How can I keep my rig cool?

Hi,

I recently upgraded to a smaller chassis to make my PC more portable. I have encountered a problem though - it gets too hot while gaming. Way too hot. And I don't know why.
We're talking a GPU (Radeon R270) celcius on ~70, and an unstable temp on the CPU (AMD 8350) at ~40-60 celcius. Touching the chassis while gaming makes me worry! :S



I'm kind of a noob when it comes to cooling, I just figured that putting in the maximum amount of fans would be good. So please, if anything is super obvious just tell me, I can take it!

What can I do to keep my rig cool? There's no more place for more fans.
And also, it's kinda noisy because of all the fans, is there like some software that can control the speed?

Thanks in advance, guys!

Chris

The 70C for the GPU is fine...

40-60C is a hell of a span on the CPU... what is its max load temp and what piece of software are you reading it from?

There is software that can control your fans. It is the BIOS if your fans are plugged into the motherboard, or windows software for your motherboard likely can as well. If you are overheating, clearly you do not want to lower fan speeds...

I assume the only intake on that box is the 80mm fan? Makes sense its getting warm in there as there doesn't appear to be enough intake there. The CPU is also sucking up the heat from the GPU and exhausting it.

Are there any other places for additonal fans? Like on the front? Top of the case? If not, I say get a different case that has better airflow. That single 80mm won't cut it with a 8350 and 270.

I'd say it's the motherboard going unstable, not the GPU.
That's an mATX case, and there isn't an mATX board I'd trust to an FX processor.

your about 5c high on the cpu for a peak temp.
what case is this?
can you add more fans, intake or exhaust?
most games can only use 4 cores, you can go into the bios and disable 4 cores and save some heat, this also might allow you to increase the core clocks while also keep you from hitting the heat wall, this helps in a lot of games.

EarthDog said:

The 70C for the GPU is fine...

40-60C is a hell of a span on the CPU... what is its max load temp and what piece of software are you reading it from?

There is software that can control your fans. It is the BIOS if your fans are plugged into the motherboard, or windows software for your motherboard likely can as well. If you are overheating, clearly you do not want to lower fan speeds...

I assume the only intake on that box is the 80mm fan? Makes sense its getting warm in there as there doesn't appear to be enough intake there. The CPU is also sucking up the heat from the GPU and exhausting it.

Are there any other places for additonal fans? Like on the front? Top of the case? If not, I say get a different case that has better airflow. That single 80mm won't cut it with a 8350 and 270.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's really strange for the CPU to get so hot, right? And then with that gigantic cooler with double fans.
Time to go to bed in my country, but I'll make sure to check out the max temp tommorow. Reading from Core temp.

Yes, I think you're right with the intake fans. I only now realize my only intake fan is the 80mm which clearly isn't enough. Sadly, there is no more space for additional fans and I just bought that case so it would suck to buy a new one.

But lesson learned, I guess; research the cooling possibilities before buying a case.
I'll try and figure something out.

- - - Updated - - -

caddi daddi said:

your about 5c high on the cpu for a peak temp.
what case is this?
can you add more fans, intake or exhaust?
most games can only use 4 cores, you can go into the bios and disable 4 cores and save some heat, this also might allow you to increase the core clocks while also keep you from hitting the heat wall, this helps in a lot of games.

Click to expand...

Case is a Cooltek Jonsbo C3.

ATMINSIDE said:

I'd say it's the motherboard going unstable, not the GPU.
That's an mATX case, and there isn't an mATX board I'd trust to an FX processor.

Click to expand...

Why don't you trust and m-atx board with an FX processor? Board is brand new.

the fx cpus draw A LOT OF WATTS, 220 for the 8350 at stockmost boards below the top shelf ATX boards do not have the power sections nor the cooling for the power sections to move that kind of juice and tend to be short lived.
what motherboard do you use?

finding a few pics on the net, I see that the bottom is mesh, can you jury rig a fan, mouned to the bottom, infont of the psu?

christoffer_sch said:

Why don't you trust and m-atx board with an FX processor? Board is brand new.

Click to expand...

Because none of them have a suitable VRM, especially for an 8-core.

Are you OC'd at all?

caddi daddi said:

the fx cpus draw A LOT OF WATTS, 220 for the 8350 at stockmost boards below the top shelf ATX boards do not have the power sections nor the cooling for the power sections to move that kind of juice and tend to be short lived.
what motherboard do you use?

finding a few pics on the net, I see that the bottom is mesh, can you jury rig a fan, mouned to the bottom, infont of the psu?

Click to expand...

Caddi, the FX-8350 is a 125W CPU, the FX-9370 and FX-9590 is 220W.

christoffer_sch said:

View attachment 163786

Click to expand...

You need a better case, here is what I use,
CoolerMaster HAF 932 now you don't have to get what I have but this will give you an idea of where to start There are smaller versions of this case as well, HAF 922 Mid tower, and HAF 912 Mini tower.
Also here is a pic of 1 of my systems,


p.s. I'm in the middle of putting this togather when this pic was taken.

If you do change cases, I've gotta recommend you add more case fans.
$25-$40 in decent fans putting more airflow through there would make a good difference.

WhitehawkEQ said:

Caddi, the FX-8350 is a 125W CPU, the FX-9370 and FX-9590 is 220W.

Click to expand...

Correct.....until you start to overclock, then it's 220. There is no difference between these chips other than the VID and stock clocks.

I still love SFF small form factor PCs, but cooling and noise were always problems. You would have to mod that case to take more fans or just get the smallest form factor case that has advanced case airflow design. There are water cooling methods for small cases, but that would also need mods to that case. Air cooling is difficult in tiny closed cases.

Looks like you only have that one fan in back as an exhaust and are depending on the cool air getting sucked in from the bottom. Putting two fans in your window won't allow anyplace for the air to escape. One fan in the lower right corner of the window might help get some more cross ventilation and blow on your graphics card. You could keep the window clear and clean looking by putting three 80mm fans along the bottom, but you have to be careful to maintain the structural integrity of the side windowed panel which is already weaker from the large window. Cutting out fan holes on the top would help, but the fans would have to be mounted on top rather than inside if there are internal clearance issues with the CPU cooler.

The water cooling gurus can advise you with self contained WC kits that might work.

depending on your cpu, look at the coolermaster, haf xb, I have a top shelf 8350 and I can hammer all 8 cores with prime 95 blend for hours on end at 4.8 and keep it below 60c with a coolermaster seidon in this case, handles on each side make it easy to lift and tote around.

if your games and software don't use all 8 cores you can disable 2 or four and save a little heat.

Audioaficionado said:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AJ2TN3700

Click to expand...

This is the link you want: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...3203&cm_re=Glacer_240L-_-35-103-203-_-Product

Ok so looking at your pic of the case I can't see where the PSU is located. I'm gonna take a stab and say bottom at the back of the case. Which could be pulling a lot of your fresh air out as soon as it enters the case.

With the 80mm fan space across the bottom you could run a bay of Sunon or delta high outputs if you don't mind the db level increases. If the PSU is not up top I'd debate putting a HO 120mm fan pushing air out the top as heat rises. That is if you don't want to go the route of WC.

Honestly I think your issue just stems from not enough cfm to dissipate the heat in that case. Nice build though!!

Per the Techpower-up review.





I would recommend a better case.