new hsf - high temps still

[lynchknot]

Hi, I installed a Volcano Xaser edition (only one they had) onto my cpu and i'm still getting temps of 50c posting this. The room temp is 80F and the case temp is around 90F. Did I do something wrong? I used Arctic silver.

[phishhead]

hey lynch did you just put alittle dab of it..cause like I said if you put too much grease will actually get the opposite result. I also think this could be a case temp to high resulting in cpu high temps this is what I went thru and got my case temps down and the cpu followed suit

[Reverend]

How to Apply Arctic Silver to an Athlon, Athlon XP, and Duron Processor.

This video teaches you how to apply Arctic Silver to your Socket A processor so you can get maximum heat transfer.

right click "save target as"

Divx Format (3.61MB) (http://www.xtremods.com/downloads/ApplyingArcticSilver-divx.avi) | Windows Media Video (3.33MB) (http://www.xtremods.com/downloads/ApplyingArcticSilver-wmv.wmv)

xtremods

[lynchknot]

ok thanks Rev - spread it out with credit card - just started it up and it's at 46c - i'll see if it climbs anymore - fan is maxed out (damn it's loud!)

[lynchknot]

damn, no change - it's at 51c

[phishhead]

then this is most likely an airflow issue in the case...how many fans are there, where are they, and which directions are they blowing good tip to know which way is to put a piece of paper next to the fan and if it blows it away then duh and if it sucks it in then again duh.

oh yeah what direction is the cpu fan blowing? you want it blowing towards the mobo.

[lynchknot]

temps are higher than with the stock heatsink. I have the ps fan on top - under that is a case fan blowing out - the cpu fan is blowing in
There are vents along the bottom of the cover to let air in but it's 51c with or without the cover

[lynchknot]

its 55c now - :(

[phishhead]

I would get a high rpm intake in the front and another on the side blowing in on the cpu and vid. also could put an exhaust on top blowing out. like I said with case off will keep it at the room temp. if I take my case off it raises the temp about 4-5 degrees. with the case on you create a vacum which will cause the airflow go in the direction of the fans. Also if you have zip ties you can tie up your ide cables so they are like the round ones to create better air flow.


http://www.hitechmods.com/mods/round-cable/round_cables.shtml I did this but instead of tape used zipties and I didnt use a razorblade just squeezed them together


http://www.flipchip.net/articles/case_mods_101.htm some more ideas

[efc]

I put this info in a post on overclocking a couple days ago. It comes from MaximumPC magazine and may be of help.

"Also mentioned is a technique for improving cooling. Most heatsinks lack a smooth finish on the base side of the cooler. They suggest using 800 grit moving to 1600 grit polishing paper attached to a glass surface. Use the polishing block in a figure 8 motion to evenly sand the heat sink. A mirror like finish will improve cooling efficiency."

[lynchknot]

Without changing a thing, I don't see how it can be worse than the standard heatsink that was in there (not polished) - but it is.......

edit* there is only one degree difference between fan on full (noisy) and fan half way.

I removed the 2 bay plates and stuck a fan in there - it is now 49c.

[phishhead]

maybe you put too much grease on the cpu

[lynchknot]

i followed the video instructions. I spread it out with a card.

[FastGame]

First of all the thermo paste needs a bit of time to set, also as phish stated....if the temp is cooler with the case cover off then you don't have the air flow correct.

I don't know much about your MB but some have the AGP port located closer to the CPU socket than other MB's and the heat from the GFX card could be going into the HSF, or the HSF is taller than the stock HSF which places it directly above the GFX core and the heat from that is getting to the HSF....could be many things ? One way to test for this is to check temp with the cover off, PC setting upright, then lay the PC down on it's side and check temp.

Did you lap the heatsink or did you say man thats so shinny it must be good ?

[Thor]

You may have to lap the cooler as suggested but also look at the videos to make sure your system is balaced on air flow. An imbalance will cause a 'dead spot/s creating or leaving more heat.

[FastGame]

Thor is correct you need to get the air flow right so the heat from GFX, Norhtbridge chip, capacitors & ram is exiting the case and not rising to the cpu. If your PS fan and case fan are higher than the HSF then they are sucking the hot air across the CPU sink :(

[phishhead]

plus gotta take into consideration the weather. because we just now got some sun for the first time in weeks and my cpu temp just jumped from 40 to 45c why not cut a hole in the side of the case and throw that ac tube in there. could even make a fan duct so it blows directly on the cpu itself

[lynchknot]

I removed the modem. I hope that's ok. I don't use it and it was right under the video card blocking the fan. I think i was in error. My temps before were around 54c - right now i'm seeing 48 - but it's nighttime now. :eek:

The air concitioning does not turn on unless it's nearly unbearable - like over 80 in the house.

[lynchknot]

Pic of my pc before new HSF and wire clean-up. Maybe i'll cut out the holes the rear fan is mounted to - for better air flow (i notice some backdraft). That Ti4400 sure throws alot of heat.

http://miscminutiae.com/sig/pc.jpg

[phishhead]

I would put 2 intakes in the from and do you see in the picture where all your pci slots are you could cut that out and fit another exhaust there to suck out all the hot air from the vid card. give me some more pics of the case so I can see some more improvements that can be done.

[lynchknot]

I took the extra drive bay covers off and put an 80mm intake fan there. The cpu is at 116F right now - but it's only 79F in this room at the moment.

[Thor]

Here's what you need.

http://www.littlewhitedog.com/images/reviews/hardware/00044/parts-small.jpg

Introduction and Features
It's time for us at Littlewhitedog to have a look at something new. We recently got our paws on an Ahanix Iceberg 1 Water Cooling Kit from our good friends at MPCParts. This kit is currently selling in the $90-115 USD range making it a budget water-cooling kit. It comes with everything you need to have a functional water-cooled system, except the water of course. Before we look into this kit, let's look at the features as reported by the sponsor: Ahanix Iceberg 1 Water Cooling Kit Features:
Operates silently
Fits inside your existing PC case
Superior performance to air cooling systems
Fits AMD Socket A and Intel Socket 370/423/478
Takes only a few minutes to install, even for novices


The Concept
The concept of using water to cool your computer is not all that different from how the engine in your car is cooled. It is pretty simple to understand, there is a reservoir that holds the fluid to cool the cpu, it is pumped into a block that is attached to the cpu, the heat transfers from the cpu to the block and the water absorbs a fair amount of the heat that is produced. The heated water is then passed into a radiator where it is cooled down with the help of a fan. In theory water-cooling should provide more efficient cooling than a standard air-cooled solution with minimal noise. Water-Cooling is something that is routinely used by Over-Clockers for the benefits of a higher overclock when directly compared to traditional air-cooled systems. It can also be used in situations where low noise production is a priority. One such example of this is in a Home-Theater PC (HTPC), I will discuss this in detail further on.

The Kit
This is the box the way it was when it arrived at my door. Nothing fancy, It's just to hold what's inside. After opening the box and removing all the packaging materials, this is what you are left with. A bunch of parts that will first need to be assembled before you can put the kit into use. I will cover all the major parts seperately before I discuss the assembly of the kit. A quick glance of the instructions made me realize that they were not in english but in "Engrish", I threw them aside and ignored them. There is also some double sided tape and what appears to be a pad for the reservoir/pump to rest on to quiet some of the vibrations, I threw that aside as well as I wasn't interested in installing this permantly if it did not perform as I hoped.





The waterblock itself isn't overly impressive, it is made of an alloy that is about 95% aluminum and 5% copper. From the top you can see no visible method of attatching it to the CPU socket, more on this later. From the top you can see the two hose barbs where the input and the output lines will attatch to, they are for 3/8" lines. From the bottom the base appears to be relatively smooth, the riser where it sits over the socket being visible. A more detailed look at the bottom shows that the block has been beat up rather severly and there are several large dings in it. Fortunately none of the dings were at the location the die of the CPU would make contact with the block. I chose not to take the time to lap the block seeing as the die contact area seemed quite smooth.







The method for attatching the block in a Socket-A setup seemed to me at first to be very ineffective. This was because the clip is actually in two pieces and seems quite flimsy once you put it together. Once I installed the block on my CPU using the clip, I regained confidence in it. I found that it held to the socket very firmly and I would not need to worry about it. In fact the clip held so good, I had a difficult time removing it when I needed to. This clip is very similar to the one found on the Coolermaster HHC-001 heatsink, which is the heatsink I will be comparing this water-cooling kit to performance wise later on. It is similar in that you do not need any tools to attatch it. It manauvers the clip to attatch to the socket using a large thumb clip. It is very easy to attach and shouldn't even cause the most novice of users any problems. On the Intel side of things, the block attatches in a very unique way. The block sits on top of the cpu and then a plastic retention piece locks it in place using the standard P4 socket cooler locking mechanism. This could be a problem if you do not have the standard p4 socket locking mechanism, some custom heat sinks attatch in different methods and require the removal of the locking device. Something to consider If you are a P4 user interested in this product.







The radiator seemed to be solidly built with a plastic shroud on it for attatching an 80mm fan. Very few fins were bent out of shape during packing and shipment. It has a large surface area allowing air to pass thru it easily. The back has holes in multiple places for attaching a fan, but you can't line up a fan with the fan on the front. It's nothing major but does hinder the total amount of air you could have flowing thru the radiator. The front side of the radiator has the 3/8" inlet and outlet barbs for attatching the lines. One thing I quickly noticed about the radiator was the size of it, you shouldn't have a problem attatching it to one of the case fans on the back of your computer if you have a large enough case, but I was unable to do it in my mini-tower Antec case, the radiator would have to sit on the bottom of my case







The fan is a standard 80mm 7-blade 3-pin fan. Doing research on the model #, I was able to determine that it uses a sleeve bearing. I was unable to find any information on the amount of airflow it produces, but comparing it with one of my current fans that I know is rated for 32cfm, I would estimate that the included fan produces no more than 20cfm. This may not seem like much, but it should be more than enough to push enough air through the radiator.





The pump is submersible and is rated for a maximum output of 150gph (gallons per hour). While this is far from being the most powerful pump on the market, it should provide enough flow for effective cooling. One thing I noticed was that it was unable to pump water higher than 3 feet, the water would just stop moving in the lines. This is not really an issue, because I doubt few if any people have the CPU socket 3 feet above where the pump would be located, but it still does prove that this pump may have some issues if you have a full-tower case. The pump mounts inside the reservoir using 4 small suction-cup feet, to keep it from moving around. Another thing that drew my attention was that you had to wire your own electrical plug for the pump. The wires are not very secure in the plug and they are exposed a little bit. This could prove to be hazardous as it is a weak point and could cause problems if not properly handled or wired. It would be very easy to miss-wire it and possibly short out the pump or cause a fire hazard. In short, be careful with this part.







The resevoir is 3 main pieces, the tank itself where the pump and the water go, a lid with a screw-off cap to add water, and a rubber ring to seal it. The tank is large enough to contain the pump and still have room for a decent amount of water. The lid has a notch where the power cord for the pump comes out and is sealed by a gasket that screws in place. The lid is attaches to the bottom of the tank by the means of 4 screws, and to seal it up tight the rubber ring is used as a gasket. More on the resevior in the next section of this review.









Construction & Installation
Construction was fairly simple and only took about 15 minutes to set up. The basic steps are putting the pump in the tank, run a small section of tubing from the output of the pump to the connector on the lid, fasten the lid with the rubber gasket in place to the tank, run tubing from the output of the resevoir to the input on the waterblock, run another section of tubing from the output of the waterblock to the input of the radiator, and run a final section of tubing from the output of the radiator to the input on the resevoir. After all the lines have been run, secure them with the hose clamps. And finally, screw the fan onto the radiator. The reservoir gave me some concern when I was putting it together, I noticed that there was not a perfect seal between the lid and the tank. I thought if I tightened the screws more this problem would go away, but this was not the case. Every time it seemed like there was a good seal between the lid and the tank, the lid started to crack slightly from the pressure of the screws. Seeing as I was unable to get a good seal with the reservoir, I became concerned about evaporation issues. Aside from the issues with resevoir seals, and the possible saftey hazards with the eletrical plug, everything else turned out fine.




Lots of pics and the rest of the article (http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_hardware_00044.asp)

[lynchknot]

Perhaps if I had a better CPU, it might be worth it. I can't OC mine too much anyway. I've been reading alot and finding stock heatsink cpu temps to be in the 53-56c range. Right now i'm at 47c - so it's doing well I suppose. I just returned from a half hr of Live for Speed and the temp was at 50c. I think that is ok.

[phishhead]

lynch it looks fine dont stress. most likely it was your ambient room temp was high making the other temps high.

[lynchknot]

yeah, you're right - I think Fastgame may be correct in saying, "thermo paste needs a bit of time to set". I have not changed a thing and the temp has dropped down to 46c. I've got Photoshop open - i'm working on a Thunderbird Coffeecup theme.

I forgot, I need to get used to the temp differences between Intel and AMD. I'm used to seeing 40c or sub 40c much of the time.

[phishhead]

now put that damn case back on and see what it does.:D

[lynchknot]

you mean cover? It is on and it's 46c. Fan at 4218

[phishhead]

you said you have a front fan right it so do you have those air holes in the side and in the back...if so try duct taping those and see what the temp does.

[lynchknot]

well, there are slots along the bottom of the case cover and I removed the extra bay covers and put a fan in there. I'll take that out and put the covers back on to see what happens. temp is now 45c

*edit - i removed the bay fan and held a piece of paper up to the hole and it is sucking air.

[phishhead]

no leave the fan there I'm talking the side covers do you have little air holes and also in the back do you have little air holes cover those up and leave the front fans alone. and see how the temps are..this causes the air flow to be directed by the fans .

[lynchknot]

well, what i did increased the temp to 50c. I'll try your idea but maybe tomorrow or later. It's near 4pm and the sun is starting to come into the windows. It's going to get very warm in here in a few minutes.

I point my thermometer at the window and it's already 102F.

[Dehcbad25]

wow, this post went long fast. :p
Anyways, my temperature now is 48c. I have Xp 1800+ Step 6. MY Temp is very low now because I have the mule closed, so there is no writting to the disk (only minimal). But otherwise is around 51ºc
Why so high, well remember that CPU fans are tempeature regulated. Even thought you put the fan to max, you are only putting the minimun rpm to max. If I currently put all my fans to max the temp of the PC won't change. Actually, I just checked, if I put the case fans up, the CPU fan goes down. All in order to reduce dbs.
Now, my temp is low bacause in my house is so f#%#@ COLD:msntongue The enviroment temp now is 68 F and my legs are cold. I feel like in winter ;)
Otherwise, lets supouse the A/C is lower, and the temperature is about 80, the fans will only spin a bit more and the temp is going to be 51 to 53 in load.
Now, MY PC has 5 case fans, 2 of them are 120mm, and one of those 120mm is in front of the HDD. One fan is in the side, Blowing air almost directly to the AGP port (GeForce 4 Ti).
The temperature of my PC cannot go down much more than that since I checked right now, and the fans blow cold air, except for the PSU that blows a bit warm air, but I think it is pretty good for a 520 W PSU.
Note: I left the fans speed (HIGH NOISE) all the way up for 30 minutes to test and the CPU temp decreased from 48 to 45C, but after reaching 45 the CPU fan rpm keep decreasing from almost 5000 rpm to 4650. The case temperature hasn't change at all, always 25c (Diode located in the chipset), and the Diode located in the PCI area the highest registered is 18, and the lowest I reached now is 15, so there isn't much down I can go. I will have to frezee the room for that.
This are my 2 cents.

[Dehcbad25]

PS note:
Phis idea about putting a fan in the PCI slots (free ones) I don't think is a good one. The reason is that your intake fan in located at the bottom, so if you put a an at the back-bottom of your case, it will take the air that your intake fan blows out, reducing a lot the airflow. Best setup is:
Air gets from the front and botom of the PC and flows to the back top of PC
Here is a little drawing for the airflow. Excuse the simpliness, but I did it in 5 minutes :p Too lazy to look for something better in the web Airflow (http://aplusplace.port5.com/Files/airflow.JPG)

[FastGame]

I think it's time we all went to water cooling, what do you say ? good I thought so.....I'll go first :D

[lynchknot]

What are you going to do Fastgame? Dust off your hookah you 've got in storage from the early '70's and install it? hehe

Dehcbad25 - that's exactly what i've got except I can't put a hole on the bottom front - the on switch and the USB are there. I did open up the bays under the CD drives. I'm going to cut a hole in my cover - it will have to be on the bottom in the middle.

[cash_site]

I liked the idea of water cooling... so much so I tried it out... but things got a little fried and smokey... how much water are supposed to put in the case ?? :eek:


Nah, just kidding... A major point to consider, CPU temps go above ambient temp... ie my system temp is 21oC and cpu is 32oC at 0oC my cpu would be 11oC

So, moral of story is to try an minimise your ambient temp or for closed-case systems, minimise in-flow air temps.

Another idea, might be to add some insulation (roof bats) inside the case, would keep the heat out during summer, and with good airflow keep inside cool.

ps. I think I need some for my computer room LOL, gets like 100-110F during summer :cool:

[Dehcbad25]

Why don't you all bring the PCs to my living room??:p
The A/C upstatirs is not working (we don't knwo why yet) so this days we have the A/C so strong that it feels like winter downstairs, but with strong A/C feels just right upstairs, otherwise woudl be too hot to sleep :D
Also, I have an empty rack at my ofice. There is the ideal place. There is heavy Duty A/C equipment that constantly keep T to 67F and 45% humidity, plus is protected by a heavy duty batery back up (it provides up to 3 hours of power to all 12 servers, monitors, and 6 PCs in the Datacenter room) powered by 18 cars bateries, and if that is not enoght we also have an emergency generator that kicks in whenever power goes out. How is that for 24/7?:p

[zipp51]

Get a Lian Li Aluminum case they come with 4 high quality case fans,2 of which are front case intake ones and 1 is on the top of the case.About $100 without Power supply.The fans are not loud either.

[cash_site]

Originally posted by zipp51
Get a Lian Li Aluminum case they come with 4 high quality case fans,2 of which are front case intake ones and 1 is on the top of the case.About $100 without Power supply.The fans are not loud either.

I was looking at these cases too, I bought a cheap $40 no-name case and I cant even screw PCI cards in, only Electrical tape LOL.

I heard Lian Li has some amazing cases and design. Do you know any good resellers for them? What would be a good case?

[Big Booger]

one of our affiliates sells Lian Cases:

http://www.pcextreme.biz/main.html

:D

$139-479.99US

[Conan]

Originally posted by cash_site
I was looking at these cases too, I bought a cheap $40 no-name case and I cant even screw PCI cards in, only Electrical tape LOL.

I heard Lian Li has some amazing cases and design. Do you know any good resellers for them? What would be a good case?

Have a look at this thread:

http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=18637#post18637

[efc]

When all else fails.

http://mitternacht.port5.com/tz/chip_cooling.jpg

[lynchknot]

What do you all think of ducting? I'm thinking of adding it to my HSF to draw air directly from outside the case. I have measured 140F coming off the top side of the video card - heading straight to the cpu. I reversed the flow of the case cover fan to blow out (it's located on the bottom middle) Sure enough, it's blowing 100F air out of it and the room temp here is 88F - I then added an inblowing 80mm fan to the extra drive bays, which sits level with the cpu- it's now 6 degrees cooler.

So i'm thinking I can get rid of, maybe, 2 fans (noise) - if I draw the air from outside of the case. The rear fan and psu fan should be enough to draw heat from HSF.

[efc]

After reading all of this, let me suggest a test before you spend any more money. It may be possible that you have a CPU that will run hot no matter how many fans you put in the case.

Take both side panels off the case and set up a room fan to blow directly onto the mother board. This will provide more air movement to the CPU than is possible with any number of case fans. If it still runs hot, just accept it and be prepared to buy another when this one quits.

[FastGame]

First off Lynch even though you are a tad on the warm side you aren't even close to the AMD max temp of 90c ! so chill :)

That CPU should be able too run at 60c forever but in an overclocked state you should get the temp as low as possible for stability sake ;)

Also don't always trust the temp readings in bios or software...it's a known fact that the readings may vary between bios & probe versions.

Keep working on your case air flow :)

[lynchknot]

Closing and opening apps are becoming very sluggish. At times just trying to open the start panel takes several clicks - even while there is 341mb of free ram and cpu use down. And yes, i have defragmented (almost every day)

[FastGame]

That has nothing to do with your CPU running at 50c, maybe you need to look at your new Anti-Virus software ;) or maybe you need this XP patch (http://www.warp2search.net/article.php?sid=11377).

You should get rid of all the software you don't use, need or understand ;)

[Conan]

Originally posted by FastGame
That has nothing to do with your CPU running at 50c, maybe you need to look at your new Anti-Virus software ;)

Actually when I installed Panda, it slowed down Perfectdisk by a lot, so I got rid of Panda and am back to good old Norton!:cool:

[lynchknot]

perfectdisk is running the same for me (always been slow). Now that it's cooler today the PC is running at 40c.

[lynchknot]

Originally posted by FastGame
That has nothing to do with your CPU running at 50c, maybe you need to look at your new Anti-Virus software ;) or maybe you need this XP patch (http://www.warp2search.net/article.php?sid=11377).

You should get rid of all the software you don't use, need or understand ;)

where the hell is the patch? It keeps taking me to "download and read more" several times.

[Dehcbad25]

I still insist, 40c for an Athlon XP is like freezing, so I think you have very good temp.
as FG said, the max temp is 90c, and I can tell you by experience running the CPU for 2 hours without fan it still works, and I can say the heatsink was over 100c (I am talking only of the HeatSink), so the CPU must had been higher. Who said AMD is not good quality?? Look, it still works after I almost fried it :p

[FastGame]

Originally posted by lynchknot
where the hell is the patch? It keeps taking me to "download and read more" several times.
Sorry I guess things have changed & you can't get this patch unless you call M$....but thanks to Conan http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=24948#post24948 you can get it from Neowin Here (http://www.iebeta.net/files/Q815411_WXP_SP2_x86_ENU.exe) :cool:

[phishhead]

smart A$$:D

[FastGame]

Originally posted by phishhead
smart A$$:D
:confused: R U OK ? :D

[phishhead]

Originally posted by FastGame
Sorry I guess things have changed & you can't get this patch unless you call m$

;)

[Thor]

My XP 2100+ runs at 40C regularly. A little hotter when doing more intensive things but well within the "normal" range.

[zipp51]

I've got 2 machines running XP 2100+ cpu's.One is on an Abit KG7 board Volcano 9 fan, and the other is on an Epox 8K7A+ board Thermaltake Cu 6.The Volcano 9 is dialed in at 6000 rpm and keeps the cpu the coolest of the two at 39 to 42.The Cu 6 on the Epox runs at 44 to 50.Both systems have identical cases and extra case fans.These figures for both will vary on the plus side by a couple of degrees.I can tell you that that V9 is very noisy but for an air cooler it does the job.I am using a Zalman CNPS6000-Cu on my Barton 2800+ and Asus A7N8X and right now temp is 28c for chassis and 38c for cpu,very quiet as the fan speed only goes 2700 rpm,but under game play,and benchmarking and when it's warmer in the house the temp has reached 51c.AMD's are at home running hot and I haven't cooked any of them yet.I would be suspicious if one of mine was at 60c to 65c at idle.

[lynchknot]

Originally posted by lynchknot
Closing and opening apps are becoming very sluggish. At times just trying to open the start panel takes several clicks - even while there is 341mb of free ram and cpu use down. And yes, i have defragmented (almost every day)

I had Tweak now powerpack's RAM idle professional optimizer starting with windows, sitting in sys tray. I must of had it configured poorly (don't know how to so I left it at default);

I then removed it from start-up and it's off - now apps are opening properly, and closing, and menus snap open like they should.

[phishhead]

hey lynch go to start run and type msconfig and uncheck anything that doesn't need to be started at boot up. and if you dont know what it is better off leaving that one alone. this should make your system pep up alittle better.

[lynchknot]

I've been using BlackViper's tweak file. I've only got 27 processes opening at start up and those include: Triliian, EPrompter, coolmon, and MBM - besides AV and FW.

[Big Booger]

buy yourself a tube of arctic silver III, run the chip at the factory clock, make sure the flow of air in the case is heading in the appropriate directions, in from front out through the back. Make sure your fan is spinning at the correct temp, and if all of that doesn't get the temp down to normal for an AMD chip, then it might be time for a water cooling solution :D

[lynchknot]

I am using Arctic silver 3 my temps (nice cool day today) are in the 40-42c range. :)

[Rex Mundi]

I have a P4 2.8GHz with HT installed with a genuine intel heat sink fan. Still when my CPU usage is maxed my cpu temperature reaches 60 degrees celcius. I have 2 additional case fans blowing out of the case, a big powersupply fan also sucking air away from the cpu out the case and a fan in the front blowing air into the case. Is this setup the most efficient for airflow inside the case? :confused: When my pc is idle, the cpu temp. is 48 degrees celcius.

Cheers

[phishhead]

not to familar with Intel cpu's but that seems alittle high. to see if your airflow is good take the side cover off and if the temp goes up then your airflow is fine. if the temp goes down then you need to change your configuration alittle better. Also are you using regular IDE ribbons. I know I have the round ones and that helps with airflow also if you tidy up your power cables that will help. Is your mobo temps high also if its just your cpu you might want to reapply your thermal grease, and if you have one of those thermal pads take it off then clean the HS with some cleaner and add some thermal grease. Let us know if this helps.

[Rex Mundi]

Thermal grease. I guess that must be part of the solution. I didn't put any on the p4 chip :D. About the case temperature, it's hot too, 45 degrees celcius. When i take the cover of the case off, the temperature drops by a couple degrees. But not much though. When i put my hand in the case, it doesn't feel that hot. Only when i put my hand next to the cpu fan, do i feel the hot air coming from my cpu, and believe me it's HOT. I'll see what i can do. I think i'll buy some grease, but about the fan configuration, i cant do much about it. All the rear fans occupy the available space, plus i dont think it would be wise to make em blow air into the case, right?

thanks anyway, cheers

[Reverend]

From reading your configuration it sounds like you have got plenty of fans drawing the air out,but only one pulling air in.Therefore you may be pulling the cleaner,cooler air out too quickly.If possible fit an additional fan to the front that draws air in,or replace the current front fan with one that has got a higher cfm rating.

And not wishing to sound patronizing,but check the air flow indicator arrows are pointing in the right direction. I made that mistake myself once. ;) :o

[Rex Mundi]

Thanks, i'll experiment some more with the fans. Also about the thermal grease, i must have that other thing you get with heatsinks, a conductive sticker, i cant remember what it's called. The hot air is indeed efficiently blown away from the CPU, but doesn't easily escape the case. I also thought about cutting away the metallic grid of the case where the fans are located for faster airflow. Would that be a good idea?

[phishhead]

I actually have my cpu fan blowing towards the heatsink. experimented with that and I lowers the temp a few degrees. but definately get yourself some thermal grease and put a small amount on the cpu and spread it with a old creditcard...then I put some on the heat sink and rub it in with a cloth.

[Rex Mundi]

I actually have my cpu fan blowing towards the heatsink.

Yes, thats right, that's what i have as well. I meant the case fans on the rear end, they should blow the air out of the case, i figured. Anyway, i can still get some thermal grease, but i am not sure it will make a huge difference. From the intel website, the heatsink that comes with the boxed version of the pentium 4, has been rigorously tested and performs suffiently. Besides, my system seems very stable, even at max cpu usage. Now that the summer will be arriving in a matter of months, i'll see if i need anymore cooling devices installed and/or thermal grease.

thanks for the advice :)

[cash_site]

well it also depends on your ambient temperature. If your MB temps are high too, it might be time to take the computer off the heating duct on the floor, and place in a dry, cool location & not in direct sunlight.

[Rex Mundi]

Idle: CPU: 46C
Case: 33C

Max CPU usage: CPU: 60C
Case: 45C

This is the best i can get with thermal grease, which is present on the CPU when i checked. There would be just one solution left; getting a top of the notch CPU fan. I'm not sure if i should even bother, after all i have a genuine intel heatsink. Oh well, -> uninstall motherboard monitor :D

[phishhead]

rex seems like your case temp is alittle high. if you take the case off does the temp go up or down? you might have an air flow issue. because if you get the case temp down the cpu will follow.

[FastGame]

I agree with phishhead

Your idle temps are the same as my underload temp and I'm overclocking everything. You either have your comuter in a warm room or you have an air flow problem. Your case to cpu temp ratio is fine, they're just high.

If your PC doesn't sound like a vacum cleaner then you don't have enough fans :p

[cash_site]

If your PC doesn't sound like a vacum cleaner then you don't have enough fans Just dont put too many fans in that it sucks all the air from near computer that you pass out on your desk ;)

[SupaStar]

Just dont put too many fans in that it sucks all the air from near computer that you pass out on your desk ;)

Haha..gonna need one of those masks that fighter pilots wear...with the matching Top Gun-style helmet and visor :D

[rik]

What a mental picture... :D

[Conan]

If your PC doesn't sound like a vacum cleaner then you don't have enough fans :p

I just got a Thermaltake P4 Spark 7. (http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/spark/a1545.htm) At full speed (6,000) rpm it sounds like a have a Jet Fighter in my case! Still evaluating the temps. It's just a tad lower than the stock 3.0 Ghz cooler which had a center Copper core surrounded by Aluminum.

[cash_site]

LOL @ Supa, if you have to wear the jet-pilot gear, than I guess it makes you an expert in DesertCombat flying the F15 :D

@Conan, My cousin got one of these fans a little while ago, and it works really well. It comes with a fan control, that can be temperature controlled or knob-control. He sets it to minimum speed and still cooler than stock HSF.

Saying that though, the stock HSF from Intel for 2.8 and over are very good design, and pretty efficient. Would be better off spending the extra dough on better quality ram and run on less voltage ;)

[Rex Mundi]

Recently i got myself a Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu fan. I took out all the other fans and let the Zalman run in silent mode. Surprisingly, the idle temperature is still 50C and max usage temp 64C. This means it truely is a damn good fan and my pc is absolutely silent now :D I could double the rotational speed of the fan to 2500 rpm, but what the heck that means only more noise and my computer seems to be doing fine.

Still im a bit uncertain about the case temperature sensor. Even when the case is open it says 40C! That just cant be right, because i put a themometer in there and its 30C tops. :confused: Then i came across a thread somewhere, where this guy said that the Albatron 865PE PRO mainboard has sensors that measure temperatures a bit too high. I wonder if this is true...

PS i have a prescott processor and perform well up to temps of 70C. I suppose that is correct.

[Conan]

Recently i got myself a Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu fan. I took out all the other fans and let the Zalman run in silent mode. Surprisingly, the idle temperature is still 50C and max usage temp 64C. This means it truely is a damn good fan and my pc is absolutely silent now :D I could double the rotational speed of the fan to 2500 rpm, but what the heck that means only more noise and my computer seems to be doing fine.

Still im a bit uncertain about the case temperature sensor. Even when the case is open it says 40C! That just cant be right, because i put a themometer in there and its 30C tops. :confused: Then i came across a thread somewhere, where this guy said that the Albatron 865PE PRO mainboard has sensors that measure temperatures a bit too high. I wonder if this is true...

PS i have a prescott processor and perform well up to temps of 70C. I suppose that is correct.

I have my Zalman running at 2,700 rpm without the Fanmate and it's still almost totally silent. You need to run the fan at full for a Prescott. What thermal paste did you use?

[Rex Mundi]

The manual of the fan didn't mention prescott specifically but did state that it would run in silent mode even for a 3GHz machine. As for the thermal paste, i used the stuff that came with it. It looks white. It is even so sticky, that when i accidentely put the fan on the p4 chip and i forgot about the fan header, that was still coiled around the fan, I took out the fan again, but ripped the processer with it. As a result some metallic pins were bend inderneath the processor chip. Luckily it was nothing serious, and i carefully placed the processor back into its socket. I correctly installed the fan afterwards and no damage was done. One thing is for sure. Im not going to try to remove that fan again :msneek:

Anyways, i'll see how quiet normal mode is, but extreme cooling isn't what im after anyhow. Thanks for the tip :)

[Rex Mundi]

Sorry guys that i keep rambling on about this, but i need to know something. Is it possible that the high cpu temps are caused by the excessive heat dissipation from the power supply? Unfortunately my processor is very close to my power supply. These days its been very hot here with ambient temperatures above 30 degrees C. When i touch my power supply, i almost burn my fingers! It's that focking hot. For a 350W max output, is this normal? Anyways it explains why mbm tells me that the case temp is always above 40C! I have max fan speed with my zalman and in idle its 58C! lol :D. Just shows how everything is relative on a hot day (33C). So anyways, are there 'cool' power supplys out there in the computer stores? Cause it sure would help keeping those temps down :)

[Conan]

Sorry guys that i keep rambling on about this, but i need to know something. Is it possible that the high cpu temps are caused by the excessive heat dissipation from the power supply? Unfortunately my processor is very close to my power supply. These days its been very hot here with ambient temperatures above 30 degrees C. When i touch my power supply, i almost burn my fingers! It's that focking hot. For a 350W max output, is this normal? Anyways it explains why mbm tells me that the case temp is always above 40C! I have max fan speed with my zalman and in idle its 58C! lol :D. Just shows how everything is relative on a hot day (33C). So anyways, are there 'cool' power supplys out there in the computer stores? Cause it sure would help keeping those temps down :)

Your power supply has only 1 fan I pressume? Most newer models have 2 fans, the one nearer the CPU sucks air in.

http://www.enermax.com.tw/upload/ATX-12Vfc.jpg

[Rex Mundi]

yes i have only the bigger fan in it, not a second smaller one. What do you think? Should i get one like that? Or is the difference negligible?

[Conan]

yes i have only the bigger fan in it, not a second smaller one. What do you think? Should i get one like that? Or is the difference negligible?

Either that or get a case with better air flow.

[Big Booger]

I'd trust Conan on this. He's rather knowledgeable about cooling.

[Rex Mundi]

Sweet, thanks guys :) I'll give it a thought, kinda depends on how cheap i can get either a new case or power supply. A better case sounds like a better idea imho.

[Dehcbad25]

That PSU that Conan posted is the same as I have. I was going to post yesterday that you should change your PSU to one of those :p
A new case would help too, but IMHO I think a good PSU is more important. When I changed my PSU I saw a reduction of 5º Celsius in temperature and a huge reduction on noise. A better PSU will also provide you with a more healthy electric source, and hence it could also reduce a lot of other problems derivate from unstable electricity (as crashes, data corruption) Here is a list of PSU at CompUsa (only Antec)
I have the TruePower 550 with the front bay, which allows me to regulate the speed of the fans (they are also heat controlled)
If you get a case, and you have space, get a tower case. Your hands will apreciate it if you work often inside the computer, plus you can do so much more. I am even thinking changing my tower case for a file server case for the 2 extra bays (from 10 to 12)

[Rex Mundi]

Cool info. I didn't know the difference is that pronounced, ie 5 deg C. I'm gonna hav to wait tho because im a bit short on money but thanks :) Luckily i have no probs with electricity, dataloss, whatever. My powersupply is a relatively cheap Aopen 350W ATX, but really quiet so it still is value for money. My case on the otherhand is a cheap miditower, i just got whatever was cheapest, cause i dont really care about the looks of a computer case. So now you know ;)

[Rex Mundi]

Lol I moved my computer 2 metres in my room closer to the "balcony" door which is pretty always open with this hot weather. I also decided to add a chassis fan again and using the programme 'fanspeed' i lowered the fan speed by 50% to reduce noise. Now my cpu is 3 degrees C lower than before (in idle)! :msncool: :D

[Conan]

That's still a hot CPU at 52 idle. My load temps max out at 49.

[Dehcbad25]

I have 43ºC/109ºF and I am using 15% CPU constantly or more. It is in 15% now while I write here :p (thanks to video card) I do have however 7 fans counting the 2 from the PSU (And not counting the one from the CPU)

[phishhead]

mine sits at 39c and if I've been playing mohaa for awhile it will get to about 46c. right now its been pretty hot and its been idling at around 43c. but granted the outside temp is around 90f.

[Rex Mundi]

That's all very nice, but i dont think you guys live in a room which becomes 28 degrees C during the day ;) Hell, it's even hotter outside. Luckily within a couple of days things will start to cool down again :)

[Conan]

That's all very nice, but i dont think you guys live in a room which becomes 28 degrees C during the day ;) Hell, it's even hotter outside. Luckily within a couple of days things will start to cool down again :)

I live in the Philippines, it's always hot here! It's currently 29 C in my room now and it's early morning (my cpu is idling at 36.8 at the moment). Room temperature usually climbs to 32-35 later on in the day.

[Dehcbad25]

Well Rex, you might be refering to use A/C. I don't use A/C and inside my appartment it is hotter than outside, and a lot hotter. Thanksto heaven for me I am usually at work :p

[Rex Mundi]

That's amazing Conan. You say your pc max out at 49C when it's 33C in your room? :confused: That's only 16C difference! You must be using water cooling or something ha ha ha (just kiddin). At this moment it's 24C here and my cpu is 46C idle. Looks much better, never had it this low :P I must say when i open a big programme it jumps straight to 50C, when i play a cpu, gpu intensive game, it jumps to 60C.

[Conan]

That's amazing Conan. You say your pc max out at 49C when it's 33C in your room? :confused: That's only 16C difference! You must be using water cooling or something ha ha ha (just kiddin). At this moment it's 24C here and my cpu is 46C idle. Looks much better, never had it this low :P I must say when i open a big programme it jumps straight to 50C, when i play a cpu, gpu intensive game, it jumps to 60C.

Well I attribute my good temps to my Thermaltake case which comes with 7 fans and my Zalman CPU cooler.

[Rex Mundi]

I noticed something very funny from my thermal onboard sensors and the one from my harddisk. My harddisk reports 30C but my case sensor reports 37C! Kinda strange how my harddisk is 7 degrees cooler than the temperature in my case :S. So it means either the case temp sensor is wrong or it is situated close to the CPU. In both cases, this is just stupid ha ha

[phishhead]

hey conan you still have that picture of your case with that gpu fan mod you made.

[Conan]

hey conan you still have that picture of your case with that gpu fan mod you made.

This one? It raised my case temps though so I no longer use it.

http://img44.exs.cx/img44/8660/2fansc.jpg

[Dehcbad25]

Rex, how do you monitor the HDD temp?

[Rex Mundi]

I use speedfan (www.almico.com/speedfan.php) to monitor my hdd temp (and Cpu and Case temps too). I use the programme to lower the speed of my case fan too when i go to sleep.