noise.

There are 5 SCSI drives in the box and two of them in particular are loud. With anti-vib mounting and a quiet case, the noise isn't bad, but the system is definitely noticeable.

Heh, I must underline the fact that this is a 6 year old prioprietary machine - nothing can be added. Heck, the PSU/PSU fan is right in front of the CPU fan, not ABOVE it. I can't really add or remove anything. I was thinking of getting a new CPU fan but the problem is, I don't know where it lays. The BIOS or the CPU fan? BIOS isn't much of a help anyway (everything is pretty much locked down and there is barely any options), so in order to stop the fans from running 100% all the time, fancontrol and lm-sensors are the only way to go. I guess the sensor software isn't as good for setting the speeds.

The Thermal Threshold from the Intel's site shows me 100 C, but I really don't trust it.

In general with semiconductors cooler is better. I forget the exact relationship but for every so many degrees hotter they are run the lifetime halves, which may lead a semiconductor manufacturer to rate something at 100C but you know that the words 'because this would be better for our sales figures' just didn't quite fit on the page...

To silence noisy disks I bought a silentMaxx Hard disk-Silencer Rev. 2.0 for 3,5" disks, which worked a treat for disk bearing noise but was not so good at isolating vibration.

35 degrees is just perfect. Where I live room temperature is about 25 degrees C and most of my processors run at 43 degrees.

About fan noise, most cheap fans are extremely noisy. What I mostly do is replace the original fan with a larger one. The model which is found in power supplies. Those generally are much quiter. (Because they are bigger) Mostly I have to make bracket to attach the fan to the heatsink. If the processor temperature is OK, the fan displaces sufficient air.

jlinkels

You must remember that the biggest problem with Pentium Class processors was that temperature got higher and higher with each generation. There were several problems associated with the Celeron class processors during the beginning marketing phase. A Thermal Specification of 100 degrees basically means that the processor should not FAIL (sure within a few years if constant), but it is true that the cooler your processor, the longer it will last. I doubt that you will notice any performance improvement by running a Celeron any cooler than 35 degrees. Celeron processors were meant as budget processors and lack some of the cache as P4. The biggest concern here should be new thermal paste and a good heat sink.

Uhm.. this might sound pedantic, but it is not entirely true that temperature got higher and higher with each next generation. What did increase was the power consumption and therefor the heat generation.

Indeed, what had to be taken care of was to drain away the tremendous amount of heat. Which could be as high as 35 Watts for per die area of 1 cm². When Intel produced the 486DX33 it could no without a heatsink, although the temperature of the case was fairly high. When they doubled the core clock speed, a fan became necessary for the 486DX2-66, but the chip actually ran cooler.

That is exactly where those giant heatsinks and fan are for: to reduce the thermal resistance from the die to the air, so heat could quickly flow away from the die and as such limiting the temperature rise.

The temperature that is displayed in the BIOS setup screen is by no means the temperature of the chip itself. The chip itself operates at much higher temperatures, around 80 degrees C if I am not mistaken. That is a normal operating condition for silicon semiconductors and does no harm to the life span. In military equipment often semiconductors are used which are rated for 125 C ambient. But those are not modern processors as it is almost impossible to design for timing parameters which remain correct over such a temperature range.

jlinkels

Splitting Hairs?