Glad I bought an ALPHA 8045

[chrismacan]

I have an Athlon XP 1600+ overclocked to 1650 Mhz using an Alpha 8045.

I have two 120mm intake fans that consume 8.04 Watts each. Two exhaust fans 92mm that consume 6.24 Watts each. On the Alpha I have an 80mm Delta.

Needless to say this system is almost as loud as a hovercraaft. Sometimes think it might begin to float around the office.

Now I bought an interior light dimmer switch for a 93 Toyota Tercel to control the fans. If you add up the watts I would have had to spend a lot more than the ten dollars CDN I paid for the part. This caused me a small problem the other day.

I called my wife from work and she said the computer was making an alarm sound.

You guessed it OVERHEAT. All the fans had stopped. ALL OF THEM. Except for the power supply fans.

When I got home my case was warm the Alpha was hot and there was HOT air jetting out of the power supply. Well I nearly cried. What I did was unplug my dimmer reconnect the fans and turn it on. Nothing happened. Waited 5 min for everything to cool down. Turned her off and back then back on. Held my breath.

I am using this system to write this message. This baby works as a PASSIVE cooler or so it seems. I am SOOO glad I shelled out GOOD coin for this baby. It just earned its cost plus.

PS. anybody care to guess what the CFM ratings for the fans I have. I don't know. They are surplus fans. But move loads of air.

 

[Yodums]

Your one lucky guy then, even with systems making those sound with any extreme cooling will die out When your wife called did you run straight home (I assume you did)

Oh well it's good now, and that's all that matters.

If all your fans are the same, I'd recommend you evening out so 92mm+120mm intake, and the other exhaust.

Yodums

 

[chrismacan]

NO...

I was stuck at my work for TWO hours plus the 30 min trip home...

I am lucky...

PS. Case can't accomodate 120mm in the back, (Antec 1040 required some serious modifications to fit the 120s and the 92s) besides I have a slot cooler below the Radeon 8500 and the power supply has a 92mm exhaust with an 80mm intake. The slot cooler was also attached to the dimmer...I have an air filter in front of the 120s so I think the out and in is about the same. Very little positive pressure (if any) in the case.

 

[Yodums]

Darn, you must been at work for 2 hours on your feet getting ready to go home weren't you?

 

[chrismacan]

I was but I drove home at a reasonable speed. I thought Oh well, if the alarm is already off. There is nothing I can do. I had given up on her as 'dead'.

I solved the problem with my 'Fan Dimmer'. Badly built molex connector on the power in end. I built it myself. DOH!

I now run my case fans at 7 volts through a cable mod. and my delta 80mm is run though the dimmer. Works fine since I rebuilt the molex connector. Part only cost 10$ at a used auto dealer.
Tercel 93 interior light dimmer switch.

 

[Acko]

Just been reading your post Chrismacan, you are one lucky person!
I too have a Alpha 8045 I have mine sucking of the cpu, tried blowing but 1 degree worse

Acko

 

[repo man11]

Whew, close one! You're making me reconsider buying Shutdown for MBM. Maybe it's worth the $20.00 after all.

 

[chrismacan]

Programs like MBM are a good investment for a High Performance System.

It is also very convenient to know what temps you have inside. The small size of the dashboard in MBM and the configurability of the program make it a great program.

20$ as a form of insurance on a computer worth over 1000$. We are talking about only 2%. I say it is a NO BRAINER.

Only problem with Windows based programs. If they shut down when temps get too high all is good. However, if Windows doesn't shut down properly you may still have an overheat issue.

Since my little adventure I have MADE SURE that the MOBO monitoring is on and have it set to shut down as a backup. If you can believe it, it wasn't enabled when I had my close call. I had found it necessary to clear my CMOS the evening before as I had set my FSB to 157 and the system would not reboot.

 

[ac3wooddog]

nice system

nice system

 

[chrismacan]

Thanks, I built it myself and saved more than 30% over retail. Only the third system I built for me. Just started my own little business building, upgrading and repairing systems in the Montreal area. Maybe one day I'll get rich. hehe.