Athlon cooling in a 1U rackmount

[jasonsRX7]

We're having a problem keeping a 1ghz Athlon tbird cool in a 1U case. We've got a Cool Jag 1u copper HSF, and with the case off, the cpu runs at normal temps. However, when you put the case top on, the cpu temps just waay up to around 65C! And that is at idle, too. There is no telling how hot it would get under load.

We've done about everything we can to get it cooler, including Artic Silver, but it just isn't going to happen. My main question is if the XP/MP processors run cool enough that we could get by using one of them instead of a Tbird.

Since we're going to have to build several of these servers, it would be great to use cheaper Athlons, instead of P3's, but if the Athlons are just too hot, we won't have a choice.

 

[adamfelker]

Alpha makes a 1U heatsink: PAL153U. You can get it at crazypc.com for $26.95, and they also offer bulk pricing.

 

[Rack]

That's all true, Adam, but the pal15 isn't as good a heatsink as the Cool Jag/Dynatron rebadge.
It's pretty hard to beat a 1-piece copper sink:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1571&p=3

Something to try would be to flip the fans on the heatsinks ove, so they exhaust, and make sure you can get the
air out of the case (using EHE Delta fans, of course. 🙂 ).

The XPs output only 80% of the watts as a t-bird at a given clock speed. It would be more than worth your while. Basically, the t-bird
is a rackmount builder's worst nightmare, a thermal emergency waiting to happen.

 

[Armitage]

Well, I had replied to this post over in General Hardware, but this seems the more appropriate place for it.

Despite Anandtech's 1U cooler review, I think getting an Athlon to work in a 1U case is difficult at best. There are IU Athlon (and dual Athlon) systems out there, but these companies put alot of engineering into them. what they have (that you probably don't):

- passive heatsinks that go all the way to the case top
- multiple, high capacity squirrel cage blowers pushing lots of air through the case
- Aluminum chassis to help dissipate the heat
- Internal ducting to direct air over the CPU
- Lots of trial & error

Take a look at www.appro.com to see how they do it.
Good luck

I would seriously consider going to a 2U to give your fan some headroom.

 

[jasonsRX7]

If we didn't already have several 1u cases purchased, we'd go for 2u's. But since we already have them, we need something that'll work cool enough in the 1u.

Does anyone think a XP or MP processor will make much of a difference over a TB?

 

[nexus_7]

here is a high quality one I use that is cheap. yep <---

Greg

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Make sure to put in some small fans for the case. Once we did that, temps on the CPU dropped drastically. On each of our 4 1U servers, there are four fans. The PSU blowing out, one additional blowing out. And two blowing in. We just got our non-fancy fans from a local hardware store.