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Cooking my PC: what NOT to do
f0dder:
Oh, 30C ambient temperature - that certainly doesn't help :)
Most decent cases will have room for an intake fan or two in the front, usually 120mm these days, although 90mm or 80mm also exist. It's a good idea having an intake fan right in front of your harddrives. I usually wouldn't bother with a side-panel fan, but with 30C ambient temperature, perhaps it's a good idea to get one of those really big ones :)
A different CPU cooler with a humongous heatsink (and at least a 80mm fan) would probably also be a good idea. As far as I can tell you have an old (not socket 775) motherboard, so you can't do The Good ThingTM and find a cheap core2 CPU that'll outperform the Pentium4 (running cooler as well) :)
nosh:
(well, 30 ºC is lower than 85 ºC anyway :D)
-Lashiec (February 17, 2008, 03:18 PM)
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Very true :d but I've only ever had the overheating freezes when I have just the (room) ceiling fan on, the ambient temperature though it just varies by a few degrees seems to make a big difference. The card does have a heatsink and it also has these small springy clip things so I guess those would be for attaching a fan, that'll be my first priority. I would also like to go for another fan for the case but I'm a bit concerned about the power supply falling short - I know I upped the capacity after the previous one blew out ( :up:) but I haven't the foggiest about how much power I can spare for additional components.
My case's front intake fan utilizes 3 of my 9 available drive bays
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I have just one drive bay to spare, I'm thinking something at the side that directly cools the components would make a lot more sense. I don't mind shelling out for a decent cabinet if I don't find a good solution, one I'll hopefully be able to reuse for my next PC.
nosh:
Oh, 30C ambient temperature - that certainly doesn't help :)
Most decent cases will have room for an intake fan or two in the front, usually 120mm these days, although 90mm or 80mm also exist.
-f0dder (February 17, 2008, 03:41 PM)
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I'll probably spare myself the grief then and just go for a new cabinet _and_ try to attach a fan to the GPU too coz I have a feeling general cabinet fans may fall a bit short there!
As far as I can tell you have an old (not socket 775) motherboard, so you can't do The Good ThingTM and find a cheap core2 CPU that'll outperform the Pentium4 (running cooler as well) :)
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True, just bought 2GB RAM and the guy who sold it tells me I won't be able to use it with a Core2 Duo- sucks! :P
wreckedcarzz:
A strange, very hard way to stress test your PC:
I have been doing this for a couple years now, works great, as long as the system doesn't lock up because of lag (it isn't uncommon)...
When I need to see what my PC can do, I run the most hardware intensive games I have. And lots of them. And I play them all via Alt-Tab (or, for Vista, an added stress is the Flip 3D, where you have the game actively playing as it scrolls through).
Right now I am running:
Firefox
Pidgin
Windows Live Messenger
Songbird
Halo
Halo 2
Test Drive Unlimited
All 3 games are on their highest settings (except resolution, I do this windowed) and I am getting about 2-3 FPS in Test Drive Unlimited (8-10 in Halo 2, and about 30 in Halo 1).
I am running all this, and if I don't see a performance drop, I will continue opening games.
Now, off to check my email in Windows Live Mail... :)
Lashiec:
I'll probably spare myself the grief then and just go for a new cabinet _and_ try to attach a fan to the GPU too coz I have a feeling general cabinet fans may fall a bit short there!
-nosh (February 17, 2008, 04:20 PM)
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There's no need for a new case, as long as the current one allows more fans. A quick review of the spec sheet will tell you if there's that possibility.
As for the PSU running out of juice as a result of adding more fans, I would not count on it. Fans do not consume much power, but it depends on the max wattage of your PSU, and how many components you have.
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