jdh79

But is there any reason to buy a third party HSF if you are running at stock settings and aren't experiencing throttling or instability?

I am new to Intel processors, having used AMD for the last 7 processor purchases. I have an e6700 on a Asus P5B board, and I am a little concerned about the temperatures. I have already tried reinstalling the heatsink, and applying Arctic Silver, with no change each time, so I think that it is properly installed. I am using the stock heatsink with stock voltage and speeds, and have no intention of overclocking (I think the Conroes are fast enough to not be worth it). My case temperature is sitting in a steady 32-35 C range depending on the time of day. The processor seems to give 3 different temperature readings (CPU/Core1/Core2), but these readings seem to be consistent across SpeedFan, Asus Probe, CPU Core, TAT. At idle, here is the typical numbers I get: CPU: 35 C Core1/2: 44 C At a load typical of the max I would put on a system (running Oblivion with 6 other applications open and a virus scan running), here are the temps: CPU: 45 C Core 1/2: 52 C If I use TAT to give a complete 100% load on both cores, I get CPU: 50 C Core1/2: 65 C Coming from using Athlons, those temperatures seem alarmingly high to me. Are they anything that I need to worry about? If I am running at stock and using the Intel retail heatsink is there any reason to worry about this in the first place since Intel would have to replace the CPU if there were any problems? Also, at what temperature do Conroes start throttling down? I have confirmed that even when the 2 cores are hitting 65 C, there is no throttling happening.

I am wondering if anyone has any comments on the quality of the onboard sound on the NF4 Expert. I have a SBLive 5.1 and an SBLive 24 bit lying around and I have typically disabled onboard sound and used one of them. However, is the sound on this board good enough and CPU usage low enough to not bother with a sound card? I already am going to need a PCI Hauppage decoder installed, so using a second PCI slot will cut down on airflow, and Creative drivers are notorious for instability, so I would love it if I could ditch the card.

I ordered a NF4-SLI Dr Expert to replace my Asrock 939 Dual, because of issues I was having with the board, especially in Windows Vista (it worked fairly decent in XP). Basically, the USB controller kept dying out until the system was rebooted, and with Uli bought out, no legit Vista drivers have been or likely will ever be released. I have a 500 watt Enermax Liberty as my PSU. After I ordered the board, I have been reading on this board of all kinds of problems with the 620 watt Liberty. Can it be confirmed if these issues affect the 500 watt model as well? Is the issue in general just a problem with cold booting and having to do multiple resets? Also, is this PSU ample for my configuration? I have no plans to go with more than one gaming video card any time in the future (I may possibly add something like an x300 as a secondary card for running only a second monitor or TV out off of). Am I likely to have issues? Am I better off trying to cancel my order and get the NF4-SLI -INFINITY instead? Is that board confirmed to be OK with my PSU? It was available for $15 less but I figured that I should just pay the extra and get the newer board revision, thinking newer revisions should have fewer problems?