Air cooling

[roodie]

Guys, I need help!

This is my current situation :
1 heated room  + 1 overheating PC.

I've managed to alleviate the problem by opening the side case and putting a big arse house fan facing inside. If that fan is off don't even think about touching any metal part of the case....The HSF its a generic one...I saw someone selling a thermaltake so I looking to maybe try to see if I get some relief.

The problem with leaving the case open is dust. I have two 80mm outtake fans at the rear of the case, one at the bottom and a grill at the top I suppose to let some of the hot air out as well. When the side-cover is on there's an intake fan there, but I think I need to upgrade my PSU (500w generic) b'c once I connect that fan my Grahpics card goes wonky all kinda funny colors on the screen  - its an ATi X1300, and the cpu is a 939 64-bit 3400.
But even when I put the side-cover and I disconnect one of my harddrives the system still gets too hot - I've seen the temp go up to 51 Cs already! I'm worried, don't want anything to fry.

Apart from getting a Antec Nine case like Arcman's - allyuh have any suggestions on what i could do (besides buying an A/C for the room - can't do that right now).

[Arcmanov]

Well, you can hunt for some Thermaltake 80 mm fans, and make sure you get a proper Thermaltake HSF.
Those 939s can be beastly with the heat sometimes.  I think you need a proper intake fan as well.  The air inside
the case seems to be heating up faster than it can be exhausted.
Get another fan for the top as well.  If there isn't a fan bracket there, then 'macguyver' a lil something to attach it (like cable-ties).

The only problem with the Tt fans however, is noise.  Lots of it.  At full blast (approx 5000 rpm) those fans make a
HELL of a racket, but they get the job done very well.

[daniboy79]

arrite... First, get yourself an accurate Thermometer (i have one right next to my tower), this is so you can know the temperature during the day (hottest time) & during the night (coolest time). i would like to know these temperatures. why i ask is cuz there will always be a temperature rise over the ambient room temperature, and knowing the ambient is half the way to solving your heat problems.

very efficient CPU coolers combined with efficient cases are in the order of around 6~10C ambient temperature rise at idle (i.e. when your room is 32C, the cpu would be around 38~42C). what makes efficient coolers & case designs important is when you see the T-rise between idle & 100% CPU load around the same 6~10C above your already higher 'idle Temp.' rise.

have i lost you as yet? lol ...if the ambient temperature is already high, then the temp. difference will begin to increase also! (ask Sax about his PC temp.)

my Prescott(3.0GHz) is sitting right now at 34~36C in the airconditioned office (24C)

my X2 AMD rig sits at 30~32C during the day with an ambient of 28C. (thanks to the Tt cooler & Antec 900!)

get the thermometer and hit us back with some temperatures

[Saxito Pau]

I would like to suggest the Thermal Armor Jr. as an alternative to the Antec 900 (if you are even considering a case that expensive!)

It has mounts for 2 120mm intake  and one 120mm extractor fan and a 92mm on the side panel..... efficient cooling indeed, plus it has built-in dust filters (just keep a paintbrush on standby)

Lastly, it's available for $900 retail in POS

My other suggestion is to pull a McGuyver like Arc said and make hole in the front/side/top of your case to mount a fan, preferably 120mm

Lastly there is always aircon, which not even i can afford to install yet

I have a concrete roof house, my CPU, even with my $600 HSF (with 120mm fan at max 2600 rpm), temps still can hit 43C during the day , but will drop to 37C in the middle of the night.

And daniboy, I think you lost even me there with that post... 

EDIT: I saw a case with a 25cm side panel fan at Circuit zone recently... maybe that will suit your fancy as well

[W1nTry]

My 2c on the matter is regardless of how good his air cooling system is, with high temperature around it, it will do him little good. Just short of water cooling, I can't see any amount of air cooling in a HOT room working out too well.

[roodie]

My 2c on the matter is regardless of how good his air cooling system is, with high temperature around it, it will do him little good. Just short of water cooling, I can't see any amount of air cooling in a HOT room working out too well.

HER!!! HER!!! - Yes i have a too much buss head from when I was small but I'm still a she!

w1n I do recognize that so long as my PC is in a hot room I'm not going to have the coolest rig in town.  However there isn't much I can do about the general room cooling for now - so my quest is to simply keep this system as cool as I can.

This is the only PC that I have overheating problems with - the other two are quite cool and happy, so I know that there must be something either going wrong with my cooling here or something that I need to do. The other two happy campers are carrying socket A cpu's (Bought them from Sax a while back), one with an onboard gpu and the other a 128mb 5200. These guys hardware wise don't generate near as much heat as the other PC.


Daniboy - you had me until this statement...

what makes efficient coolers & case designs important is when you see the T-rise between idle & 100% CPU load around the same 6~10C above your already higher 'idle Temp.' rise.

I will try to source a thermometer and get you some temps.

[Netizen1]

 

Poor you roodie, everyone keeps forgetting your gender

[W1nTry]

I'll be sure to be gender non-specific next time and use the suffix 'IT'  from now on (j/k) that aside, water cooling ftw imho... otherwise prepare yourself for a very DUST laden case as proper flow will necessitate large intake and exhaust and necessarily LOTS of dust...