I picked up this neat little utility called VCool at http://www.voodoofiles.com/4640. I read about it on another thread on here.
It works great. No sooner did I install it, than my temps started dropping and ended up holding at 20 deg. C lower than before.
My question is: does anybody know how this thing works? I guess I'm a little skeptical that a software program can reduce the temps that much. I keep wondering if it simply takes over my controls and my Motherboard Probe reporting program and confuses them with incorrect data. I worry that my MB and CPU are running a lot hotter than they are reported to be.
The Athlon (or Duron) enters a lower power state only when its system bus is disconnected. However the (VIA-)Northbridge will only disconnect the bus if its "Bus Disconnect Enable" bit is set and the CPU is in STPGNT state.
VCool allows you to enable this bit so your CPU can relax when there's nothing to do.
Setting this bit might not be enough on some systems as the idle loop provided with the OS will not put the CPU into the STPGNT state recognized by the Northbridge.
For those cases VCool includes an internal idle loop that forces the CPU into the STPGNT mode required by the Northbridge to initiate a bus disconnect.
If you want to read more about how this works follow this link.
PS - I installed this on a Win98se system (Abit KG7-RAID, XP1600+ with Thermaltake Volcano 6cu+) and now it idles at 78ºF with a case temp of 82ºF, can't beat that!!
__________________
What did a tornado sound like before freight trains were invented?
Last edited by Kuasimodem : December 16th, 2001 at 02:41 AM.
Thanks, Kuasimodem, I really appreciate the information.
I'm sold on the program. I've been wondering what to do to cool my new machine down and that did the trick. Guess I can stop thinking about cutting holes in the case to mount more fans and just close it up.
hardware
prices 
