PCA Forums

Well My proc. is always running pretty warm (thanks AMD). Load it is at 51C, Idle it is at 47C. Too warm for my comfort. SO I want to upgrade my cooling solution. So what do you think will be the best solution? I'd like to get out as cheap as possible and preferably without selling a kidney to afford it.

I can aquire a cheap waterblock for about $25, a radiator for about $30 and a cheap pump for another 25. Thats $80 and I still need the tubing. SO!

Is it going to be worth it? Am I going to notice that much of a difference? Or should I just buy a delta black label 80mm fan and throw that on my HS?

Now as far as a peltier goes. What should I expect price wise? And is that going to make all that much difference?

I have an XP2000+ right now.

first off what kind of case/fan setup do you have?

C.A., pull the side cover and put a window fan on it, seriously IF you get a big temp drop on the cpu, you just need to improve case cooling. I run a 120mm fan in the side cover, centered on the cpu/graphics card and get a good 10C drop in temps. You can pick up a 120, with filter and cover for under 25 bucks shipped. Get one of the variable speed fans, Dial-A-Temp LOL

I was thinking just getting another case. Newegg has really cool all clear ones made of plexi or lexan or some other material. There around $80 though. Comes with about 5 case fans installed though.

Forget about peltiers, they're not worth the effort ... you would need an additional 12V or 17V PSU and you would have to prevent your setup from condensation in/around CPU socket etc.
Watercooling is a nice solution for very good cooling at low noise. Performance varies with the components you use.

What is your casetemp? Your HSF can only cool for so many degrees with the warm case-air. High casetemp = high CPU temp.

What HSF do you currently use? Slapping that delta black label 80mm fan on might help with the cooling but it'll certainly deliver quite some noise. Maybe all yer need is a better HSF than you current one (depending on what yer got right now).

well i was using the AMD stock cooler and running an average of about 51C at idle. Then I got the one i have now which is this one . and ran about the same. I'll grab case temp in a minute.




edit

case temp right now is at 36C. CPU temp is at 48C.

Now also keep in mind in order to lower the temp by 3C i had to lower the cpu voltage by .050v.

So a new case is looking good, no?

The casetemp ain't that bad though it could be a lil lower. There're some ways to help lowering casetemp.

- clean the fanfilters (in case you got some)
- check the cables for airflow restrictions
- there should be an intake fan at the front and one exhaust fan at the back of the case (in addition to the PSU) for best airflow.

I guess the HSF ain't that bad for a rather quiet one (looking at the newegg specs). Better cooling HSF will also be either much louder or cost more and be only a little louder. Here's an explanation about HSF and their performance plus links to roundups of HSF http://www.overclockers.com/articles373/ .

My case temp before putting a low speed 120 mm fan on the side was averaging 34C in a 70 F room. After the fan was installed, average about 24 - 25 C, with full load on the CPU. CPU temp dropped from low 50's to under 40C. Have the fan blowing into the case, btw....

Was also able to lower the overall speed of the other case fans

Not for nuthin' but I think it would be cheaper to just get a mobile XP 2600+, slk800 and a Panaflo 80mm 39cfm fan and crank it out to about 2.5 GHz. I'd do the math on the cost and see if you're close to what you'll ultimately pay for all dat h2o cooling apparatus.

Plus you have to ask yourself how long are you going to stay socket A ? They're gettin' kind of long in the tooth now and if you switch over to an AMD64, you'll probably need a different size water block.

Just a thought or two. :