Cooling Advice

[Gaidal]

Ok I know I've talked with you guys about this before, but I need some purchasing advice sine I finally have a little bit of money.

To sum up, I've had overheating problems with my T-bird 950 throughout the life of me owning it. Probably every 2 months I have to take the HSF off and re-apply Arctic Silver or I start getting a crapload of lockups. Here's my cooling setup and the relevant data. What I need from you guys is advice on how to *finally* get rid of these lock-ups.

Front case fan (set to intake)
Intake fan on the PSU (don't know the speed)
Some generic exhaust fan (3000 rpm)
GlobalWin WBK38 (6800 rpm) + Arctic Silver

CPU Temperature: 48C
Case/MB Temperature: 43C

Ok so basically here's what I was thinking about doing:

1) I really, REALLY want to get rid of that Delta fan on the HSF because it's louder than hell. Can anyone recommend a similar performing, but much quieter fan I can replace it with? I want to keep the heat sink part of it because it rocks.

2) Obviously my problem is trying to vacate the heat in my case (probably due to the 7200 rpm hard drive + GF2 + other hot things). I'm thinking I need an exhaust fan that works a little better, but should I also get one of those fans you stick in your expansion slots?

Any other advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[salman327]

You need to set your psu to exhaust (I thought they were default at exhaust). You could get higher fans. If they're 80mm fans I'd suggest 2 sunnon 50cfm fans for your intake/exhaust. You can get a delta 30cfm fan from kdcomputers.com that does 40dba. You could try and mod your case to get in more exhausts, and intakes.

 

[Gaidal]

Well unless it exhausts out the front of the case, it's on intake. I tried putting it on the other way but it didn't really fit at all.

 

[Marine]

Why don't you cut a blowhole in the top of your case and put an 80mm in it to blow that hot air out the top? That should help your intake fan in the front pull in more cool air, circulate it past the cpu and exhaust out the top and back. Of course that would give you two exhausts and one intake creating a small vacuum inside the case, not the best for cooling. Add another or a larger fan blowing into the case. It may help to cut the case grill out so there's less resistance to the air blowing in as well.

 

[NesuD]

yup i would also suggest a blowhole to try and get some of the heat out of there top case blowholes are pretty efficient at that. don't lose the delta until you have cured your case temp problem.

 

[Cherub]

1. Don't lose the Delta unless you have a plan to feed the new fan properly, with a side blowhole or otherwise.

2. I don't know what case you have, but don't waste your time with an 80mm exhaust at the top unless you have a really small case. If your PSU is mounted in the middle, particularly, you will need substantial vacuum to get the air to flow to the top at a good velocity. Use 92mm or 120mm.

 

[Hecky]

Yes, you're right. A standard 92mm would be a much better choice, readily available and in both 4 and 3 pin Molex connections. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

[Marine]

OK, I agree. A 92 MM would suck a lot more air out the top of the case. That's what I have in mine...don't know why I wrote 80mm.