I need some cooling advice

[miraj]

Hi, im new to these forums and looking for some advice. I am running a P4 3Ghz on ABIT IC7-Max3. I have 5 hard drives, an ATI radeon 9800+, RAID card, etc. etc. I have my CPU fan (a thermaltake volcano 11 i believe, one of the latest models) running at 5500 RPM and it is very loud! The heat levels are also unacceptably high with the system idle at around 50C and at load as high as 65C. I have been looking at water cooling options but I'm not sure if I want to mod my case too much. I read the review of thermaltake's external water cooler but it seems that it doesn't cool enough, especially for my applications. So, any recommended cooling kits? Any external units made by other companies? Should I get a new heatsink/fan? I've heard that Abit boards have heat problems... but I really want to drive my temp. down to around 30C.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

[Darthtanion]

You mentioned the cooler, the processor, the heat-producing components... everything except the enclosure. You have to have good airflow moving throughout the case to allow a HSF to do a good job. While the V11 isn't the top of the line, it should do a better job than the results you get as long as it has adequate airflow to work with. You'll also want to make sure you properly use a good TIM to keep the sink working at its best.

If you're looking at water but don't want to mod the case, you might look at some of the better kits available. Swiftech makes a decent one and I believe you can create a custom kit over at Danger Den's site. With a little searching you should be able to find what you're looking for.

[miraj]

this is my case:

http://www.directron.com/201tblk.html

as for fans I have 5, 2 intake, 2 exhaust, 1 on top also exhaust...

so i don't think it's my enclosure...

[Darthtanion]

If you have decent fans, then check to make sure there aren't dirty filters anywhere on the front intakes. You also might want to apply a new coat of Arctic Silver or similar product and blow out any dust and dirt that may have accumulated in the heatsink itself. Like I mentioned before, the Volcano 11 isn't the cream of the crop, but it isn't that bad a slouch either.

You also mention using five hard drives. Is any of the air from the front fans making it past the drives into the case interior? This too could be part of the problem if you have been doing a lot of activities that require heavy disk access. Especially if you're running 7200 RPM drives, the heat buildup can be a lot more than you might think.

[amd_man2005]

Originally Posted by Darthtanion

You also mention using five hard drives. Is any of the air from the front fans making it past the drives into the case interior? This too could be part of the problem if you have been doing a lot of activities that require heavy disk access. Especially if you're running 7200 RPM drives, the heat buildup can be a lot more than you might think.

I was thinking that, and possibly he's stressing the hell out of his PSU creating a lot of heat possibly. What kind of power supply do you have?

[miraj]

I clean the filters weekly. The hard drives are positioned above the fans and do not block the air flow at all. I will try re-applying some arctic silver but I seriously doubt the temp. will drop to an acceptable (in my view 25-30C) level.

I do appreciate these suggestions though...

any specific water cooling recommendations?

[miraj]

I just bought an Extremo 550W/650W Max power supply... installed it the other day, no drop in temp.

[Darthtanion]

Originally Posted by miraj

any specific water cooling recommendations?

I'm awaiting this water cooling kit from Swiftech for testing. I can't give you my blessing on it first-hand, but all reports look good for this one. It has solid components, excellent water flow and is a closed system requiring only a single time purging of air. This will help keep contamination of the liquid to a minimum.

Oh, and it can be installed with no case mods but does require a single 5.25" port for the filling/bleeding assembly.

[wayout44]

With 3 fans and the PSU sucking air out of the case and only two fans sucking air in you'd have an extremely negative pressured setup there which isn't good for cooling (you really need a slight positive pressure for good cooling). The only thing I can see to fix it would be the addition of two extra intake fans one over the AGP/PCI slots and the other over the CPU. I'd get a CompuNurse to verify that CPU temp though.

[miraj]

After doing some research I decided to invest in an EXOS-AL system with a CPU300 V06 and GPU180 L06 water cooling blocks... Plunked down $300 hoping for better temps and less noise. The results are a bit mixed... The system runs very quietly and the Koolance displays cpu temps of no more than 30C but MBM5 is still displaying idle temps between 41-44C... only a very small drop.

What is going on here? Water Cooling has had almost no effect on my temps... I'm glad the system is silent now but not too happy with my continued high temps. I would like to overclock my chip but I can't see that happening unless I can drop down normal idle temps!