I'm operating a custom-built PC in a small, not particularly well ventilated room in my house. Temperatures are typically around 20C for most of the year, although rising to about 30C during midday in summer. I've only a small window for ventilation, and usually rely on a fan to keep myself cool.
My PC is in an Antec PLUS1080AMG full-sized tower, currently with one side of the case off, although quite close to another tower. A PSU fan and two auxilliary fans, nearer the PCI cards and CPU fan, extract air out the back of the case. Unfortunately there is only about a six inch gap between the rear and the wall, and a shelf not too far above constricts some of the rising airflow. The only real heat escape is to the sides of the case and up to the ceiling.
The machine has a stock 3.4GHz Pentium 4 with the Intel-provided heatsink and fan attached. A GeForce 6800GT 256M card not too far below, in the only available (PCI Express x16) slot, also has a small fan lifting air into the stream of the other two rear case fans. 2GB of DDR2 RAM is present towards the front of the motherboard, although airflow from the two rear fans feels quite good there. Likewise, hard disks mounted at the front of the case seem to run at a reasonably cool temperature due to airflow towards the rear fans.
With this setup, my motherboard's probe utility and NVIDIA's utility tell me the following. This is taken on a spring evening, about 23C in the room. The temperature rises a little at night because I have to keep the door closed, and this is reflected by an increase in CPU fan activity.
CPU Temperature: 49C
MB Temperature: 37C
CPU Fan: 4623RPM
GPU Core Temperature: 66C
GPU Ambient Temperature: 52C
Now my first question is, are these figures healthy for this kind of spec PC? Keep in mind this is before the room ambience will rise by 8 or so degrees in summer, and so they are likely to rise later in the year.
My second question regards the noise produced by the CPU fan. During the day with my door and window open, about 18C in the room, it operates at a very acceptable noise level. However in the evenings (such as when these readings were taken), the fan reaches high to maximum speed producing an uncomfortable level of noise. It isn't much better with the side of the case on, and I imagine this would only compound the ventilation problem.
What suggestions could you give an inexperienced cooling newbie to improve this situation, both for now and for the summer? Is it even possible to maintain a quiet PC in these temperatures?
Sorry for the long post, and thank you for reading.
My PC is in an Antec PLUS1080AMG full-sized tower, currently with one side of the case off, although quite close to another tower. A PSU fan and two auxilliary fans, nearer the PCI cards and CPU fan, extract air out the back of the case. Unfortunately there is only about a six inch gap between the rear and the wall, and a shelf not too far above constricts some of the rising airflow. The only real heat escape is to the sides of the case and up to the ceiling.
The machine has a stock 3.4GHz Pentium 4 with the Intel-provided heatsink and fan attached. A GeForce 6800GT 256M card not too far below, in the only available (PCI Express x16) slot, also has a small fan lifting air into the stream of the other two rear case fans. 2GB of DDR2 RAM is present towards the front of the motherboard, although airflow from the two rear fans feels quite good there. Likewise, hard disks mounted at the front of the case seem to run at a reasonably cool temperature due to airflow towards the rear fans.
With this setup, my motherboard's probe utility and NVIDIA's utility tell me the following. This is taken on a spring evening, about 23C in the room. The temperature rises a little at night because I have to keep the door closed, and this is reflected by an increase in CPU fan activity.
CPU Temperature: 49C
MB Temperature: 37C
CPU Fan: 4623RPM
GPU Core Temperature: 66C
GPU Ambient Temperature: 52C
Now my first question is, are these figures healthy for this kind of spec PC? Keep in mind this is before the room ambience will rise by 8 or so degrees in summer, and so they are likely to rise later in the year.
My second question regards the noise produced by the CPU fan. During the day with my door and window open, about 18C in the room, it operates at a very acceptable noise level. However in the evenings (such as when these readings were taken), the fan reaches high to maximum speed producing an uncomfortable level of noise. It isn't much better with the side of the case on, and I imagine this would only compound the ventilation problem.
What suggestions could you give an inexperienced cooling newbie to improve this situation, both for now and for the summer? Is it even possible to maintain a quiet PC in these temperatures?
Sorry for the long post, and thank you for reading.
Facebook
Twitter