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How to Keep Your Computer Cool
ThinSkin writes "ExtremeTech is featuring a how-to article on keeping your computer cool by adopting an efficient airflow strategy for your PC case. The article goes into detail on what types of fans are optimal for your computer and your needs, where you should place them, and how to make your own fan mounts. From the article: 'With an efficient cooling strategy, there's no reason a case should ever grow so warm. Good airflow is critical to keeping your PC operating and extending the life of the components. Keep the air flowing!'"
Is any of this news to anyone? Everything in this article is obvious and anybody who has opened a computer case before knows the crap contained in this 6-page article.
Why is it six pages? Why, of course, so that the GIGANTIC ads are displayed that many times. Take a look at the URL pointed to by the link that is the author's name... no surprise
Cooling is great - it prolongs the lifespan of your computer and even optimizes a bit BUT I have seen way to many articles on cooling your comp every hardware analysis site has an article on cooling and I ask what is so different about this one...nothing...Is it just me or do some of these H/W sites need to come up with more diverse articles? Alot of sites are great and do come up like Anandtech or Hardocp...It's kinda like those baseball/kids/hard-ass-turned-loving-coach movies - everbody has made one.
Yes, I have a friend or two.. .000000001 degree.
I told him I was a little concerned with my p4 running around 60C and hee tells me that when they test out the chips, they test them at like 100C.
Im not suggesting to run your CPU at 100C, but I don't think 60-70 is a problem.
There is, however, a segment of modders who will spend tons of money because they heard that brand x of thermal grease will lower the CPU temp
How hot is too hot? I've built a new P4-2.4GHz box arround a Shuttle Zen (quieter than a laptop), the processor runs arorund 65 degrees C, the case arround 50. How hot is dangerous?
I spent plenty of time with thermistors on the ambient air around components and even on the components themselves. Open case was always 5-10 deg C cooler.
If that's happening, I'd start by checking the case design. Many users have very dense cases with large bundles of wires inside. All these wires can obstruct the airflow and prevent the system from properly cooling. This is one of the reasons why I always purchase as large of a case as I possibly can. Full size towers are pretty hard to come by these days, but good Mid-Towers make for a nice compromise.
I don't know if it's a sign of a good case or not, but the last one I chose had an array of holes for dissapating extra heat while maintaining the airflow. You'd be surprised how cold my case is, despite the fact that it's in 5 year old stock condition.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Interestingly enough, my PC's temperature LCD's have always shown Linux not only to be cooler, but to run cooler then Windows...
The best way to get better airflow is to cut out restrictive fan grilles, but people who buy expensive cases don't want to do that, instead spend way more on bigger heatsinks, water cooling, ect. honestly, nobody sees the fans anyway in most examples. If PC won't run because of overheating then what good is that expensive case?.... "Yea well, if it would stay on long enough, this LCD screen here would tell you that all nine fans are maxed out but it is still overheating..."
Also, dust filters are bad, in that typical ones are restrictive; they clog quickly and the airflow drops off fast. My in-progress case has a centrifugal type; it is much larger physically (about as big as large coffee can) but I ended up with extra room inside the case anyway, and it can accumulate far more dust and can go much longer between cleanings.
I want a better PC.
I don't want leaky water cooling, I don't want to underclock everything and use passive heatsinks, I want a quiet air-cooled PC that keeps dust out with a filter that I need to empty once, maybe twice a year at most.....
What's always troubled me about my system's cooling is that the temperature LCD's show a temperature quite different from motherboard monitor... My LCD's show around 55 degrees celsius under a full load, where as motherboard monitor sometimes shows as high as 70 degrees celsius. I don't know which one I should trust. The system is a Monarch Hornet Pro, so I expect it to run a bit toasty because of the form factor, but 50 sounds kind of low for AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) with such little cooling and space fpr air to circulate, yet 70 seems pretty warm.
For me, one of the most important aspects of the design is making it so that the two cats in our house cannot block the fans, who for some reason love to lay up against the fans if they are accessible (such as where there are two fans on the side) or otherwise interfere or they can push other things off the rack to make them accessible.
They have been the cause of much hardware failure if there is any way they can stretch or squeeze into an opening that has a fan, often after I believed that the configuration now was catproof after reacting to a previous incident.
When it comes to rackmountable servers, I know that you need to get specialized cooling... When I got my 1U case, I put the system in (AXP 2400+), got a 1U fan and some silver heatsink compound for it, and tried it out, yet it overheats like mad.
It works completely fine with the top of the case off, but I'm probably missing some info someone more experienced would know. Of course, it may be either a design issue with the case or maybe the AXP just runs too hot for something like a 1U. Does anyone here have some tips for cooling systems like this? If necessary, I can provide details when I get home.
LOL
That was a quote from the article, not a reply to your post on cryrogenics. I just wanted to stick my 2c in at the top where ppl actually read it.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
The last computer I built (and the one I am typing on) has a problem with heat, even though the inside of my case has good airflow. The problem is that this is a frankenstein box, and I was too cheap to buy good fans. So what I did was take both side panels off, and put a 20" Galaxy fan (about $11 at walmart) on the side, pumping air into the case. The air then flows out where the right side panel used to be.
I get temps between 100 and 120 fahrenheit, depending on whether I'm playing a 3D accelerated game or not.
Recently, due to a very dusty nightmare (I spend hours cleaning the dust out) I now have an air-conditioner filter duct taped to the front of the galaxy fan. I change it every few months.