what are the first steps of cooling my pc

[Agent Z]

first of all i am a noob,
i have a normal atx case and i dont have any extra fans on it...just the processor fans..what are the first steps i cooling off my pc?
-Paul

[rustymaitland]

first of all, WELCOME!!!
let us know a little bit about your system.
i.e. case model, cpu, crap like that and also what you do with your rig. do you overclock, will you later on? stuff like that you know? a little history.

[Agent Z]

hmm ok i will try to remember..i am not at home right now...
i have an athlon xp1700 processor,2x512mb of pc133 ram,80gig segate? 7200 hd,Radeaon 7500 all-in-wonder 64mb, i do not know how to overclock but i am sure once i figure it out i will do that..especially my vid card....i do a lot of graphics work like photoshop Affter Effects and all that fun media stuff...and i play GAMES!
and i like the high end games...
does that help..i will get my case model and other stuff when i get home..
-Paul

[SpliT71]

reccommend you to upgrade your mobo, ram, video card.. that's if you play a lot of HIGH end games as you stated...as for coolin goes i've heard that the totla CFM of the exhaust should be higher then the intake.

[rustymaitland]

i don't overclock. not yet anyway. i am still doing research. but for you, i would make sure your components can handle the stress of such a task. what mobo are you running anyhow? stepping of the cpu could be a factor of how much of an overclock you get. go home, note all equipment, make and models etc and report back. this forum is chalk full of guys and girls who are serious overclockers and they will be more than happy to help.
as far as cooling goes, you have to think how your ears are with noise. myself, i don't care. i have 5 very high powered fans that emit a ton of noise. BUT! my cooling is un-mathched. it's a trade off. what do you want more a cool rig or a noisey one. that said, others can achieve their own goals by using less powerful or efficient fans. AND!? their machines are quiet. all preference.
for now, get all the necessary info so we can better assess what we're gonna do with you!!
again, welcome!

[I.M.O.G.]

AgentZ: These are the first steps in cooling your PC:

High temps? Look here for cooling solutions ->
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128729

Cooling-The Definitive FAQ ->
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178072

Airflow + Ducting

The heatsink itself doesn't do the entire job -- you need airflow. Airflow consists of intake (Air moving in) and exhausts (Air moving out). You want an equal amount of both and you should have quite amount of CFM in your system if you overclock while maintaining a quiet system. Intake should always be at the front and bottom. Cold air is always at the bottom and exhaust is always at the back and at the top. Hot air rises so you don't want to intake from the top of the case or in the middle because all of the cold air is at the bottom. You can mod your case with hole saws or dremel to add more fans such as 120mm as blowholes or intakes on the side panel which is very beneficial. You can buy very quiet 80mm's or loud ones and have lots of CFM. If you are crazy you can buy hole saws and everything and install 120mm fan everywhere. Fans can be controlled by a rheostat which controls the voltage through it and you can control the CFM/RPM of the fan. It’s very useful for flexibility and east to maintain a quiet system while having great temperatures. You should clean up any unnecessary cables such as ATA cables, power cables out of the way as they do restrict airflow. You can get rounded airflows which don’t restrict airflow however it doesn't give you an excuse to be messy. Use your bays to hide your cables, unhook everything and organize it so you see no cables anywhere.

Ducting

Ducting is the process in which you have a fan which pushes more CFM on top of your CPU Fan. It draws cold air in or sucks hot air out and you create a tunnel from the fan to your fan area hence duct. It should drop your temps. Although I don't recommend it, many people still do it lowering their temps but I don't like it because it screws up my airflow. I prefer to add them to the bottom of the side panel or as blowholes since they look nice as well.


The cooling stickies are an invaluable resource of information. :)

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

[Rafterman223]

I'm not quite sure what you want to know. If the system runs fine now, is quiet enough for you, ans you weren't planning on overclocking then I'd leave it as is. If, however, you want to try some overclocking I'd looking into upgrading your motherboard, memory, and videocard. If you're tight on money and are not planning on upgrading, but want to overclock you won't get very far with your system as is. I'd look into a good socket A heatsink, and buy some quality case fans, preferably Panaflo :D

all in all I'm not sure if this answered any of your questions. Please post back with more system details like which motherboard you have, your type of memory, heatsink, etc. Just tell us what you want to know and what your intentions are and everyone here will help you out the best they can. ;)

[Mark Larson]

Originally posted by rustymaitland
this forum is chalk full of guys and girls who are serious overclockers and they will be more than happy to help.
*chock

[rustymaitland]

gee tanks. did knot realize spell cheque was knot on. :rolleyes:

[modenaf1]

as for the fans I would highly recomend the TT smart fan 2. As I have said many times in other threads this fan is an excellent tradeoff between noise and airflow. this fan comes with a ton of stuff and will spin much faster than it is rated so it might move more than a vantec tornado. you can control the speed manually (1300-5900).

as SpliT71 said you should have more exhaust than intake because fresh cool air can always be sucked in through the little cracks and holes in your case.

If you want to oc your video card I would suggest a better one. perhaps an ati 9500 or something like it. tou should have good airflow around the video card if you plan to overclock it.

If you overclock dont make the same mistake I did. dont get crappy ram. crucial,corsair,and kingston make good ram. pc 133 really limits your performance.

make sure you get a good heatsink. the thermalright slk800 is a good choise but it is pricey and does NOT come with a fan. A better value would be the Thermaltake volcanoe 9 it gives good cooling for the money but your cpu temps will be much higher than they would be with an slk800.

and finally, welcome to the forums

[Agent Z]

hmm...how could i tell what model my case is.....
my motherboard is a Pc266 Socket A M810LR
1024 mb of pc133 ram
80gig 7200
AMD Athlon , 1.5gig procsessor
ATI AIW 7500 64mb
...I think that is it?

[Agent Z]

i mena 1.05 gig processor...opps

[modenaf1]

you said a 1700+ in one of your earlier posts so that is either a 1.47 or 1.5

[Agent Z]

oh...ok i guesss i was right the first time

[Agent Z]

Originally posted by Agent Z
hmm...how could i tell what model my case is.....
my motherboard is a Pc266 Socket A M810LR
1024 mb of pc133 ram
80gig 7200
AMD Athlon , 1.5gig procsessor
ATI AIW 7500 64mb
...I think that is it?

how much do you think i could sell this pc for?

[modenaf1]

maybe 600? depends on if you have a nice case and psu

[Agent Z]

PSU???

[Mark Larson]

Power Supply Unit

postcount++

[Ron Brooks]

Power Supply Unit

[Agent Z]

ok..it is very new...the whole system i bought last summer

[Agent Z]

well i have an area in the front of my case for a fan and an area in the back of my case.....
what kind of fans should i get?

[Mark Larson]

Panaflo L1As. You can get them from www.bgmicro.com and others.

If you want more flow i'm sure more people will be around to tell you. The L1As are very quiet though.

[Agent Z]

should i have 2 fans in the front and back or jsut one.. i mean do i really need to have 2..i do not over clock at all...

[schismspeak]

you dont need two if you arent overclocking.

[Stedeman]

you cold always take a picture of the case (it is one of the main factors in how effective your cooling will be)

[Agent Z]

how do you do that..like put the pic in the post?

[start]

U need hosting, I dont think these forums allow attachment of pictures. Someone arond here provides image hosting, sorry cant remember who.

[modenaf1]

Originally posted by Mark Larson
Panaflo L1As. You can get them from www.bgmicro.com and others.

If you want more flow i'm sure more people will be around to tell you. The L1As are very quiet though.

im pretty sure the smt fan2's move more air the some amount of noise.

[Stedeman]

Originally posted by start
U need hosting, I dont think these forums allow attachment of pictures. Someone arond here provides image hosting, sorry cant remember who.
thats it man, I think "Oni" is hosting and "the forum is down" dose as well or do like I do get an account at www.picturetrail.com for $20 a year and host your own you get 50MB

[Agent Z]

i jsut need to knwo what the tag was but i guessed what it was...
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/avatar.php?userid=29211&dateline=1048834711

[Zoda]

Why do you want anew rig so bad.. I mean SDRAM isnt that giid and you could use a newer video card, but If you just upgraded the video I thinbk it shoudl run most games without problems.. If you dont want to overclock it an alright system.

It's your money though.. You will so an improvmenet by goign from SD to DDR as well as other new hardware.

[Stedeman]

sorry, it is www.theforumisdown.com you just need to send them a email and it should be all good

[Agent Z]

Originally posted by Zoda
Why do you want anew rig so bad.. I mean SDRAM isnt that giid and you could use a newer video card, but If you just upgraded the video I thinbk it shoudl run most games without problems.. If you dont want to overclock it an alright system.

It's your money though.. You will so an improvmenet by goign from SD to DDR as well as other new hardware.

I do want to upgrade to ddr and also upgrade my case and stuff...i am happy with my video card now...well sorta....but who is happy with there pc for more than a year anyway...

[Zoda]

true... I just dont think you really need DDR and a new vdieo card, but I can see why you would want it.

sorry my first post didnt make much sense.. I was typing funny rightt then!

[Mark Larson]

Originally posted by modenaf1
im pretty sure the smt fan2's move more air the some amount of noise.
You couldn't be more wrong.

[Agent Z]

Originally posted by Zoda
true... I just dont think you really need DDR and a new vdieo card, but I can see why you would want it.

sorry my first post didnt make much sense.. I was typing funny rightt then!

So it isn't much of a dif between ddr and sdram?

[Agent Z]

LOL i just found an older cpu fan and hooked it up to my Mobo and i created my own little "stand" or whatever so it would cool off my video card...
the thing is i used contrux....(1980's legos)
i wish i could show you a pic of it..it is quiet humerous.....

[rustymaitland]

Originally posted by Agent Z


So it isn't much of a dif between ddr and sdram?

glad to see this thread is still kickin dude. i can actually visualize your ghetto 'stand'. lol.
i just upgraded from 512 to 768mb ddr. system stability improved greatly for me. still testing though. by next week i will add another 512 module to replace the 256 that is in there. i think 1gb of ram will be enuff. hehe.

[Agent Z]

Yeah i will figure out a way to get the pic up on here....
it is really Ghetto!!

[Zoda]

So it isn't much of a dif between ddr and sdram?
Of course there is, but I just mean that with an XP1700 and 512MB (even if it is SDRAM) you have a fairly good system that can run most programs..., but there is a big difference betwen SDRAM and DDR.. I am just saying that I don't think it's really something you need though.. and I wouldnt buy a new motherboard just to upgrade my RAM..., but It's your choice.. If you have th emoney go ahead.

[Mr.Guvernment]

if u want i could host a few pics for u, just email them to me

mathiau@quickring.com

[Agent Z]

Originally posted by Zoda
So it isn't much of a dif between ddr and sdram?
Of course there is, but I just mean that with an XP1700 and 512MB (even if it is SDRAM) you have a fairly good system that can run most programs..., but there is a big difference betwen SDRAM and DDR.. I am just saying that I don't think it's really something you need though.. and I wouldnt buy a new motherboard just to upgrade my RAM..., but It's your choice.. If you have th emoney go ahead.

oh..ok now i understand..i think i will wait to the end of the summer or something to do that....
thanks though

[Agent Z]

OK here is the Ghetto fan...thanks to Mr Guvernment

http://200.12.238.21:6543/GhettoFan.jpg

[Agent Z]

Originally posted by Agent Z
OK here is the Ghetto fan...thanks to Mr Guvernment

http://200.12.238.21:6543/GhettoFan.jpg

hmm i messed up....lol

http://200.12.238.21:6543/GhettoFan.jpg

[rustymaitland]

umm...that is beyond ghetto. lol! as long as it works. does the 'stand' move any? i know with all the tornados in my case and air moving through it that lego thingy you got there would never sit still. vibration, air flow would pick it up and fling it around my case. how permanent is that setup?

[Agent Z]

LOL...
just a temp setup
i am saving to get a new case and fans and stuff..i think it is funny and it does not rattle and anything...it is quiet.

[rustymaitland]

i think it is hilarious. you can mod my case anytime. hehe.:p

[Stedeman]

Remember sometimes it's about whatever it takes to get the job done, and if it works for you (even if it’s a band-aid) it is a success. I have seen worst things holding a fan in place (tape, tied with wires, and a slew of things I would like to forget) but as legos go take a look at these cases!
Lincoln logs case http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/logcabinpc/
LEGO http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/legobox/

[Agent Z]

LOL i like the lego onebetter i think...man that is hilarious

[rustymaitland]

now that is ghetto. i like agent's better. lol.

[Agent Z]

Yes....the funny thing is that is works and is really quiet...

[muhon_zen]

Originally posted by IMOG
AgentZ: These are the first steps in cooling your PC:

High temps? Look here for cooling solutions ->
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128729

Cooling-The Definitive FAQ ->
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178072

quote:
Airflow + Ducting

The heatsink itself doesn't do the entire job -- you need airflow. Airflow consists of intake (Air moving in) and exhausts (Air moving out). You want an equal amount of both and you should have quite amount of CFM in your system if you overclock while maintaining a quiet system. Intake should always be at the front and bottom. Cold air is always at the bottom and exhaust is always at the back and at the top. Hot air rises so you don't want to intake from the top of the case or in the middle because all of the cold air is at the bottom. You can mod your case with hole saws or dremel to add more fans such as 120mm as blowholes or intakes on the side panel which is very beneficial. You can buy very quiet 80mm's or loud ones and have lots of CFM. If you are crazy you can buy hole saws and everything and install 120mm fan everywhere. Fans can be controlled by a rheostat which controls the voltage through it and you can control the CFM/RPM of the fan. It’s very useful for flexibility and east to maintain a quiet system while having great temperatures. You should clean up any unnecessary cables such as ATA cables, power cables out of the way as they do restrict airflow. You can get rounded airflows which don’t restrict airflow however it doesn't give you an excuse to be messy. Use your bays to hide your cables, unhook everything and organize it so you see no cables anywhere.

Ducting

Ducting is the process in which you have a fan which pushes more CFM on top of your CPU Fan. It draws cold air in or sucks hot air out and you create a tunnel from the fan to your fan area hence duct. It should drop your temps. Although I don't recommend it, many people still do it lowering their temps but I don't like it because it screws up my airflow. I prefer to add them to the bottom of the side panel or as blowholes since they look nice as well.


The cooling stickies are an invaluable resource of information. :)

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

Are you sure those methods are better than water cooling?

[Stedeman]

Are you sure those methods are better than water cooling? better in what ways, each has its own points that make it better than one another, it's all up to the person who uses it