4 Fans and still it overheats.. can u figure this out?

[rootaxs]

Here's what i got - K63-450. No O/C'ing whatsoever.
DVD, CD, 2HDD (5400rpms)

1 Antec 80mm Case fan in front, blowing air in to the PCI cards
1 PCI Slot type fan drawing air out, fan is facing the Voodoo3 heatsink (which btw is just an inch or two away from the CPU itself, thus why i needed to cool this down)
1 Stock CPU Fan/Heatsink combo
And the fan on the PS blowing out.

Although it runs fine now without me using CPUIdle, whenever i run SETI it starts crashing again and everything heats up considerably... i think the CPU fan isn't doing very well inspite of the extremely good airflow through the case.

Any suggestions on how i can fix this? Something not so expensive if possible.. i'll be upgrading this PC in a month or two anyway.

Thanks

 

[MCS]

You say the Slot fan is drawing air out, but how is it doing this? Out of empty expansion slots? I think you need to exhaust air properly from the case - do you have a position for a rear far?

 

[Poof]

Why not try running it without the case side on and see how it goes... That'll tell you right away whether you're getting enough exhaust. I run a bunch of my machines that way anyway.

 

[dadx2mj]

Slot blowers are better than nothing but not by much. You might try cutting a hole in back panel behind the CPU and mounting an 80mm fan there to exhaust hot air or a blow hole on top of the case. Also a good heat sink and fan is a good idea

 

[mechBgon]

First question: are you using thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink? It performs better than a thermal pad.

If you are, I would recommend a high-capacity heatsink like the GlobalWin FOP32-1, and use thermal paste of course.

 

[rootaxs]

MCS: The slot fan has a fan facing the heatsink on the voodoo, and it has an exhaust that goes out the back. It seems to be blowing air quite forcefully to the back. In fact i can even say it's blowing air just as fast as the PS Fan.

Poof: The thing with my (Cybermax Mid-Tower) case is you can only either take the whole cover off or keep it there. No independent side slideouts

I did run this without the case before but it just magnifies the sound created by the fans. So you say it's better to keep the case off?

dadx2mj I'll see what i can do about cutting a hole beside the CPU. I'll probably try some thermal paste on the Heatsink that goes on the CPU as well.. upon closer look it seems it's just "riding" on the cpu itself with just the spring clips holding it together.

Any ideas where i could get some of that paste?

Thanks!

 

[rootaxs]

mech, funny that you should mention that.. seems after i posted my other reply you already replied. I'll check out that site and see what stuff i can get.

Thanks!

 

[rootaxs]

So how does Arctic Silver Grease compare to the Epoxy?

 

[mechBgon]

The Epoxy is glue, better use the paste You would be kicking yourself if you glued the heatsink to the CPU, because then you couldn't get to the lever to remove the CPU. The Arctic Silver is the best known thermal paste for CPUs, it was developed especially for that application. Radio Shack Silicone Heatsink Compound is what I use, and it actually performs really well. You want to use fairly thin layers, as in, thin enough to be 50% transparent, but thick enough to fill any gaps. The Radio Shack stuff is only about $2US, by the way.

edit: hey, I forgot to ask... are you on the Anandtech SETI team, or interested in getting onboard?

 

[cavingjan]

For the K6X series, you can simply use thermal paste available at Radio Shack.

 

[rootaxs]

mech, so paste=grease right? hehe.. i'll try the Radioshack paste first.. see how it works. Gonna try finding an outlet here in Houston.

i'm currently with another team but might join up with TA soon.. once i get my act together that is, wouldn't wanna do it on a K6-3 machine that's for sure LOL 1 wu/day is kinda slow imho. Why do you ask?

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, I see it called both grease and paste that Radio Shack stuff is good enough for me, and I have been overclocking. Give it a try, won't cost much.

I was asking if you were on the AnandTech team because they are very active and are moving up nicely. I do mostly RC5 and OGR but some SETI for Team Anandtech. Come over to the Distributed Computing area and say hello or just look at what's going on... we have daily SETI output reports for the team, weekly member output reports for all members, even those who do 1 WU per week. Anyone wanting to add themselves to the team is welcomed enthusiastically so I hope you'll think about it at least.

 

[SlickVic]

`

 

[rootaxs]

mech, i actually go there once every so often just to check things out and sometimes post a topic or two. In fact i just posted a new one yesterday.

once i get my new system set-up i'll prob'ly put that on the TA team

 

[Tweakin]

Check out the cfm rating of your fans...you should try to keep positive case pressure, that is more coming in then going out. Iy you have a negative case flow, you can actually increast the ambient temp by drawing heat all the components in the case.