Dreamcast Cooling

[VashTheStampede]

For those of you that own one, you know that after awhile, the thing overheats faster than a Thunderbird 1.4 @ 1.6 with a Super Mini Orb and the only form of forced air comes through the 32mm fan and the very small vents in the back. This would be ok if the way they designed didn't prevent air from going where it is needed the most.

There are especially two chips that need cooling: The Hitachi SH4 RISC CPU and the NEC PowerVR second-generation. The only form of direct cooling they recieve is what reminds me of a black thermal pad which is glued to a larger metal plate, which seems to function as a heat spreader, a poor one at best.

Now there is also this clear goop on both chips and thermal pads. I was wondering if I could use some Artic Silver 2 as well or if any of you guys had any solutions to my overheating problem.

~RT~

[train22]

I'm sure ASII would help but I don't understand why you'd need it, I think they designed the system to live through those temps so don't worry, never crashed one me once.

[wunautica]

here a simple solution...don't place ur DC on the ground, where it could attract dusk or whatever. Make sure u leave enough space for the fan to circulate around the DC. Leave ur DC out..don't place it in where u would place ur receiver decks and stuff. This should prevent ur DC from getting too hot and messing up on you. GOOD LUCK..late -wU

[VashTheStampede]

Well that's the problem, a bunch of us on another set of forums, have sourced the problem to overheating, because the games will lock up after a certain peroid of time. So there needs to be some other way to cool it.

~RT~

Edit: Well I forgot to mention my DC sits on top of an over turned laundry basket, which sits just level with the A/C vent not but 9 inches away from the Dreamcast. There is little if no dust inside the Dreamcast, because I regularly open it up and spray it with compressed air and even then, little dust.