This PC heats up to 109C and shuts down instantly... what's a good replacement fan?

raveolution · 07-06-2008, 08:32 PM

It's an Athlon 64 dual core X2 given up for dead on my proverbial front doorstep by a relative.

Basically I've got an old machine here I'm trying to fix and the strangest thing keeps coming up, the machine will suddenly shut down as if the power cord was ripped out of it.

I've done some experiments, firing up a big fat nasty session of TMPGEnc Batch processing (video file conversion - nice big fat 1900x1400 wmv file to 1900x1400 mpeg) while running Celestia (a GL-based astronomy program) and I have Speedfan 4.34 running at the same time. This way I can monitor the temperature of both cores.

I've charted this 3 times and each time one of the cores hits 109C and the other hits 70C, boom, it shuts down before the video conversion process is anywhere close to done.

There's no more dust in this machine (there was loads of it before) but one fan is broken, half its blades are gone. The blades were stuck inside, causing the fan not to move. So when I tweezered them out and the fan started moving again, I ran the same tests again and the CPUs stayed around 51/54C and completed the task.

Time will tell if it keeps this up, but with the fan broken, it's time to replace it.

Basically what's a good kick butt fan/cooling system for the Athlon 64 X2 that doesn't require water/etc.? I am thinking that a good heat sink/fan combo will work but I want to get one of the best that I can, because I think that if this is solved, I will have revived this PC and can give it back.

Thanks. :)

**Lsdmeasap** · 07-07-2008, 12:20 AM

I think ThermalRight makes some nice ones as does Tuniq that will work with that fine

Aguiluz · 07-07-2008, 11:26 PM

Is it overclocked?

**Lsdmeasap** · 07-08-2008, 01:11 AM

Yeah, is it? And are you SURE it is seated correct? And not too much paste, I was going to ask before but you seemed to be already needing a new cooler since that one has broken fans so I did not ask

raveolution · Yesterday, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aguiluz

Is it overclocked?

Nope, not overclocked. Wouldn't know how to OC this system. Not even sure if overclocking even works to much avail, and I'm dead scared of the heat it generates. (And the warranties it could break on a new system.)

Okay, knowing how to OC would be fun, once.

But no, this system is not OC'd as far as I know.

I tried that thermaltake solution and it is expensive but man, it works.

Now I'd like to figure out how to cool down my hard drives... My own PC never overheats like this discarded one did, but my hard drive enclosures are red hot, and I lost a 4-bay enclosure due to heat (and nearly lost the hard drives, too).

Sorry but I never truly came to appreciate first hand how heat wears a system down and kills productivity... I always knew it's like night and day on paper but to actually see it myself... phew. That discarded PC roared like a Corvette now, it couldn't even get out of the garage before, proverbially speaking.

Anyhoot thanks for the thermaltake recommendation, the PC is back in its original owner's hands. Their kid one time stuck a pencil in the thing and broke the blades. His butt's raw enough now he won't do that again hahahah!

**Lsdmeasap** · Yesterday, 12:50 PM

Add some case fans 120MM front and back if you do not have already. And put one right by the drives if you can fit it.

And if you need to, clean out the dust.. you would be surprised what I have seen and been asked "Why is my PC So hot?"