Tips for cooling a PC down?

My tower runs a Pentium 3.4 processor, with 2 gigs of memory, dual 320 gig SATA drives.

I came home tonite and the processor was beeping. Checked processor temp, 69C!!!

Pulled the side panel and noticed the vents were fairly linted in. With the side panel off, it runs at 39-41C.

The processor fan and case fan were running.

Are there any quick tips for making sure that doesn't happen again?

Should/Can I do something to help? New Case?

Bill

What kind of case do you currently run?

I recommend cleaning out your computer of all dust and cleaning up the heatsink/processor and applying some Artic Silver 5.

Routine maintaince of dusting/cleaning out the fans to keep the case well ventilated is good. IT like the air filter in your car, you change that regularly or else you suffer low gas mileage (and possibly engine damage but the radiator plays apart too.)

I like Lian-Li/Kingwin cases, more expensive at ~$100-$120 for Mid-towers, but worth the money IMHO.

Thanks Jason.

I am using Artic on the processor/cooler interface.

The case is a Sinbadda.

I haven't had a machine that runs this hot before, so I'll have to pay more attention.

Bill

Bill - Your welcome.

If you want to forgo cleaning the Simbadda case, get a new one (highly recommend Lian-Li PC-61/65) and clean it whenever it gets dirty.

The cleaning frequency depends on how dusty/dirty the area is. I clean mine ~3 months.

welcome to the world of Netburst, where thermal throttling isn't a big deal.

make sure your rig isn't tucked away in some obscure niche

It's in the desk slot reserved for the tower. At least 3-4" on all sides, 6" on top.

Bill

It's obviously NOT a cpu to heatsink interface problem. You pulled the side panel and the temp drops way down.

You simply need more airflow through the case overall. Most decent/topend cases come with extra fan slots. Can you add fans to these locations?


Cleaning helps also, but any halfway decent case design should not overheat if not cleaned. Non-cleaning is practically a given, and a case designer that requires a clean case is living in fantasy land.


I'm a big fan of antec cases.

Observe their typical layout:




The hard drives go in a little caddy that's at the front of the case, slightly below halfway up. There is a fan mount in the caddy itself. It will cool down even the hottest running drives.


The fan at the rear is HUGE, really. I'd say it's 6" square. It also has a 3 speed control on it. It's quiet and moves a TON of air OUT of the case.


Antec's power supplies are top of the line, and they come with a temp-sensing fan. You've got 20 and 24 pin atx power connectors, standard power plugs, and new ones for sata drives.


There's also a washable filter than drop out of the bottom of the front of the case.

But it's more than that also. The edges are all rounded and you won't cut your hand off working on it.

Front panel connectors are usb/audio/firewire.

The picture is a mini tower, but the larger ones are the same. The full tower (which I have) has 2 removable drive caddys.

Check your temperature alarm set point. On mine it's part of the BIOS set up. I don't know if the temp was so high because you were away from home and it climbed all of a sudden or if your alarm set point temp is too high. If you set it lower it will be a good reminder to clean your case. The downside would be that if your computer room gets hotter your PC will run hotter and might set off the alarm.

pizzle, I don't understand your comment? Do you mean that as the temp rises the processor slows down to prevent more overheating?

drizzle said:

pizzle, I don't understand your comment? Do you mean that as the temp rises the processor slows down to prevent more overheating?

Click to expand...

yes, netburst (pentium 4, D) chips will start throttling down their speed and vcore at about 75C. as temp gets higher, the chip will slow itself down more and more until it just turns off.


if its a northwood, then i'd be slightly worried, but if its a prescott or dual core, its fine (normally, i wouldn't advocate this, but seeing as how we aren't at a geek/overclocking forum....)

39C? Thats a tad high for the atomsphereic temperature in your case
Cheap solution = Remove side pannel, place giant house fan (1+ diameter) and leave it on high, suck heat out or push cool air in works.

Other solutions
Case with good ventitalation, Chenming 602 with side and top fan is good (Totals to 6x80mm fans)
Loud fans, Vantec tornados if you use 80mm 92mm fans, REALLY high airflow fans here. Warning - Turning your computer on may scare anything within a 20 feet radius that is not blocked off by sound isolating material. Loud roar.
Heatsink = Something like a Cooler Master Hyper 6 for the processor works

All it looks like is you have lack of proper case venting right.

No additional fan slots available, the coooling slots on the side really are probably insufficient.

With them cleaned out and the case closed back up, it runs at 42-45C

I might have to consider another box.

It is a Prescott.

Thanks for the suggestions!!!

Bill

Could always just buy a cheapie case (not heaps expensive ie.) with side panels that have little vent holes. Make sure the case has slots for fans (80mm size is pretty standard, some may accept 120mm which is even better). Then buy some case fans...If you're worried about noise, use 120mm slow speed ones, less noise and larger fan/blade size will still move a large volume of air. Make sure to have intake and out-take fans. I've got some high RPM case fans that make quite a racket (which i don't mind...loud music haha) and they are connected to a 12V 10A rated switch on the front of the case...flick off for cool days and on for hot days ...or you could get fan controllers. I'm pretty definite you'll find most of the heat is generated by your two SATA hard-drives.

shut down the computer.


i think you could upgrade your heatsink to something better, since it isn't good to destroy a p4 3.4ghz cpu. (becoz it is like so $$$$$$$)

also, install more fans!!! buy a new casing with more holes for your fan~!!

isn't fun for it to run to 69C!!


LOL i forgot: what heatsink are you using?

The most straightforward way to do it, if you like modding, is to cut a "blowhole" in the side panel of the case directly over the CPU. Using plastic or cardboard piping, extend a duct all the way to the CPU fan inside to give it "cold air induction" without any added fans or noise.

BTW P4s are completely thermally protected and even removing the heatsink from a running one will not kill it. It will simply clock down to as low as 200MHz and amazingly continue to run, if slowly, until you fix it.

bfg9000 said:

The most straightforward way to do it, if you like modding, is to cut a "blowhole" in the side panel of the case directly over the CPU. Using plastic or cardboard piping, extend a duct all the way to the CPU fan inside to give it "cold air induction" without any added fans or noise.

Click to expand...

That would work great except case temp won't be much different. I had a similar setup to that on my ollddd thunderbird. High rpm 120mm fan on the side of the case where the hole was cut...boy was that noisy though.

Cold air induction, sounds like we're modding cars now hehe.

Cleaning the PC of the lint and dust bunnies helps a lot. Also make sure the fans are correctly installed, i,e suck in air at the bottom(usually in the front) and expel air in the top(usually in the back). Also the grill protecting you fingers from the fan should be as minimal as possible for best airflow. Leaving the case open helps a lot but its noisy and it make is dusty faster as well.
If you want to go the whole hog, you might look at water cooling...

A Prescott?
Those PresHOTs run very, very, very HOT! so you need to get rid of the heat out of your case. Adding a 120mm (4.6") fan in the side panel works very well, say a Globe or Panaflo L series are very quiet and move quite a bit of air. If you can, cut out the stamped grills in front of or on the back of the case. Put those wire grills to keep fingers out and that improves air flow with huge gains in ventilation.
I built a computer a year ago and forced a ton of parts in a 2 pound box. The case is the same size as my stereo receiver (Coolermaster 610 microATX desktop) and I threw an AMD Athlon64 on a ATI Radeon chipset motherboard with a large Thermalright heatpipe cooler with 92mm fan. I cut a 120mm hole in the top of the case so the CPU fan (PanafloL) can pull air inside. The "cool and quiet" was engaged and runs at 950 RPM 99% of the time unless gaming. Two Panaflo L 80mm fans in the front (run at 6 volts) to blow across the drives, Zalmann 400W PSU blowing out the back coupled with 60mm exhaust fan.
It ran cool but the video card was adding heat which would kick the processor ambient temps up. I threw on a Artic Cooling shrounded heatsink/fan thing that pushes the heat out of the back of the computer. It aids in exhausting the computer insead of adding heat to the box. My Abit X700 256MB VIVO card runs cooler, quieter and adds in cooling the entire computer. I have the 70mm fan on a rheostat set at 6 volts and it runs in the 30C region normally and 49C when gaming.
Since all the fans run slow, the fan grills are cut out (except the front intakes) the CPU fan is vented to outside air and the video card is pumping heat outside the case....my computer is quiet (it is a desktop home theater PC so it must be quiet!) runs cool (32C CPU normally/42C 100% benchmark load)
For fun, I shut off the CPU fan and let it run for two hours using CPUburn and 3DMark2003 looping for 100% load. The Athlon64 3000+ (Socket 939) held at 67C with the three case fans/video card fan running slowly at 6 volts. I have it set to throttle down at 70C.
For your use, the Prescott is heading out of production so it would not be worth purchasing a new case. Add a fan in the side panel, cut out restrictive grills/add wire grills and keep the computer clean. Should cost you under $20 since you need the money for the new flashlights into'd at the SHOT show!

Dust in the heatsinks is a problem. You ought to blow them out occasionally with an "office duster" can of compressed gas.

But, as others have stated, that doesn't seem to be your problem. It seems you don't have good air flow. If your case fan blows in, there needs to be somewhere for the air to flow out. And of course if the fan blows out, there needs to be somewhere for the air to flow in.

In my case I remove those front panels that cover the 5.25 inch drive bays. I put my 3.5 inch hard drives there so the air flow cools them a bit.

Also, your case fan may be worn out and no longer doing the job. They are easy to replace. Different models will move different amounts of air, so you might want to check the CFM rating. (cubic feet per minute). Panasonic Panaflo fans are considered good, but even here there's a catch. For any given size of fan, they make two models. One is quieter but it moves less air.

If the case fan is temperature controlled, the controller may be falling down on the job also.

Where cooling is concerned, there are just two types, in my humble opinion. Those with room to install a 12 cm fan, and those without room. But the main reason to install a 12 cm fan is to cut down on the noise. These big fans turn slower and are therefore quieter. If computer noise doesn't bother you, then a smaller fan will do the job.

ah yes, prescotts really run hot. my mother board is like burning each time i shut off my comp

but my daily surfing of net won't make it go so high i believe.

My computer right now is idling at 30C all over except the harddrives (26-30s)

I had a similar problem with a Northwood P4
A:Too many wires
B:Heatsink sucked
C:Not enough airflow/venting of hot air

Check if A applys for you (Wires are messy and such)
B is usually if you have a stock heatsink
C if none of the above doesn't help