I installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my old rig a few month ago and it's running fine . But yesterday i had to overclock it from 2.6Ghz -> 3.2Ghz so that i can run N.F.S Prostreet when it came out.

The case temperature after a couple hours of watching movies was around 45c while the cpu were around 55c, is this normal?

What the maximum temperature for a Pentium 4 before it blows?

What software could i use to test the stability of my system after overclocking and also to monitor it's temperature while on the desktop (must work with vista)?

Thanx



Rig Specs:

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz OC to 3.2Ghz (socket 478)
MEMORY : Kingston PC3200 1Gb + 512Mb
HARDISK : Maxtor 80Gb + 160Gb
VGA : Biostar 6800XT 512Mb
ROM DRIVE : Asus DVD-RW + Sony DVD
SOUND CARD : Creative SB Live! 5.1
CASING : I-Cute 0408XL-BS Server
CPU COOLING : Coolermaster Jet 4
PSU : Coolermaster True Power 430W

You can post this at hardware---> S478 thread there.From there we are able to help you. Usually for a northwood it won't run at very high temp when on full load.60+ degree celcius is considered safe range for a northwood proc.

For most of the BIOS setting the auto shutdown temperature is 85'C or 90'C, but I got saw my customer PC running at 80'C - 85'C for a lot hours also didn't burnt the CPU, just the performance is a bit lag. . . .

Such a high temperature the proc will be throttle. Like P4 it will starts giving empty instructions to cool the the proc while it's still running at the same speed. Other newer proc will use different method to cool down the proc when reach high temp.

What software to overclocker usually use to test a system stability and temperature?

Just run Prime or Orthos at full load....then see the stablilty from there.