Possibly the cause of my cooling woes???

OK folks, here's what I've noticed:

I've got these round IDE cables installed currently in my rig:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=12-104-607&depa=1

Pretty round IDE cables w/ blue EL wire coiling down the entire length of the cable. They draw power from the 4-pin molex lines, and piggy-back off of the drives that they are connected to. I've also got the little black power conversion boxes screwed down to my chasis mobo tray's vertical side rail.

Also, just a quick note, these IDE cables w/ EL wire have been in my rig since about a month or so after it's been built (7/2003).

Well, after installing an optical drive that I got back from RMA, I noticed after powering on my machine, the EL wire wasn't lighting up any more. Didn't really think anything of it at the time. So I left it this way for about a month. This past weekend, I popped open my case again in an attempt to mount a case fan in front of my 9800 pro. I was initially going to attempt to use double sided tape to hold the fan in place on one of these power conversion boxes; then I noticed that both boxes (I have 2 of these cables btw) were warped in shape. They look as if the boxes themselves have been superheated from within to a temperature that would cause the plastic to warp, and possibly begin to melt!

So tomorrow, I'm going to head over to Fry's and pick up some new cables w/o the EL wire.

Just thought I should post this here as a "BUYER BEWARE." I'm not sure how much this is effecting my case temperatures, but I'd imagine it's not healthy at all! When I get the new cables in, I'll post any changes in temp I experience.

Yeah Dart, that eye candy can get you sometimes..Hope it solves the problem for you..Did you get your fan mounted?

archilochus said:

Yeah Dart, that eye candy can get you sometimes..Hope it solves the problem for you..Did you get your fan mounted?

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Nope, not yet. I think I'll build a custom bracket out of some aluminum strips to screw onto my chasis rails. Might have to wait though. I'm hoping to see a drop in temps, but I'm not really holding my breath.

Dart, you been waiting for 6 months... mount the darn fan...will ya!

I remember you saying you were getting higher than usual temps. I bet those little inverters did it to you.

What size fan are you putting to help out your 9800?

archilochus said:

Dart, you been waiting for 6 months... mount the darn fan...will ya!

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LOL. You must have forgot, for about 3 of those months, I had a second side panel blowhole next to my old geForce fx5600. I got a replacement panel b/c my case was turning into a convection oven. Waaaaay too much intake.

Voodoo Rufus said:

I remember you saying you were getting higher than usual temps. I bet those little inverters did it to you.

What size fan are you putting to help out your 9800?

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I've got a spare 92mm Antec fan lying around. It only pushes ~40 CFM, but I think that should be enough horsepower to get the heat off of my video card.

YellowDart said:

LOL. You must have forgot, for about 3 of those months, I had a second side panel blowhole next to my old geForce fx5600. I got a replacement panel b/c my case was turning into a convection oven. Waaaaay too much intake.

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Too much intake? Preposterous, you can never have enough intake!

JoT said:

Too much intake? Preposterous, you can never have enough intake!

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If you have an over-abundance of intake air, and not enough exhaust, your case will become a convection oven of sorts. Instead of having good, efficient cooling, hot air will just keep recirculating inside your case. You won't get very good temps w/ intake only; you NEED a good amount of exhaust to move that hot air away from your system components.

I was just pulling your leg, sheesh

's all good.

Anyway, I'll replace the troublesome IDE cables tomorrow. If I'm lucky, I may be able to talk my wife into letting me get some PSU cable sleeving too. Just out of curiosity, for those of you who have sleeved all of your wiring, how much sleeving did you need???

I bought a Vantec sleeving kit, Dart...It was plenty..The hard part was the 20 wire ATX connector..The kit comes with sleeving,shrink tubing,and colored zip ties...

SLEEVING PIC LINK

Its a little fuzzy.

Nice sleeving job! Hadn't seen that pic before.

I'd like to redo my wiring and spruce things up a bit. I'd like to get my hands on some UV reactive sleeving, possibly green. Dunno, I'll have to ask the boss first.

Ask the boss about the color or the sleeving? Yeah,I did that when I did the mobo wall hole mod..There are more pics in the modding thread on page 40.. See thread in link...2 posts up...

CLICK HERE

if i had ever asked the boss about purchases for my computer i think i would still be using my old duron 650. i just get what i want and take my beats when she finds out.

yellowdart, don't forget the uv light to show off that uv sleeving.

mattmolson said:

if i had ever asked the boss about purchases for my computer i think i would still be using my old duron 650. i just get what i want and take my beats when she finds out.

yellowdart, don't forget the uv light to show off that uv sleeving.

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LOL, thought about that, but I'll be a good boy.

I've already got 2 tri-LED UV lights hooked up. My rig is nice and blue inside, and begging for some UV reactive stuff to brighten it up a bit.

Just a little tip. Its not a good thing to hook lights, fans etc on the same power line as your drives. Just think if those little boxs shorted out you possible would be buying a new drive along with the new round cables. I run all my fans off one line, opticals on another and the hdds and vid card on the third. It makes it tough to get everthing nice and tidy but with some planning it works out.

Yep, you're prolly right. I am pretty lucky that none of my drives got fried too!

I'll most likely be rewiring my rig soon too, so I'll take your advice when I do it.

Dart, you never read the sticky (no joke) in cooling? Dedicated fan and lite line from PSU!

Well, I replaced the faulty IDE cables in my rig. It does run a little bit cooler now. Or I should say, it takes longer for my 9800 pro to heat things up in there lol. BUt I did a better job w/ my wiring. So airflow in the bottom section of my case is a bit more efficient now. I'll still need to mount a fan next to my r9800 pro to keep it cooler, but that will be much easier w/o all the wiring to contend with.

Hey dart, you live in AZ. I didnt notice that. cool