Volcano not helping

Fallen Phoenix · Aug 24, 2003

My dad's got a 1.2gig Athlon rig in a micro tower case and nothing we do can get this thing cool. Right now after idling and warming up, it's sitting at 48°C CPU temp. I shudder to think what it is under full load. He's got a Thermaltake Volcano 6 cu and a thin coat of Ceramique but the Ceramique only dropped it about 2°C from where it was. Any suggestions?

Fallen Phoenix · Aug 24, 2003

I'm thinking the main problem is the case is too small and he's got a ton of wires running in there blocking the fan. The fan on the heatsink doesn't move ANY air, is it possible it's spinning too fast to get a bite in the air and move it?

aelx · Aug 24, 2003

why are you worried about 48 @ idle? Your chip is rated MUCH MUCH higher than that. If it gets up to 60C under load then you still have nothing to worry about.

JDXNC · Aug 24, 2003

Lack of case ventalation is probqably the big culprit, even a crappy HSF can benefit from more fresh air in the case. Put an intake fan in the front of the case and tie back all the wires with zip ties and it should help quite a bit.

That chip would be a Thunderbird core which is going to run hit anyway, not much you can do about it. My 1.33 runs about 50°C to 55°C under load all the time, and thats with good ventalation.

48°C is nothing to really worry about, but cooling it more should help the chip last longer.

Fallen Phoenix · Aug 24, 2003

Thanks for the input. I think I've convinced him to get a mid tower off of newegg so that should help some. I'd suggest he get a Athlon XP but his board is a cruddy ECS that's always been giving problems so I think he's just gonna make do with it.

AMD_Me · Aug 24, 2003

You need better case airflow, probably need a better heatsink, need better wiring, and its a Thunderbird which runs notoriously hot.

ryuen · Aug 24, 2003

eww another volcano (jk jk). maybe a thermalright heatsink will do you better

as for decent deals on a mobo and cpu, try fry's. they usually have good deals that they are losing money on

Restorer · Aug 25, 2003

The fan on the heatsink doesn't move ANY air, is it possible it's spinning too fast to get a bite in the air and move it?

The fan is moving air - it can't "spin too fast to get a bite in the air" unless your air is chunky.

The fan blows air into the heatsink, so you can't really feel anything by putting your hand over the fan. If you put your hand by the side of the heatsink, you should feel some hot airflow from the air coming out.

Fallen Phoenix · Aug 25, 2003

Restorer, I thought about that and there's no air coming out the side of the heatsink either.

Restorer · Aug 25, 2003

If the fan is spinning, it's moving air. You might not be able to feel it from the side of the heatsink, but if you take the fan off and plug it in, you should feel a reasonable velocity of air on one side. Also, since you have a Tbird I wouldn't worry about those temps. I know someone with a Volcano 7 that has approximately the same temps on his 1.33GHz Tbird.

Yuriman · Aug 25, 2003

I had a volcano6, and its not a very good hsf. Invest in something better, I mean, the base is just copper coated! Also, mine had REALY bad machining marks, looked like the side of a screw.

Volcano not helping

Fallen Phoenix

Member

Fallen Phoenix

Member

aelx

New Member

JDXNC

Member

Fallen Phoenix

Member

AMD_Me

Member

ryuen

Member

Restorer

Member

Fallen Phoenix

Member

Restorer

Member

Yuriman

Member

Similar threads