Computer cooling

[5614]

My computer had been on for about 7 hours... I opened up my computer, ie. opened up the case and left it running like that, after about 10 minutes:

 

the heatsink on the processor had cooled from hot to room temperature

 

the PSU (power supply unit) casing had cooled from hot to room temp

the PSU fan was blowing out warm instead of hot air

 

the heatsink on the north bridge/south bridge (dunno which one, whichever has a heatsink!) took about 1 hour to go from hot to a bit less hot, same with the graphics card heatsink and the RAM.

 

Conclusion: Heatsinks are good, but you really need a fan to get the heat off a heatsink

A fan makes a big difference as does a heatsink, a fan with an open case to allow for air flow is very good.

Also an open case prevents warm air building up inside the computer case, this means heatsinks work more effectively.

 

Extras: Take out the slots over empty PCI or AGP or PCI Express bays to allow for air flow... also open any unused bays meant for CDs etc, especially the ones near the top let hot air escape.

[YT2095]

Keeping the computer on the floor (NOT on carpet!), also helps, there can be quite a few degrees diference in that metre or so!

 

unless you have underfloor heating, then leave it where it is

[Primarygun]

I think my computer is one hundred times indeed need to work under a cooler condition.

Britain is very cold, but I love the snow.

[Sayonara]

I use a copper flower heatsink, with a silent fan blowing gently through the fins.

 

Seems to do the job.

[ed84c]

ere was a thread in here somewhere about a man who over clocked a 333mhz computer to 5ghz using liquid nitrogen.

 

If i was you i would invest in a water driven heat sink.

[Newtonian]

Heatsinks generally come with fans.Instead of removing slots and extra bay covers(making your pute look like something from scrapheap challenge) simply invest in a few case fans.I have 5 !

BTW overclocking is for teenyboppers.

[ed84c]

teenyboppers?

[5614]

Heatsinks generally come with fans.Instead of removing slots and extra bay covers(making your pute look like something from scrapheap challenge) simply invest in a few case fans.I have 5 !

BTW overclocking is for teenyboppers.

when you say "case fans" do you means fans to go on the case itself, or fans which go inside the case on the hardware?

if you mean fans which blow heat into/out of the case, so they are mounted by a vent or on the case itself the only space i've got left is the PCI slots and CD bays, there's room for 2 big fans at the back and that's all I've got.

 

and overclocking is for people who want a faster computer at the risk of a shortend life span.

 

[edit] I dont mind a computer which has loads holes and stuff in it, this one:

http://crazy.codetroop.com/randimg/?kylning.jpg

to me looks quite cool actually! My aim one day is to have a computer without a case, its better for cooling and I like that kinda thing and think it looks cools, that's just me personally, I dont have the physical space to do that at the moment though.

[Newtonian]

Your case should already have basic mounts for case fans(depending on its age)

If you dont have any present its simple enough to make them.Buy a few case fans,some self tapping screws and have a drill handy.

Excellent picture 5614 i think i will do that to mine.

And for the average user overclocking is pointless,There is no noticable difference or benefit.

Years ago i was into overclocking,enjoyable would a waste of time(wow look my 300mhz is now a 333)

Now i have two putes, a pentium 2.6 and a Barton 2500 xp.

I use one for video editing the other for gaming

[Sayonara]

teenyboppers?

13-year old girls who purchase boy band singles in their millions.

[ed84c]

why would they over clock their pc?

[5614]

why would they over clock their pc?

 

to handle high quality video streaming?

 

I think it was meant as a 'only girls* over clock computers' thing... which I disagree with... I think that only computer spec fanatics overclock their computer as there isn't much of a difference and it's a risk, 'only obsessed men overclock computers' is what I'd say.

 

*not meant as a sexist comment

[Newtonian]

why would they over clock their pc?

LOOOOl priceless ED

[ed84c]

I was under the impression the speed of the processor was regulated, and that you could only over clock it if u fiddled with some settings.

[5614]

I was under the impression the speed of the processor was regulated, and that you could only over clock it if u fiddled with some settings.

In which case I'll leave that impression floating above you!

 

well the processor aint gonna change by itself is it! For me there's a jumper on my motherboard, if I move that I get an extra tab in my BIOS settings which would allow me to override BIOS passwords and overclock my computer, I have never actually done this, but have read that (password part in the computer manual and overclocking part on various websites)... I think I'll do it on monday if I have the time, Im out all weekend.

[mossoi]

Don't be too cocky 5614!

 

Some CPU's need you to actually create tracks on the chip itself before you can overclock.

 

Also, in many cases removing the side panel and other parts breaks up the airflow and actually reduces cooling.

 

You have some interesting ideas but you're not always correct, please bear that in mind when you make absolute statements.

[Silencer]

Once again, one of my posts is missing.

 

I hear the volcanoe 12 is one serious air cooling machine.

[jdurg]

ere was a thread in here somewhere about a man who over clocked a 333mhz computer to 5ghz using liquid nitrogen.

 

If i was you i would invest in a water driven heat sink.

 

 

That is absolutely impossible. There is no way that a 333MHz chip can run at 5GHz no matter how cold it gets. The chip architechture simply cannot run that fast. There comes a point where the temperature of the CPU does not matter at all. It's like saying that you can get your minivan to go 300 mph if you put racing fuel in it. It's just not going to happen.

[5614]

the fastest clock speed ever recorded was 5.25GHz

 

see here:

http://www20.tomshardware.com/cpu/20031230/

 

there's a video which is quite good, shows all the set-up, they used liquid nitrogen cooling... i dont know what speed it was originally, but it did go to 5.25GHz and that is still a world record (as far as i am aware)

 

Some CPU's need you to actually create tracks on the chip itself before you can overclock.

Isn't that only for older processors? As i said "for me"... I havent reasearched it for other ones, I've got a P4, the original 'edition' if that's the right word!

 

Also, in many cases removing the side panel and other parts breaks up the airflow and actually reduces cooling.

You have some interesting ideas but you're not always correct, please bear that in mind when you make absolute statements.

I suppose that is true in situations where the case is actually very well designed for cooling in the first place. I re-read my first post and can see why you said that, it was meant to be about what I found for me and thought I'd share, it didnt really turn out that way! For me, with a standard case, doing what I did works out better because I tested it myself, 'better' referring to a cooler temperature.

 

Also something that some people are not aware of is that the hard drive disks (HDDs) do heat up quite significantly, I do not know how heat effects the performance of one, but the outter case was as hot as my processor heatsink after about 7 hours useage... the temperature inside the HDD case itself must have been unbelievably case.

 

I'll just say again, 95% of the stuff I've said in this thread applies to my computer, not necessarily the whole world!

[Malachy]

On the topic of computer cooling...I run my computer for weeks at a time without turning it off, would my computer then get progressively even hotter the more time it was on, or would it get to a certain temperature and stop?

[5614]

well in super super unrealistic extremes the heatsink will melt... but far more likely is that there will come a time where there's kind of a stable temperature in that the amount being produced is equal per time unit is the amount that is given off per time unit.

 

if more temperature is made by the process than is given off it all overheats, which is bad.

 

whereas if more heat is given off than is produced it cools down quickly, which is good because then it can work faster (if it has a feature that automatically does that), for instance my friend put extra fans on his graphics card, which now he can overclock, dunno how or to what effect, but on the software he got with it there's temperature measuring controls and if its cool enough it'll run faster.

 

you should be able to safely keep your computer on as long as there is a heatsink and a fan (and its not in the desert summer or something!)

[mossoi]

A PC will reach a point at which it's temperature stabalises and reaches a maximum value (excepting different loads on the components) within a couple of minutes of being turned on - if there was an overheating problem you'd barely get into the OS after boot-up. If it's cool enough after 4 minutes it'll be cool enough after 4 weeks, 4 months or 4 years.

 

I have forgotten on several occasions to replace the heatsink on various CPU's, it's pretty obvious in a few seconds when there's a major overheating problem. (Although a Pentium 33 I had ran happily for two years with no heatsink or fan - those were the days).

[5614]

If it's cool enough after 4 minutes it'll be cool enough after 4 weeks, 4 months or 4 years.

I'd say a bit more than 4mins... especially seeing as if in general use of your computer you do something straining on the processor (rendering images, latest games, heavy multitasking) then it can cause it to produce more heat than if you were just using a word processor as it'd be being used more.

 

but yeah, if after 1 days useage (incl. things which use processor a lot) it should be ok

[5614]

for my computer the HDDs are at the front, right below the CDs and the Floppy drives, there's a spare bay for a ZIP drive which I dont have, so I took the cover off which exposes the metal HDD case to allow the HDDs to cool

 

it is interesting, yesterday after 8 hours of my computer being on (and the bays open) the metal casing for the HDDs was still room temp... whereas today when i left the bays covered after just 3 hours of the computer being on the metal case around the HDDs (which i can touch when the bay covers are off) was hotter than room temp, not much, but a bit.

 

this again shows how, for me, it is beneficial to leave the bays open for cooling.

[Silencer]

My CPU temp can jump nearly 20 degrees celcius when I put the cover on.

 

I don't leave it off though because the temp with the cover on isn't too bad.