This is a wee but worrying - I have recently finished building my pc, using a Pentium 4 Prescott 2.4ghz

Now, I know that prescott has been dubbed "preshott" and that it is known for getting VERY hot, but 80 degrees is very dodgy.

My case is a bit dodgy on the cooling front, but it should give some effect:

Rear 12 cm fan
CPU duct on side panel

As soon as I start my pc up, my cpu will immediatly jump up to 80 degrees, which again is suprising...

Apparently the only real thing to do is to get a better heatsink or cooling system for the CPU, but I am no real expert on cooling, and hoped any of you could point me in the right direction. Any short term fixes will be welcomed too

Thanks

wow, 80 is really hot. I had a 3ghz s478 running over 60°C. The thermal paste under the heatsink was somewhat dry and had a little bit of dust on so the heat wasnt transferring very well to the heatsink. It might be the case for you. If so, you could try to change this paste, it could shave off a couple of degrees. What case model do you have?

Diabolic case

http://www.caseclosed.co.uk/moddedcases_diabolic.htm

Thing is, I have been running my computer stable for hours on end :/

What kind of CPU usage during these extended periods.

I just have a feeling if you try to run some intensive games and recheck it you could be in for a shock.

I run games like css, UT2004 etc, but the temperature remains at 80 D:

Could be you termal sensors on th motherboard shock it run stable at 80 c
P4 usally slow down around 65 c .

So it's my mobo that is making it run at 80 constant, or is it just reading it wrong?

Different CPU, same idea.

If you cpu running at full speed it more likely reading it wrong but to be on the safe side if you are using a stock heatsink fan replaced it with a better one a zalman or coolmaster, also use sliver compound paste, it will bring the temperture down a few degrees.

Hmm I'll look around overclockers.co.uk and see what I can find.

Thanks for the help.