idle is about 40-45C usually and it used to idle 55C with stock so i got a new zalman cooler but 40C+ still seems a bit high but its always stable. P4 3.0ghz HT Prescott
I had a P4 3.2GHZ and that would reach 65 while playing Roller Coaster Tycoon , that was on Intel Stock, but in idle it would hang around 40, and boot up would be around 50.
Yeah, thirded... Don't worry about those temps... What I find mostly, is that the temps you read on enthousiast fora like these are 5 or so degrees below what I get... But I don't have the sound of a vacuum cleaner next to my head...
This useful reference here (bookmark it, you'll be glad you did. Trust me) states that the maximum safe temperature for a P4 Prescott 3Ghz is 67.7C. Specs dictate that if the on-Die thermal probe reaches approximately 135° C (its catastrophic temperature), the CPU will automatically shut down and "the system bus signal THERMTRIP# will go active and stay active until the processor has cooled down and a RESET# has been initiated." However, it's unlikely the CPU will reach its maximum power dissipation since the processor will throttle down the CPU speed as it reaches past certain temperatures. And in the event of a catastrophic cooling failure (i.e. leaving off the heatsink), it would simply shut down the CPU.
