The Pentium 4 3.2ghz is the latest and greatest from Intel, released on Monday the 23rd of June, 2003. My factory unlocked sample is exactly the same as a retail chip, apart from having an adjustable multiplier. This chip uses Intel's new Hyper-Threading technology, is made on a .13 micron process, and sports 512k of L2 cache. It runs on a 200mhz quad pumped front side bus, effectively giving a 800mhz FSB, when compared to a single data rate system like the P3.

The Retail Cooler

The chip came with a retail Intel cooler, which was a big chunk of metal, with a round copper core, surrounded by plenty of aluminium fins. The bottom of the copper core was quite flat, with only a few machining marks visible on the polished surface. The supplied heat transfer compound had the consistency of chewing gum, and left greasy marks on the sink, so I abandoned it in favour of a little Coolermaster premium goop.

The fan is mostly exposed, without even having anything protecting the sides. Of course, being non-standard, there is no way of replacing the fan, or even installing a finger guard. The noise level is average for an OEM cooler, with just a hint of a growl coming from the fan. Thankfully there is no high pitched whine, which makes the noise much less intrusive. Fitting the sink is simple, just push down and flick over the locking levers. Removing it however, involves using your fingernails to pry the hold down tabs out of their slots. Intel would have done well to have included some little levers on the tabs to make this easier. The sink just about coped with the heat, with the load temperature rising to around 65 degrees Celsius, according to the monitoring software supplied with the D865PERL motherboard. The sink itself didn't feel that warm to the touch though, so I suspect Intel's software isn't too accurate, and probably errs on the generous side for safety's sake.

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