Case Cooling

[WhiteBoy]

As the weather slowly heats up over here in CA, I keep becoming worried about my computers tempeture. I already have a Zalman heatsink on my CPU. Can't recall the model number, but I can tell you that it is a large copper block that dwarfs my CPU, and it's coupled with a 120mm fan running at 3200rpm. That might seem like enough, but near the end of last summer, when I installed my 3.0E P4, it was repeatidly over heating. I'm not sure whether it is simply that this CPU is notorious for heat problems, or if it is inadequate cooling.

So, does anybody know of an afordable and quality cooling system?

 

[DEATH eVADER]

As the weather slowly heats up over here in CA, I keep becoming worried about my computers tempeture. I already have a Zalman heatsink on my CPU. Can't recall the model number, but I can tell you that it is a large copper block that dwarfs my CPU, and it's coupled with a 120mm fan running at 3200rpm. That might seem like enough, but near the end of last summer, when I installed my 3.0E P4, it was repeatidly over heating. I'm not sure whether it is simply that this CPU is notorious for heat problems, or if it is inadequate cooling.

So, does anybody know of an afordable and quality cooling system?

It depends, have you got any other form of cooling, i.e. system fans, RAM heatsinks

 

[duffers20]

That fan must be pretty noisy running at that speed. All i can say really is that make sure you have good airflow through teh case and the number of intake fans is roughly the same as the number of outtake fans. Also tidy up teh wiring and use rounded IDE cables and make the wiring nice and neat with tie wraps. I do know that the prescott core P4's get very hot as standard, can you post some system temps and also say how much they usually go up by in the summers hottest months. that would help to say whether you need more airflow etc.

 

[WhiteBoy]

With Hammer, Steam, and Media Player, my CPU temp. is idling around 50C. Though, when under a heavy load such as compiling, it can peak to around 66C. And my two other sensors idle around 34C and 35C, and again peak to about 45C under a load.

As for fans, I have 4 fans, two in and two out, but that's not counting the Power Supply fan.

and, Death, I only have case fans and a CPU heat sink.

 

[duffers20]

Those temps don't seem to be alarmingly high, does your room get that much hotter then during the summer? Its not a problem for me as I live in scotland and the highest temps outside are never above 25 degrees C, so you can understand why I'm wondering!

 

[WhiteBoy]

Well, I guess I should have said this already. It is only 57 °F / 14 °C here right now, and it gets up to 110F during the summer.

 

[noldevin]

just try making 3 in and 1 out, sometimes building a slight positive pressure can help the air ferry out more heat, because theres more air in there to grab the heat. if it doesnt help then go ahead and switch it back. make sure you get a good flow direction though (ie in on front and sides and out the back, or other way around). or you could always do some non-conductive oil liquid cooling. i would highly discourage water.