A couple of technical questions

[dwkick]

First and probably easiest: I have just built a new system consisting of a P4/2.4G northwood and intel 865GB mobo which will take up to 4G of ram. I know I've read where I think it was Allen said sometimes you can have too much ram for pro tool 001 but, I didn't read that till after I'd bought it. So you know I've got to fill it up. Right now I'm running 4 sticks of Kingston ddr 3200/333 at 256mb each for a total of 1012mb. When I get the money, what would be the best ram to get? There are four slots and when I was looking to buy the ram I have I was wanting to get four sticks at 1G each but I didn't find many and what I did find were gonna be like more than I paid for the rest of the computer. Has anyone purchased any 1G sticks of ram and if so, what brand?
Second question: I installed the Intel active monitor and it shows really high temperature readings. While running just my browser right now it's running at 54C on the processor. As soon as I open a pro tools session in 001 it jumps to 90 or 91C. I've checked the specs and 71C is max for that processor. I've added four fans and manipulated them to get the best possible air flow. I sent an email to Intel and they mentioned something about maybe replacing it. Could it be the thermal pad? I was trying to flick a piece of dust off of it before putting the fan on it and it made a very faint mark across it? Could that be the problem? I used the fan that came with the processor. Should I just let them warranty it or should I try other cooling methods? What would you recommend? This system has been up and running for 1 month and is so incredibly stable. Everything works great. I'm almost afraid to re-install a new processor if they warranty it. HELP!!! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Sorry for the extremely long winded post [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[Nitronick]

1 gig of ram is plenty, unless you are doing any kind of video work. I think ProTools needs only 384 meg. I wouldn't waste my money if I didn't need to.

Those temps are way too high. Hell, Pentiums are known for running cooler than AMDs, and they don't even run that hot!
But, since you say it is stable, I would guess you are getting inaccurate temp readings. The first thing I would do is reboot and get into BIOS. Check your temps there. Let it idle for a while and see what it settles at.
Mitch

[dwkick]

Cool, no pun intended. I didn't know you could check temps in the bios. As bad as I hate to go back inside this thing I think I'll probably let Intel go ahead and replace it cause if the readings are even close to accurate I don't see that processor lasting long. Thanks Mitchell..

steve

[Nitronick]

I didn't know you could check temps in the bios.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Yeah, it will be under something like "PC Health status".

As bad as I hate to go back inside this thing I think I'll probably let Intel go ahead and replace it cause if the readings are even close to accurate I don't see that processor lasting long.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well, that's why I think you are getting inaccurate temp readings. I think at those temps, your processor would be long gone by now. At the very least, you would get instability problems, i.e.: lock-ups, spontaneous reboots, that kind of thing.
Oh yeah, as for that thermal pad. I don't think a minor scuff on it would give the results you are getting. I, and I think everyone else here, just pulls them off and goes with Arctic Silver III heatsink paste. You really can't beat it.

Good Luck,
Mitch

[dwkick]

Okay, I checked the temps in bios and they were actually higher than the ones in Intel's active monitor. I have to admit that I didn't do as instructed and let the system idle a while before checking. I've only had one spontaneous reboot the same day I built the system. I was running the 001 and it decided to reboot. That was about one month ago today. I added four fans the next day but haven't had a single problem since. I haven't seen the windows error reporting tool since using my old system and had forgotten that evil thing existed. I did get it last night for the first time on this system but that was due to my impatience trying to check the temps in the BIOS after your suggestion and wasn't paying attention on the reboot and tried to reboot too soon to enter the BIOS.. I just may try the Arctic Silver and if that doesn't cool it down seek a replacement from Intel.

Thanks for your suggestions,

Steve