Computer cooling options

FASTXR · 30-09-2005, 10:53 PM

I have a computer that is giving me overheating grief. Given that I don't want to have a bloody great personal fan aimed at it all day in order to play games etc, can anyone suggest a good tower cooling setup? Do I just get a couple of the small standard exhaust fans or is there something better I can use to get the heat out?

Cheers

The MaDDeSTMaN · 30-09-2005, 11:27 PM

what sort of system is it? Pentium 3 or 4, Celeron, AMD Athlon or Celeron? The other thing is, just how hot is it getting? If a system monitor is on one of the CDs you got with your computer, install that, if not, http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ is pretty good for telling you how hot your cpu is getting.

Also is it possible to take some photos of the current setup?

Lastly, make sure it's not clogged up with dust, if it is, it might just need a good clean.

Steffo · 30-09-2005, 11:27 PM

Whack one of these on the CPU

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_p...egory_id]=1218

Get a few of these as intake and exhaust fans (mount the intakes at the front of the case, and on the side panel blowing towards the CPU), and get a couple as exhausts (blowing out the rear of the case)

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_p...tegory_id]=279

If 80mm is too small for you, and you've got room for 120mm's... some of these would do well as intake/exhaust fans also...

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_p...tegory_id]=281

mik · 01-10-2005, 02:44 AM

you can get water cooled heat sinks to go on your cpu, supposed to be, the bees knees, gunna make one for my self down the track, have seen them in computer mags ,might be worth a look, good luck mate

Panda · 01-10-2005, 05:36 AM

For some really nice (read - expensive) cooling options, check out Thermaltake Website

Panda

Papa Smurf · 01-10-2005, 07:01 AM

FastXR, have you thought of putting GOOD thermal paste between the CPU and Cooler? It DOES make a difference. I have seen this before and the change using a good paste can make up to a 20 degree difference.

MITCHAY · 01-10-2005, 08:26 AM

Ive taken the sides of the case off. Only got an intake fan, the CPU fan, and the power pack fan. Only problem with having the sides off case off is dust gets everywhere.

Black XR6 · 01-10-2005, 09:00 AM

dust gets everywhere? Do you mean dust comes out of the computer?

If so there is your problem. You nees to get rid of the dust from all the fans and that will make a big difference.

When you say it gets too hot, does the system actually crash from this or exhibit other symptoms? If not how do you know it is getting too hot? Unless you do have a program installed that tells you.

XRQTOR · 01-10-2005, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panda

For some really nice (read - expensive) cooling options, check out Thermaltake Website

Panda

Some of those cases look cool what are they worth and where can you buy them. What's the green tube's in them.

xa bird · 01-10-2005, 10:33 PM

I put a fan controller and temp monitor in from tricky dicks lets you speed up or slow the fans as needed also great to lower the noise when cpu is not doing it hard cost about $50 from memory

the_scotsman · 02-10-2005, 09:39 AM

The ideal airflow through a case is an intake at the front on the bottom, an exhaust on the back up top, and the fan in the power supply.
If you have no exhaust fan, your intake is sucking in air, but the hot air has no where to go inside the tower...may be as simple as cleaning out all the dust, make sure you have thermal compound between the CPU and the heatsink, and adding an exhaust fan.

3rd party heatsink/fan combinations are much better than OEM ones...and they arent expensive, check eBay, they have lots on there.

TIRED6 · 02-10-2005, 09:58 AM

hehe,
how to ford-ize your computer cooling.

1. put some extractors on it
2. fit an xr intake to increase performance
3. fit au thermo fans set to a lower temp
4. add a larger exhaust, with less air restriction
5. fill it with some coolant, better than water

The MaDDeSTMaN · 02-10-2005, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_scotsman

The ideal airflow through a case is an intake at the front on the bottom, an exhaust on the back up top, and the fan in the power supply.
If you have no exhaust fan, your intake is sucking in air, but the hot air has no where to go inside the tower...may be as simple as cleaning out all the dust, make sure you have thermal compound between the CPU and the heatsink, and adding an exhaust fan.

Well said, if it doesn't have a fan sucking the hot air out from around the CPU, it will get rather hot, so first step would be to add one there if there isn't one there aleady.

Thats why I asked if it was possible to get some photos of the inside of the PC ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_scotsman

3rd party heatsink/fan combinations are much better than OEM ones...and they arent expensive, check eBay, they have lots on there.

That's why I asked for information about what it is, depending on which CPU it is, the heatsink and fan may be absolutely woeful, or may be suprisingly good and better then some 3rd party ones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Papa Smurf

FastXR, have you thought of putting GOOD thermal paste between the CPU and Cooler? It DOES make a difference. I have seen this before and the change using a good paste can make up to a 20 degree difference.

This is a good point, I put some arctic silver 5 between my CPU (AMD XP 2800+) and heatsink, and just by doing that it made a dramatic difference to the temps:

Before arctic silver 5
Maximum overclock: 2258Mhz
CPU Diode 53c Max 57c
cpu socket 41c

With arctic silver 5
Maximum overclock: 2300mhz
Cpu Diode Max 49c
Cpu Socket 42c

Anyway, I think it's important to find out what sort of a system we are giving advice for, as well as what cooling options it already has, before we go giving any more advice

FASTXR · 02-10-2005, 11:08 PM

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay with the reply but I've been moving into my new place. Okay, details of my system are:

P4 2.4Ghz
1024Mb RAM
ABIT IS7-E2 Gigabyte motherboard
Brand new Antec True480 480W PSU
2 x optical drives - CD/CD-R & DVD/DVD-R
2 hard drives - 1 x 40Gb & 1 x 160Gb
Video card - Nvidia GeForce 6600GT

System is free of dust and other crap.

Attached are pics of the case with cover on, one with cover off and one showing the CPU.

The motherboard comes with a program called V-Tuner 2 which monitors some stuff but not CPU temperature.

03-10-2005, 02:18 PM

Get a fan for the case and a decent cpu cooler like this:
http://pcmaniacs.com.au/product_info...cbf4ab202f7ddf

EA2BA · 03-10-2005, 02:43 PM

I have a fan at the front of my case sucking air in, and one at the rear blowing the hot air out, both are thermo sensitive and increase speed with heat, keeps it all nice and cool. not that I use it much.

Go here http://www.3degs.net download motherboard monitor, should hopefully tell you what temps and fans are doing if you can configure for your motherboard.

Grechie · 03-10-2005, 04:09 PM

On my XP 2800+ i have a Volcano 11 on it, keeps it nice n kool, can adjust the fan rpm, (max 5200rpm @ 48db) pretty loud sucker ill tell u that when its full blast.

I gots 480 watt antec tru power psu which has a thermo fan which detects temp n ups fan speed on the psu(fan on bottom of psu sucks air up n sends it out the back) n i have a iceberq 5000rpm fan on my northbridge (good for OC'ing) and a stardard fan + heatsink on my south bridge (SB uually gets hot coz of soundstorm n can cause crackling)

i wouldnt mind having a intake fan at the front, but thats just overkill, atm, i think i got overkill

- Grechie

FASTXR · 03-10-2005, 06:16 PM

Ok, downloaded Motherboard Monitor and when I was just surfing the net, it gave me a CPU temp reading of 39 degrees. Just played less than 10 minutes of Unreal Tornament 2004 (at that point the screen went black and I was kicked back to the desktop). After this, CPU temp was 48 degrees. Is this enough of a temp rise to cause grief?

Mike Gayner · 03-10-2005, 07:21 PM

Nup, you have other problems. A CPU will only give you greif above about 80*C. Are you sure you're reading CPU temp and not ambient case temp? If you're not overclocking you shouldn't have temp problems, but try moving the case just a little further from the wall. I would also recommend a small exhaust fan for the case, but unless you're overclocking you shouldn't need any more than this. Also try some new thermal paste, as has been recommended.

Edit- Also seems unlikely that an overheating CPU will boot you to desktop. Usually overheating will cause a total system crash and you often won't be able to start it up again for a few minutes. My guess is your problems lay elsewhere.

Kapn_Kiwi · 03-10-2005, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XRQTOR

Some of those cases look cool what are they worth and where can you buy them. What's the green tube's in them.

They are worth quite a bit. Without Power Supply mine is roughly $260 NZ. The green tubes are for carrying coolant for a water cooling unit, and I think that case will be a bit more than mine.

FastXR - That case is messy! But I shouldn't think it's heating issues, when I had them the computer would just shut down, and not startup again for a couple of minutes, I don't think it's that.

The MaDDeSTMaN · 03-10-2005, 08:01 PM

I'd be suspecting the PSU or the gfx card then, could be the gfx card overheating, or not getting enough power from the psu.

EDIT: ok, new decent PSU, we'll rule that out for now. Driver issues are possible, that's what I'd try next. Download a copy of Driver Cleaner and install it, download the latest drivers from nvidia for your gfx card, uninstall your current drivers, reboot, run driver cleaner and tell it to remove your drivers for your gfx card (uninstalling won't have completely removed them), reboot again and install the new ones, and see if that fixes it.

FASTXR · 03-10-2005, 08:40 PM

Ok, a few points:

* Yes, that temp reading is for the CPU - when just surfing the net, case temp is given as approx 30 degrees
* I realise the case looks messy but thats due to the new PSU that has more power leads running out of it than I'll ever need!
* I've just been playing Medal of Honor for about 1.5 hours with a fan aimed directly at the case (sides are off) - no problems at all

:

The MaDDeSTMaN · 03-10-2005, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FASTXR

Ok, a few points:

* Yes, that temp reading is for the CPU - when just surfing the net, case temp is given as approx 30 degrees
* I realise the case looks messy but thats due to the new PSU that has more power leads running out of it than I'll ever need!
* I've just been playing Medal of Honor for about 1.5 hours with a fan aimed directly at the case (sides are off) - no problems at all

:

definitely could be driver related then, try Unreal Tournament 2004 and if it can play MOH for that long but have trouble lasting 10 minutes in Unreal Tournament 2004, I think we may have found the problem, drivers are notorious for causing this sort of thing, if it can play one game for as long as you like but not last 10 minutes with another game, usually it's because of a fault in the drivers.

FASTXR · 04-10-2005, 07:38 PM

When I played UT2004 the first time, I didn't have the external fan on, but I did have it on when I plahed MOH for so long. Just put the fan on and only got about 10 mins again in UT2004 before being kicked vack to the desktop. CPU reading was 48 degrees.

Would I be best to run that Driver Cleaner and reinstall the graphics card driver?

The MaDDeSTMaN · 04-10-2005, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FASTXR

When I played UT2004 the first time, I didn't have the external fan on, but I did have it on when I plahed MOH for so long. Just put the fan on and only got about 10 mins again in UT2004 before being kicked vack to the desktop. CPU reading was 48 degrees.

Would I be best to run that Driver Cleaner and reinstall the graphics card driver?

DEFINATELY, procedure is un-install graphics card drivers, when it asks you to reboot, choose no, I'll do it later, then run driver cleaner, select nVidia from the drop down list, click start, wait until it has completed, then click close, reboot the computer and cancel out of the new hardware detected wizard, then install the new drivers.

Try that and see how you go.

At least this one won't cost you anything

FASTXR · 04-10-2005, 10:18 PM

Well, this is officially p***ing me off :jab:

Ran Drive Cleaner, rebooted and then installed the latest drivers from the nVidia site. Managed to get nearly 15 minutes on UT2004 and just over 20 minutes on MOH before getting the black screen and being booted.

If we think it isn't heat and its not drivers, what the hell can be wrong? Maybe its time for a new computer...

:

4.0i_SiX · 04-10-2005, 10:21 PM

its doubtful the heat is causing the game to crash, have a look online and check if there are any patches available. Update your video card drivers.

You have a generic 8870 case which takes 8cm fans, the later models were shipped with one in the front ( intake ) so get at least one fan for the rear, blowing out ( exhaust )

Also, get some cable ties and clean up that mess of cables ;)

The MaDDeSTMaN · 04-10-2005, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FASTXR

Well, this is officially p***ing me off :jab:

Ran Drive Cleaner, rebooted and then installed the latest drivers from the nVidia site. Managed to get nearly 15 minutes on UT2004 and just over 20 minutes on MOH before getting the black screen and being booted.

If we think it isn't heat and its not drivers, what the hell can be wrong? Maybe its time for a new computer...

:

Ok, it sounds like we made some progress at least, , I think the next suspect would be your motherboard chipset drivers: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scri...=1049&lang=eng

Download and install those and see how you go.

Quick question, is it 100% stable the rest of the time - does it only do this when you try and play a game?

benzine · 05-10-2005, 12:24 AM

Is it a Babbage? I suggest installing a radiator from a Cummins 800HP mining truck and run liquid nitrogen through it. If you weren't looking at such hot porn sites you probably wouldn't need cooling. Just a suggestion.

P.S - Thanks for the birthday wishes you dirty dog - after all I have done for you

MITCHAY · 05-10-2005, 12:44 AM

Well the other day my computer s**t itself after I cleaned all the dust out of it. I didnt put the CPU fan on properly and it was shutting down due to it. But previously before that it would turn off or reset during games. It turned out the graphics card was just rooted.

I know the lower end ones come with just a heat sink and not a fan therefore the heat eventually stuffs it. I got a new video card and now its doesnt do it.

The computer shop picked it up straight away.