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Need help BAD to COOL my system

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gas-man

Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2002
Location
ON, Canada
**all mention of degrees are celsius**

Some background info, my system:

AMD XP 1600+ (locked)
Asus A7A-266
655MB ram
Hercules Geforce2 GTS 64mb DDR
CPU Fans tried: Global Win Fop38 and Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3

Okay guys, I see a lot of people here with XP 1900's or 1700's and they run at very LOW tempereatures. My idle temp is nearly 50 degrees! Full load brings it close to 60 - THE DAMN THING HEATS MY ROOM!

I'm about ready to switch to INTEL so please help me quick!

My current setup is like this:
Power Supply Fan (stock)
TT Dragon Orb 3
A big, fast, loud fan at the front and back
Perferations for fan slots cut out to increase air flow
Blow hole in top of case with fan to get hot air out

If I make the front fan blow and back fan suck, I get a 3 degree INCREASE in temperature, so I have to switch them back. I do not use Arctic Silver.

My biggest problem: My tower is kept in a cabinet type thing, a door in the front and half open in the back to allow for cables to run out. Having the door at the front open or shut can make a 8 degree difference. But when the door is open, its LOUD. No joke, you can hear my computer downstairs, its too damn loud.

I'd personally like to get water cooling but my dad seems against it. Any way to convince him?

I need to know from you guys, the best tips, hints, whatever, best fan, fan combos etc etc to get my system running cooler! Ducts, wrapping wires, more case fans, anything!! I've read good things about a volcano 7.....what you think of that?

I want it cooler and quieter, the noise is annoying and the heat is heating up my room, with the window open in winter and my ceiling fan on full blast, and the cabinet door open, sitting idle I can get it to 42, but this is not practical.

Please help!!! ANY ideas are appreciated, thank you so much
 
Welcome to the Forums!

First off: with the airflow around the case all blocked in it is going to be tough: the air gets hot and recirculates.

If you can get a duct run from the exhaust fans the back of the desk and just a few feet away that would help, as would a fan pulling room air into the enclosure and preferably straight onto the cpu.
Doesn't matter how good your ventilation fans are if the air they move is hot to start with.

After you find a way to cool the enclosure off a bit, then you can work on the heat sink: Arctic Silver, or any decent thermal compound is better than the thermal pads some sinks come with.

A lap job on the heatsink will help too, but only after you get the area cooler.
 
when you slide the case back does the rear fan get blocked off by the cabnet?

how far is the rear of the desk from the wall?

what is your room temps?
 
ya, i recomend using artic silver, mine dropped my temps 3 or 4 degrees over the cheep thermal pad that came w/ my retail HSF(i know, i know), so thats at least a start, then i would consider getting a new HSF cause you can do a lot better than what u have now, and ducts to the back of the enclosure might help. also it might be better to take the comp out of the cabnet and remove the loud fans, you might get lower temps that way without the noise
 
tell your dad something like this: A processor running at 50 C idle/ 60C load will have a much shorter life than it should. I'm sure he'll see the picture. I don't think you absolutely have to go to water cooling, though. Is there any reason the computer HAS to live in the cabinet? If yes, then watercooling may be the only option, but if no, I think air cooling will work fine. Try resetting your Heatsink, and get some good thermal compound. (much cheaper than watercooling)
 
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