Cool Rain

[Chainsaw]

Just downloaded Rain,
Amazing, I could see the CPU temp drop as quick as I could refresh the screen on sandra (I'll have to check the temp reading in my BIOS too, since they are often different). Dropped about 5.2 F in the last 10 minutes! Any known, bad, side effects from using Rain? My machine's not o/cd, but I would rather keep 'er cool as I can anyway.
I'll have to investigate the subtle differences between Rain and Waterfall, any comments about either would be welcome.
Thanks

[T-rex]

I've been using Rain on my old overclocked pentium system 'bout six months with win98. I haven't had any problems with it.

[Chainsaw]

Make that 6.3 F in the last 20 min. now, if I could just cool the V770 down that easy...

I'm sure someone's considered it, but the architecture probably won't allow for that, and besides, who wants to risk 'any' performance loss in their video card in such an undertaking!

[Brian48]

I use Rain whether I'm overclocking or not. Doesn't effect system performance in the least and it helps to keep overall case temps down. With all these new, high-tech video cards generating so much heat these days, every little bit helps.

[grandslammer]

The waterfall Pro is cool (no pun intended) but I HATE the splash screen and advertising. So, needless to say, I don't run it...

CpuIdle is good too... When I use it, I use an older "free" version. I see no differences between the two versions, except that the new one is shareware, and the older one freeware. As ;ong as you run it from the sys tray, and not the control panel, it does a good job.

The one I use now is Powerleap Control Panel. It recognizes your cpu, supposedly optimizes it, then adds software cooling. It does a good job for me... I have a smaller heatsink, but at idle, I can easily see 135F. I run Powerleap, and within 5 minutes or so, I'm down in the low 90'sF. So, I see a huge difference in temps with and without! Of course, if I had a big GlobalWin sink, I'm sure the differences would be smaller, but in any case, it works well for me.

I'm out of town now and away from my machine, but if you want to try this one, go to their website. Powerleap.com

Good Luck In All....

Mike P.

[Chainsaw]

The only glitch I've seen with Rain, so far is when I installed it, it's supposed to recognize your cpu too, but it thought my PIII was a Pentium Pro. I didn't find PIII on the list, so I just set it at a PII, hope that doesn't cause any problems for the cpu, it seems to run fine that way. Anyone else have that prob?

[socalgal]

Hi Chainsaw,

I had the same question re my PIII with Rain. It works just the same at the PII setting, not to worry.

/forum/smile.gif

[rh71]

Been using a registered copy of CPUIdle 5.6 and it's been doing fine. When idle, my AMD K6-2/350 @ 400 runs 115-125F without CPUIdle. After I initiate the program, it drops to 85-90F in 5 minutes... idling of course.
By the way, I use a program that comes bundled with my Tyan 1590S mobo to read the temp. What do you guys use?

Anyway, can someone tell me if it would be worth it to try Rain or Waterfall? Are they much better or is it not a big difference anyway?

[daveleau]

I use a physical outdoor/ indoor sensor stuff in my heatsink since my mobo has no LM or Winbound chip. I run about 92-94 F w/o Rain and 82-86 w/ rain. When I run RC5 I get no difference in temp though.
I am running an AMD K6-2 400 @ 450

[Chainsaw]

rh71,
I stole this quote and link from socalgal on another thread, hope ya don't mind socalgal.

"a comparison paper between CPUIdle, Rain and Waterfall."
http://titan.cs.bonn.edu/~canavan/wateridle0.html

Hey all, thanks for the feedback, sounds like I'll be keeping Rain on here for awhile unless, of course, I get around to reading the above review and decide otherwise.

[This message has been edited by Chainsaw (edited 12-11-1999).]

[Apostle 83]

The pentium III is a combo pentium mmx and pentium pro + the latest instructions. It recognizes a Ppro because A)thats what your core is, and b)It hasn't been updated for PIII. As far as I know PII setting is fine.

[Sweeper]

I downloaded Rain and installed it but I have no "change" settings? Just comes up a little screen that says "optimized for Intel Pentium Pro". There is no menu to change it. My processor is a Pentium III?

[Chainsaw]

There's a readme.txt file in the zipped file that explains how to change it manually. Re-open the zip file, you'll see it there, after you read the txt file, exit the zip file then:
Find the Rain Icon(in Win98 its in START-Programs-Rain), right click on the Rain Icon there, Pick Properties-Shortcut Tab,
Now change the Target to read "C:\Rain\Rain.exe -IntelPentiumII" (without the quotes)[note: the path may differ if you installed it elsewhere], Pick Apply, OK, and you're done. Next time you try it, it should read "Optimized for Intel Pentium II"

Oh yea, you will need to do the same for the shortcut in your StartUp Directory too.


[This message has been edited by Chainsaw (edited 11-04-1999).]