New pc ran hot, so now its kinda ugly

[tastegw]

even with the 4x 80mm fans on the lower half of the front panel, and a 120mm fan in 3 of the 4 front bay slots, with 2 exhaust fans in the rear, my case temp and gpu temps were averaging @ 60c without running a game. so i decided to take the clearside window off and replace it with some preferated (spelling?) metal.

i cut it down from a 24x24 supply air vent (the kind you see in the ceilings of offices) its glossy white and is about 50-60% open. here is a pic, just click it to enlarge it, i hope its not too ugly, and sorry about the quality, i only have a cell phone for picture taking.

 

[raybay]

The real secret to these "hot cpu" problems is remove the heat sink and clean off all the old thermal paste, then install new paste, such as artic silver. It is only necessary to put enough paste to assure a good connection between the heat sink and the cpu... any extra acts as an insulator and makes things worse.
Then I would check your cpu fan... or replace the cpu fan and heatsink combo.
The average temperature will be around 62 degrees celsius or more... so don't be alarmed if it is on the upper edge of that range... just be sure the fan is working, and the thermal paste is fresh and gooey... you don't want it dried out or otherwise not providing a good connection.

 

[k.jacko]

I agree with raybay, its your fan/heatsink/paste/cpu that causing the high temps. The X2 6400 max temps should be around 63° at load, not idle.
Some Artic Silver 5 should help, but make sure you clean the top of the cpu of ALL old paste using an alocohol wipe. Rather than turning your case into a wind turbine machine you should really just have bought a decent aftermarket cooler first.
But hey, thats how we all learn.

 

[tastegw]

i have the AS5 pasted freshly on the cpu and i do have the aftermarket heatsink
(with 2 fans in it + the heatsink) my cpu wasnt my problem, it was my overall case temps mostly from the gpu. you can clearly see my heatsink in that pic, its the one with blue led's on the left side, its massive in size compared to my other parts, the outer fan of this heatsink is about 5" from the cpu, while its innerfan is about 1 1/2" apart from it. here is what it looks like, its made by gigabite.

http://img223.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cpucoolerbe7.jpg

i just dont think you two read before you wrote this time. because i never mentioned a "hot cpu"

 

[k.jacko]

1. Ok, ...excuse us all to hell for trying to help!
2. You talked about your pc being hot, then mentioned your case and gpu temps. Its quite logical to assume that your cpu would be a little toasty too don't you think?
3. The picture is not clear in the slightest mate, sorry.

Whereas you think we didn't read your op correctly or we misunderstood. Maybe it was in your description. After all, the only 2 people so far who have bothered to try and help you have interpreted your post in the same way.

Think i'll bow out now..... and let someone else get chastised for mis-reading your posts.

 

[tastegw]

1. Ok, ...excuse us all to hell for trying to help!
2. You talked about your pc being hot, then mentioned your case and gpu temps. Its quite logical to assume that your cpu would be a little toasty too don't you think?
3. The picture is not clear in the slightest mate, sorry.

Whereas you think we didn't read your op correctly or we misunderstood. Maybe it was in your description. After all, the only 2 people so far who have bothered to try and help you have interpreted your post in the same way.

Think i'll bow out now..... and let someone else get chastised for mis-reading your posts.

wow, my fault for letting this get out of hand.
i should have wrote mis-understood instead of "did not read"
im sorry for this.

thanks for your attempt to help out tho, but no help was really needed. it was more of a story than a question. any help any of us can get here at techspot is a huge deal considering it can cost somebody a pretty penny in the real world (local tech shop)

so again, i didnt mean for this to get heated, and i am sorry if i rubbed you the wrong way.

thanks

 

[k.jacko]

Thanks, "did not read" were indeed the 3 words that caused the friction.
No matter though, its all done and dusted.
I agree we are all lucky to have this forum. There are plenty other I.T. based forums that are trashy and cliquey. This one isn't.

Hope you get it sorted anyway.

 

[tastegw]

just to update the status on my case/gpu/cpu temps:

Old Idle temps before the modifications to case:

gpu @ 59-61C
case @ 55-60C
cpu @ 40-41C

New Idle temps after modifications to case:

gpu @ 48-49C
case @ 34C
cpu @ 37C

case temps dropped a ton and gpu dropped a good 10C, never had a problem with the cpu temps really @ idle.

i think the problem was the cpu's heatsink, it seems to be pulling in the air from the mouth of it (the outer fan, it has 2 fans) and since its so large, it was about 1/4 inch from the clearside window, thus getting no fresh air to draw in, and in return was just sucking in the warm air coming off the gpu and spitting it right back out thru the aluminum fins in 4 different directions (up, down, left, right) if im correct, the heatsink fans blow toward each other forcing airflow to go thru the vent ducts installed between the two fans.

so here are the modifications i did in detail.

removed the clearside flexy and replaced it with perforated vent style metal.

added a 120mm fan installed on this metal vent at the same level as my gpu and its blowing inward toward the gpu (trying to shoot off the excess hot air above the gpu that its fan cannot touch) that hot air should then reach one of my exhaust fans in the rear.

my current motherboard temp is 34C, witch is nice and low.

so all in all my "re-modified" case is loud compared to the average case, but that doesnt bother me. id rather my case be loud and ugly than be hot and steamy and look good at the same time.

recap of current temps: idle not load

CPU: 37C
Mobo: 34C
GPU: 49C / 55C playing a game (guildwars)
Case: 35C

the perforated metal feels cold to the touch compared to the very warm clearside that was inplace of it beforehand.

all in all, im very happy with the results considering the hardware involved. both the x2 6400BE and the 8800GTS run hot

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Just one BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) - the volume of air being drawn in should exceed the volume of air being drawn out. Most fans are not good enough and will cavitate if the pressure differential is too great so more fans does not always mean more air through the box.

 

[porsche911r]

LOL yeh albert dude he has hit the spot haveing so many fans doesnt really mean ur gonna have a ''cool'' pc it can have an adverse effect. i did the same couple of years ago and i found out the hard way when my cpu AND gpu burned out

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Thanks porsche911 - that's how I found out! I learnt about cavitation from a bloke who was an expert on marine propellers. Ping! Understanding!

 

[porsche911r]

No worries man its just logic when u work it out eventually but i would NEVER EVER overload with fans as it can have such a bad effect in the system.