Acceptable CPU Temperature Range

Generally considering the motherboard and CPU below in a well ventilated case
with fans on everything, what would be an acceptable CPU temperature range in
your opinion?
[We are driving with Vista an Elite Simulation Solutions PC based flight
simulator]

MSI 865PE NEO2-FIS2R
Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz 800 FSB
(4 GByte) Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2

Pretty much every different version of any CPU has a different acceptable
temperature range. But in general, the cooler, the better; cooler makes it
last longer.

I have a very similar box (mobo is the same but a 3.0E cpu) and as I recall
you should worry if the cpu is running near 70C. That is normally a hot cpu
and it will approach that under load. I had to change to a thermally
advantaged case (as defined by Intel) with a full complement of fans a
couple of years ago to keep the thermal characteristics where I wanted (low
40's) under a normal load. It does go higher (probably into the 60's) with
a package like you describe. I suggest that you consider using a Core 2
based box. The thermal management in the Core 2 line is far better than the
Pentium line.

look up the cpu characteristics at intel and check and see.

I have an Intel 3.2ghz P4D EE, meaning dual core with HT on each core
so 4 cpus, and am currently running at 90c with no problems. It runs
24/7/365 at that temp running a Distributed Computing Projecs,
looking for the cure for Malaria to be exact. I have 20 pc's here at
home all doing the same thing, all run using 100% of the cpu 100% of
the time, 24/7/365. I have a mixture of AMD and Intel cpu's and all
run fine.

I had the same CPU and was running ~55C at full load. I believe that over
62C I was getting some errors.

38C to 42C is a good range.

Thanks all for your time and assistance. This is exactly the experienced
perspective that I needed to make sense of the technical numbers !!

Which person from FEBRUARY A YEAR AGO are you talking to?