PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:31:

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:26:

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:23:

Kinda looks SFX to me...check the centre hole spacings to see (as measured against one of my SilverStone models)

According to the manufacturers website this is definitely larger than SFX:https://www.fsp-group.com/en/product/pcpsu/14 … 235198-107.html

I'm referring to the Hipro (as pictured) rather than the FSP

Sorry I misunderstood.

To DustyShinigami: If you measure the PSU and it is of standard SFX size then you can check if the mounting bracket of that PSU can be removed(It seems to be not from the pics, but maybe?) because then it could be reused for a more powerful SFX PSU that can provide the required wattages.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:23:

Kinda looks SFX to me...check the centre hole spacings to see (as measured against one of my SilverStone models)

You are probably right, I was looking at the bolt pattern on the one in my PC and the center holes are covered by the case

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:26:

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:23:

Kinda looks SFX to me...check the centre hole spacings to see (as measured against one of my SilverStone models)

According to the manufacturers website this is definitely larger than SFX:https://www.fsp-group.com/en/product/pcpsu/14 … 235198-107.html

Yeah, this one is a regular ATX PSU I bought. It was originally bought to replace that Hipro one. And then I discovered the sizes were different. 🤣

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:38:

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:31:

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:26:

According to the manufacturers website this is definitely larger than SFX:https://www.fsp-group.com/en/product/pcpsu/14 … 235198-107.html

I'm referring to the Hipro (as pictured) rather than the FSP

Sorry I misunderstood.

To DustyShinigami: If you measure the PSU and it is of standard SFX size then you can check if the mounting bracket of that PSU can be removed(It seems to be not from the pics, but maybe?) because then it could be reused for a more powerful SFX PSU that can provide the required wattages.

Sadly there's no bracket that can be removed. It's just an empty bay.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:23:

Kinda looks SFX to me...check the centre hole spacings to see (as measured against one of my SilverStone models) […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:10:

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-06-05, 12:01:

Hmmm, seems like a power supply form factor that you basically can't find today.. Doesn't match ATX, SFX/L, TFX or FlexATX. SFX would certainly fit in the space but it would need a custom adapter plate.

Yeah. For some reason I thought it said on the label what type it is, but it doesn't. And neither does a Google search. It's looking more likely that I'll need to get mid-tower case. I do have a spare ATX PSU that might be okay...?

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Kinda looks SFX to me...check the centre hole spacings to see (as measured against one of my SilverStone models)

The attachment hipro SFX.jpg is no longer available

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The attachment ST45SF-G 02.JPG is no longer available

If it is that may give me some more options to look into. 😀

Yeah, there's certainly more options to choose from. I've found a SeaSonic SS-350SFE 350W SFX 80 Plus for about £39.

What are people's thoughts on Akasa CPU coolers? I came across an Akasa AK-675-S. It says it's suitable for Pentium 4s up to 3.2GHz.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 16:59:

What are people's thoughts on Akasa CPU coolers? I came across an Akasa AK-675-S. It says it's suitable for Pentium 4s up to 3.2GHz.

I'm not familiar with the brand but inspecting their product page, I think it will be okay for a Northwood, for a Prescott I would prefer one in which the part of it making contact with the CPU is made from copper, but for Northwood a full aluminium design is good enough. 80mm is a common enough fan size that if it gets noisy it can be easily replaced. On their webpage they say that a high-performance thermal paste is pre-applied, if it is truly high-performance this is good but as I don't have personal experience with this brand I don't know what "high-performance" from their perspective means, if the CPU gets overheated during load you can replace it with a thermal paste of known good quality in case if it is not performant enough.

EDIT: To check if the cooling is adequate, you can use a monitor program to see if the P4 is running at max clock speed when full load is applied for a time, if it doesn't throttle when placed at full load for 30 minutes then cooling is good enough.

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-06-05, 17:07:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 16:59:

What are people's thoughts on Akasa CPU coolers? I came across an Akasa AK-675-S. It says it's suitable for Pentium 4s up to 3.2GHz.

I'm not familiar with the brand but inspecting their product page, I think it will be okay for a Northwood, for a Prescott I would prefer one in which the part of it making contact with the CPU is made from copper, but for Northwood a full aluminium design is good enough. 80mm is a common enough fan size that if it gets noisy it can be easily replaced. On their webpage they say that a high-performance thermal paste is pre-applied, if it is truly high-performance this is good but as I don't have personal experience with this brand I don't know what "high-performance" from their perspective means, if the CPU gets overheated during load you can replace it with a thermal paste of known good quality in case if it is not performant enough.

EDIT: To check if the cooling is adequate, you can use a monitor program to see if the P4 is running at max clock speed when full load is applied for a time, if it doesn't throttle when placed at full load for 30 minutes then cooling is good enough.

Cool. Thanks. Yeah, I did realise that it isn't copper, so I'm not sure how much of a problem that will be in the longrun. This particular model isn't that pricey, so if it does need replacing at a later date, that's not a problem.

Are there any particular monitor programs you'd recommend?

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 17:20:

Are there any particular monitor programs you'd recommend?

I assume that for the P4 you would like to use Windows XP, for monitoring the frequency I would use CPU-Z, be careful there was a version of CPU-Z that came with a malware, but I think they have removed that version from their page though. For putting the CPU under load, you can use a program that pushes the CPU to the limit for example Prime95 was a popular one(Although their license means that if it is your computer that finds a new prime, then the award goes to them for distribution not to you, but you wish to use it for stress testing, not to find the next prime I assume 😁): https://www.mersenne.org/download/#stresstest

If you wish to try Linux then there is a tool called "stress" available for most distributions and for monitoring you can use lscpu:

1stress -c 2 &
2watch lscpu -e

The "-c 2" for stress is to start two threads, so by using Hyper-threading all parts of the CPU should be stressed.

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-06-05, 17:44:

I assume that for the P4 you would like to use Windows XP, for monitoring the frequency I would use CPU-Z, be careful there was […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 17:20:

Are there any particular monitor programs you'd recommend?

I assume that for the P4 you would like to use Windows XP, for monitoring the frequency I would use CPU-Z, be careful there was a version of CPU-Z that came with a malware, but I think they have removed that version from their page though. For putting the CPU under load, you can use a program that pushes the CPU to the limit for example Prime95 was a popular one(Although their license means that if it is your computer that finds a new prime, then the award goes to them for distribution not to you, but you wish to use it for stress testing, not to find the next prime I assume 😁): https://www.mersenne.org/download/#stresstest

If you wish to try Linux then there is a tool called "stress" available for most distributions and for monitoring you can use lscpu:

Copy code to clipboard

1stress -c 2 &
2watch lscpu -e

The "-c 2" for stress is to start two threads, so by using Hyper-threading all parts of the CPU should be stressed.

Okay, thanks. Oh of course - Prime95. But at the moment it’s still very much Windows 98 SE. Though I may consider a dual boot with XP. I think I did download a version of CPU-Z and Prime95 for 9x, but will need to check.

EDIT: I have CPU-Z 1.04. No Prime95, though I think I did see a version for 9x.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 16:59:

What are people's thoughts on Akasa CPU coolers? I came across an Akasa AK-675-S. It says it's suitable for Pentium 4s up to 3.2GHz.

I've seen these on ebay but they all look like basic aluminium coolers and I'd avoid them. There's a few listings for the prescott coolers with the copper core that would be a much better option.

Fish3r wrote on 2026-06-05, 22:18:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 16:59:

What are people's thoughts on Akasa CPU coolers? I came across an Akasa AK-675-S. It says it's suitable for Pentium 4s up to 3.2GHz.

I've seen these on ebay but they all look like basic aluminium coolers and I'd avoid them. There's a few listings for the prescott coolers with the copper core that would be a much better option.

From Akasa? Or a different brand?

All the ones I'm seeing are aluminum. Even putting copper in the search box isn't turning anything up.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 22:23:

From Akasa? Or a different brand?

Sorry should have clarified, I mean these late 478 stock coolers, there's a few different models with different fins but they're all pretty decent.

Fish3r wrote on 2026-06-05, 22:33:

Sorry should have clarified, I mean these late 478 stock coolers, there's a few different models with different fins but they're […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-05, 22:23:

From Akasa? Or a different brand?

Sorry should have clarified, I mean these late 478 stock coolers, there's a few different models with different fins but they're all pretty decent.

Oh. Are they stock coolers? I'm still not seeing any specifically for Socket 478. Most are listing modern sockets/coolers.

The Intel sticker is a bit of a clue.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-06-06, 03:41:

The Intel sticker is a bit of a clue.

Well that’s what I thought. But then I wondered if they were different models, that didn’t come with the CPU, released by Intel.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-06, 07:14:

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-06-06, 03:41:

The Intel sticker is a bit of a clue.

Well that’s what I thought. But then I wondered if they were different models, that didn’t come with the CPU, released by Intel.

While I said that a full aluminium cooler is okay for a Northwood, if you have a chance to get a copper contact one then as Fish3r said I would choose that over the full aluminium one. Even if it doesn't come with the proper mounting equipment for Socket 478, those mounting parts can often be still found in online shops.

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-06-06, 07:34:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2026-06-06, 07:14:

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-06-06, 03:41:

The Intel sticker is a bit of a clue.

Well that’s what I thought. But then I wondered if they were different models, that didn’t come with the CPU, released by Intel.

While I said that a full aluminium cooler is okay for a Northwood, if you have a chance to get a copper contact one then as Fish3r said I would choose that over the full aluminium one. Even if it doesn't come with the proper mounting equipment for Socket 478, those mounting parts can often be still found in online shops.

Yeah, I’ll wait until I find a copper one. I’m not sure if I’m just seeing different results my end, or not typing something a certain way, but practically every result is aluminium or some unknown brand. 😕 I’m also a bit miffed that the seller I asked regarding the brackets for the Shuriken hasn’t replied. But the images don’t show them, so I’m guessing not.

At any rate, my P4 has been delivered. Just a shame I can’t do anything with it for the moment. 😅

Copper insert is more important on a direct die contact heatsink. When you've got a cap/spreader on the CPU it doesn't make so much difference. Thing then is to use a TIM that spreads/flows easily, so it squishes down real thin.