jbryant

Hello,

Well I was playing Freelancer earlier on my new system and wondered why I could hear alarms through my earphones. I was travelling through a safe area, but then I noticed another window trying to draw attention to itself!

Well I task switched back to Windows and my ASUS probe S/W was reporting a CPU temp of 71 degrees

Now I know it's a hot day and all that, but I obviously need to sort out cooling on my machine before it melts... The machine has been on for a couple of hours now just surfing the web and the temp is still at 60!

Can anyone advise on what the best cost-effective way of effectively cooling things down? I intend to buy a replacement PSU in the next week or two anyway as the one I have is way too noisy - I have seen a Q-Tec 400W model where the fan is temp-sensitive that looks good, but what else can I do to cool the box down?

At the moment I have a full tower case, with the specs below;
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Athlon XP2500+ running standard speed
PC3200 2x256Mb RAM
AMD retail CPU Heatsink and fan
2 big hard disks (@7200rpm)
1 CD Rom
1 Floppy drive
300W Generic PSU

I'd consider a different case with better airflow, but don't want to load up heavily on noisy fans (do I have a choice?)
Do I start with a better CPU heatsink or fan, or go for a pair of case fans for inlet/outlet? Maybe it's better to have two outlet fans!? I really don't know where to begin.

Any help appreciated on where the best heat savings can be made, or links to sites that could explain the best options...

Thanks people
Joolz

Mr.Cookie

Hi

I also run an xp2500 currently at 50oC on full load, i'm using an SLK800 heatsink with a ys-tech silent fan plus 5 other not so silent but cheap fans in various locations in case, cheaper alternative to the slk which is getting rave reviews is the coolermater aero 7.
One of the cheapest things would be some cable ties and tidy up cabling inside hopefully improve air flow.

Si
Ps at the moment while this heat last you could take off side panel

Mr.Cookie

Sorry also if you put case fans in have atleast 2, 1 at the front blowing air into the case the other at rear expelling air, if you have more than 1 location for fan at front or rear try experimenting with placements

Si
Ps I only build pc's in spare time so this is all in my opinion but works for me

jbryant

Sounds good - does anyone have any ideas on reasonably priced but quiet case fans?

Joolz

Taff107

Put in a 120mm fan blowing onto the heatsink/cpu and an exhaust fan on top. I was running 45c in Cyprus with an ambient temp of 35c.