Case temp question

[Malpine Walis]

Before building my system I spent six months on the forums and I thought that I had put everything together using the best ideas I could find. Rounded cables (mostly shoved as out of the way as possible), spiral wrapped PSU wires, fans at the bottom font in/top rear out, and so on.

Well, I still have temps that are about as high as anyone with a similar setup can get. 30c ambient/50c idle/55c load.

Since I have the Swifty MC462A and AS3, I am thinking that I still need to work on my airflow. As far as mounting the swifty, when I have taken it off, I see a very little bit of AS3 squeezed out evenly around the edges and the swifty has a readable mirror image of the stepping codes.

What I have done to check this is put a pair of thermal sensors in my case. the first an inch or two behind the bottom front intake and the other a similar distance in front of the top reae exhaust fans.

When I power up, the intake temp rises 1.5~2.0c from ambient, which tells me that heated air is being blown around inside my case. Right now, I have very slightly negative pressure (two fans in, two out and whatever the PSU is getting out).

If I add one or more fans to my case:

Would getting the case temp (at most) 2c closer to ambient reduce my proc temp by more than that amount?

[roYal]

This is a very good page for help with cooling, diagnosing heat issues, how to prevent heat issues, and how to cure heat issues. There are 5 pages to this article suite.
http://peripherals.about.com/library/weekly/aa052802a.htm

[Malpine Walis]

Temperature data are very useful, but how hot is too hot? There is no standard rule for all computer systems, but as a general rule the central processor temperature should be below 70 deg C, and the interior case temperature should rarely exceed 40 deg C. Temperatures of 50 deg C and 30 deg C respectively are in the low range, and they indicate a well-cooled system.



That is a very goods article. Since you found it, you should post it to one of the stickies above.

Yet I see people who have way better temps than I do and I am wondreing how to get there myself. Your for example.

Of course, yours are close to my ambient and I will never get there but I want to do better. that is why I am asking.