Help! My pc is melting!!!

[Egrimm]

Okay, not quite but is hot... too hot for my taste. I'll begin with the specs so thats out of the way (for the lazy people who doesn't want to look at the rigs page):
Thunderbird/C 1200 @ 1350 (10x135)
Thermaltake Volcano II hsf
MSI K7T Turbo Limited Edition mobo
MSI GeForce 2 Pro (a real pro not just a normal GeForce 2), a very hot card (is it supposed not to have heatsinks on the ram? Mine haven't, might buy some if I can find 'em)
512 Mb pc133 ram (2x 256 mb)
Dxr3 mpeg card (again a quite hot card, although nothing compared to the cpu of graphics card)
SB Live!
10/100 mbit netcard
10 Gb Fujitsu harddrive & 20 Gb IBM harddrive (are they supposed to be as hot as the mpeg-card?)
10x Pioneer dvd-drive & PlexWriter 8232A cd-burner
All of it sits in a quite narrow all-metal case with quite a few venting holes and a single fan in front, I have another one but my mainboard can't take more than one case fan so I must find a new one.

The temperatures for the cpu is 55C idle and 59C under heavy use. It is stable though, but when I see the temps other people has I get worried...
The case temp is only around 40C so I am not so worried, but are the harddisks supposed to be so hot?
What I want with all these questions should be obvious: what do you recommend to get the heat down?

 

[buffhr]

well if i were you id look into some case modding and make some blowholes case temp at 40c wow my cpu loasds at that temp hehe.

 

[o1die]

If you don't have alot of money, try removing one side of your case and aiming a regular small fan inside. You can also try lowering your voltage in .25 increments, and see if that lowers your temperature. Or you can spend $30-$40 for the gladiator copper heatsink, the best value in copper.

 

[Egrimm]

Well, I run with an open case now and it is still 53C when not stressed (surfing the Net), but the weather is rather warm (at least 30C in my room right now) and when I tried the same trick when it was colder it was 51C. An extra blowhole (which would have to be situated just opposite the CPU to have the same effect as the removed side of the case) would just do the same, and 2 - 4 degrees less isn't what I was looking for...

 

[Egrimm]

Just to make sure: the 51C was the cpu not the weather...
If you wondered about the temps when not OC'ed: 51C under normal use and 53-55C stressed (varied).

 

[mechBgon]

How about an Antec SX1040 case/power supply combo? It has four positions for 80mm auxiliary fans and it comes with two fans. Three of the six internal hard drive positions are in a cage directly behind one of the intake fan cages, too.

The way I'd set it up is to use the two stock Antec 80mm fans as intakes, and get two higher-output 80mm fans for exhaust. Then mount your DVD player and your burner with a vacant 5.25" bay between them, and put a 5.25" hard-drive cooler in the vacant bay to blow cool air between them. This will also help balance the intake/exhaust capacity.

Antec SX1040
5.25" bay cooler
Fans

If you want to experiment with your existing case, then yeah, try the blowhole approach if your case permits it. Some possiblities: an 80mm exhaust blowhole in the top, a 60mm high-output fan on the rear panel, one or two 80mm+ intakes on the side panel, if it's the type of side panel that can be removed without having to slide it full-length down the case. 40C is pretty hot for a case temperature... like buffhr, I have P3's reporting 40C core temperature (retail heatsinks, too)!

 

[Egrimm]

It sounds like nice ideas, I thought of something like that, didn't know you could get fans for 5,25" bays, been looking for something like that for years (since my first OC'ed Celeron, ah yes, the memories...).
But I have a little problem: I live in Denmark, a country very unconsious of power-computing (or what you call it) even though we have somthing like the highest percentage of computers except the US. And it is nearly impossible getting specialized cooling equipment (good fans, cases and more special things) as the only shop that specialized in such things just closed.
So if you know a reliable shop (I won't wait 5 months like like I've once done with my dvd's) where you can buy such stuff I'll be grateful, oh and more recomendations won't hurt (so I will know exactly what to get).

 

[slau]

You can get another case fan and wire it up to the power spplu, can't you?

 

[mechBgon]

Try 2Cooltek.com, I believe he will ship overseas and he has a good reputation and a good selection.

 

[mechBgon]

Here's another possibility, and this vendor has a good reputation and carries a few cases, although they are not cheap: CaseETC.com

 

[Egrimm]

Thanks for the tips but I think I've decided what to do: I'll buy a fairly generic case (don't know what it'll be, see what the shops has first) and some fans, when I checked one of my usual shops they suddenly had both pci-space (you know what I mean) fans, 5,25" bay-fans, why didn't they have that before? So heres the fans I'll buy: one for the back, 1 or 2 pci-slot fans (at least one to go beside my graphics card) and 2 5,25" fans (to put my harddisks behind).
But I have one last question: they also have Pabst case-fans (8 & 9 cm). Would they be worth the increased price (they cost 3 times as much as normal case-fans)?

 

[mechBgon]

That sounds like a good plan, no waiting and less money. They commonly call those PCI fans "slot fans" because they use a PCI slot. You might want to remove the label from the rear of the slot fan and put a drop of automobile automatic-transmission fluid on the fan's bearing, since it is a sleeve bearing. Having another rear 80mm fan should help a lot, too!

 

[Glow]

if when you take off the sides of the case and blow a fan on it, the temperature is still that high, then getting a new case and fans wont do much i dont think. are you sure you applied a decent kind of thermal paste between the heatsink and cpu?

 

[Egrimm]

I've only removed the side, haven't any normal fans. And I stated before it's kinda hard to get special things (like Arctic Silver) here and I was in such a hurry when I got the cpu (I needed a working computer) that I just made it with the thermal pad that sits on the heatsink from the start. But if I can manage to get the hsf off again I'll buy what I can get.

 

[soni]

Egrimm, have you tried this:


List of Overclocking Hardware in Denmark

I live in Denmark to, and there are plenty of places, except one.
Where do you get Panofol Coolers???

 

[Egrimm]

Thanks for the adress, haven't found other shops that had something interesting other than now closed ACDC (why can't I never find the good shops?). I'll see what they have, but I've found a shop where I live (Odense) that carries some slot-fans and drive-bay fans so I'm not sure I need more.
Plus I tried using the fan in the back of my case sucking air out instead of the one in front sucking air in (only one fanconnector on the mobo) and it dropped temperatures 5C so I'll just try adding some of the fans I can easily get.

 

[Egrimm]

Just bought the slot fans and to 5,25" fans (shop hadn'the the 12V connecter converter so I still haven't a fan in fron of my case ) but the other fans helped: now 48C idle and 52 under stress, but I'll still get the front fan working and since my friend needs a case I might buy a new one no matter what

 

[NesuD]

2 things you should do add more cooling for the case 40c is to warm for a case and then change the hsf either by adding a higher output fan or replacing the heatsink and fan altogether. In my experience adding a delta black label in place of the stock volcano fan was worth about a 2-3c temp drop went to a mc-370 hs with the delta 38 and pulled it down about 3c more. another thing to keep in mind is that the msi turbo boards tend to report temps 6-4c warmer than most other boards. See if you can back the voltage down a bit. the msi turbo board when set at default actually delivers around 1.88 volts instead of 1.75 actually all the volt settings deliver anywhere from .08-.125 higher voltage i currently have my voltage set at 1.625 and am getting 1.75

 

[Egrimm]

As mentioned above I got some extra fans and the cse-temp is now 35C. Thanks for the tip about the temperature showing I didn't know MSI did it too (was a diehard Asus-fan until recently so I only know their boards).
I'll look around my local shops for a new case and when I change I'll add some thermal paste to the cpu (why didn't I think of it the first time?). But at least the heat isn't unbearable anymore so I might not buy the best case (Lain Li is way too costly!) and not try to OC that much more...